Free Deborah Camp by Tender Kisses Tough Talk Page A

respected member of this community.”
    Sally stared at her, aghast. “He’s not a stray cat, Adele. Please don’t make him one of your causes. Reno Gold will never amount to anything but disgrace. As a boy he was worthless and as a man he has not increased his value.”
    Adele flinched at Sally’s scathing opinion. “I don’t think he was worthless and I don’t think he’s worthlessnow. He was a good friend to me back in Lawrence, and I savor my memories of my time with him. Regardless of your thoughts about his future, Sally, he is my husband now and I am his wife. Please remember that and don’t criticize us in front of others. Believe it or not, I’m not the only one with feelings. Reno has his pride, as well.”
    Sally shrugged. “It’s your problem. I was only trying to make you see how degrading this could be for you.”
    Adele placed a hand on Sally’s. “Believe me, I can handle Reno.”
    “Humpf.” Sally stood up and smoothed the wrinkles from her apron. “Oh, well. If anyone can mold him into a decent human being, it’s you.” She pulled a finger across her lips, sealing them. “No more public displays from me, I promise.”
    “Thank you.” Adele stood up from the sofa.
    “But if you need someone to talk to or a shoulder to cry on, if things get too tough for you, Dellie …”
    Adele nodded, placing an arm around her friend’s waist. “I know I have you, Sally, and for that I am grateful. But I assure you, I can handle him.”
    “Humpf,” Sally repeated, and Adele swore to herself that she would prove to Sally and the whole darned town that a good woman could bring out the best in any man—even the stubborn, ill-mannered Reno Gold.

Chapter 6
     
    “T his isn’t working out at all,” Adele murmured to herself as she stood up from her desk, where she’d been working on payroll ledgers. Late-morning sun spilled into the room and warmed the crumpled covers on Reno’s cot. Adele turned her back on it, preferring not to dwell on the odd, irritating sleeping arrangements. “Why he won’t sleep out back is beyond me,” she grumbled.
    A train whistle split the air. Adele sighed. The 10:10, she thought. The very same train that brought Reno Gold back into her structured life and set it spinning crazily like a child’s top. He’d been living with her for nine days, and she’d made no headway with him. In fact, he seemed to become more lazy and aimless with each passing hour. She took his poor behavior as a personal failure and she was certain everyone looked at her with diminished respect. After all, a good woman brought out the best in her man.
    All Adele had been able to bring out in Reno was his penchant for bedeviling her and spooking Sally. He chanted in Cherokee under his breath and sharpenedhis hunting knife at the supper table and had taken to wearing a medicine bag tied to his belt, all for Sally’s benefit. Sally thought of him as a savage, and he was bound and determined to live up to it.
    Then there were the long, tension-filled evenings, when Adele lay in her bed and listened for Reno to come to his. She had no earthly idea where he spent his evenings and she would rather have cut out her tongue than ask him, but her mind was alive with scenarios.
    Each evening she imagined him flashing his infamous smile at the painted women in town while he told tall tales and spoke disparagingly of his new wife. Her imagination tortured her with images of him kissing rouge-painted lips and palming rounded backsides, of him dancing close and buying drinks. She hated to even ponder where he was getting his money. She certainly hadn’t given him any, so she surmised he was gambling at the Red Queen and winning enough to impress the ladies.
    During the evening she listened for the sweet notes of Chopin’s Nocturne, for Reno usually checked the time on his pocket watch when he arrived home. The haunting notes would signal the beginning of those excruciating minutes when Adele would lie