Delaney wasn’t all that surprised as she combed out tangles and cut the new section. “Which story did you hear?”

“The one where you had to leave town years ago to have Nick’s baby.”

Delaney felt as if she’d been hit in the stomach and her hands stilled again. She shouldn’t have asked. There had been several rumors churning the gossip mill of Truly when she’d left, but she’d never heard that one. Her mother had never mentioned it, but then she wouldn’t. Gwen didn’t like to talk about the real reason Delaney had left Truly. Her mother always referred to that time as “when you went away to school.” Delaney didn’t know why such old news should bother her now, but it did. “Really? That’s news to me,” she said, ducking her head and sliding strands of Lanna’s hair between her fingers. She laid the open scissor across her knuckle and cut a straight line. She couldn’t believe the town had thought she was pregnant. Well, actually, she guessed she could. She wondered if Lisa knew of the rumor-or Nick.

“I’m sorry.” Lanna broke into her thoughts. “I thought you knew about it. I guess I’ve stuck my foot in my mouth.”

Delaney glanced up. Lanna looked sincere, but Delaney didn’t know the woman so she wasn’t real sure. “It’s just a little shocking to hear I’ve had a baby when I’ve never been pregnant.” She let down another section and combed it free of tangles. “Especially with Nick. We don’t even like each other.”

“That will relieve Gail’s mind. Lonna’s too. The two of them are kind of competing for the same man.”

“I thought they were friends.”

“They are. If you go out with Nick, he lets you know right up front it’s not marriage he’s interested in. Lonna doesn’t really mind, but Gail’s trying to get in the house.”

“Get in the house? What do you mean?”

“Lonna says Nick never takes women to his house for sex. They go to motels or wherever. Gail thinks if she can get him to make love to her in his house, than she’ll get him to do other things too. Like buy her a big diamond and walk down the aisle.”

“Nick must have a huge motel bill.”

“Probably.” Lanna laughed.

“Doesn’t that bother you?”

“Me? Maybe if I were the one going out with him, but I’m not. Me and my sister never date the same men.”

Delaney felt relieved, and she really didn’t know why she should care if Nick had kinky group sex with a pair of beautiful twins. “Well, doesn’t it bother your sister?”

“Not really. She’s not looking for a husband. Not like Gail. Gail thinks she’ll change his mind, but she won’t. When Lonna saw you and Nick dancing the other night, she wondered if you were another of his women.”

Delaney turned the chair and let down the last section. “Did you really come here to get your hair cut, or are you here to get information for your sister?”

“Both,” Lanna laughed. “But I liked your hair the first time I saw it.”

“Thank you. Have you ever thought of getting yours cut short?” she asked, again purposely changing the subject from Nick. “Really short, like Halle Berry in The Flintstones?”

“I don’t think I’d look good in short hair.”

“Believe me, you’d look awesome. You’ve got big eyes and the perfect shaped head. Mine’s kind of narrow so I need lots of volume.”

“I’d have to think about it for a really long time.”

Delaney put down her scissors and reached for a can of mousse. She wrapped the ends of Lanna’s hair around a large round brush and blew it dry. When she was finished, she handed her an oval mirror. “What do you think?” she asked, knowing full well that it looked damn good.

“I think,” Lanna answered slowly as she studied the back of her hair, “that I don’t need to drive the hundred and fifty miles to Boise just to get my hair cut anymore.”

After Lanna left, Delaney swept up the hair and rinsed the shampoo sink. She thought about the old rumor that had her leaving town ten years ago because she carried Nick’s child. She wondered what other gossip had circulated when she’d left town and been stuck in a dormitory at the University of Idaho. Maybe she would ask her mother tonight when she drove out there for dinner.

But she didn’t get the chance to ask. Max Harrison answered the door with a highball in his hand and a welcoming smile on his face.

“Gwen is in the kitchen doing something to the lamb,” he said as he shut the door behind her. “I hope you don’t mind that your mother invited me tonight.”

“Of course not.” The wonderful smells of her mother’s cooking filled Delaney’s head and made her mouth water. No one cooked a leg of lamb like Gwen, and the scents from the kitchen wrapped Delaney in warm memories of special occasions at the Shaw house, like Easters or her birthday when she’d been allowed to choose her favorite meal.

“How’s that salon of yours working out?” Max asked as he helped her out of her long wool coat, then hung it on the hall tree.

