Free Caught in a Bind by Gayle Roper Page A

snagged a Perrier with a twist of lime and handed it to Edie. She took it eagerly until she realized it was Perrier and not champagne or some such thing. As we stood in a small knot near one of the floor-to-ceiling windows, I could have sworn I saw a man with a bicycle staring in. I blinked, and the impression was gone. It was a good thing I was a teetotaler. If I saw visions stone cold sober, what would I see if I drank?
    Occasionally through the interminable evening, I glimpsed Curt in the distance, always with Delia hanging on his arm. She’d look up at him with an adoring look that made my stomach clench. I was the one who gave him adoring looks. Only me.
    “I hear her local gallery is having its grand opening Wednesday night,” Mac said as he watched me watch her.
    “Her local gallery?”
    “Sure. Intimations.”
    I stared at Mac in dismay. “Intimations is hers?”
    “You didn’t know?”
    “Well, no. I mean I knew about Intimations. Curt’s the first show and there’s the gala opening and all kinds of exciting stuff. The owner has great connections in art circles.” I studied my little black bag. “I just didn’t know she was Intimations.”
    I pulled at a loose thread until I realized I would have little black beads bouncing all over the floor if I continued. I willed myself to let the thread alone.
    Mac looked across the room where Delia and Curt were talking with Mr. Montgomery. “I never did like her much when we were kids, didn’t miss her at all when her mother died and they moved away right after her graduation. But I’ve got to admit that she’s done all right for herself.”
    “I don’t like her much as an adult,” Jolene said as Delia’s laughter floated above the rumble of conversation. “Look at her, hanging on to Curt like she has a right.”
    Curt had been so low-key about the gallery owner he’d been working closely with that I hadn’t paid any attention to the fact that she was a woman. I wasn’t so small-minded that I reacted negatively to the fact he was working with a woman. I mean, I work with men.
    But now I’d seen the woman.

SIX
    T he reception at City Hall dragged on forever. Every time I heard Delia’s musical laughter play its tune across the room, I stretched my smile wider to hide my hurt.
    “It’ll be okay, Merry,” Edie whispered after one particularly charming laugh floated across the room.
    I blinked back tears.
    When I collected my coat, resigned to the fact that Mac would be taking me home, Curt appeared at my side.
    “Ready to go?” he asked as if we’d separated a mere five minutes ago. I gave him my most haughty expression, but he merely smiled down at me. I automatically smiled back, idiot that I was. I couldn’t even stay mad at the man!
    But as we drove home, I regained all my spleen and then some. By the time we entered the apartment, I was primed.
    “You never even told me you knew Mr. Montgomery!”
    Curt sank comfortably onto the sofa where Whiskers snuggled against him, purring and shedding white fur all over his black dress pants. I started pacing, flinging my arms and ranting, the very picture of what any man would want in a woman.
    “You should have told me!”
    “I thought you knew that the Montgomerys used to live inAmhearst.” He looked surprised at my outburst. “You always seem to know everything at that paper of yours.”
    “Well, I didn’t know this little tidbit.”
    He waved his hand in the air. “It’s no big deal.”
    “And I suppose Delia Big Deal-ia Montgomery is no big deal either?” Just thinking about her raised my internal temperature several degrees.
    Suddenly it dawned on him that I was genuinely angry. And hurt. He looked at me cautiously. “Maybe.”
    “Maybe she’s a big deal? Maybe?” I gave him the most scathing look I could manage. It was quite a stretch for the Saccharine Queen.
    “Well, of course she’s important.”
    “Ha! I knew it!”
    He backtracked. “Well, not important important, of