Halfway across the sawdust-covered floor, McQuillan stopped at a table encircled by women, put out his hand and jerked one of them to her feet, hard against his torso and into a slow dance. At first, Hutch couldn't make out who she was, with folks milling in between.

A scuffle ensued-the lady evidently preferred not to partic.i.p.ate, at least not with Treat McQuillan for a dancing partner-and the other females at the table rose as one, so fast that a few of their chairs tipped over backward.

"Stop it, Treat," one of them said.

And then, as people shifted and pressed in on the scene, Hutch recognized the woman who didn't want to dance. It was Brylee.

He plunked down his mug on another table and instinctively headed in that direction, ready to take McQuillan apart at the joints like a Sunday-supper chicken just out of the stewpot. But right when he would have reached the couple, an arm shot out in front of his chest and stopped him as surely as if a steel barricade had slammed down from the ceiling.

"My sister," Walker Parrish said evenly, "my fight."

Hutch hadn't spotted either Walker or Brylee when he came in, so he hadn't had a chance to square away their presence in his mind. He felt a little off-balance.

In the next instant, Parrish shoved McQuillan away from Brylee, hard, hauled back one fist and clocked the deputy square in the beak.

That was it. The whole fight. Though in the days to come it would grow with every retelling, eventually becoming almost unrecognizable.

McQuillan's eyes rolled back, his knees buckled and he went down.

Walker, meanwhile, gripped Brylee firmly by one arm, barely giving her a chance to retrieve her purse from the floor next to her chair, and propelled her toward the exit.

"We're going home now," he was heard to say in a tone that left no room for negotiation.

"d.a.m.n it, Walker," Brylee yelled in response, struggling in vain to yank free from her brother's grasp. "Let me go! I can take care of myself!"

In spite of everything, Hutch had to smile a little, because what Brylee said was true-she could take care of herself and in the long run she'd be just fine.

Oh, the woman had spirit, all right. Life would have been so much simpler all around, Hutch thought, if only he could have loved her.

Moments later, the Parrishes were gone and somebody was helping McQuillan back to his feet. He was rubbing his jaw and had one h.e.l.l of a nosebleed going, but he looked all right, otherwise-no obvious need for any wires, st.i.tches or casts, anyhow.

"I'm pressing charges!" McQuillan raged. "You're all witnesses! You all saw what Walker Parrish did to me!"

"Ah, Treat," one man drawled, "let it go. You put your hands on the man's sister, and after she told you straight out she didn't care to dance-"

McQuillan's small, beady eyes flashed fire. He was trying to staunch the nosebleed with the sleeve of his shirt, but not having much luck. Some of the sawdust on the floor would definitely have to be shoveled out and replaced.

"I mean it," he insisted furiously. "Parrish a.s.saulted an officer of the law and he's going to face the consequences!"

Hutch, standing nearby, flexed his fist slowly and waited for the urge to drop McQuillan right back to the floor again to pa.s.s.

Presently, it did.

The show was over and Hutch turned, meaning to go back for the beer he'd set aside minutes earlier. He nearly collided with Brylee's best friend, Amy Jo DuPree in the process.

"You have your nerve coming in here, Hutch Carmody!" Amy Jo seethed, standing practically toe-

to-toe with him and craning her neck back so she could look up at him. Five-foot-nothing and weighing a hundred pounds soaking wet, Frank and Marge DuPree's baby girl was a pretty thing, but feisty, afraid of nothing and no one.

Montana seemed to breed women like that.

Hutch arched an eyebrow. "Excuse me?" he countered, raising his voice a little as the jukebox cranked up and Carrie Underwood took to extolling the virtues of baseball bats and kerosene-fueled revenge.

Maybe that was what was making the whole female s.e.x seem more impossible to deal with by the day, Hutch speculated fleetingly. Maybe it was the inflammatory nature of the music they listened to on their iPods and other such devices.

"You heard me," Amy Jo all but snarled through her little white teeth, and gave him a light but solid punch to the solar plexus.

Intrigued and, okay, a little p.i.s.sed off at the injustice of it all, Hutch took Amy Jo by the arm and squired her outside.

The parking lot was hardly quieter than the interior of the bar, what with Walker and Brylee yelling at each other and then peeling away in Walker's truck, and then Boone arriving with his lights flashing and his siren giving a single mournful whoop in case the blinding strobe left any doubt he was there.

"h.e.l.l," Hutch breathed, watching as the sheriff climbed, somewhat wearily, out of his cruiser and came toward the doors of the Boot Scoot. "McQuillan's really going to do it-he's going to press charges against Walker."

"Somebody ought to press charges against you," Amy Jo huffed out, but she wasn't quite as steam-powered as before. "How could you, Hutch? How could you let things go so far and then humiliate Brylee in public the way you did? Do you even know how much a wedding means to a woman? She looks forward to it her whole life, from the time she's a little bit of a thing, and then-"

Boone pa.s.sed them, nodded in grim acknowledgment as he went inside the tavern to investigate the scene of the crime, as McQuillan, who must have gotten right on his cell phone to report the event, would no doubt term it.

