elaney awoke to the soft brush of fingertips caressing her spine. She opened her eyes and stared at Nick’s broad hairy chest less than an inch from her nose. She lay on her stomach, and a patch of bright morning sun streamed across his tan skin.

“Good morning.”

She wasn’t sure, but she thought she felt him kiss the top of her head. “What time is it?”

“About eight-thirty.”

“Crap.” She rolled to her side and would have fallen to the floor if he hadn’t grabbed the top of her arm and thrown a bare leg over her hips. A thin floral sheet was the only thing separating them. She raised her gaze to the same pink canopy she’d awakened to most mornings as a girl. The twin-sized bed was small for one person, let alone one person and a guy Nick’s size. “I have a nine o’clock appointment.” She gathered her courage and looked at him, her worst fear confirmed. He was gorgeous in the morning. His shoulder-length hair fell to one side and a shadow of a beard darkened his jaw. From beneath his thick lashes, his eyes were too intense and alert for eight-thirty in the morning.

“Can you cancel it?”

She shook her head and glanced around for her clothes. “If I leave within the next ten minutes, I might make it on time.” She returned her gaze to his face and caught him staring at her, looking as if he were either memorizing her features or inspecting for flaws. She could feel her cheeks grow warm, and she sat up, holding the sheet to her chest. “I know I look like shit,” she said, but he didn’t look at her as if she were half dead. Maybe for once in her life she’d lucked out and didn’t have dark circles. “Don’t I?”

“Do you want the truth?”

“Yes.”

“Okay.” He reached for her hand and kissed her palm. “You look better than you did when you were a Smurf.”

A wrinkle appeared in the corners of his eyes, and Delaney felt a rush of warm tingles tickle her fingertips and spread across her breasts. This was the Nick she loved. The Nick who teased as he kissed. The man who could make her laugh even as he made her want to cry. “I should have asked you to lie,” she said and pulled her hand away before she forgot her nine o’clock appointment. She spotted her clothes thrown on the floor beside her. With her back to him, she reached for them and got dressed as quickly as possible.

Behind her the bedsprings dipped as Nick rose to his feet. He moved about the room, retrieving his clothes from the floor, completely unconcerned by his nudity. With a sock in one hand, she watched him shove his legs into his Levi’s and button the fly. Beneath the harsh morning light, Nick Allegrezza was one hundred percent prime American beefcake. Life wasn’t fair.

“Give me your keys, and I’ll warm your car for you.”

Delaney shoved her foot in her sock. No man had ever offered to warm up her car for her, and she was touched by the simple gesture. “In my coat pocket.” After he left the bedroom, Delaney washed her face and brushed her teeth and hair. By the time she locked the house behind her, the windows of Henry’s Cadillac were clear. No man had ever scraped her windows, either. Her new snow tires shined a polished black against the backdrop of silver and white. She felt like crying. No one had ever cared about her safety and well-being, except maybe her old boyfriend Eddy Castillo. He’d been an exercise freak, concerned about her diet. He’d given her a Salad Shooter for her birthday, but a kitchen appliance didn’t compare to snow tires.

She didn’t ask when she’d see Nick again. He didn’t offer. They’d spent the night as lovers, yet neither of them mentioned love or even dinner plans.

Delaney arrived at her salon moments before her first client, Gina Fisher, who’d graduated a year behind Delaney in school and had three children under the age of five. Gina had worn her thick hair to her waist since the seventh grade. Delaney cut it to her shoulders and gave her long layers. She brushed in red highlights and made the young mother look youthful again. After Gina, she cut the hair of a girl who wanted to look like Claire Danes. She had a walk-in at eleven, then closed the salon at noon so she could finally take a shower. She told herself she wasn’t waiting for Nick’s call or the sound of his Jeep, but of course she was.

When she hadn’t heard from him by six that evening, she jumped in the Cadillac to do a little Christmas shopping. She hadn’t bought a gift yet for her mother and ended up at one of those high-priced tourist traps that catered to the Eddie Bauer crowd. She didn’t find anything for her mother, but she did blow seventy bucks on a size fifteen and a half flannel, the same exact gray of Nick’s eyes. She had it gift-wrapped in red foil paper, and took it home and sat it on her dining room table. There were no messages on her machine. She pressed call return just to make sure, but he hadn’t called.

