Truly Madly Yours

again.”

Delaney didn’t ask him what he meant by that comment. She’d never hurt Nick. Impossible. In order for Nick to be hurt by anything, he’d have to have human feelings like everyone else, and he didn’t. He had a heart of stone.

After Louie left, Delaney locked up, then stood at the counter and studied several more books on braids for the upcoming wedding. She had some great ideas, but she couldn’t concentrate long enough to visualize the important details.

People said you had an abortion because the baby was Nick’s. Others thought maybe Henry had you get rid of it. Delaney put the books aside and turned out the lights. The old gossip was so mean- spirited with its insinuation that Nick’s own father had forced her to get an abortion because the baby was Nick’s. She wondered what kind of person would spread something so cruel, and she wondered if they ever felt remorse or ever bothered to apologize to Nick.

Delaney grabbed her coat and locked the salon behind her. Nick’s Jeep was parked next to her car in the small dark parking lot. He acted like he always does. Like he didn‘t care.

She tried not to wonder if he’d really been hurt as much as Louie had implied. She tried not to care. After the way he’d treated her the day before, she hated him.

She got as far as the stairs before she turned and walked to the back of his office. She knocked three times before the door swung open, and Nick stood there looking more intimidating than ever in a black thermal crew. He shifted his weight to one foot and tilted his head to the side. Surprise lifted one of his brows, but he didn’t say anything.

Now that he stood before her, with the light from his office spilling into the parking lot, Delaney wasn’t sure why she’d knocked. After what had happened yesterday, she really wasn’t sure what to say, either. “I heard something, and I wondered if-” She stopped and took a deep breath. Her nerves felt jumpy and her stomach queasy, like she’d consumed a triple shot German chocolate latte with an espresso chaser. She clasped her hands and looked at her thumbs. She didn’t know where to begin. “Someone told me about something horrible, and… I wondered if you’d…”

“Yes,” he interrupted. “I’ve heard all about it several times today. In fact, Frank Stuart chased me down at a job site this morning to ask me if I’d broken the terms of Henry’s will. He might ask you about it, too.”

She looked up. “What?”

“You were right. Mrs. Vaughn told everyone, and apparently she added a few juicy details of her own.”

“Oh.” She felt her cheeks burn and stepped a little to the left, out of the light. “I don’t want to talk about that. I don’t ever want to talk about what happened yesterday.”

He leaned one shoulder against the door jam and looked at her through the night shadows. “Then why are you here?”

“I don’t really know, but I heard about an old rumor today, and I wanted to ask you about it.”

“What’s that?”

“Supposedly, I was pregnant when I left ten years ago.”

“But we both know that was impossible, don’t we? Unless of course you weren’t really a virgin.”

She took another step backward, deeper into the dark lot. “I heard a rumor that I had an abortion because you were the father of the baby.” She watched him straighten, and suddenly she knew why she’d knocked on his door. “I’m sorry, Nick.”

“It happened a long time ago.”

“I know, but I heard it for the first time today.” She walked to the bottom of the stairs and put a hand on the rail. “You want everyone to think nothing can touch you, but I think that rumor hurt more than you’ll ever admit. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have hit Scooter Finely.”

Nick rocked back on his heels and stuck his hands in his front pockets. “Scooter’s an asshole, and he pissed me off.”

She sighed and looked across her shoulder at him. “I just want you to know I wouldn’t have had an abortion, that’s all.”

“Why do you think I care what people say about me?”

“Maybe you don’t, but no matter how I feel about you, or how you feel about me, that was a really cruel thing for someone to say. I guess I just wanted you to know that I know it was mean and someone should say they’re sorry.” She dug in her coat pocket for her keys and started up the stairs. “Forget it.” Louie had been wrong. Nick acted like he didn’t care because he really didn’t.

“Delaney.”

“What?” She stuck her key in the lock, then paused with her hand on the doorknob.

“I lied to you yesterday.” She looked over her shoulder, but she couldn’t see him.

“When?”

“When I said you could have been anyone. I would know you with my eyes closed.” His deep voice carried across the darkness more intimate than a whisper when he added, “I would know you, Delaney.” Then the squeak of hinges followed by the click of a dead bolt and Delaney knew he was gone.

She leaned over the railing, but the door was closed like Nick had never been there. His words were swallowed in the night like he’d never spoken them.

Once inside her apartment, Delaney kicked off her shoes and popped a Lean Cuisine into the microwave. She turned on the television and tried to watch the local news, but she had a difficult time concentrating on the weather report. Her mind kept returning to her conversation with Nick. She kept remembering what he’d said about knowing her with his eyes closed, and she reminded herself that Nick was far more dangerous when he was nice.

She took her dinner out of the microwave and wondered if Frank Stuart would really want to talk to her about the latest rumor. Just like ten years ago, the town was whispering about her again. Whispering about her and Nick and “hanky-panky” on the counter in her salon. But unlike ten years ago, she couldn’t run from it. She couldn’t escape.

Before she’d agreed to the terms of Henry’s will, she’d moved all over the place. She’d always had the freedom to pick up and move when the mood struck. She’d always been in control of her life. She’d always had a goal. Now everything was hazy and confused and out of control. And Nick Allegrezza was smack in the middle of it all. He was one of the biggest reasons her life was so messed up.

Delaney stood and walked into her bedroom. She wished she could blame everything on Nick. She wished she could hate him completely, but for some reason she couldn’t hate Nick. He’d made her more angry than anyone in her life, but she’d never been able to really hate him. Her life would be so much easier if she could.

When she fell asleep that night, she had another dream that quickly turned into a nightmare. She dreamed it was June and she’d fulfilled the terms of Henry’s will. She was finally able to leave Truly.

She was free and buzzing with pleasure. The sun poured all over her, bathing her in a light so bright she could hardly see. She was finally warm and wore a killer pair of purple platforms. Life just didn’t get much better.

Max was in her dream, and he handed her one of those big checks like she’d won The Publisher’s Clearing House Sweepstakes. She shoved it in the passenger seat of her Miata and jumped in the car. With the three million dollars beside her, she headed out of town feeling as if a mammoth weight had been lifted from her spirit, and the closer she drove to the Truly city limits, the lighter she felt.

She drove toward the city limits for what seemed like hours, and just when freedom was less than a mile away, her Miata turned into a Matchbox car, leaving her on the side of the road with her big check tucked under one arm. Delaney looked at the tiny car by the toe of her right purple platform and shrugged as if that sort of thing happened all the time. She stuck the car into her pocket so it wouldn’t get stolen and continued toward the city limits. But no matter how long or how fast she walked, the Leaving Truly sign remained barely visible in the distance. She began to run, leaning to one side to counterbalance the weight of her three-million-dollar check. The check grew increasingly burdensome, but she refused to leave it behind. She ran until her sides ached and she could move no further. The city limits remained in the distance, and Delaney knew without a doubt, she was stuck in Truly forever.

She sat straight up in bed. A silent scream on her lips. She was sweaty and her breathing choppy.

She’d just had the worst nightmare of her life.