Page 7 of For Love of Liberty

Milo leaned in and folded his arms on the table like Finn, eyes sparkling more than polished silver. “Remember the time she begged Miss Willoughby to let us bury the dead frogs with dignity rather than dissect them? Or that time she turned you down at the square dance to dance with Peewee Hinkle despite that nasty cold he had? Claimed he was better looking than you even with that cherry nose and fever blister.”

Laughter bubbled in Finn’s throat, the memory of Liberty limping off the dance floor easing his lips into an all-out grin. “Yeah, she sure had blood in her eyes when I made fun of Hinkle that night.” A chuckle slipped out. “Poor Peewee trailed her closer than a shadow after that, lovesick to the core.”

“Yeah, poor slob …” Milo eyed him with a glint in his eye, the knowing look on his face blasting Finn’s cheeks with an uncomfortable flash of fire.

Finn upended his coffee like it was 100-proof whiskey, gaze flicking across the room to where the ladies were just reentering through the back door. “The girls are back,” he said, relief coursing as he mentally kicked himself for confiding in Parks in high school about his feelings for Liberty.

Jo Beth Templeton caught his eye from across the room, offering a coy smile and a wave as she and her best friend, Bettie Boswell—Milo’s girl—made their way to the table. Jo Beth was the girl Finn stepped out with the most—when he stepped out—which wasn’t often, one of Milo’s chief complaints. Pert near as pretty as Liberty, she was the only daughter of George Templeton, president of Virginia City’s biggest bank, and the holder of Finn’s note on his land.

Finn couldn’t help but squirm a wee bit as he returned Jo Beth’s smile with a stiff one of his own, wishing he didn’t feel so darn guilty about squiring the banker’s daughter. After all, he applied for and received the loan long before he’d begun seeing Jo Beth, but somehow Finn always sensed there were emotional strings attached. As if acquiring that loan committed him far more to Jo Beth than he ever wanted to be. Oh, he liked her well enough and certainly more than any of the other girls he stepped out with. But he made darn good and sure Jo Beth knew he wasn’t beholden to any woman and that marriage was the last thing on his mind for a long time to come.

Say twenty, thirty years.

“I hired Liberty,” Milo said, voice so low, Finn might have imagined it.

Finn blinked. Make that the second last thing.

Milo gave a slight shrug, his crooked smile bordering on an apology. “Just thought you should know, old buddy, since she’ll be working three doors down from you day in and day out.”

Eyes flicking to where Jo Beth and Bettie stopped to talk to a table of their friends, Finn bent in to hover low over his coffee cup, eyes as hard as the clamp of his jaw. “And just why in tarnation would you think I’d be interested in that, old buddy?”

Milo sighed and pushed his cup and saucer away, his smile veering toward dry. “Come on, Finn, you and I both know you’ve always had a thing for her, and I dare you to deny it.”

It was a tossup over which was grinding more—Finn’s teeth or his stomach. “Yeah, I did, Parks, but that so-called ‘thing’ you allude to was a cold chill, my friend, nothing more.”

“Or a warm one …”

“Goodness me, sorry we took so long!” Jo Beth said with a little titter. She whooshed into the seat that Finn rose to pull out for her while Milo seated Bettie as well. Her blue eyes sparkled with mischief. “But Charlene had some juicy tidbits for us, didn’t she, Bettie?”

Her best friend nodded, cheeks flushed with excitement as she leaned close, her voice lowering in volume. “Seems Charlene’s mother saw Debbie Rhoades’ beau in Carson City with another woman.”

“And Doc Peters thinks Cheryl Herndon is going to have twins.” Jo Beth giggled, offering Finn a shy smile.

“But the best news is …” Bettie locked eyes with Jo Beth as the two of them shared a grin. “Liberty O’Shea is home from college, but not for long …”

“What do you mean, ‘not for long’?” Milo said, peering at Bettie through a squint while Finn chugged his water glass clear to the bottom. “I just hired her at the Enterprise, for pity’s sake, so I doubt she’s going anywhere soon.”

“She is if her father has anything to say about it.” Jo Beth wiggled her brows, raising her chin to eye the chalkboard menu on the wall. “She heard from Mary Lou Tanner, who heard from Kelly Reed Brown, who heard from a friend of Libby’s cousin, that Libby and her father are butting heads again.”

“Oh, now there’s a headline for you,” Finn muttered to Milo in a dry tone, Liberty’s notorious rows with her father as common as dirt on Main Street.

Jo Beth paused to give Finn a teasing bat of her eyes. “My, but that peach pie with Flo’s fresh-churned ice cream sounds awfully tempting, doesn’t it, Finn?”

He laughed and shook his head, waving Flo over. “Not sure how you fit all that food in that tiny body, Miss Templeton, but it’s a darn good thing your daddy gave me that loan.”

“I know,” she said with a flirty smile that drew his attention to her lush lips, one of the fringe benefits that had come along with the loan, unbeknownst to her father. She gave his arm a light squeeze. “But don’t worry, Finn, there’s plenty more where that came from …”

“Focus, Jo Beth,” Milo said with a tight smile. “What are Libby and her father going ’round about now?”

Expelling a weary sigh that registered more than a bit of sarcasm towards her archrival, Jo Beth rolled her eyes. “Well, you know Liberty—more interested in a cause than a husband, so she flat out refused the proposal of a wealthy marital prospect in New York, handpicked by her daddy. A senator’s son, no less, with aspirations to be a senator himself, and she turned him down flat.” She wrinkled her nose. “Said she’d rather be a senator than marry one, if you can imagine that.”

Somehow Finn could, and the thought coaxed a smile to his lips.

“Well, I can tell you right now that Liberty plans to stay because I just hired her at the paper after she begged for a chance to prove herself.”

Jo Beth arched a brow. “Well, that’s because her daddy cut off her allowance while she’s home, according to Charlene,” she said with a bit of a smirk, “a little leverage, if you will, but we all know how pig-headed Liberty can be.”

Yes, we do ... Finn flashed a smile when Flo moseyed over, ordering pie and more coffee for the table.