She didn’t hear from him the next day, and by Christmas morning, she was feeling more alone than she ever had in her life. She got up the nerve and dialed Nick to wish him Merry Christmas, but he didn’t answer. She thought about driving by his house to see if he was home and avoiding her. In the end, she drove to her mother’s to visit Duke and Dolores. At least the two Weimaraners were happy to see her.

By noon, she’d fallen into a zombie state watching A Christmas Story, relating to Ralphie as never before. She knew what it was like to want something she wasn’t likely to get. And she knew what it was like to have a mother who made a kid wear a horrid bunny costume, too. Just as Ralphie was about to shoot his eyes out with his Red Ryder B-B gun, the doorbell rang. The Weimaraners lifted their heads, then laid them back down, proving they weren’t much good as watchdogs.

Nick stood on the porch in his leather jacket and Oakley’s. His breath hung in front of his face as a slow sensuous smile curved his lips upward. He looked good enough to roll in sugar and eat whole. Delaney didn’t know whether to let him in or slam the door in his face for leaving her hanging the past two days. The shiny gold box in his hand decided his fate. She let him in.

He shoved his sunglasses in his pocket and pulled out a piece of mistletoe and held it over her head. “Merry Christmas,” he said. His warm mouth covered hers, and she felt the kiss to the soles of her feet. When he pulled back to look at her, she placed her palms on his cheeks and brought him down for more. She didn’t even bother to hide her feelings. She wasn’t so sure she could have anyway. She ran her hands over his shoulders and across his chest, and when she was through, she confessed, “I’ve missed you.”

“I was in Boise until late last night.” He shifted his weight to one foot and shoved the box at her. “This is for you. It took me a while to find it.”

She stared at the gold box and ran a hand over the smooth paper. “Maybe I should wait. I have a gift for you at my apartment.”

“No,” he insisted like a death row inmate who just wanted to hurry and get his sentence over with as quickly as possible. “Go ahead and open it now.”

Beneath her hands, the smooth paper ripped apart with one excited pull. Nestled in a bed of tissue paper inside sat a rhinestone crown like those given out in beauty pageants.

“I thought since Helen stole that homecoming crown from you in high school, I’d get you a better one.”

It was big and gaudy and absolutely the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen. She bit her lower lip to keep it from trembling as she pulled the crown from its bed of tissue and shoved the box at Nick. “I love it.” The rhinestones caught the light and shot sparks through the foyer. She placed it on her head and looked at herself in the mirror next to the coat rack. The shiny stones were fashioned into a row of hearts and ribbons with one central heart bigger than the rest. She blinked back her tears as she raised her gaze to his in the mirror. “This is the best Christmas present anyone has ever given me.”

“I’m glad you like it.” He placed his big palms on her stomach, then slid them beneath her sweater to her breasts. Through her lacy bra, he cupped her, his fingers pressing into her flesh as he pulled her back against his chest. “On the long drive from Boise last night, I thought about you wearing that thing and nothing else.”

“Have you ever made love to a queen?”

He shook his head and grinned. “You’re my first.”

She grabbed his wrist and led him to the sunroom where she’d been watching television. He undressed her with slow languid hands and made her feel beautiful and desired and loved right there on her mother’s lemon yellow sofa. She ran her fingertips down his warm back and bare behind and kissed his smooth shoulder. She wanted to feel as she did at that moment forever. Her skin tingled and her body flushed. Her heart swelled when he kissed her sensitive breasts, and when he buried his hot erection deep inside her body, she was more than ready. He placed his hands on the sides of her face and stared in her eyes as he slowly drove into her again and again.

She stared up into his face, into his gray eyes, alive with the passion he felt for her, his lips moist from their kiss, his breathing labored. “I love you, Nick,” she whispered. He stilled for a moment, then plunged deeper, harder, again and again, and she whispered her love with each stroke until she fell head first into the sweetest ecstasy of her life. She heard his deep primal groan and the mixture of prayer words and curses. Then his full weight collapsed on her.

A twinge of unease settled in her chest as she listened to his breathing slow. She’d told him she loved him. And while he’d made her feel loved, he hadn’t uttered the words. She needed to know how he felt about her now, yet at the same time, she feared the answer. “Nick?”

“Hmm?”

“We need to talk.”