By now the d.a.m.n idiot had probably taped off a body-shape in the sawdust, to mark the place where he'd fallen.

Hutch turned his attention back to Amy Jo. "Just exactly what is it," he asked, exasperated, "that you people want me to do, here?"

Amy Jo jutted out her s.p.u.n.ky little chin. "You people'? You mean Brylee's friends?"

"I mean," Hutch bit out tersely, "that all this Team Brylee c.r.a.p is getting old. I've always lived here and I always will, and I will be d.a.m.ned if I'll stay away from the Boot Scoot or anyplace else I want to go, just because you and the rest of Brylee's bunch think I ought to be ashamed of what I did." He leaned in, and Amy Jo's eyes widened. "Here's a flash for you-pa.s.s it on. Post it on that stupid website. Print up T-shirts, put fliers on windshields, whatever. I'm not going anywhere. Deal with it."

Amy Jo blinked. She wasn't a bad sort, really. It was just that she and Brylee had grown up as close friends, the way Kendra and Joslyn had. The way he and Slade might have, if it hadn't been for the old man's cussed determination to ignore one of them and browbeat the other.

Loyalty was an important quality in a friend, even when it was the bullheaded kind like Amy Jo's.

"n.o.body expects you to move away or anything," Amy Jo said belatedly and in a lame tone.

"Good," Hutch sputtered, as another ruckus of some kind erupted inside the Boot Scoot. "Because when h.e.l.l freezes over, I'll still be right here in Parable."

Amy Jo swallowed, nodded and went back into the tavern to find her friends.

Although Hutch's better angels urged him to get in his truck and go home, where he should have stayed in the first place, he figured Boone might need some help settling things down, so he followed Amy Jo inside.

McQuillan was out of control, waving his free arm and guarding his gushing nose with the other, yelling in Boone's face.

Boone, for his part, calmly stood his ground. "Now, Treat," he reasoned, amiable but serious, "I would hate to have to run one of my own deputies in for drunk-and-disorderly and creating a public nuisance, but I'll do it, by G.o.d, I'll throw you straight into the hoosegow if you keep this up."

At the periphery of his vision, Hutch saw Amy Jo and the rest of the Brylee contingent quietly gather their purses and other a.s.sorted gear and trail out of the tavern. Probably a wise decision, given the incendiary mood McQuillan was creating.

"Arrest me?" the deputy bellowed. Treat never had known when to keep his mouth shut, which was part of his problem. "I'm the victim here! I was a.s.saulted!"

"We'll discuss that," Boone a.s.sured him, "but not until you calm down."

"I'd have knocked you on your a.s.s, too, McQuillan," a male voice contributed from somewhere in the dwindling crowd. "You can't expect any different when you grab on to a woman in a G.o.dd.a.m.n cowboy bar!"

"Harley," Boone said, recognizing the speaker immediately, and without looking away from McQuillan's b.l.o.o.d.y, temper-twisted face, "shut up."

Hutch, looking on, privately agreed with Harley. Manhandling a lady was asking for trouble pretty much anywhere, but square in the middle of cowboy-central, it was close to suicidal.

Just the same, he positioned himself at Boone's left side, not quite in his s.p.a.ce but close enough to jump in if the s.h.i.t hit the fan.

Boone slanted a brief glance in his direction. "You involved in this?" he asked.

Hutch folded his arms, rocked back slightly on his heels. "Now Boone, I am downright insulted by that question. I just happened to be here, that's all."

Boone's expression remained skeptical, but only mildly so. He sighed heavily. "Come on, Treat," he said to his disgruntled deputy. "I'll give you a lift over to the hospital, get them to check you out, and take you home. No way you're in any condition to drive."

Treat was all bristled up, like a little rooster with his feathers brushed in the wrong direction. "I'd rather walk," he replied coldly. Boone might have been McQuillan's boss, but he was also the man who'd trounced him at the polls last Election Day and he clearly wasn't over the disappointment. McQuillan had wanted to be sheriff from the time he was little, never mind that he was const.i.tutionally unsuited for the job.

"Whatever you say, Treat," Boone responded. "But leave your rig right where it's parked until morning."

"I'll be filing charges against Walker Parrish as soon as the courthouse opens," McQuillan maintained, but he was on the move as he spoke, headed for the doors.

The onlookers finally lost all interest and dispersed, going back to their pool playing and their beer drinking and their armchair quarterbacking.

Boone turned to Hutch. "What happened here?" he asked.

The incident, though it had already drifted into the annals of history, still chapped Hutch's hide a little. He wasn't in love with Brylee Parrish, but standing around watching while some drunken b.a.s.t.a.r.d strong-armed her into something she didn't want to do went against his grain in about a million ways.

Hutch told Boone the story, leaving out the part about how he'd meant to go after McQuillan himself but Walker had stepped in and thrown a punch of his own.

"Well," Boone said on a long breath, "that's fine. That's just fine. Because if McQuillan doesn't cool off overnight-and experience tells me that won't happen-

I'll probably have to charge Walker with a.s.sault."

