Truly Madly Yours (22 page)

The bell above the front door rang, and she looked up as Louie walked in. Deep red mottled his cheeks like he’d been outside all day, and his hands were stuck in the pockets of his blue canvas coat. A deep wrinkle furrowed his brow, and he didn’t look like he’d come to get his hair cut.

“What can I do for you, Louie?” She stood and walked behind the counter.

He quickly looked about the salon, then settled his dark gaze on her. “I wanted to talk to you before you closed for the day.”

“Okay.” She set down her braiding book and opened the cash register. She shoved money into a black Naugahyde bag, and when he didn’t speak right away, she looked up at him. “Shoot.”

“I want you to stay away from my brother.”

Delaney blinked twice and slowly zipped the money bag closed. “Oh,” was all she managed.

“In less than a year you’ll be gone, but Nick will still live here. He’ll have to run his business here, and he’ll have to live with all the gossip you two create.”

“I didn’t mean to create anything.”

“But you did.”

Delaney felt her cheeks grow hot. “Nick assured me he doesn’t care what people say about him.”

“Yeah, that’s Nick. He says a lot of things. Some of them he actually means, too.” Louie paused and scratched his nose. “Look, like I said, you’re leaving in under a year, but Nick will have to listen to the gossip about you after you’re gone. He’ll have to live it down—again.”

“Again?”

“The last time you left, there was some crazy stuff said about you and Nick. Stuff that hurt my mother, and I think Nick a little, too. Although he said he didn’t care except for the grief it caused my mother.”

“Do you mean the gossip about me having Nick’s baby?”

“Yes, but the part about the abortion was worse.”

Delaney blinked. “Abortion?”

“Don’t tell me you didn’t know.”

“No.” She looked down at her hands clutching the money bag. The old gossip hurt and she didn’t know why. It wasn’t as if she cared what people thought of her.

“Well, someone must have seen you somewhere and noticed you weren’t pregnant. People said you had an abortion because the baby was Nick’s. Others thought maybe Henry had you get rid of it.”

Her gaze shot to his and an odd little ache settled next to her heart. She hadn’t been pregnant so she didn’t know why she cared at all. “I hadn’t heard that part.”

“Didn’t your mother ever tell you? I always assumed that was probably why you never came back.”

“No one ever mentioned it.” But she wasn’t surprised. Delaney was silent for a moment before she asked, “Did anyone actually believe it?”

“Some.”

To imply she’d terminated a pregnancy because of Nick, or that Henry had forced an abortion was beyond insulting. Delaney believed in a woman’s right to choose, but she didn’t believe she could ever have an abortion herself. Certainly not because she no longer liked the father, and especially not because of anything Henry would have had to say about it. “What did Nick think?”

Louie’s dark eyes stared into hers before he answered, “He acted like he always does. Like he didn’t care, but he beat the hell out of Scooter Finley when Scooter was stupid enough to mention it in front of him.”

Nick would have known she wasn’t pregnant with his baby, and she was stunned that the rumor had bothered him at all, let alone bothered him enough to deck Scooter.

“And now you’re back and a whole new batch of rumors has begun. I don’t want my wedding to turn into another excuse for you and my brother to create more gossip.”

“I would never do that.”

“Good because I want Lisa to be the center of attention.”

“I think Nick and I are probably going to avoid each other for the rest of our lives.”

Louie dug in his coat pocket and pulled out a set of keys. “I hope so. Otherwise, you’ll just hurt each other 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.

Delaney stood in the sparse crowd in front of her salon. She shivered and snuggled deep into her green wool coat with the big glittery buttons. She was freezing, unlike Lisa who stood next to her in a B.U.M sweatshirt and a pair of cotton gloves. The newspaper predicted unseasonable warmth for the last day in October. The temperature was supposed to shoot up to a whopping forty degrees.

As a child, Delaney had loved the Halloween parade. She’d loved dressing up and marching through town to the high school gymnasium where the costume contest would begin. She’d never won, but loved it any way. It had given her a chance to play dress-up and cake on the cosmetics. She wondered if they still served cider and glazed doughnuts and if the new mayor handed out little bags of candy like Henry had done.

“Remember when we were in the sixth grade and shaved our eyebrows and dressed as psychotic killers and had blood squirting out of our necks?” Lisa asked from beside Delaney. “And your mother lost it big time?”

She remembered all right. Her mother had made her a stupid bride costume that year. Delaney had pretended to love the dress, only to turn up at the parade as a blood-soaked killer with no eyebrows. Thinking back, she didn’t know how she’d gathered the nerve to do something she’d known would anger her mother.

The next year Delaney had been forced to dress as a Smurf.

