Deborah Camp (17 page)

Terrapin paid Reno no heed outwardly. However, Reno knew he was getting under the man’s skin. He’d seen the flexing of Terrapin’s long fingers and the subtle bracing of the man’s legs in a wide stance. Reno recognized the signs of readiness. Giving Adele’s shoulder a gentle squeeze, he released her and set himself a few inches apart from her, clearing his body for action. He didn’t think Terrapin would try anything with Dellie present, but men like Terrapin were hard to read. A fella just had to stay ready and expect the worst.

“I run my business as I see fit,” Adele informed him. “And I don’t believe I’ll be taking your advice. Sally is employed by
me
and I won’t discuss this with
you
, Mr. Terrapin.”

“She sent me here to persuade you,” Terrapin said. “She is distressed by your lack of faith in her. I don’t like seeing her unhappy, so I offered to intervene. You
must release her from the contract. It will go better for you if you do.”

Adele tipped her nose even higher into the air. “You’ll have to excuse me, sir. I have a business to run.” She made to turn and leave him.

“Very well, I will buy out Mrs. Baldridge’s contract.” Terrapin reached into his coat’s inner pocket and withdrew a slim leather wallet. He flipped it open. “How much?”

Adele stared at him, never thinking he would offer her a bribe. She couldn’t conjure up anything scathing enough to say to him and he took that as acceptance.

“Let’s see, three months’ salary plus another twenty-five to sweeten it.” He waited for Adele to speak, and when she didn’t, he fumbled in the wallet again. “Make it an extra fifty dollars to show you how much I appreciate your willingness to be reasonable.” He held out the folded bills.

Reno examined Adele’s shocked expression and waited for her to explode. Blood crept from her neck to flood her cheeks, and her eyes narrowed to green slits.

“Keep your filthy money,” she said, her voice husky with emotion. “You will not pay me off or threaten me, as you do everyone else in this town. I’m not one of your saloon girls you can buy and sell and neither is Sally Baldridge. If there is one scrap of decency in you, you will end this courtship.” She held her arms stiffly at her sides. Her eyes smoldered in their deep sockets. “I’d sooner see her marry the town drunk than you.”

“How could she? You already did.” Terrapin’s gaze flickered over Reno. “If you keep making these tragic
mistakes, Miss Adele, they will be your ultimate undoing.”

“You bastard,” Reno said, stepping forward, his hand moving so quickly that Adele failed to see the knife at first. “I told you, her name is Mrs. Gold.”

The knife ripped through the front of Terrapin’s white shirt, slicing the fabric to ribbons. Reno backed up to appreciate his handiwork and the mottled rage on Terrapin’s face. When the man would have pounced on him, Reno displayed the knife blade, tilting it so that the orange rays of the setting sun caught and were reflected by the shiny surface.

“Think twice,” Reno cautioned. “And don’t go for your gun. I’ll bury this knife in your black heart before you can clear that pistol from its holster.”

Terrapin pointed a shaking finger in Reno’s face. “You have gotten in my way for the last time, Gold. You’re a walking dead man, you hear? A walking dead man!”

“Get gone before I carve up your chest.” Reno gripped the knife handle more tightly. “And don’t come around here anymore bothering my wife or me.”

“Or Sally,” Adele added. She couldn’t keep from staring at the ruined front of Terrapin’s shirt, stunned by Reno’s quickness and audacity. The knife seemed to have materialized from thin air. And the way he’d used it! Deftly, almost gracefully, like an artist with a brush.

Not a bad man to have around, she thought, examining him in a whole new light. Yes, it was nice having a strong man on her side, especially against a lowlife like Taylor Terrapin. Pride crowded into her
chest, and her heart swelled with it. Reno might be a tad lazy, but he made up for that in courage. In fact, he had to be the most courageous man in Whistle Stop.

And he was her husband.

“This isn’t finished,” Terrapin said, his voice and intent as low as a snake’s belly. “You can’t treat me with disrespect and get away with it. I’ve tried to reason with you, but you’ve rejected my offer and have ended up buying trouble, my friends.”

Reno carved a Z in the air with the knife inches from Terrapin’s nose. “You’re wearing out your welcome, pal.”