"Come on," Hutch protested. "I told you what happened-McQuillan brought that haymaker on himself."

Boone was on his way toward the exit and Hutch, tired of the bar, tired of just about everything, followed. "Walker had the right to defend his sister," the sheriff allowed quietly, over one shoulder, "but he took it too far. He's half again McQuillan's size and whatever my personal opinion of old Treat might be, he is a sworn officer of the court. Landing a punch in the middle of his face, though a sore temptation at times, I admit, is a little worse in the eyes of the law than if Walker had decked, say, for instance-you."

They were in the parking lot by then. The lights on top of Boone's squad car still splashed blue and white over everything around them in dizzying swirls.

"He's welcome to try," Hutch said, hackles rising again. Did everybody, even his best friend, think he had a fat lip and a shiner coming to him just because he hadn't gone through with the wedding?

Boone opened his cruiser door, leaned in and shut off the lights, which was a relief to Hutch, who was starting to get a headache. "Go home, Hutch," Boone said. "I've got one loose cannon on my hands in Treat McQuillan and I don't need another one."

"I'm not breaking any laws," Hutch pointed out, putting an edge to the words. There it was again, somebody telling him where to go, what to do. d.a.m.n it, the last time he looked, he'd still lived in a free country.

"True," Boone agreed. "But if Walker hadn't gotten to McQuillan first, you'd have clocked him yourself, and don't try to claim otherwise, because I know you, Hutch. You've got p.i.s.sed-off written all over you, and if you hang around town on the lookout for trouble, you're bound to find some." The sheriff sighed again. "It's my job to keep the peace and I mean to do it."

Hutch's strongest instinct was to dig in his heels and stand up for his rights, even if Boone was making a convoluted kind of sense. And it still stung a little, remembering how Walker had gotten in his way back there when McQuillan crossed the line with Brylee. He felt thwarted and primed for action at the same time-not a promising combination.

Before he could say anything more, though, Boone changed the subject in midstream by announcing, "My boys are coming for a visit. Spending the Fourth of July weekend with me."

Hutch went still. Grinned. "That's good," he said, pleased. Then, after a pause, "Isn't it?"

"h.e.l.l, no, it isn't good," Boone answered, looking distracted and miserable. "That trailer of mine isn't fit for human habitation. I wouldn't know what to feed them, or what time they ought to go to bed, or how much television they should be allowed to watch-"

Hutch laughed, and it was a welcome tension-breaker. The muscles in his neck and shoulders relaxed with a swiftness that almost made him feel as though he'd just downed a double-shot of straight whiskey.

"Then maybe you ought to clean the place up a little," he suggested. "As for bedtime and TV, well, it shouldn't take a rocket scientist to figure those things out. These are kids we're talking about here, Boone, not some alien species n.o.body knows anything about."

Boone ground some gravel under the toe of his right boot. "That's easy enough for you to say, old buddy, since you don't have to do a d.a.m.n thing except share your infinite wisdom with regard to parenting."

Hutch slapped Boone's shoulder. "What if I told you, old buddy, that if you can take a day or two off from sheriffing, I'll come over and help you dig out?"

Boone narrowed his eyes. "You'd do that?"

Hutch pretended injury. "You doubt me? You, who was almost the best man at my almost wedding?"

Boone eased up a little himself, even chuckled, albeit hoa.r.s.ely. "I'll have to deal with McQuillan, one way or the other, but I can take tomorrow off and part of the next day, too."

"Fine," Hutch said. "Give me a call when you're ready to start and I'll be at your place with a couple of machetes and some dynamite."

Boone laughed, this time for real. "Machetes and dynamite?" he echoed, taking mock offense. "No flame gun?"

"Fresh out of flame guns," Hutch answered, walking away, getting into his truck and starting up the engine.

He honked the horn once and headed for home.

KENDRA, HAVING JUST dropped Madison off at preschool and Daisy at Tara's for a doggy playdate with Lucy, stopped by the b.u.t.ter Biscuit Cafe to buy a chocolate croissant and a double-tall nonfat latte before heading to the office the next morning. She was in a buoyant mood, since Walker Parrish had shown definite interest in the mansion the day before when she'd taken him through it. He hadn't come right out and said the place was exactly what his mystery friend was looking for, but Kendra's well-honed sales instincts had struck up an immediate ka-ching chorus.

No offer had been made, she reminded herself dutifully, as she waited at the counter to place her take-out order. And a deal was only a deal, at least in the real estate business, when the escrow check cleared the bank.

Thus focused on her internal dialogue, Kendra didn't notice Deputy McQuillan right away. When she did, she saw that he sat nearby at the long counter with open s.p.a.ces on both sides of him, crowded as the b.u.t.ter Biscuit always was during the breakfast rush, his nose not only bandaged, but splinted and both his eyes blackened.

"I'm pressing charges," he said to everyone in general, his tone as stiff as a wire brush. He had the air of a man just winding up a long and volatile oration.