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“She’ll pay me once I deliver the dresses. And the plant money is gone.” Because he’d already taken it. She left the words unsaid, hanging in the air between them.
Her father’s frown turned into a sneer. “What about that man you’ve got living here? He paying you anything for the food he eats? The bed he sleeps in? Or whatever else he’s using you for?”
She sucked in a breath, a rage burning through her so hot, her eyes watered. “That’s it. I’ve put up with a lot over the years. I’ve taken care of you, taken care of everything when you refused to do so. I’ve watched you drinking yourself toward an early grave. I’ve listened to your insults and your complaints and your drunken rages and I’m not going to do it anymore! I’m done. I refuse to stand here and take one more insult from you.”
“I don’t owe you any explanation, but out of respect for the fact that you are my father, even if you stopped acting like one a long time ago, that man you are so casually insulting has every right to be under this roof. He’s my husband.”
She hadn’t seen her father so stunned since…well, ever. More emotions flew across his face than she could identify. Confusion. Sadness. But as was typical with him, he settled on anger.
“How dare you get married without my permission.”
“Your permission? How were we supposed to ask for your permission? You are gone more than you’re home lately, and even when you are here, you’re too drunk to know what’s going on most of the time.”
She didn’t bother trying to explain the real situation. He wouldn’t understand. Hell, she didn’t even understand it. Better to stick to the bare-minimum facts.
Most of the anger bled out of his face, but he still grumbled something about being there to give her away.
She shook her head. “I would have loved for you to have been there to walk me down the aisle and give me away. But even if you’d been here, that wouldn’t have happened. If you’d even bothered showing up, you’d probably have been too drunk to walk me anywhere.”
She let out a humorless laugh. “Within five minutes of getting to town, Adam was already helping me. Do you have any idea how good that felt? Do you know how long it’s been since anyone has been there for me? What it feels like to finally have someone who makes my burden lighter instead of worse? I won’t let you ruin that for me. Not this time.”
Her father stared at her for a moment, then finally nodded. “You don’t want me around, fine. I’ll leave. Your husband can have you.”
He flung down the papers he’d been riffling through and stormed out of the house.
Nora put a shaking hand to her forehead and took several deep breaths. She hadn’t even asked him where the deed to the property was. Not that he’d have told her anyway. She’d ask him later, then. He’d come to his senses when he’d sobered up and would apologize as he always did. Maybe she could get some information out of him then. In the meantime…
She bent to pick up one of Adam’s shirts that her father had flung down the stairs. A smile pulled at her lips when she realized it was the shirt from the first day they’d made love, the one he’d ripped all the buttons off.
She took the shirt over to where her sewing basket sat next to the fireplace and her favorite chair. She couldn’t fix her father’s problems just then. Or Adam’s. Or know for a certainty that whatever it was that she and Adam were doing was the right decision.
But she could sew the buttons back on his shirt. So she’d focus on that. The rest…she just hoped she found some sort of solution before her life blew up in her face again.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
“Here’s to your first day as a law enforcer,” Sunshine said, raising his glass to Adam.
The men had found him holding up one of the posts out front, watching the street. Which they took as an invitation to haul him in for a drink and keep him company for the last hour or so. He should have gone directly home to Nora, but he wanted to make sure the stranger he’d seen was well and truly gone. Maybe the man had just been passing through or was another newcomer and Adam had scared him off. As long as he stayed gone, Adam wouldn’t have a quarrel with him.
Doc and Preacher had raised their glasses as well. Adam and Woodson both grimaced but gamely held theirs up. Well, Adam did. Woodson sort of tipped his in their direction before taking another drink.
“Never thought I’d see the day,” Adam muttered into his cider.
Woodson snorted. “I know the feeling.”
Silence fell for a few moments before Sunshine cleared his throat. “So, you and Miss Nora seem to be getting along better.”
Every man at the table turned and glared at him. “What?” he said, looking as innocent as any man Adam had ever seen. “It’s true.”
They all continued to stare at him. “You mean to tell me I’m the only one who saw him kiss her hand this afternoon? And the way she blushed?”
“No,” Woodson said in that gravelly voice of his. “You’re just the only one who refuses to mind his own business.”
Sunshine just grinned. Nothing seemed to rattle the man. “Yes, well, if you all stopped having such interesting lives, I might pay a little more attention to mine.”
Woodson grunted. “Then I’m going to take my interesting life and head home.”
Sunshine stood as well. “I’ll go check on things at the jailhouse. Brought a couple of brothers in after you left, and they are none too happy.”