Terrapin retreated to his buggy and climbed nimbly to the seat. He snatched up the reins, threw Adele and Reno one last black glare, then rode away with a jingle of harness and a tapping of hooves.

Adele watched him go and let out a long sigh of relief. “He is insufferable.” She slanted Reno a worried glance. “But maybe we should have handled him differently.”

“Too late for that. The gauntlet has been thrown down, Dellie. All that’s left is to deal with whatever comes from it.”

“I suppose he’ll drive Sally even further away from me.”

“Dellie, Sally didn’t take up with Terrapin just to rile you. I’m telling you to forget that contract and save yourself more trouble and your friendship with her.”

“I can’t, Reno. I just can’t. I find it impossible to turn my back on those I love.” She moved to go back inside, but he caught her hand and detained her.
When she looked over her shoulder at him, the soft light in his eyes made her catch her breath. “What is it?” she whispered, mystified.

“Don’t turn your back on me, Dellie,” he said, his tone as soft as the light in his eyes.

“I wasn’t … I have to get back to work, that’s all.”

His smile was sadly sweet. He linked his fingers with hers. “Meet me for supper tonight.”

“Supper? Where?”

He laughed. “Here. After the restaurant closes, meet me for supper. Just the two of us. Say eight o’clock? I’ll have everything ready for us.”

Adele looked down at their clasped hands and pleasure swirled through her. “All right.” It was all she could say, what with sweet emotion blocking her throat.

He straightened his fingers and let hers slip free. Adele glanced up at him through the veil of her lashes, saw that he, too, was pleased, then went into the restaurant, which was filling up with hungry patrons.

She was wrapped up immediately in her work, helping to take orders and carry trays of steaming food to the tables. More than an hour later, she caught a glimpse of Reno as he moved away from the restaurant and toward the shed he was building. It was only then that she realized he’d been sitting on a bench outside, watching her through the restaurant windows. For how long she couldn’t guess, but the realization sent another swirl of pleasure through her.

The enticement of a supper just for two kept her on edge the rest of the evening and made each minute pass like an hour. She let Colleen and Helen close the
restaurant while she dashed into her quarters to change her clothes, splash on some rose water, and brush her hair to a glossy sheen.

From seven o’clock until eight, she sat on the parlor sofa and tried to remember the last time she’d been so excited about sharing a meal with a friend.

Except that Reno wasn’t just her friend.

E
ntering the restaurant, Adele smiled shyly when she spotted the table by the window, draped with a white linen cloth and set for two. Candles glowed in its center, casting a romantic light over the shiny china and glinting silver. A delicious aroma lured her closer. She lifted the lid off a serving dish to reveal creamed peas and new potatoes. A platter of thinly sliced roast beef made her mouth water. Freshly baked rolls filled a basket, and creamy balls of butter slowly melted in a shallow bowl. Another bowl contained fluffy rice. Beside that sat a boat of brown gravy.

“You are a vision.”

Adele spun around to find Reno standing in the kitchen doorway. He carried a bottle of wine and two glasses to the table, his gaze never wavering from her.

“I decided to dress up, since you were going to the trouble of fixing me supper,” she said, glancing down at her dress of dark-cherry satin with black lace edging. She ran a hand up her nape, checking for curls that might have fallen from their pins.

“You’re beautiful, Dellie,” he said, dropping a light kiss on her cheek, “as always.”

“Aren’t you the smooth-talker,” she teased, admiring the fit of his dark-gray suit, his boiled white shirt, and black satin vest. His clothes looked expensive, and she wondered where he’d found the money for them. Fingering a lapel, she tipped her head at a questioning angle. “This is a tailored fit. Must have cost you something.”

“In the great Southern style, I sold a few pieces of my mother’s jewelry to buy these duds. I wanted to look so good that you couldn’t resist me.”

She smiled at his joshing. “Speaking of something irresistible, the smell of this food is making me weak-kneed. I was so busy today that I skipped dinner.”

“Then have a seat,” he said, setting the wine and glasses on the table and holding out a chair for her. “I must confess that Mrs. McDonald helped me with some of this. The meat and gravy I could handle, but the rest—well, she took pity on me.”

“She’s a good woman.”

Reno took the chair opposite her. “Yes, she is. You won’t have to worry about her wanting to leave before her contract is up. She’s found a home here.”

