The Talk of the Town Read Online Free PDF Page B

now.
    “I didn’t know you did windows,” he said, seeming to tease but failing in the attempt. Fesol wasn’t a man given to telling jokes or being joshed and jostled. He was more inclined to accuse than to amuse. And right now he sounded like he was accusing her of lollygagging.
    Squaring her shoulders, she met his accusation with one of her own. “You scared me half to death, sneaking up on me like that.”
    “I didn’t mean . . .” He stopped in mid-apology and glanced from her guilt-stricken face to the window and back again. Then he took a step forward and surveyed the scene through the window. When he turned back, she saw a surge of displeasure, compounded by disbelief, wash over his long, narrow face.
    “Don’t tell me you hired him,” he challenged.
    Roxie usually went out of her way to avoid disagreeing with Fesol because arguing with him was like arguing with a brick wall. Once he formed an opinion, he didn’t budge from it. This time, though, she had no intention of backing away from a confrontation.
    “Yes,” she admitted. “I hired him.”
    He wagged a bony finger at her. “Have you forgotten that he’s a convict, a criminal?”
    “That was before,” she began, but stopped at the short, disgusted sound that Fesol made.
    “Do you think seven years in prison made a choirboy out of Bauer?” he demanded.
    “No, but—”
    “If you think he’s changed, you’re more naïve than I’d thought,” Fesol went on as if she hadn’t spoken. “A leopard doesn’t change its spots.”
    Her chin angled up. “But people do, Fesol. They change all the time, and usually for the better.”
    He snorted in response.
    Remembering how Luke had looked her squarely in the eye when he told her she didn’t have to give him a job, Roxie added with emphasis, “The man I interviewed bore very little resemblance to that wild boy everyone remembers. He made no attempt to excuse or to hide from his past. He simply asked for a job and promised to earn his pay.”
    As if the sight of her offended her, Fesol removed his steel-rimmed glasses, pulled a precisely-folded handkerchief out of his back pocket and carefully cleaned the lenses. He returned the glasses to his nose, refolded the square of linen along its pressed-in lines and replaced it in his back pocket before speaking again.
    “He’s probably casing the place as we speak, planning to rob us at the first opportunity.”
    She dismissed that out of hand. “Don’t be ridiculous.”
    “He’s robbed before,” he reminded her unnecessarily.
    “A gasoline station with money in the till, not a—”
    “And don’t forget that he also stole a car.”
    “Don’t you forget that he paid dearly for all of it,” she retorted.
    Fesol sighed and shook his head in a show of distress. “I knew you’d cause trouble eventually.”
    “What are you saying?” she demanded in icy tones.
    He stepped closer now, crowding her. She either had to tilt her head back to look at him or fall back several steps, which she wasn’t about to do. She wasn’t going to give an inch of ground.
    “I’m saying that the minute I met you I knew you were the type of woman who can’t pass by a stray puppy without picking it up and taking it home.” He made it sound as if this marked her as a tainted woman.
    Squaring her shoulders, she snapped, “Nonsense. It’s nothing like that.”
    “Isn’t it?” He took a step backwards, giving her some breathing room. “If you didn’t feel sorry for him, why did you hire him?”
    Why, indeed? She couldn’t deny it. She had felt sorry for him and she had hired him for that very reason. Even Luke had realized as much. But she couldn’t admit it. To do so would seem like a betrayal of him.
    She temporized, saying, “Someone has to give him a chance.”
    “Mr. Stewart should be the one to decide whether or not this company takes such a risk.”
    Fesol was no longer attacking Luke but her judgment. Some of the strain she felt abated. She was