She and the dogs moved down Main, passing a deli and T-shirt shop. Both were recent additions to the downtown area, and judging by the foot traffic, seemed to do a fair amount of business. With the souls of. her Lycra sling-backs slapping her bare heels, she walked past a tiny bookstore with a poster stuck on the door advertising an up coming R &B festival. The poster surprised Delaney, and she wondered when the town had abandoned Conway Twitty for James Brown.

She stopped in front of a thin two-story building flanked on one side by an ice cream shop and on the other by the offices of Allegrezza Construction. Painted across the big plate glass window were the words: “Gloria’s: A Cut Above. Any cut and style $10.” Delaney didn’t think the sign spoke well for Gloria’s abilities.

Duke and Dolores sat at her feet, and she scratched them between the ears. Leaning forward, she peered into the huge plate glass window to see the red Naugahyde salon chairs. Each time she’d driven through town, she’d noticed the salon had been closed.

“Hey there, what’s up?”

Delaney recognized Lisa’s voice and turned to her friend. She wasn’t surprised to see Louie standing by Lisa’s side. His gaze was direct and a bit unnerving. Or maybe she found him unnerving because he was Nick’s brother. “I was just checking out this salon,” she answered.

“I gotta get going, alu gozo,” Louie said, then bent his head and kissed his fiancйe. The kiss lingered and Delaney lowered her gaze to a point between Duke’s ears. She hadn’t had a boyfriend in over a year, and that relationship hadn’t lasted more than four months. She couldn’t remember the last time a man had kissed her like he meant to eat her up and didn’t care who watched.

“See you around, Delaney.”

She glanced up. “See ya, Louie.” She watched him walk into the building next to the salon. Maybe she found him unnerving because, like his brother, he was extremely masculine. Nick was taller, more sculpted, like a statue. Louie was built like a bull. You’d never see an Allegrezza in a Versace neckcloth or a tiny Speedo. “What does alu gozo mean?” she asked, having a little difficulty pronouncing the foreign words.

“It’s an endearment, like sweetheart. Louie can be so romantic.”

Unexpected envy tugged at her. “What are you up to?”

Lisa lowered to one knee and scratched Duke and Dolores beneath the chin. “I took Louie to lunch, and I was just dropping him back off.”

“Where’d you go?”

Lisa smiled as the dogs licked her hands. “My house.”

Delaney felt a twinge of jealousy and realized she was lonelier than she’d thought. It was the Fourth of July and a Friday night. The weekend stretched before her-empty. She missed the friends she’d had in Phoenix. She missed her busy life.

“I’m glad I ran into you. What are you doing tonight?” Lisa asked.

Not a damn thing, she thought. “I don’t know yet.”

“Louie and I thought we’d have some friends over. I want you to come, too. His house is on Horseshoe Bay, not far from where they’ll shoot the fireworks out over the lake. The show is pretty awesome from his beach.”

Delaney Shaw at Louie Allegrezza’s? Nick’s brother? Mrs. Allegrezza’s son? She’d seen Benita the other day at the grocery store, and everything she remembered about the woman was still true. No one showed such cold contempt as Benita Allegrezza. No one could convey both superiority and disdain in the same look of her dark eyes. “Oh, I don’t think so, but thanks.”

“Chicken.” Lisa stood and wiped her hands on her jeans.

“I’m not a chicken.” Delaney shifted her weight to one foot and tilted her head to the side. “I just don’t want to go someplace where I know I’m not welcome.”

“You’re welcome. I talked to Louie, and he doesn’t have a problem with you coming.” Lisa took a deep breath, then said, “He said he likes you.”

Delaney laughed. “Liar.”

“Okay, he said he didn’t know you. But if he gets to know you, he’ll like you.”

“Will Nick be there?” One of her main goals for surviving the entire year was to avoid him as much as humanly possible. He was rude and crude and purposely reminded her of things best forgotten. She was stuck in the same city, but that didn’t mean she had to socialize with him.

“Nick will be out on the lake with some of his friends, so he won’t be there.”

“What about Mrs. Allegrezza?”

Lisa looked at her as if she were an idiot. “Of course not. Louie is going to invite some of the guys who work for him, and Sophie will be there with some of her friends. We’re going to get together for hot dogs and burgers about six. You should come. What else are you going to do?”

“Well, I was going to watch the parade.”

“That’s over by six, Delaney. You don’t want to sit home alone do you?”