Adele shook out her napkin and draped it over her lap. When Reno started to pour wine into her glass, she shook a hand at him. “I never—that is, I don’t drink.”

“Have a few sips tonight,” he said, filling the glass halfway. “The taste will enhance the food. Trust me.”

“I doubt this food will need enhancing.” She shrugged and took a sip while he selected a slice of beef, cut it in half, and placed it on her plate. “You’re
rather handy with a knife,” she noted. “Where did you learn to use one so deftly?”

“I suppose you’re talking about what I did to Terrapin’s shirt earlier.” He grinned and placed two large slices of beef on his plate. “That’s a little trick I learned from a Cheyenne cousin.”

“Very impressive.” She nodded when he offered her a serving of the peas and potatoes. “This is nice, having supper together.”

“It’s what married people do, I’m told.”

“I usually just eat with the others after the restaurant closes. I expected you to show up, but you never have.”

He smiled. “I was never invited.”

Adele blinked, taken aback. “But I assumed—”

“There you go assuming again, Dellie. You assumed I knew this rooster would be welcome at your hen parties?”

Contrite, she pursed her lips and forced herself to apologize. “I’m sorry, Reno. From now on you must join us for supper.”

“Must I?”

She sighed, irritated by her poor choice of words. “That is, you may if you wish.”

He lifted his wine glass. “To a better understanding of each other.”

She hesitated a moment before honoring the toast with a clink of her glass against the side of his. The wine was fruity and sweet. She was glad he’d selected a mild one, since she wasn’t used to the effects of liquor or the taste of it.

“If you’d given Terrapin the time of day, he would have asked
you
to marry him.”

“Me?” Adele laughed. “Don’t be ridiculous.”

“I’m not. The day we married I noticed how he looked at you. And why should he be any different from any other bachelor in this town? You were the most coveted woman in Whistle Stop, and then I had to come along and ruin every other fellow’s chances.”

“I believe you’re trying to turn my head.”

“No, I’m trying to make it clear to you that I know what I have and I’m grateful. I took a shine to you years ago, Dellie. Did you think I hung around because I was overly fond of my cousin?”

“You and Win were close,” Adele insisted.

“Not that close. We had little in common, other than blood and our infatuation with you.”

She felt herself blush, but covered it by tucking in her chin and concentrating on buttering a roll. “You were the only one who didn’t say I was crazy for not accepting Win’s proposal of marriage.”

“You and Win weren’t a good match.”

“Oh?” She arched a brow. “How did you come to that conclusion?”

“He couldn’t handle you. You’re a strong woman and you need a strong man. One should fight fire with fire.”

“Personally I don’t think of a love match as a fight. When looking for a mate, I seek someone who does not want to dominate me or subjugate me.”

“That’s right. You want your equal, and Winston wasn’t that. He was too weak. You led him around as if you had a halter on him.”

“I did not!” she protested hotly, but Reno only smiled indulgently at her. “My mother said that Winston was a dear, but he didn’t understand my ambition.
She was right. Winston wanted a wife who would be content to stay at home and never leave the confines of those walls.”

“That’s why he and Sally were a good fit. If Win had possessed a knack for keeping his money, he and Sally would have been as happy as cream-fed cats.”

“Sally isn’t a gold digger. She is simply terrified of being poor, which is a common ailment among certain Southerners.” She waved her fork to dismiss any more argument from him. “But I’m tired of talking about Sally. This meal is delicious. Let’s enjoy it.”

“Very well. Let’s talk about us.”

Adele had trouble swallowing. Glancing at him, she admired his casual air. Of course, he was directing this grand seduction, so he could afford to be cavalier. Although she felt like a deer being lured into a clearing, she had to admit she liked this side of Reno.

His mannered air, his handsome clothes, his attempts to impress her, all served to weaken her defenses. She could have done much worse in choosing a husband, she thought. Then she realized that she must have influenced him. Yes, that was it. Her plan had worked! She had uncovered his pride, his desire to achieve something, and his self-respect. Savoring her triumph, she was too late in refusing the wine he poured into her nearly empty glass. Ah, well, another glass wouldn’t compromise her.

“Your mother liked me, didn’t she?”