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“So did you tell Jesse about your event-planning business, Libby Lou?”

Mimi’s question pulled him out of his hair fantasies. He should have known Liberty was a business owner. She was too stubborn to work for anyone and too competitive not to want to prove she could succeed on her own.

“There’s nothing to tell.” Her voice was clipped. “We plan events.”

“Now, Libby,” her mama said. “You don’t just plan events. Holiday Sisters Events have planned weddings and parties for some of the most influential people in Texas.”

Jesse lifted his eyebrows. “Really? Like who?”

She duplicated his eyebrow lift. “I doubt you’d know them.”

“Liberty Holiday!” Darla scolded before she changed the subject. “So I hear you’re a professional rodeo roper, Jesse.”

“Actually, I’m an ex-professional roper. And it was really more of a hobby than a job.”

“So what’s your job?” Hank asked. “Taking people’s homes away?” He sat at the head of the table and, like his daughter, was looking at Jesse as if he were a spider who had been, unwittingly, invited into the fly’s parlor.

He cleared his throat. “No, sir. I buy and sell things.”

“Like what?”

“Whatever I think I can make a profit on—stocks, land, businesses.”

“Ranches,” Liberty said.

He shook his head. “I haven’t bought or sold any ranches.”

“So you’re a city boy?” Mimi asked.

“I was until I was nine. Then I moved to the country. My family doesn’t own a ranch, but they have horses and plenty of dogs and cats. And Sherman. But he’s more of a family member than a pet.” He glanced over at Liberty to find her studying him intently. What was going on behind those pretty green eyes? Was she thinking about their kiss and regretting it? Or maybe she wasn’t thinking about the kiss at all. Maybe she was thinking about something else entirely.

Why that bothered him, he didn’t know. Maybe because the kiss was all he could seem to think about. He had expected her to be a demanding kisser who took what she wanted. But she hadn’t taken as much as given.

“Sherman?” Mimi brought him back to the conversation. Tay-Tay was curled up on the older woman’s lap and purring like the sweetest little kitty cat ever as Mimi stroked her back.

“Sherman is our pet pig,” Jesse said.

“A pig?”

“He’s actually my Aunt Hope’s. But Shirlene—my mama—loves him so much that Hope is willing to share custody. Half the week, he lives at my parents’ house. The other half, he lives with Aunt Hope and Uncle Colt. Although I think he prefers our house because Shirlene gives him chocolate.”

“Your house?” Liberty studied him. “So you still live with your parents?”

“Just a slip of the tongue. Like I said before, I don’t stay in one place too long.”

“So you’re leaving soon?” Darla asked.

“As soon as Corbin gets back.”

Hank snorted with disgust and Jesse figured he’d overstayed his welcome.

“Thank y’all for the pie and hospitality, but I should be going.” He got up and everyone followed suit.

“Well, it was lovely to meet you, Jesse,” Darla said.

“The same, ma’am.” He carried his dishes to the sink, then walked over to Mimi and held open his jean jacket for her to put Tay-Tay in. Neither female was having it.

Tay-Tay hissed and Mimi scowled. “Now you two aren’t ever going to get along if you don’t accept and love her for who she is. She might be feisty, but she’s just as scared as you are.” Mimi sent him a pointed look. “You need to remember that.”