He lifted his head and looked into her eyes. “Give me a minute.” He withdrew from her and walked naked from the room to rid himself of the condom he hadn’t forgotten since that first frenzied time in the closet at the Lakeshore. Delaney searched for her panties and found them under a rattan cocktail table. She stepped into them, and with each passing moment her unease grew. What if he didn’t love her? How could she stand it, and what was she going to do if he didn’t? He returned just as she’d discovered her bra behind a couch cushion. He took the bra from her hand and tossed it aside. He wrapped her in his embrace and held her against his chest, holding her tighter than ever before. Within his warm arms, with the scent of his skin filling her head, she told herself that he loved her. Even though she wasn’t good at being patient, she could wait for him to say the words she needed to hear. Instead she heard the squeak of wood and hinges, like the front door swinging open, and she stilled. “Did you hear something?” she whispered.

He put a finger to his lips and listened. The door slammed shut, galvanizing her into action.

“Holy hell!” She jumped from Nick’s arms and reached for the closest article of clothing, his flannel shirt. Footsteps tapped up the hall as she shoved her arms in the holes. Nick’s jeans lay somewhere behind the couch, and he stepped behind Delaney just as Gwen walked into the room. An eerie feeling of déjà vu climbed up Delaney’s spine. Her mother stood within a shaft of light, the sun shinning in her hair like she was a Christmas angel.

Gwen looked from Delaney to Nick then back again, shock rounding her blue eyes. “What is going on here?”

Delaney closed the front of the shirt with her hand. “Mom... I...” Her fingers worked the buttons as an unreal feeling fogged her head. “What are you doing home?”

“I live here!”

Nick placed a hand on her abdomen and pulled her back against him, hiding his goods from Delaney’s mother. “I know, but you’re supposed to be on the love boat.”

Gwen pointed a finger at Nick. “What is he doing in my house?”

Carefully she finished with the buttons. “Well, he was kind enough to spend Christmas with me.”

“He’s naked!”

“Well, yes.” She spread the hem of his shirt wider in an effort to cover him better. “He... ah...” She closed her mouth and shrugged. There was no help for it, she’d been caught. Only this time she wasn’t a naive eighteen-year-old girl. She was a few months shy of thirty and she loved Nick Allegrezza. She was a mature independent woman, but she would have preferred that her mother had not found them naked in her sunroom, “Nick and I are dating.”

“I’d say you’re more than dating. How could you do this, Delaney? How could you take up with a man like him? He’s a womanizer and he hates this family.” She turned her attention to Nick. “You put your hands on my daughter again, but this time you’ve fixed yourself good. You violated the terms of Henry’s will. I’ll see to it you lose everything.”

“I never gave a damn about the will.” His fingers brushed over the flannel covering Delaney’s stomach.

Delaney knew her mother well enough to know she’d make good on her threat. She also knew how to stop her. “If you tell anyone about this, then I’ll never speak to you again. Once I leave in June, you’ll never see me. If you thought you never saw me after I left ten years ago, you just wait. When I leave this time, I won’t even tell you where I am. When I leave, I’ll have three million dollars and I’ll never come back to visit you.”

Gwen’s lips pursed and she folded her arms over her breasts. “We’ll talk about this later.”

Nick’s hand fell away. “If you don’t want to see my bare ass, then you better leave the room while I get dressed.”

The tone of his voice was razor-sharp. She’d heard it once before. The last time the three of them had been in Henry’s office. The day the will had been read. Delaney couldn’t blame him for being edgy. The situation was unbearably awkward, and her mother brought out the worst in some people under the best of circumstances.

As soon as Gwen turned on her heel, Delaney spun around. “I’m sorry, Nick. I’m sorry she said those thing to you, and I promise I won’t let her do anything to jeopardize what Henry left you.”

“Forget about it.” He found his pants and shoved his legs inside. They dressed in silence, and when she walked him to the front door, he left quickly and neglected to kiss her good-bye. She told herself it didn’t matter and went in search of her mother. Gwen wasn’t going to like what she had to say, but Delaney had quit living her life for her mother a long time ago. She found her in the kitchen, waiting.

“Why are you home, Mom?”

“I’ve discovered that Max is not the man for me. He’s too critical,” she said through clenched jaws. “Never mind about that now. What was that man doing in my house?”

