Thomas looked to the sooty mess where her back door had once stood and rubbed his chin. “Did you see anything suspicious last night?” he called to Isaac.
Ash crunched beneath Isaac’s boots as he picked his way over the charred logs toward them. “No. If anything, the town was calmer than usual. I assumed it was because of the holiday. You?”
Thomas shook his head. “I stopped at The Penny and The Wagon before you got into town, but?—”
“You went to The Pretty Penny last night?” Her face turned cold, and she sucked in a breath of stinging winter air.
“Wait a minute, Jess.” Thomas held up his hands, as though that would somehow absolve him from visiting a brothel after their fight. “I didn’t?—”
“And not only did you go to a brothel, but you turned straight around this morning and asked me to live with you as a wife and give our marriage another chance. Are you insane?” She shouted the last words louder than intended. So loud, in fact, that a couple of passersby stopped and looked their way.
She didn’t care. The entire town could look if they wanted to, but they wouldn’t find her standing here any longer. She turned and stalked toward the apartment above the telegraph office, where she certainly wouldn’t be staying with her husband tonight.
“Jess, stop.” Thomas snagged her arm before she reached the entrance. “It’s not what you think. I was working.”
“Working. At The Penny. Sure you were.” She tried to shrug off his hold. “Let me go.”
“No, I work for Isaac now. As his deputy. I was making sure things were under control.”
“You’re Isaac’s…” She turned to find Isaac, who had also followed her to the door and was standing just behind Thomas. “Is that true?”
Isaac gave a brief nod. “I swore him in the day before Thanksgiving.”
The rage simmering in her chest cooled faster than a tub of hot water tossed out the window into the snow, and she looked down before meeting her husband’s eyes once more. “I didn’t know.”
Thomas dropped his hand from her arm. “Maybe not, but as soon as you heard I was at The Penny, you assumed the worst.”
Her cheeks heated. “It’s a brothel. Everyone in town would assume the worst unless they knew you were a lawman.”
He scratched the back of his neck and blew out a breath. “Suppose I forgot to mention my new job, what with Thanksgiving and the fire and all.”
“Yes, I suppose you did.” She swiped a strand of hair behind her ear. “I’m sorry for assuming the worst. If I would have stopped and thought before I spoke, then I probably would have realized your visit wasn’t what it first seemed.”
“I forgive you.”
He did? That simply? She fiddled with the lining inside her coat pocket. Was this what he’d been talking about when he’d mentioned they needed to focus on their relationship, on healing from the past and forgiving each other? Maybe this was one of the areas they could work on—not spouting the first accusation that came to mind but stopping and thinking before speaking. Being quicker to forgive when one of them was offended.
Or rather,shemight need to work on these things, because Thomas hadn’t done anything wrong.
“I’m going to head over to my office.” Isaac took a step back from them. “See if there’s any business that needs tending there.”
“I’ll go with you.” Thomas turned to follow Isaac. “Then maybe come back and clean up more of this mess.”
“Wait.”
Both men paused and looked back at her, and she moved her gaze between them before settling it on Thomas. “What if I don’t want you working for Isaac? If we’re going to try being a family, why would you choose a dangerous job?”
“Does that mean you agree to the truce?” His voice was quiet, perhaps even timid.
Did it? She dug the toe of her boot into the snow and sighed. This seemed like such a simple decision for him, so cut and dried. Maybe it would be for her too—if she could forget that he’d once promised to cherish her but ended up leaving instead. “I said I wanted time to decide. An hour is hardly enough. Go ahead with Isaac.”
His eyes grew distant and he took a step back. “I see.”
“Thomas…” She swallowed the lump in her throat, then shook her head. “Never mind.”
He turned and left with Isaac, his broad back rounding the corner of the telegraph office.
The ache in her chest only grew as he disappeared from sight. She’d have to give him an answer about the truce soon.
