Truly Madly Yours Read Online Free PDF Page A

bitter.”
    “Why, because I don’t confuse sex and love?” Nick didn’t consider himself bitter, just uninterested. As far as he was concerned, there was no payoff in love. Just a lot of wasted time and emotion.
    “Maybe you’ve never been in love.” She pressed her hand into his fly. “Maybe you’ll fall in love with me.”
    Nick chuckled deep within his chest. “Don’t count on it.”

    Chapter Two

    The morning after the funeral, Delaney slept late and narrowly escaped a meeting of the Charitable Society of Truly, the small town’s equivalent of the Junior League. She’d hoped to lie around the house all afternoon and spend some time with her mother before leaving that evening to meet her best friend from high school, Lisa Collins. The two had plans to meet at Mort’s Bar for a night of margaritas and gossip.
    But Gwen had different plans for Delaney. “I’d like you to stay for the meeting,” Gwen said as soon as she walked into the kitchen, looking like a catalog model dressed in powder blue silk. A slight wrinkle furrowed her brow as she glanced at Delaney’s shoes. “We’re hoping to buy new playground equipment for Larkspur Park, and I think you could help us come up with creative ways to raise money.”
    Delaney would rather chew on tinfoil than get sucked into attending one of her mother’s boring meetings. “I have plans,” she lied, and spread strawberry preserves onto a toasted bagel. She was twenty-nine but still couldn’t bring herself to purposely disappoint her mother.
    “What plans?”
    “I’m meeting a friend for lunch.” She leaned her behind against the cherrywood island and bit into her bagel.
    Tiny creases settled in the corners of Gwen’s blue eyes. “You’re going into town looking like that?”
    Delaney glanced down at her white sleeveless sweater, her black jean shorts, and the thin patent leather straps of her Hercules sandals with the rubber wedgie soles. She’d dressed conservatively, but maybe her shoes were slightly different by small-town standards. She didn’t care; she loved them. “I like what I’m wearing,” she said, feeling like a nine-year-old again. She didn’t like the feeling, but it reminded her of the biggest reason why she planned to leave Truly quickly the following afternoon after Henry’s will was read.
    “I’ll take you shopping next week. We’ll drive down to Boise and spend the day at the mall.” Gwen smiled with genuine pleasure. “Now that you’re home again, we can go at least once a month.”
    There it was. Gwen’s assumption that Delaney would be moving back to Truly now that Henry was dead. But Henry Shaw hadn’t been the only reason Delaney kept at least an entire state between herself and Idaho.
    “I don’t need anything, Mother,” she said and polished off her breakfast. If she stayed more than a few days, there wasn’t a doubt in her mind that Gwen would have her in Liz Claiborne and turn her into a respectable member of the Charitable Society. She’d grown up wearing clothes she didn’t like and pretending to be someone she wasn’t just to please her parents. She’d killed herself to make honor roll in school, and she’d never so much as received a fine on a library book. She’d grown up the mayor’s daughter. That meant she’d had to be perfect.
    “Aren’t those shoes uncomfortable?”
    Delaney shook her head. “Tell me about the fire,” she said, purposely changing the subject. Since she’d arrived in Truly, she’d learned very little of what had actually happened the night of Henry’s death. Her mother was reluctant to talk about it, but now that the funeral was over, Delaney pressed for information.
    Gwen sighed and reached for the butter knife Delaney had used to spread preserves. The heels of her blue pumps clicked on the red brick tiles as she moved toward the kitchen sink. “I don’t know anything more now than I did when I called you last Monday.” She set down the knife then gazed out