“I told you, he was spending Christmas with me.”

“I thought that was his Jeep parked in front of the garage, but I was sure I had to be mistaken. Not in a million years did I expect to find him... you... in my home. Nick Allegrezza of all men. He’s—”

“I’m in love with him,” Delaney interrupted.

Gwen grabbed the back of a kitchen chair. “That is not funny. You’re just saying it get back at me. You’re angry with me because I left you alone for Christmas.”

Sometimes her mother’s logic boggled the mind, but it was always predictable. “My feelings for Nick have nothing to do with you. I want to be with him, and I’m going to be with him.”

“I see.” Her mother’s face hardened. “Are you saying you don’t care how I feel about it?”

“Of course I care. I don’t want you to hate the man I love. I know you can’t be really happy for me right now, but maybe you could just accept that I am involved with Nick, and I’m happy with him.”

“That’s impossible. You can’t be happy with a man like Nick. Don’t do this to yourself or your family.”

Delaney shook her head and her crown slid to one side. She pulled it from her head and brushed her fingers across the cool rhinestones. It was no use. Her mother would never change. “Henry’s dead. I am your only family now.” She looked up at Gwen. “I want Nick. Don’t make me choose.”

* * *

Nick stood by the stone fireplace and stared at the blinking lights Sophie had helped him hang on his tree. He raised a bottle of beer to his lips and the lights blurred as he tipped his head back.

He’d known better. For the past few days he’d lived his fantasy. He’d held her while she’d slept in that tiny pink bed and let himself imagine a house, and a dog, and a couple of kids. He’d let himself imagine her in his life, for the rest of his life, and he’d wanted it more than breathing.

Once I leave in June, you’ll never see me. If you thought you never saw me after I left ten years ago, you just wait. When I leave this time, I won’t tell you where I am. When I leave, I’ll have three million dollars and I’ll never come back to visit you.

He was a fool. He’d known she would leave, but he’d let himself start to think that he was enough to make her stay. She’d said she loved him. So had a lot of women at that particular moment, when he’d been buried inside giving them both pleasure. It didn’t always mean anything, and he wasn’t the kind of guy to wait around and watch for signs from the buckbrush to see if it did.

The doorbell rang and he expected to see Delaney. He found Gail instead.

“Merry Christmas,” she said and held a brightly colored box toward him. He let her in because he needed a distraction.

“I didn’t get you anything.” He hung her coat by the door, then led her into the kitchen.

“That’s okay. It’s just cookies, nothing big. Josh and I had some extra.” Nick set the box on the counter and looked her over. She wore a tight red dress and red stiletto heels. He’d bet she had on her red garter and nothing else. She’d come over to deliver more than gingersnaps, but he wasn’t even mildly interested.

“Where is your son?”

“His daddy has him tonight. All night. I thought you and I could spend some quality time together in your hot tub.”

The doorbell rang for a second time in five minutes, and this time it was Delaney. She stood on his porch, a foil red present in her hands and a smile on her lips. Her smile died when Gail walked up behind him and hung her wrist over his shoulder. He could have removed it. He didn’t.

“Come on in,” he said. “Gail and I were just about to jump in the hot tub.”

“I—” Her stunned gaze moved between them. “I didn’t bring my swimsuit.”

“Neither did Gail.” He knew what she thought and he let her think it. “You won’t need one, either.”

“What’s going on, Nick?”

He wrapped an arm around Gail’s waist and pulled her up against his side. He took a drink from the bottle and looked at the woman he loved so much it was like a writhing ache in his chest. “You’re a big girl. Figure it out.”

“Why are you behaving this way? Are you angry about what happened earlier? I told you I’ll make sure my mother doesn’t say anything.”

“I don’t give a rat’s ass about any of that.” Even if he’d wanted to stop himself from hurting her, he couldn’t. He felt like a powerless kid again, watching her and wanting her so much it drove him crazy. “Why don’t you join us in the hot tub?”

She shook her head. “Three’s a crowd, Nick.”

“No, three’s one hell of a good time.” He knew he’d never forget the pain in her eyes, and he turned his gaze to Gail. “What do you say? Are you up for a threesome?”

“A—”

He looked back at Delaney and raised a brow. “Well?”

