Nick took a drink of his beer and looked at the reflection of stars in the black water of the lake.

He didnt want her hurt. He didnt want to hurt her. It was time he stayed away from Delaney Shaw.

The telephone inside the house rang, and he wondered how long it would take his mother to give up on the phone calls. He knew shed want to talk about the gossip like she had some sort of maternal squatters rights on his life. Louie didnt seem to mind the constant prying as much as Nick. Louie called it love. Maybe it was, but when Nick had been a boy, shed sometimes held him so tight he couldnt breathe.

Nick set his beer on the side of the hot tub and sank further into the hot water. His mother didnt like to drive after dark so he figured he was safe for the night. Hed call her in the morning and get it over with.

Gwen placed the telephone to her ear for about the fifth time in the last hour. “Delaney has obviously taken her phone off the hook.

Max walked across a thick Aubusson rug and stopped behind her. He took the receiver from her hand and hung it up. “Then she obviously has her reasons. He rubbed Gwens shoulders and pressed his thumbs into the base of her skull. “Youre too tense.

Gwen sighed and lazed her head to one side. Her soft blond hair brushed across his knuckles, and the smell of roses filled his nose. “Its the latest rumor about her and Nick, she said. “Hes out to ruin my daughter.

“Shell handle Nick.

“You dont understand. Hes always hated her.

Max remembered the day Nick had barged into his office. The man had been angry, but Max hadnt received the impression that Nick held any animosity toward Delaney. “Your daughter is a grown woman. She can take care of herself. He slid his hands to her waist and pulled her back against his chest. It seemed their time together was always the same. Gwen fussing about Delaney, and him wanting to touch her like a lover. Hed seen quite a bit of her since Henrys death, and hed found pleasure in her bed on several occasions. She was beautiful and had a lot to offer a man. Yet he was growing tired of her immersion in her daughters business.

“How? By creating a scandal?

“If thats her choice. Youve done your job. Youve raised her. Let it go or you might lose her again.

Gwen turned and Max saw fear in her eyes. “I am afraid shes going to leave me. I always thought she stayed away because of Henry, but now Im not sure. A few years ago I went to visit her when she lived in Denver, and she said that I always took Henrys side when she was growing up. She thinks I never stood up for her. I would have, but Henry was right. She needed to get good grades and go to college and not run around town like a hoyden. Gwen paused and took a deep breath. “Delaney is stubborn and holds a grudge for a long time. I just know that shell leave in June and never come back.

“Maybe.

“She cant go. Henry could have made her stay longer.

Max dropped his hands to his sides. “He wanted to, but I advised him that a judge might strike down the will if Henry stipulated a lengthier period.

Gwen turned and walked to the fireplace. She gripped the brick mantel and gazed back at Max through the mirror in front of her. “He should have done something.

Henry had done everything he could to control the people in his life from the grave. Hed stayed just to the right of what a court would consider fair and reasonable restraints. The whole thing had been extremely distasteful to Max, and it bothered him that Gwen supported her late husbands manipulations.

“Delaney needs to stay here. She needs to grow up.

Max looked at Gwens reflection; her beautiful blue eyes and pouty pink mouth, perfectly flawless white skin and hair like ribbons of caramel and butterscotch. Desire settle in the pit of his groin. Maybe she just needed something else in her life to think about. He walked toward her, determined to give her that something else.

Nick didnt get the chance to call his mother the next morning. She rang his doorbell at seven a.m .

Benita Allegrezza set her purse on the white marble counter and looked at her son. Nick obviously thought he could avoid her, but she was his mother. Shed given birth to him, which gave her the right to drag him out of bed. No matter that he was thirty-three and no longer lived with her.

Hed pulled on a pair of ragged Levis and an old black sweatshirt, and his feet were bare. Benita frowned. He could afford to dress better. Nick never took very good care of himself. He didnt eat when he should, and he spent time with loose women. He didnt think she knew about the women, but she did. “Why cant you just avoid that neska izugarri ?

“I dont know what youve heard, but nothing happened with Delaney, he said, his voice rough from sleep. He took her coat and hung it in the hall closet.

Obviously, he thought she could be fooled, too. Benita followed him into the kitchen and watched him pull two mugs from the cupboard. “Then why were you there, Nick?

He waited until hed filled the two mugs with coffee before he answered her. “I installed some locks at her shop.

She took the mug he offered her and looked at him standing by the kitchen sink as if nothing had happened in that beauty salon. She knew better. She knew the less he said, the more he left unsaid. Sometimes she needed a Mack truck to pull anything out of him. Hed been that way for a long time now. “Thats what your brother told me. Why couldnt she hire a locksmith like everyone else? Why does she need you ?

“I told her Id do it. He leaned one hip against the counter and shrugged the opposite shoulder. “It was no big deal.

“How can you say that? The whole town is talking about it. You havent returned my phone calls and youve been hiding from me.

His brows drew together, and he frowned at her. “I havent been hiding from you.

Yes, he had, and it was Delaney Shaws fault.

From the day shed moved to Truly, shed made Nicks life harder than it had been before shed arrived.

Before Henry married Gwen, Benita could tell herself and everyone else that Henry ignored Nick because he didnt want to have children. Afterward, everyone knew that wasnt true. Henry just didnt want Nick. He could lavish love and attention on a stepdaughter, yet reject his own son.

Before Delaneys arrival in Henrys life, Benita would sit with Nick on her lap and hold him close. Shed kiss his sweet forehead and dry his tears. Afterward, there were no more tears or hugs. No more softness in her son. Hed grow stiff in her arms and tell her he was too big for kisses. Benita blamed Henry for the pain he caused his own son, but in her eyes, Delaney became the living, breathing symbol of deep betrayal and rejection. Delaney had been given everything that should have been given to Nick, but everything hadnt been enough for her. Shed been a troublemaker to boot.

Shed always had a way of making Nick look bad. Like the time hed hit her with a snowball. Although he shouldnt have thrown a snowball at her, Benita was sure that girl must have done something , but the grade school hadnt even questioned her. Theyd just blamed the whole incident on Nick.

And then there was that horrible episode when those awful rumors had spread through town about Nick taking advantage of Delaney. Ten years later, Benita still didnt know what had taken place that night. She knew Nick was no saint when it came to women, but she was sure he hadnt taken anything Delaney hadnt been more than willing to give him. Then like a coward, shed fled and escaped the stinging gossip, while Nick had stayed behind and braved the worst of it. And the rumor about Nick taking advantage of that girl hadnt been the worst of it.

She looked at him now—her tall, handsome boy. Both her sons had succeeded on their own. No one had handed them anything, and she was extremely proud of them. But Nick . . . Nick would always need her to watch out for him, even though he didnt think he needed her at all.