Truly Madly Yours

“Are you sure? Can’t you just stay for tort? I bought it at the Bakery Basket over on Sixth.”

Delaney declined and started down the hall to Henry’s office. She bid Max good night, then grabbed her coat and shoved her arms into the sleeves.

Her mother pushed Delaney’s hands out of the way and buttoned it for her as if she were five again. “I love you, and I worry about you in that little apartment downtown.” Delaney opened her mouth to argue, but Gwen put a restraining finger to her lips. “I know you don’t want to move back here now, but I just want you to know that if you change your mind, I’d love to have you.”

Just when Delaney was convinced her mother was Mommy Dearest, the woman changed. It had always been that way. “I’ll keep that in mind,” Delaney said, hurrying out the door before things changed back again.

Gwen stared at the closed door and sighed. She didn’t understand Delaney. Not at all.

She didn’t understand why her daughter insisted on living in that horrid little apartment when she didn’t have to. She didn’t understand why someone who’d been given so much opportunity had rejected it all for the life of a wandering beautician. And she couldn’t help but be a little disappointed in her, too.

Henry had wanted to give Delaney everything, and she’d thrown it away. All she’d had to do was let him guide her, but Delaney had wanted her freedom. As far as Gwen was concerned, freedom was overrated. It didn’t feed you or your child, and it didn’t take away the fear that gripped your stomach in the middle of the night. Some women could take care of themselves just fine, but Gwen wasn’t one of those women. She needed and wanted a man to take care of her.

The first night she’d met Henry Shaw, she’d known he was just the man for her. Forceful and rich. She’d been shampooing wigs and styling hair on the heads of Las Vegas showgirls, and she’d hated it. After one of the shows, Henry had come to the dressing room of his latest girlfriend and he’d left with Gwen. He’d looked so handsome and so classy. A week later, she married him.

She’d loved Henry Shaw, but more than she’d ever loved him, she’d been grateful. With his help, she lived the life she’d always dreamed. With Henry, the hardest decision she ever had to make was what to serve for dinner and which club to join. Gwen turned and headed down the hall toward Henry’s office. Of course there’d been a tradeoff for all the privileges. Henry had wanted a legitimate child, and when she didn’t conceive, he blamed her. After years of trying, she’d finally convinced him to see a fertility specialist, and just as Gwen had suspected, Henry was virtually infertile. He had a very low sperm count, and of the few he did have, most of those were deformed and sluggish. The diagnosis had insulted and enraged Henry, and he’d wanted to make love all the time just to prove the doctors all wrong. He’d been so bullheaded and so sure he could conceive a child. Of course the doctors hadn’t been wrong. They’d had sex all the time, even when she hadn’t felt like it. But it had never been real bad, and the payback had been worth it. People looked up to her in the community, and she had a life filled with beautiful things.

And then a few years ago, he gave up on the idea of having a child with her. Nick had moved back to town and Henry turned his attention to the child he already had. Gwen didn’t like Nick. She didn’t like that whole family, but she had been grateful when Henry had finally turned his obsession toward his son.

When Gwen entered the room, she found Max standing behind Henry’s desk looking at a few documents sitting on the desk. He looked up and a smile creased the corners of his blue eyes. Silver was just beginning to turn the hair at his temples, and not for the first time lately, she wondered what it would be like to be touched by a man who was closer to her own age. A man as handsome as Max.

“Is Delaney gone?” he asked as he walked around the desk toward her.

“She just left. I worry about her. She’s so aimless, so irresponsible. I don’t think she’ll ever grow up.”

“Don’t worry. She’s a bright girl.”

“Yes, but she’s almost thirty. She’ll-”

Max brushed his index finger across her lips and cheek and silenced her words. “I don’t want to talk about Delaney. She’s a grown woman. You’ve done your job, now you need to step back and think about something else.”

Gwen’s gaze narrowed. Max didn’t know what he was talking about. Delaney needed her mother’s guidance. She’d lived like a gypsy much too long. “How can you say that? She’s my daughter. How can I possibly not think about her?”