She lifted her free hand and grabbed her wool coat above her heart. She took a step backward and her mouth moved but no words came out. He watched her turn, the shiny red package forgotten in her hand, and run down the sidewalk to her car. Better to let her go before he begged her to stay. Better to end it now. Nick Allegrezza didn’t beg anyone to love him. He never had and he never would.

He made himself stand there, and he made himself watch her drive out of his life. He made himself feel his insides rip apart, then he handed Gail her coat. “I’m not good company,” he said, and for once she had the sense not to try and change his mind.

Alone, he walked into the kitchen and popped the cap off another beer. By midnight he’d graduated to Jim Beam. Nick wasn’t necessarily a mean drunk, but he was in a mean mood. He drank to forget, but the more he drank the more he remembered. He remembered the scent of her skin, the soft texture of her hair and the taste of her mouth. He fell asleep on the sofa with the sound of her laughter in his ears and his name on her lips. When he woke at eight, his head pounded, and knew he needed a little something for breakfast. He grabbed a bottle of Bufferin and added a little orange juice to his vodka. He was on his third drink and seventh aspirin when his brother walked into his house.

Nick lay sprawled on the leather couch, channel surfing with the remote to the big screen television in one hand. He didn’t bother to look up.

“You look like shit.”

Nick switched the channel and drained his glass. “Feel like shit, too, so why don’t you leave.”

Louie crossed to the television and shut it off. “We expected to see you last night for Christmas dinner.”

Nick set his empty glass and the remote on an end table. He finally looked at Louie standing there across the room, surrounded by a hazy glow, kind of like the picture of Jesus his mother had hanging on the wall in her dining room. “Didn’t make it.”

“Obviously. What’s going on?”

“None of your business.” His head pounded and he wanted to be left alone. Maybe if he stayed drunk for a couple of months, the alcohol would kill that persistent voice in his head that had started nagging him sometime around midnight, calling him an idiot and telling him he’d made the biggest mistake of his life.

“Lisa talked to Delaney this morning. I guess she’s pretty upset about something. Would you happen to know anything about that?”

“Yep.”

“Well—what did you do?”

Nick stood and the room spun twice before stopping. “Mind your own business.” He moved to walk past Louie, but his brother reached out and grabbed a fistful of his shirt. He looked down at Louie’s fingers tangled in his flannel, and he couldn’t believe it. The two of them hadn’t physically fought since they’d knocked their mother’s back door off the hinges fifteen years ago.

“What in the hell is wrong with you?” Louie began. “For most of your life you’ve wanted one thing. One. Delaney Shaw. As soon as it looks like you’re finally going to get what you want, you do something to screw it up. You hurt her on purpose so she’ll hate you. Just like always. And guess what? She does.”

“Why do you care?” Nick raised his gaze to his brother’s deep brown eyes. “You don’t even like her.”

“I like her okay, but how I feel doesn’t really matter. You’re in love with her.”

“Doesn’t matter. She’s leaving in June.”

“Did she say that?”

“Yep.”

“Did you ask her to stay? Did you try to work anything out with her?”

“It wouldn’t have made any difference.”

“You don’t know that, and instead of finding out, you’re going to let the one woman you’ve loved your whole life walk out. What’s that matter with you? Are you chicken shit?”

“Fuck you, Louie.” He barely saw Louie’s fist before he buried it in his face. Light exploded behind Nick’s eyes and he went down hard, cracking the back of his head on the wood floor. His vision darkened and he thought he might pass out. Unfortunately the exposed ceiling beams came into focus, and with his cleared vision, his skull felt like it had been split in two. His cheekbone began to throb, and his brain pounded. He groaned and gingerly touched his eye. “You’re a little prick, Louie, and when I get up, I’m gonna kick your ass.”

His brother moved to stand over him. “You couldn’t kick old man Baxter’s ass, and he’s been pushing around one of those oxygen cylinders for ten years.”

“You cracked my head open.”

“No, your head’s too hard. Probably cracked your floor though.” Louie pulled a set of keys from his pants pocket. “I don’t know why you made Delaney hate you, but you’re going to sober up and realize you made a big mistake. I hope it’s not too late.” He frowned and pointed a finger at his brother. “Take a shower, Nick. You stink like a distillery.”