Her obvious lack of a life embarrassed Delaney, and she glanced across the street toward Sterling Realty. She thought of the night ahead of her. After Wheel of Fortune, what was there to do? “Well, I guess I could drop by. If you’re sure Louie won’t mind my being there.”

Lisa waved aside Delaney’s concern and took a few steps backward to leave. “I told you, we talked it over, and he doesn’t care. Once he gets to know you, he’ll like you.”

Delaney watched her friend walk away. She wasn’t as optimistic as Lisa. Louie was Nick’s brother, and the tension and animosity between herself and Nick was a tangible thing. She hadn’t spoken to Nick since the reading of Henry’s will, but she’d seen him several times. She’d seen him bombing down Wagon Wheel Road on his Harley, then a few days later walking into Mort’s with a redhead pressed up against his side. The last time she’d laid eyes on him was at the intersection of Main and First. She’d been stopped at the traffic light, and he’d crossed the street in front of her. I don’t know, Frank. She’s pretty hot. What if I just can’t control myself?

Her grip had tightened on the steering wheel, and she’d felt her cheeks burn. His attention had been focused on the folder in his right hand, and she’d wondered what he would do if she accidentally bumped into him? If her foot accidentally slipped from the brake and hit the gas. If she accidentally mowed him down, then backed up just to make sure?

She’d revved the Miata’s engine like she was Cha-Cha Muldowney waiting for the flag to drop, then she’d eased the clutch just enough so the car lunged into the crosswalk. Nick’s head had jerked up, and he’d jumped out of the way. His brows lowered and his cool gray eyes bored into her. In another split second the bumper would have clipped his right leg.

She’d smiled at him. For that moment, life had been good.


Delaney vacillated for hours over whether she should show up at Lisa’s party. She hadn’t fully decided until she caught herself thinking about curling up with a stack of magazines and a box of wine. She was twenty-nine, and if she didn’t do something quick, she was afraid she’d become one of those women who wore hats instead of brushing their hair and traded in their red platforms for Easy Spirit walking shoes. Before she could change her mind, she pulled on a black turtleneck and a quilted leather vest the color of limes. Her jeans were black also, but her ankle boots matched her vest. She scrunched mousse in her soft curls and hung little gold hoops in the four piercings she had in each ear.

By the time Delaney arrived at the party, it was a little after eight. Three giggling thirteen-year-old girls answered the door and led her toward the rear of a spacious home constructed of river rock and cedar.

“They’re all back here,” one of the girls with dark eyes informed her. “Do you wanna put your purse in my dad’s room?”

She’d shoved her wallet and a tube of burgundy lipstick into a little patent leather bag that looked like a hatbox. The wallet she could live without, but she wouldn’t be able to replace her Estee Lauder lipstick for a year. “No thanks. Are you Sophie?”

The girl barely glanced over her shoulder at Delaney as they moved through the kitchen. “Yep. Who are you?”

Sophie had braces and pimples and wonderfully thick hair with horrible dried and split ends. Split ends drove Delaney nuts. They were like a crooked picture that drove a person mad until it was straightened. “I’m Lisa’s friend, Delaney.”

Sophie’s head whipped around and her eyes widened. “Oh my gosh! I heard Grandma talk about you.”

By the look on Sophie’s face, Benita hadn’t been dispensing compliments. “Great,” Delaney muttered as she stepped around the three girls. She walked through a set of double glass doors onto a deck. The white sandy beach below was shaded by two enormous Ponderosas, and several boats were tied to the dock riding the gentle waves of Lake Mary.

“Hey there,” Lisa greeted and excused herself from the semicircle of people around her. “I was worried you wouldn’t make it. Did you have to go to something fancy first?”

Delaney glanced down at her clothes, then lifted her gaze to the other guests who wore T-shirts and shorts. “No. I still get cold,” she answered. “Are you sure it’s okay that I’m here?”

“Sure. How was the parade?”

“It was almost exactly the same as it was the last time I saw it, except the group of World War veterans has dwindled to two old guys in the back of a school bus.” She smiled, more relaxed than she’d been in over a month. “And the biggest thrill is still the anticipation over which unsuspecting tuba player will step in the horse crap.”

“How was the junior high school band? Sophie told me they were pretty good this year.”

Delaney struggled for a compliment. “Well, the uniforms are better than when we were in school.”

“That’s what I thought.” Lisa laughed. “Are you hungry?”

“I’ve eaten already.”