Sweet Home Colorado (The O'Malley Men) by C.C. Coburn

accepted.”
    “Then tell your mom, will you?” Becky said, a bit flustered.
“Otherwise, you’ll have a never-ending stream of O’Malley women showing up to
meet Grace and talk her into coming to dinner.”
    Jack pulled out his cell and turned away to make a call. “Mom,
stop siccing the girls on Grace, okay? She’s coming on Friday.”
    Becky checked her watch. “I’d better go back to the madhouse,”
she said. “Let’s do lunch sometime soon, okay? I job-share with another judge,
so I work two days one week and three the following. Unless we have a big case,
and then I have to stay for the duration. But it would be great to get together
with you, Grace. Just us girls. I’ll call Beth, Carly and Megan and have them
clear their schedules.”
    * * *
    “S HE WASN ’ T TOO PUSHY , was she?” Jack asked after Becky had left.
    “No, of course not,” Grace assured him. “In fact, I found her
charming. I gather you two work together with some of your apprentices?”
    Jack nodded. “I have a friend who’s a social worker in L.A. He
lets me know about kids who might benefit from being around some positive male
role models and getting away from the city and the bad influences there. Matt
has contacts in Denver and Miami who do the same. The kids meet with Becky every
week to talk about how they’re doing, what they want to do with their lives,
stuff like that. Some of them come in as real hard cases, but a half hour with
Becky pretty much beats the attitude out of them and they’re willing to do
anything to get away from her.”
    Grace laughed and said, “That’s a bit unfair. Tyrone seems to
like her.”
    “Becky doesn’t care if the kids like her. The point is, Tyrone respects her. He was one of the worst cases when he arrived. He’s made huge improvements
in his life and I’m glad to see he’s taking the initiative of applying for
another job. It’s the best I can hope for, that they become financially
independent and are happy in their chosen careers, whatever those might be. But
if Tyrone works out at Rusty’s I could be looking for another apprentice.”
    “And someone to make the lunches.”
    A crash echoed from above, followed by masculine bellows of
laughter. “I’d better go check that out,” he said.
    As Jack took the stairs two at a time, Grace watched, enjoying
his fluid movements.
    So, tomorrow night she’d be having dinner at Two Elk. Just like
old times. Well, not quite the same, since the family had been added to
significantly in the intervening years.
    What they didn’t know was that there was another member of the
family out there, one they’d never meet.

Chapter Twelve
    “You can’t pay Tyrone extra to do a job he’s supposed
to do, anyway,” Jack said.
    “I was paying him extra to do my job!” Grace explained. “All that sanding was killing my hands. Plus, it’s
boring.”
    “What happened to you helping out with the renovation?”
    “I’m helping! I’m just giving the guy some extra cash to do the
dull bits. Anyway, you and I both know I don’t have to do any of this if I don’t
want to. I’m the one paying the bills. Stop being so
high-handed.”
    Unmoved, Jack crossed his arms and said, “Then we’ll have to
find a job that doesn’t involve getting your precious hands dirty.”
    “I’m good at picking paint colors.”
    “Which takes all of ten minutes.”
    “Um, sweeping?”
    “I heard you offering to pay Ace to do that.”
    “The broom gave me splinters!”
    “Then wear gloves.”
    “It’s too hot to wear gloves!”
    “This sounds a lot like nagging to me. Pretty soon you’ll have
to make good on our bet.”
    “The hell I will!” Grace protested.
    * * *
    A FTER ASKING J ACK what to
wear to Friday dinner and being told “country casual,” Grace went back to
Perkins Clothing and Boots, the store where she’d bought her steel-toed
boots.
    The store was an interesting mix of Western fashion, footwear
and even haberdashery, much like the