After Louie left, Nick picked himself off the floor and stumbled upstairs to bed. He slept until the next morning and woke up feeling like he’d been run over by a monster truck. He took a shower, but didn’t feel much better. The back of his head hurt and he had a black eye. That wasn’t the worst of it. Knowing that Louie was right was worse. He’d pushed Delaney out of his life. He’d thought he could push her out of his head, too. He’d thought he’d feel better. He’d never felt so low.

Are you chicken shit? Instead of fighting for Delaney, he’d fallen back on old habits. Instead of taking a chance, he’d hurt her before she could hurt him. Instead of taking a risk, he’d taken a swing. Instead of grabbing her with both hands, he’d pushed her away.

She’d said she loved him, and he wondered if he’d ruined everything. He might not deserve her love, but he wanted it. And if she no longer loved him? that nagging little voice asked. He’d made her love him once. He could do it again.

He dressed and headed out the door to take the biggest risk of his life. He drove to Delaney’s apartment, but she wasn’t home. It was Saturday, and her salon was closed, too. Not a good sign.

He drove to her mother’s, but Gwen wouldn’t talk to him. He looked in the garage to see if Delaney was hiding out and refusing to see him. Henry’s Cadillac sat inside. The little yellow Miata was gone.

He searched for her all over town, and the longer he looked, the more desperate he became to find her. He wanted to make her happy. He wanted to build her a house on the Angel Beach property or anywhere she wanted. If she wanted to live in Phoenix or Seattle or Chattanooga, Tennessee, he didn’t care, as long as he lived there with her. He wanted the dream. He wanted everything. Now all he had to do was find her.

He talked to Lisa, but she hadn’t heard from Delaney. When she didn’t show up to open her salon that Monday morning, Nick paid a visit to Max Harrison.

“Have you heard from Delaney?” he asked, walking into the lawyer’s office.

Max looked him over and took his time before answering. “She called me yesterday.”

“Where is she?”

Again he took his time. “I guess you’ll find out soon enough. She’s left town.”

The words hit him in the chest like a two-by-four. “Shit.” Nick sank into a chair and rubbed a hand over his jaw. “Where’d she go?”

“She didn’t say.”

“What do you mean, she didn’t say?” He dropped his hand to his thigh. “You said she called.”

“She did. She called to tell me she’d left town, and she was breaking the will. She didn’t say why or where she was going. I asked, but she wouldn’t tell me. I think she thought I’d tell her mother before she was ready for Gwen to know.” Max tilted his head to one side. “This means you get Delaney’s provision. Congratulations, come June, you’ll get everything.”

Nick shook his head and laughed without humor. Without Delaney there was nothing. He had nothing. He looked at Henry’s estate lawyer and said, “Delaney and I had a sexual relationship before she left town. Tell Frank Stuart and the two of you do whatever you have to do to make sure she gets that property at Silver Creek and Angel Beach.”

Max looked disgusted and tired of the whole mess. Nick knew the feeling.

Two weeks after his visit to Max, he still hadn’t heard a word. He’d haunted Gwen and Max Harrison, and he’d called the old salon Delaney had worked for in Scottsdale. They hadn’t heard from her since she’d quit the previous June. Nick was going crazy. He didn’t know where to look next. He never suspected that he should have looked within his own family.

“I hear Delaney Shaw is working down in Boise,” Louie mentioned as he casually took a swallow of his soup.

Everything within Nick stilled and he looked up at his brother. He and Louie and Sophie sat at his mother’s dining room table eating lunch. “Where did you hear that?”

“Lisa. She told me Delaney’s working in her cousin Ali’s salon.”

Slowly Nick lowered his spoon. “How long have you known?”

“A few days.”

“And you didn’t tell me?”

Louie shrugged. “Didn’t think you’d want to know.”

Nick stood. He couldn’t decide if he should hug his brother or punch him in the head. “You knew I’d want to know.”

“Maybe I thought you needed to get yourself together before you see her again.”

“Why would Nick want to see that girl?” Benita asked. “The best thing she ever did was to leave town. The right thing is finally being done.”

“The right thing would have been for Henry to accept his responsibility a long time ago. But he had no interest in me until it was too late.”

“If it weren’t for that girl and her mother, he would have tried to provide for you years ago.”

“And monkeys might have flown out his butt,” Sophie said as she reached for the salt and pepper, “but I doubt it.”

