Truly Madly Yours Read Free

girlfriends, hit a few local bars, and wait it out until she could head home to the big city where she could breathe. She knew if she stayed more than a few days, she’d lose her mind—or worse, herself.

    “Well, look who’s back.”
    Delaney set a plate of stuffed mushrooms on the buffet table then looked into the eyes of her childhood adversary, Helen Schnupp. Growing up, Helen had been a thorn in Delaney’s side, a rock in her shoe, and a colossal pain in the ass. Every time Delaney had turned around, Helen had been there, usually one step ahead. Helen had been prettier, faster in track, and better in basketball. In the second grade Helen had unseated her for first place in the county spelling bee. In the eighth grade Helen had beaten her out for head cheerleader, and in the eleventh she’d been caught at the drive-in with Delaney’s boyfriend, Tommy Markham, riding the bologna pony in the back of the Markham family station wagon. A girl didn’t forget a thing like that, and Delaney took silent pleasure in Helen’s split ends and over processed highlights.
    “Helen Schnupp,” she said, hating to admit to herself that except for the hair, her old nemesis was still pretty.
    “It’s Markham now.” Helen grabbed a croissant and stuffed it with sliced ham. “Tommy and I have been happily married for seven years.”
    Delaney forced a smile. “Isn’t that just great?” She told herself she didn’t give a damn about either one of them, but she’d always entertained the fantasy of a Bonnie and Clyde style ending for Helen and Tommy. The fact that she still harbored such animosity didn’t bother her as much as she thought it probably should. Maybe it was time for that psychotherapy she’d been putting off.
    “Are you married?”
    “No.”
    Helen gave her a look filled with pity. “Your mother tells me you live in Scottsdale.”
    Delaney fought an urge to shove Helen’s croissant up her nose. “I live in Phoenix.”
    “Oh?” Helen reached for a mushroom and scooted down the line. “I must not have heard her right.”
    Delaney doubted there was anything wrong with Helen’s hearing. Her hair was another matter, however, and if Delaney hadn’t already planned to leave in a few days, and if she were a nicer person, she might have offered to snip some of the damage. She might have even slapped a protein pack on Helen’s frizzy hair and wrapped her whole head in cellophane. But she wasn’t that nice.
    Her gaze scanned the dining room filled with people until she located her mother. Surrounded by friends, every blond hair in perfect order, her makeup flawless, Gwen Shaw looked like a queen holding court. Gwen had always been the Grace Kelly of Truly, Idaho. She even resembled her somewhat. At forty-four, she could pass for thirty-nine and, as she was fond of saying, looked much too young to have a daughter who was twenty-nine.
    Anywhere else, a fifteen-year age difference between mother and daughter might have raised more than a few brows, but in small-town Idaho, it wasn’t uncommon for high school sweethearts to marry the day after graduation, sometimes because the bride was about to go into labor. No one thought anything of teenage pregnancy, unless of course the teen wasn’t married. That sort of scandal fueled the gossip fires for years.
    Everyone in Truly believed the mayor’s young wife had been widowed shortly after she’d married Delaney’s biological father, but it was all a lie. At fifteen, Gwen had been involved with a married man, and when he’d found out she was pregnant, he dumped her and she left town.
    “I see you came back. I thought you might be dead.”
    Delaney’s attention was drawn to Old Mrs. Van Damme hunched over an aluminum walker and teetering toward a deviled egg, her white hair plastered with finger waves just as Delaney remembered. She couldn’t recall the woman’s first name. She didn’t know if she’d ever heard it used. Everyone had always referred to her as