Truly Madly Yours

in her hot slick body-not Henry’s will, and certainly not the chance of discovery by a hotel employee. Nothing had mattered but possessing her. Then he did and the feeling nearly sent him to his knees. It shook him to the core, changing everything he thought he knew about sex. Sex was sometimes slow and easy, other times fast and sweaty, but never like with Delaney. Never had it slammed into him like a hot fist.

Now he knew, and he wished he didn’t. It ate a hole in his gut and made him hate her as much as he wanted to hold her close and never let her leave him. But she would leave. She would leave Truly, blowing out of town in her little yellow car.

Now he knew, and it was hell.

Chapter Fifteen

Delaney combed her fingers through the back of Lanna’s damp hair and eyed her critically in the salon mirror. “What about if we cut it to here?” she asked, moving her hands to about ear level. “You have a short enough jaw line that you’d look really good in a short bob. I could bevel the back and you could flip it up.”

Lanna tilted her head to one side and studied her reflection. “What about bangs?”

“Your forehead is wide so you really don’t need bangs.”

Lanna took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Go for it.”

Delaney reached for her comb. “You don’t have to act like I’m going to be drilling on your teeth.”

“I haven’t had short hair since fourth grade.” Lanna slid her hand from beneath the silver cape and scratched her chin. “I don’t think Lonna’s ever had hers short.”

Delaney sectioned Lanna’s hair, then clipped it. “Really?” She picked up her scissors. “Is your sister still seeing Nick Allegrezza?” she asked as if she had no more than a passing interest.

“Yeah. She sees him off and on.”

“Oh.” Delaney hadn’t seen him in over two weeks, not since the night of Lisa’s wedding. Well, she’d seen him. She’d seen him across a crowded room at a Downtown Business Association meeting, and she’d seen him as she’d slid through a stop sign at the intersection of Main and First, nearly broadsiding his Jeep with Henry’s big Cadillac. She’d managed to hook a right, he a left. That same evening he left a message on her answering machine: “Get some damn snowtires,” he said, then hung up. She hadn’t seen him again until yesterday when he and Sophie had walked out the back door of his office as she’d been throwing trash in the Dumpster. He’d stopped by the driver’s side of his Jeep and looked at her, his eyes hot, touching her everywhere. And she’d stood there, the waste basket in her arms forgotten, stunned by the emotion twisting her stomach. “Uncle Nick,” Sophie had called to him, but he hadn’t answered. He hadn’t said anything. “Let’s go, Uncle Nick.” He glanced over his shoulder at his niece, then back to Delaney.

“I see you still don’t have snowtires.”

“Ah… no.” She stared into his eyes and felt her head get light and her stomach fuzzy.

“Come on, Uncle Nick.”

“Okay Sophie,” he’d said, his gaze moving over her one last time before he’d turned away.

“I don’t think Lonna has seen Nick for a few weeks,” Lanna said, breaking into Delaney’s thoughts. “At least I don’t think he’s called and wanted her to meet him somewhere. She would have told me if he had.”

Delaney cut a line along the nape of Lanna’s neck. “Do you two have that twin connection going on and tell each other everything?”

“We don’t tell each other everything. We do talk about the men we sleep with though. But she’s more promiscuous and has more interesting stories. She and Gail used to sit around and swap stories about Nick. Of course that was back when Gail still thought she had a chance of becoming Mrs. Allegrezza.”

Delaney reached for a duck clip and slowly combed out a section of hair. “She doesn’t think that anymore?”

“Not so much now, and she was so sure he’d move her in, but he never even invited her to spend the night.”

He hadn’t invited Delaney, either. At the time, she’d had no intention of actually spending the night with Nick. She knew how bad she looked every morning, and she’d had no intention of waking up with someone she suspected got out of bed looking like a cover model. But she didn’t want to be just another of his women, either. She’d let herself think that maybe she was special since he risked losing his Angel Beach and Silver Creek property to be with her. She remembered something else Lanna had told her once, too. Nick didn’t take women home with him, but he’d taken her. She’d hoped maybe she’d been different from the others, but he hadn’t even given her a call, so she guessed she wasn’t.

“Are you going to be in the Christmas fashion show?” Delaney asked her client. She just didn’t want to talk about Nick anymore.

“No, but I’m going to help the microbrewery build their ice sculpture for the Winter Festival.”

The subject of Nick was dropped, and they talked about where each of them had spent Thanksgiving. Delaney had gone to her mother’s, of course. Max had been there, and it was the first completely relaxed holiday she could remember. Well, almost completely relaxed. Her mother did try to drill her about the Christmas fashion show. She’d wanted to know what Delaney planned, starting with hair clips and ending with the style of shoes. Gwen recommended pumps. Delaney horrified her mother by mentioning hip boots even though she didn’t own a pair. Gwen suggested a “nice Anne Klein suit.” Delaney thought she might wear a “nice plastic cat suit,” which she did own but had outgrown since she’d been stuck in Truly. Max had stepped in and proposed he carve the turkey.

When Delaney was finished, Lanna liked her new cut so much she tipped her ten bucks. In Truly, that was a rare compliment. Once the salon was empty again, she swept up hair and checked her appointment book. She had a little less than an hour before her three-thirty cut and blow-dry. The appointment was with her second male client since she’d opened the salon, and she was a little apprehensive. Some men tended to think since she’d spent half an hour running her fingers through their hair, she’d naturally want to go for a drink at Motel 6 afterward. She never knew which client would interpret her job as a sexual advance. Marital status was never a factor. It was weird, but wasn’t uncommon.

While she waited, she counted products in the storeroom, telling herself she wasn’t listening for the sound of a certain black Jeep, but she was.

She counted shampoo towels and wrote out an order for several dozen more. She needed more finger waving solution, thanks to Wannetta, and just as she finished checking her inventory, the muted crunch of gravel reached her from the back lot. She stilled and listened until she heard it again. Before she could think about it, she grabbed a small trash can and slowly opened the back door.

Sophie stood by the front of the silver Cadillac, raising the windshield wiper with one hand. In the other she held a white envelope. She slid the envelope under the wiper blade, and Delaney didn’t have to see the typewritten note to know what it said.

“It’s you.”

Sophie spun around, her eyes huge, and lifted a hand to the chest of her blue parka. Her mouth fell open, then snapped shut. She looked as stunned as Delaney felt. Delaney didn’t know whether to thank her for not being a psycho stalker or scream at her for being a brat.

“I was just…just…” she stammered as she grabbed the envelope and shoved it in her pocket.

“I know what you were just doing. You were leaving me another warning.”

Sophie crossed her arms over her chest. She tried to look tough, but her face was only a few shades darker than the snow at her feet.

“Maybe I should go call your father.”

“He’s on his honeymoon,” she said instead of denying anything.

“Not forever. I’ll wait until he gets back.”

“Go ahead. He won’t believe you. He’s only nice to you because of Lisa.”

“Your Uncle Nick will believe me. He knows about the other two notes.”

Her arms fell to her sides. “You told him?” she cried as if Delaney was the person who’d done something wrong.