Louie raised a stunned brow while Nick laughed.

“Sophia,” Benita gasped. “Where did you hear such foul language?”

There were any number of places, starting with her father and uncle and ending with the television. Her answer surprised Nick. “Delaney.”

“See!” Benita rose and moved toward Nick. “That girl is no good. Stay away from her.”

“That’s going to be a little difficult since I’m going to drive to Boise and find her. I love her, and I’m going to beg her to marry me.”

Benita stopped and raised a hand to her throat as if Nick were choking her.

“You’ve always said you wanted me to be happy. Delaney makes me happy, and I’m not going to live without her anymore. I’m going to do whatever it takes to get her back in my life.” He paused and looked into this mother’s stunned face. “If you can’t be happy for me, then stay away until you can at least fake it.”

Delaney hated to admit it, and certainly would never cop to it out loud, but she missed finger waves. Actually, she missed Wannetta. But it went deeper than missing one nosy old woman. She missed living in Truly. She missed living in a place where people knew her, and where she knew most everyone.

She removed the clips from the bib of her lederhosen and set them on her work station. On both sides of her, stylists cut and combed in the upscale salon in downtown Boise. Ali’s Salon was located in a renovated warehouse, and everything about it was trendy and new. The kind of salon she’d always loved working in before, but it was different now. It wasn’t hers.

She reached for a broom and swept up the hair of her last client. For the past ten years she’d lived in places where she had no past, no history, no girlfriends who’d lived through the agony of junior high with her. She’d lived in four different states, always looking for that elusive something, for the perfect place to grow some roots. Her life had come full circle, and it was ironic as hell that she’d found the perfect place exactly where she’d left it. She felt like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, only she could never go home. Not now.

Boise was a nice city and had a lot to offer. But it didn’t have a cross-dressing Santa or parades every holiday. It didn’t have the same pulse and heartbeat as a small town.

It didn’t have Nick.

She finished sweeping the hair into a pile, then reached for a dustpan. Not having Nick in the same town should have made her feel better. It didn’t. She loved him, and she knew she always would. She wished she could move on and forget about Nick Allegrezza, but she couldn’t even force herself to leave the state. She loved him, but she couldn’t live near him. Not even for three million dollars. The decision to leave hadn’t been all that difficult. There was no way she could live through the next five months seeing Nick with other women. Not for all the money in the world.

The bell above the door rang as Delaney emptied the hair into a trash basket. She heard a collective intake of female breath from the other work stations and the thud of boots.

“Can I help you?”

“Thanks,” said an achingly familiar voice. “I found what I’m looking for.”

She turned and looked at Nick an arm’s length away. “What do you want?”

“I want to talk to you.”

He’d cut his hair short. One dark lock curled and touched his brow. He took her breath away. “I’m busy.”

“Give me five minutes.”

“Do I have a choice?” she asked, fully expecting him to say no, so she could then tell him to go to hell.

He shifted his weight to one foot and shoved his hands in the front pockets of his jeans. “Yes.”

His answer threw her and she turned to Ali, who worked at the next station. “I’ll be back in five minutes,” she said and walked toward the door. With Nick right behind her, she walked into the hall and stopped beside a pay telephone. “You’ve got five minutes.” She leaned back against the wall and folded her arms over her breasts.

“Why did you leave town in such a hurry?”

She looked down at her new suede platforms. She’d bought them to make herself feel better, but they hadn’t helped. “I needed to get away.”

“Why? You wanted all that money pretty bad.”

“Evidently I needed to get away more than I wanted the money.”

“I told Max about you and me. Angel Beach and Silver Creek belong to you now.”

She hugged herself tighter, fighting to hold it all together. She couldn’t believe they were talking about some stupid property she didn’t care about. “Why did you tell him?”

“It didn’t seem right that I inherit everything.”

“Is that what you came to tell me?”

“No. I came to tell you that I know I hurt you and I’m sorry.”

She closed her eyes. “I don’t care,” she said because she didn’t want to care. “I told you I loved you, then you called Gail to come over to your house to have sex.”

“I didn’t call her. She just showed up, and we didn’t have sex.”

“I saw what was going on.”

“Nothing happened. Nothing was ever going to happen. You saw what I wanted you to see, to think what I wanted you to think.”

She lifted her gaze to his. “Why?”