“Look at that kid and his dog,” Delaney said, pointing to a boy dressed as a box of McDonald’s french fries and his little dachshund decked out as a package of ketchup. It had been a long time since Delaney had driven through McDonald’s. “I’m craving a Quarter Pounder with cheese right now.” She sighed, visions of a greasy beef patty making her mouth water.

“Maybe one will walk down the street next.”

Delaney looked at her friend out of the corner of her eye. “I’ll fight you for it.”

“You’re no match for me, city girl. Look at you shivering to death in your big ol‘ coat.”

“I just need to acclimate,” Delaney grumbled, watching a woman and her baby dinosaur step from the sidewalk and join the parade. A door opened and closed somewhere behind her, and she turned, but no one had entered her salon.

“Where’s Louie?”

“He’s in the parade with Sophie.”

“As what?”

“You’ll see. It’s a surprise.”

Delaney smiled. She had a surprise of her own coming up. She’d had to get up real early this morning, but if everything went according to her plan, her business would take off.

A second truck slowly moved past with a big smoking cauldron and cackling witch on its flatbed. Despite the crazy black hair and green face, the crone looked slightly familiar.

“Who’s that witch?” Delaney asked.

“Hmm. Oh it’s Neva. You remember Neva Miller, don’t you?”

“Of course.” Neva had been wild and outrageous. She’d regaled Delaney with stories of stealing booze, smoking pot, and having sex with the football team. And Delaney had hung on every word. She leaned toward Lisa and whispered, “Remember when she told us about blowing Roger Bonner while he pulled his little brother water skiing? And you didn’t know what a blow job was so she told us in graphic detail?”

“Yeah, and you started to gag.” Lisa pointed to the man driving the truck. “That’s her husband, Pastor Jim.”

“Pastor? Holy hell!”

“Yep, she got saved or born again or whatever. Pastor Jim preaches over at that little church on Seventh Street.”

“It’s Pastor Tim,” corrected a painfully familiar voice directly behind Delaney.

Delaney did a mental groan. It was so typical of Nick to sneak up on her when she least expected him.

“How do you know it’s Tim?” Lisa wanted to know.

“We built his house a few years ago.” Nick’s voice was low, like he hadn’t used it much that morning.

“Oh, I thought maybe he prays for your soul.”

“No. My mother prays for my soul.”

Delaney cast a quick glance over her shoulder. “Maybe she should make a pilgrimage to Lourdes, or to that tortilla shrine in New Mexico.”

An easy smile curved Nick’s mouth. He’d pulled a thick hooded sweatshirt over his head; the white strings hung down his chest. His hair was pulled back from his face. “Maybe,” was all he said.

Delaney turned to the parade again. She raised her shoulders and buried her cold nose in the collar of her coat. There was only one thing worse than being baited by Nick, and that was wondering why he wasn’t baiting her at all. She’d seen very little of him since the day she’d knocked on the back door of his business. By tacit agreement, they were avoiding each other.

“Where did you come from?” Lisa asked him.

“I was making a few calls from the office. Has Sophie come by yet?”

“Not yet.”

Four boys dressed as bloody hockey players wheeled past on Roller Blades and were followed closely by Tommy Markham pulling his wife in a rickshaw. Helen was dressed as Lady Godiva, and on the back of the rickshaw hung a sign that read Helen’s Hair Hut. Quality cuts for ten dollars. Helen waved and threw kisses to the crowd, and on her head sat a rhinestone crown Delaney recognized all too well.

Delaney dropped her shoulders and uncovered the lower half of her face. “That’s pathetic! She’s still wearing her homecoming crown.”

“She wears it every year like she’s the queen of England or something.”

“Remember how she campaigned for homecoming queen, and I didn’t because campaigning was against the rules? Then after she won the school wouldn’t disqualify her? That crown should have been mine.”

“Are you still mad about that?”

Delaney folded her arms over her chest. “No.” But she was. She was annoyed with herself for giving Helen the power to irritate her after so many years. Delaney was cold, possibly neurotic, and very aware of the man standing behind her. Too aware. She didn’t have too see him to know how close he stood. She could feel him like a big human wall.

Except for the time Nick had ridden his bike in the parade like some crazed stunt rider and ended up with stitches in the top of his head, he’d always been a pirate—always. And every year she’d taken one look at his eye patch and fake sword, and her hands would get all clammy. A weird reaction considering that he usually told her she looked stupid.

She turned her head and glanced up at him again with his dark hair pulled back in a ponytail and small gold hoop in his ear. He still looked like a pirate, and she was getting a warm little tingle in her stomach.

“I didn’t see your car in back,” he said, his eyes staring into hers.

“Um, no. Steve has it.”

A frown creased his brow. “Steve?”

“Steve Ames. He works for you.”

