Unemployment and skiing would have appealed to her when she’d been twenty-two, also. “Sounds like fun,” she said, cutting up and away in an arching motion and leaving the hair longer at his crown.

“It is. We should ski together.”

She would have loved to, but the closest resort was outside Truly city limits. “I don’t ski,” she lied.

“Then what if I come and pick you up tonight? We could grab a bite to eat then drive down to Cascade for a movie.”

She couldn’t go to Cascade, either. “I can’t.”

“Tomorrow night?”

Delaney held the clipper aloft and looked in the mirror at him. His chin was on his chest and he looked up at her through eyes so big and blue she could drive a boat through them. Maybe he wasn’t too young. Maybe she should give him another chance. Then maybe she wouldn’t be so lonely and vulnerable to the pied piper of pheromones. “Dinner,” she said and resumed her cutting. “No movie. And we can only be friends.”

His smile was a combination of innocence and guile. “You might change your mind.”

“I won’t.”

“What if I tried to change it for you?”

She laughed. “Only if you don’t get too obnoxious about it.”

“Deal. We’ll go slow.”

Before Steve left, she gave him her home telephone number. By four-thirty, she’d had four clients total and an appointment to do a foil weave for the next afternoon. The day hadn’t been all bad.

She was tired and looked forward to a long soak in the bathtub. With half an hour remaining before she could close, she kicked back in a salon chair with some of her hair braiding books for brides. Lisa’s wedding was less than a month away, and Delaney was looking forward to styling her friend’s hair.

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.