“This will be fine. You tell that boy that I saw his motion this morning when I came home from a Buena Vista appearance. I don’t know what in the hell you could possibly be thinking to still be helping him with those historic sites after what he’s done.”

Charity’s eyes darted toward the door, but I didn’t need her to say a word. I felt everyone’s eyes on us.

“Dad, I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m guessing it’s Cam, but I haven’t seen him in a week. What’s going on?”

“You haven’t seen him?” He loosened his tie slightly but not enough to look unkempt. “Teaching her how to lie?” he asked Charity.

She tilted her head but didn’t respond.

Guess we were back to the not-talking thing.

“I’m not lying.” Whatever it was had to be huge for my dad to lose his temper in public like this.

“You’re not seeing him?”

“Not in the way you’re suggesting, no.” And bury me in the earth right now, because Tillie Halverson’s head popped over the milkshake machine. She had to be standing on the counter to get that view.

“You didn’t spend the night with him last week?” he hissed.

My cheeks flamed, both with embarrassment and indignation.

“That’s what I thought.”

“It wasn’t like that,” I snapped. But why was I defensive? Even if it had been, I was a grown woman, and he was the one acting like a child. He didn’t deserve an explanation, and I certainly didn’t owe him one.

“Right. Well, I’ll wish you the best of luck getting those plans approved by the Historical Society on Friday. Art has more than a few friends on the council, and none of us is in a hurry to see our friend buried just so Cam can get whatever inheritance he thinks is coming to him.”

See Art buried?

“Judge Bradley, you’re crossing a pretty clear line,” Gideon warned.

Dad looked at Gid’s badge, then his eyes. “Maybe if everyone else would stop crossing them, I wouldn’t feel like I had to fetch them back across it.”

“All the same, you might want to order a shake or something so everyone doesn’t think you came in just to yell at your daughters about private legal matters they shouldn’t even know about.”

Dad’s eyes narrowed, but he turned and left without another word, heading toward the counter to do just what Gideon suggested.

“What the hell was that about?” Charity asked.

“Cam had Simon drop a suit today. He’s suing Xander for guardianship of their father.” He stole a fry from my plate and ate it. “You know how fast word travels around here.”

“You knew our dad was coming,” I guessed.