“Okay.” Lately, it seemed that Gwen was spending quite a bit of time with Max, and Delaney wondered what was going on between her mother and Henry’s estate lawyer. She just couldn’t picture her mother as any man’s lover. She was too uptight, and Delaney figured it couldn’t be anything but friendship. “You should come in and let me cut your hair.”

His quiet laughter made Delaney smile. “I just might do that,” he said as they walked toward the back of the house.

When they entered the kitchen, Gwen looked up from the bag of baby carrots she held in her hand. An almost imperceptible frown narrowed Gwen’s eyes a fraction, and Delaney knew something was wrong.

Shit! Someone was in trouble, and she doubted it was Max. “What’s the special occasion?”

“No special occasion. I wanted to make you your favorite.” Gwen looked at Max and told him, “Every birthday, Laney always requested my lamb. Other children would have wanted pizza or burgers, but not her.”

Maybe she wasn’t in trouble, but she pushed up a cheerful smile just in case. “How can I help you?”

“You can get the salad out of the refrigerator and dress it, please.”

Delaney did as she was asked, then carried the bowls into the dining room. The table was set with beautiful roses, beeswax candles, Royal Doulton, and fine damask. It looked like a special occasion to her. Which could mean two completely different things. That she should worry, or that she was worrying about nothing. Either her mother simply wanted to enjoy a nice meal, or she was covering for a crack in the facade.

Delaney knew within moments of sitting down that the latter was the case. There was something wrong with the perfect picture. The conversation during dinner was pleasant on the surface, but a current of tension hid just beneath. Max didn’t seem to notice, but Delaney felt it at the base of her skull. She felt it during the first course and while she ate her mother’s lamb with mint. She smiled and laughed and entertained Max with stories of all the places she’d lived. She knew how to keep up a good front, but by the time she helped carry the dinner plates to the kitchen, her headache had moved to her eyebrows. Maybe with Max there, she could make a quick escape before her head exploded. “Well,” she said as she set the plates next to the sink, “I hate to eat and run, but-”

“Max,” Gwen interrupted, “could you leave us girls alone for a few moments?”

Damn.

“Sure, I’ll go examine those contracts you wanted me to take a look at.”

“Thank you. I won’t be long.”

Gwen waited until she heard the doors of Henry’s office slide closed before she said, “I need to talk to you about your scandalous behavior.”

“What scandalous behavior?”

“Trudie Duran called me this afternoon to inform me that you and Tommy Markham were getting drunk together while his wife was out of town. According to Trudie, everyone at the Shop-n-Kart was talking about it.”

“Who’s Trudie Duran?” Delaney asked, her skull tightening.

“That doesn’t matter! Is it true?”

She folded her arms across her breasts and frowned. “No. I ran into Tommy at Hennesey’s the other night, and we talked for a little bit. Lisa was there most of the time.”

“Well, I’m relieved.” Gwen grabbed a roll of tinfoil and ripped off a long piece. “And then, if that weren’t bad enough, she told me her daughter Gina saw you kissing Nick Allegrezza out on the dance floor.” She calmly set the roll of foil on the counter. “I told her she must be mistaken, because I’m sure you would never do anything so stupid. Tell me she was mistaken.”

“Okay, she was mistaken.”

“Is that the truth?”

Delaney thought about her answer but knew sooner or later the lie would catch up to her. Besides, she wasn’t a little girl who had to fear punishment, and she wasn’t going to allow her mother to treat her like a kid. “No.”

“What where you thinking? My God, that boy and his whole entire family have meant nothing but trouble for us since the moment we arrived in this town. They are rude and jealous. Especially toward you, although Benita has certainly shown me her ugly side on more than one occasion. Have you forgotten what happened ten years ago? Have you forgotten what Nick did? What pain and humiliation he caused all of us?”

“It wasn’t all of us. It was me, and no, I haven’t forgotten. But you’re making a big deal out of absolutely nothing,” she assured her mother, but it hadn’t felt like nothing. “Nothing happened. It was so nothing, I don’t want to talk about it. I don’t even want to think about it either.”

“Well, you better think about it. You know how the people of this town love to gossip, especially about us.”

Delaney silently agreed that most everyone in Truly loved to gossip-including Gwen-but she didn’t think the Shaws were singled out any more than others. Juicy gossip got attention, but as always, her mother overestimated her importance in the food chain. “Okay, I’ll think about it.” She closed her eyes and pressed her fingers to her brows.