“Real young guy with dyed blond hair?”

“He’s not that young.”

“Uh-huh.” Nick shifted his weight to one foot and tilted his head slightly to the side. “Sure he’s not.”

“Well, he’s nice.”

“He’s a nancy boy.”

Delaney turned and scowled at her friend. “Do you think Steve’s a nancy boy?”

Lisa looked from Nick to Delaney. “You know I love you, but geez, the guy plays air guitar.”

Delaney shoved her hands into her pockets and turned to watch Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, and a Hershey’s Kiss walk by. It was true. She’d gone out with him twice and the guy played air guitar to everything. Nirvana. Metal Head. Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Steve played it all, and it was
so
embarrassing. But he was the closest thing she had to a boyfriend, although she wouldn’t even call him that. He was the only available man who’d paid attention to her since she’d arrived in Truly.

Except Nick. But he wasn’t available. Not to her anyway. Delaney leaned forward to look down the street and saw her Miata turn the corner. Steve steered the sports car with one hand, his hair dyed and cut short in a spiky crewcut. Two teenage girls sat like beauty queens directly behind him while one more girl waved from the passenger seat. Their hair was cut and styled to make them look as if they’d just stepped out of a teen magazine. Smooth and free-flowing and trendy. Delaney had scoured the high school, purposely searching for girls who weren’t cheerleaders or pep club officers. She’d wanted average girls she could make over to look fantastic.

She’d found them last week. After receiving their mothers’ approval, she’d gone to work on each of them earlier that morning. All three looked wonderful and were living, breathing advertisements for her salon. And if the girls weren’t enough, Delaney had taped a sign on the sides of her car that read: The Cutting Edge fixes ten-dollar haircuts.

“That’s going to drive Helen nuts,” Lisa muttered.

“I hope so.”

A collection of grim reapers, werewolves, and corpses passed, then a fifty-seven Chevy turned the corner with Louie at the wheel. Delaney took one look at his dark hair greased into a jelly roll and burst out laughing. He wore a tight white T-shirt with a pack of cigarettes rolled up in the sleeve. In the seat next to him sat Sophie with her hair in a high pony tail, bright red lipstick, and cat’s-eye sunglasses. She smacked bubble gum and snuggled inside Nick’s big leather jacket.

“Uncle Nick,” she called out and threw him a kiss.

Delaney heard his deep chuckle just before Louie revved the big engine for the crowd. The antique car shook and rumbled, then for a grand finale, backfired.

Startled, Delaney jumped back and collided with the immovable wall of Nick’s chest. His big hands grabbed her upper arms, and when she looked up at him, her hair brushed his throat. “Sorry,” she muttered.

His grasp on her tightened, and through her coat she felt his long fingers curl into the wool sleeve. His gaze swept across her cheeks, then lowered to her mouth. “Don’t be,” he said, and she felt the brush of his thumbs on the backs of her arms.

His gaze lifted to hers once again, and there was something hot and intense in the way he looked at her. Like he wanted to give her one of those kisses that devoured her resistance. Like they were lovers and the most natural thing in the world would be for her to put one hand on the back of his head and lower his face to hers. But they weren’t lovers. They weren’t even friends. And in the end he stepped back and dropped his hands to his sides.

She turned around and sucked air deep into her lungs. She could feel his gaze on the back of her head, feel the air between them charged with tension. The pull was so strong she was sure everyone around them could feel it, too. But when she glanced at Lisa, her friend was waving like a mad woman to Louie. Lisa hadn’t noticed.

Nick said something to Lisa and Delaney felt rather than heard him leave. She let out the breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. She glanced over her shoulder one last time and watched him disappear into the building behind them.

“Isn’t he cute?”

Delaney looked at her friend and shook her head. By no stretch of the imagination was Nick Allegrezza
cute
. He was hot. One hundred percent, testosterone-pumping, drool-inspiring hot.

“I helped him do his hair this morning.”

“Nick?”

“Louie.”

The light dawned. “Oh.”

“Why would I do Nick’s hair?”

“Forget it. Are you going to party at the Grange tonight?”

“Probably.”

Delaney checked her watch. She only had a few minutes before her one o’clock appointment. She bid Lisa good-bye and spent the rest of the afternoon on a three-color weave and two walk-ins.

When she was finished for the day, she quickly swept up hair from the last girl, then grabbed her coat and climbed up the back stairs to her apartment. She had plans to meet Steve at the costume party being held out in the old Grange hall. Steve had found a police uniform somewhere, and since he planned to impersonate a law enforcement officer, it seemed a given that she should impersonate a hooker. She already had the skirt and fishnet stockings, and she’d found a fluffy pink boa with matching handcuffs in the gag gift aisle at Howdy’s Trading Post.