He took a deep breath. “Because I love you.”

“That isn’t funny.”

“I know. I’ve never loved any woman but you.”

She didn’t believe him. She couldn’t believe him and risk her heart again. It hurt too much when he broke it. “No, you love to confuse me and drive me crazy. You don’t really love me. You don’t know what love is.”

“Yeah, I think I do.” His brows lowered, and he took a step toward her. “I have loved you my whole life, Delaney. I can’t remember a day when I didn’t love you. I loved you the day I practically knocked you out with a snowball. I loved you when I flattened the tires on your bike so I could walk you home. I loved you when I saw you hiding behind the sunglasses at the Value Rite, and I loved you when you loved that loser son of a bitch Tommy Markham. I never forgot the smell of your hair or the texture of your skin the night I laid you on the hood of my car at Angel Beach. So don’t tell me I don’t love you. Don’t tell me—” His voice shook and he pointed a finger at her. “Just don’t tell me that.”

Her vision blurred and her fingers dug into her arms. She didn’t want to believe him, but at the same time, she wanted to believe him more than she wanted to live. She wanted to throw herself into his arms as much as she wanted to punch him. “This is just so typical of you. Just when I’m convinced you’re a big jerk, you trick me into thinking you’re not.” A tear spilled over her bottom lash and she brushed it away. “But you really are a jerk, Nick. You broke my heart, and now think you can come here and tell me you love me and I’m supposed t-to forget everything?” she finished just before she lost control and burst into tears.

Nick wrapped his arms around her and held her against his chest. She didn’t know it, but he didn’t plan to let her go. Not now. Not ever. “I know. I know I’ve been a jerk, and I don’t have a good excuse. But touching you and loving you, and knowing you were planning to leave me, made me crazy. After we made love the second time, I began to think maybe you’d decide to stay with me. I started to think about you and me waking up every day together for the rest of our lives. I even thought about kids and taking some of those breathing classes when you got pregnant. Maybe buying one of those mini-vans. But then Gwen came home, and you said you were leaving, and I figured I’d been fantasizing again. I was afraid you really would leave, so I made you leave me sooner. I just didn’t think you’d leave town.” From within the folds of his leather jacket she sniffed but didn’t speak. She hadn’t told him she loved him and he was dying inside. “Please say something.”

“A mini-van? Do I strike you as the mini-van type?”

It wasn’t exactly what he’d hoped for, but it wasn’t a bad sign, either. She hadn’t told him to go to hell yet. “I’ll buy you whatever you want if you tell me you love me.”

She looked up at him. Her eyes were wet and her makeup was running. “You don’t have to bribe me. I love you so much I can’t think of anything else.”

Relief flooded him and he closed his eyes. “Thank God, I was afraid you’d hate me forever.”

“No, that’s always been my problem. I never could hate you as long as I probably should have,” she said on a sigh and ran her fingers through the side of his short hair. “Why did you cut your hair?”

“You told me once I should cut it.” He brushed her tears away with his thumbs. “I thought it might help win you over.”

“It’s nice.”

“You’re nice.” He kissed her gently, tasting her lips. His tongue entered her mouth and touched hers with a soft caress meant to drug her while he reached for her left hand and slid a three-carat diamond solitaire on her ring finger.

She pulled back and looked down at her hand. “You could have asked.”

“And take the chance you’d say no? Not hardly.”

Delaney shook her head and returned her gaze to him. “I won’t say no.”

He took a deep breath. “Marry me?”

“Yes.” She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed the side of his throat. “Now take me home.”

“I don’t know where you live.”

“No. I mean Truly. Take me home.”

“Are you sure?” he asked, knowing he didn’t deserve her or the happiness gripping his chest but taking it anyway. “We could live anywhere you want. I could move the business back to Boise if you’d like.”

“I want to go home. With you.”

He pulled back far enough to look into her eyes. “What could I possibly ever give you compared to what you’ve given me?”

“Just love me.”

“That’s too easy.”

She shook her head. “No it’s not. You’ve seen what I look like in the morning.” She flattened her left hand on his chest and studied her finger. “What can I give you? I get a handsome guy who does look good in the morning, and I get a great ring. What do you get?”

“The only thing I’ve ever wanted.” He held her tight and smiled. “I get you, wild thing.”