“Think about me instead,” he said as he dipped his head and softly kissed her mouth.

At first, the lips pressed to hers felt foreign. She couldn’t even remember a time when a man other than Henry had kissed her. Max opened his mouth over hers, and she felt the first tentative stroke of his tongue. Pleasure swept across her flesh, and her heart seemed to triple its beat. She’d wanted to know what it felt like to be touched by Max, and now she knew. It felt better than she’d imagined.

On the way home from her mother’s, Delaney stopped at the Value Rite Drug for a bottle of Tylenol, a four- pack of toilet paper, and a packet of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. She threw in two boxes of tampons because they were on sale, then she stopped at the magazine rack. She picked up a slick publication that reeked of perfume and promised to reveal “The Secrets of Men.” She flipped through the pages and tossed it in the cart, planning to read it in the bathtub when she got home. In aisle four she threw in a scented candle, and when she headed down aisle five toward the checkout, she practically ran over Helen Markham.

Helen looked tired, and by the hate glaring from her eyes, she’d obviously heard the latest.

Delaney almost felt sorry for her. Helen’s life couldn’t be easy, and Delaney figured she had two choices: make her old enemy squirm, or let her off the hook. “I hope you don’t believe the gossip about me and Tommy,” she said. “It’s not true.”

“Stay away from my husband. He doesn’t want you coming on to him anymore.”

So much for trying to be nice. “I never came on to Tommy.”

“You’ve always been jealous of me. Always, and now you think you can take my husband, but it won’t work.”

“I don’t want your husband,” she said, excruciatingly aware of the two boxes of tampons in her cart, like one wouldn’t be enough.

“You’ve wanted him since we were in high school. You never could stand that he chose me.”

Delaney’s gaze swept the contents of Helen’s cart. A bottle of Robitusson, tweezers, a jumbo pack of Stay- free, and a box of Correctol. Delaney smiled, feeling a slight advantage. Feminine hygiene and laxative. “He only chose you because I wouldn’t sleep with him, and you know it. Everyone knew it then, and everyone knows it now. If you hadn’t acted like a Sealy Posturepedic, he wouldn’t have gone to bed with you.”

“You’re pathetic, Delaney Shaw. You always have been. Now you think you can come back, take away my husband and my business.”

“I told you I don’t want Tommy.” She pointed her finger at Helen and leaned forward. “But watch out because I am going to take your business.” Her smile conveyed a smugness she didn’t feel as she pushed her cart past Helen toward the front of the store. So much for ending the hair war. She was going to kick Helen’s butt.

Delaney’s hands shook as she set her purchases on the checkout counter. They were still shaking as she drove home and when she placed her key in the lock to her apartment door. She turned on the ten o’clock news for noise and dumped out her shopping bag on the counter in her kitchen. The day had started out okay, but had gone to hell in a hurry. First her mother, then Helen. Gossip about her was burning up the phone lines of Truly, and there was nothing she could do about it.

Her head pounded like it was going to explode, and she downed four Tylenols. This was Tommy’s fault-and Nick’s. She’d been minding her own business when both men had approached her. If they’d left her alone, tonight wouldn’t have happened. She wouldn’t have had to defend herself to her mother, and she’d wouldn’t have had it out with Helen in the Value Rite.

Delaney grabbed her magazine, then headed for the bathroom and filled the tub. As soon as she’d peeled to her skin, she sank into the warm water. A shudder worked its way up her spine, and she sighed. She tried to read, but her mind raced with ways to steal Helen’s business. She wondered if Tommy, the dog, had really told his wife that Delaney had “come on” to him, but she guessed it really didn’t matter.

The thoughts spinning in her head turned to Nick and the rumors. It was starting again. Ten years ago, the two of them had been a hot topic, apparently even after she’d left town. She didn’t want to be linked with Nick. She didn’t want to be viewed as one of his women. And she probably wouldn’t be if he hadn’t dragged her out on the