Free Truly Madly Yours by Rachel Gibson Page A

condition,” he began after he swallowed. “I get the property in one year if I don’t become involved with Delaney.”
    Slowly Louie picked up his spoon. “Involved? How?”
    Nick cast a sideways glance at his mother, who was still staring at him. She’d never talked to either boy about sex. She’d never even so much as mentioned it. She’d left the talk up to Uncle Josu, but by that time, both Allegrezza boys had known most of it anyway. He returned his gaze to his brother and lifted one brow.
    Louie took a bite of stew. “What happens if you do?”
    “What do you mean what happens?” Nick scowled at his brother as he reached for his spoon. Even if he were crazy enough to want Delaney, which he wasn’t, she hated him. He’d seen it in her eyes today. “You sound as if there’s a possibility.”
    Louie didn’t say anything. He didn’t have to. He knew Nick’s history.
    “What happens?” his mother asked, who didn’t know anything but felt she had the right to know everything.
    “Then Delaney inherits the property.”
    “Of course. Isn’t it enough that she got everything that is rightfully yours? Now she will be after you to get her hands on your property, Nick,” his mother predicted, generations of suspicious and secretive Basque blood running through her veins. Her dark eyes narrowed. “You watch out for her. She’s as greedy as her mother.”
    Nick seriously doubted he would have to watch out for Delaney. Last night when he’d driven her to her mother’s house, she’d sat in his Jeep doing a really good impersonation of a statue, the moonlight casting her profile in gray shadows and letting him know she was royally pissed off. And after today, he was pretty sure she’d avoid him like a leper.
    “Promise me, Nick,” his mother continued. “She always got you into trouble. You watch out.”
    “I’ll watch out.”
    Louie granted.
    Nick frowned at his brother and purposely changed the subject. “How’s Sophie?”
    “She’s coming home tomorrow,” Louie answered.
    “That’s wonderful news.” Benita smiled and set a slice of bread next to her bowl.
    “I’d hoped to have a little more time alone with Lisa before I tell Sophie about the wedding,” Louie said. “I don’t know how she’ll take the news.”
    “She’ll adjust to her new stepmother eventually. Everything will turn out fine,” Benita predicted. She liked Lisa okay, but she wasn’t Basque and she wasn’t Catholic, which meant that Louie couldn’t marry in the church . Never mind that Louie was divorced and couldn’t marry in the church anyway. Benita wasn’t worried about Louie. Louie would be okay. But Nick. She worried about Nick. She always had. And now that girl was back and she would worry even more.
    Benita hated anyone with the last name Shaw. Mostly she hated Henry for the way he’d treated her and the way he’d treated her son, but she hated that girl and her mother too. For years she’d watched Delaney parade around in fancy clothes while Benita had to patch Louie’s hand-me-downs for Nick. Delaney got new bicycles and expensive toys while Nick went without or had to settle for secondhand. And while she’d watched Delaney get more than one little girl needed, she’d also watched her son, his proud shoulders straight, chin in the air. A stoic little man. And each time she watched him pretend it didn’t matter, her heart broke a little more. Each time she watched him watch that girl, she grew a little more bitter.
    Benita was proud of both her sons and she loved them equally. But Nick was different from Louie. Nick was so very sensitive.
    She looked across the table at her younger son. Nick would always break her heart.

Chapter Four

    The plastic doggie scooper bags in the pocket of Delaney’s shorts seemed like some pathetic metaphor of her life. Shit, that’s what it was. Ever since she’d sold her soul for money, that’s what her life had become, and she didn’t see that it would get any