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to the words.
    â€œDoes Delina like children?” she persisted.
    â€œI haven’t the faintest idea.”
    â€œDon’t you talk to her?”
    His hand clenched on the steering wheel.
    â€œSorry,” she said quickly, thinking that she’d put her foot in her mouth. He probably slept with the woman… She closed her eyes on the painful thought.
    He saw that, and knew why she’d done it. He let out a long, weary sigh. He couldn’t bear to hurt her, not in any way at all. “I don’t sleep with her, Abby,” he said after a minute. He stared at his hands on the steering wheel instead of at her shocked face. He glanced at her after a minute and his eyes slid all over her as if they were hands. He looked back at the road. “I haven’t slept with anyone. Not for four years.”
    He was telling her something utterly profound. She caught her breath. “Oh, Chayce!”
    It was more a groan than a whisper. Her face was tormented.
    He wasn’t feeling much better himself. The wholedamned situation was giving him fits. Abby was going to marry a man she didn’t love, a man who wanted to change every unique thing about her. She didn’t seem to mind that Troy found fault with her, but he did. It wounded him. He kept telling himself that she needed a younger man, but why did it have to be Troy?
    He drew in a worried breath. “Where are you going to look for a gown?” he asked.
    â€œIn Whitehorn, of course.”
    â€œThere’s only one good shop there.”
    â€œI know.”
    He didn’t say another word. He turned on the radio and gave every indication of listening to the news. Abby stared out the window and thought of how empty her life had become.
    Â 
    The dress shop was small, but it was the place local brides went to choose their gowns. The owner, a delicate little lady in her sixties, had been a famous couture designer in her youth and had retired to Whitehorn years before. Her name was Madame Lili.
    â€œYes, I have heard that you were to marry this summer,” the tiny little woman said, with a moue of distaste as she looked at Abby’s current manner of dressing herself. “Would you like to see some samples of the gowns I’ve made recently?”
    â€œYes, thank you,” Abby said, surprised that Chayce had come into the shop with her. He settledin a chair near the window and just stared, his face hard and impassive.
    Abby looked as the smaller woman pulled out gown after gown, but there was no enthusiasm in her. At least, not until the owner produced a sample that she’d been working on. Abby’s gasp brought Chayce out of his chair. He moved close to her, his lean hand going out to touch the delicate lace of the Victorian wedding gown.
    It was made of satin, with exquisite lace trim. It had embroidered flowers on the skirt and bodice, overlaid with more lace. Its sleeves were puffed at the shoulder, mutton-leg sleeves that narrowed and came to a point over the back of the hand. The cuff was embroidered, too.
    â€œIt is frightfully expensive,” Madame Lili said. “But worth the price, don’t you think?”
    â€œWell worth it,” Chayce said. He looked down at Abby with eyes dark with pain. “It will…suit her.”
    She looked back at him with her heart in her face.
    Madame glanced from one to the other. “A handsome couple you make,” she murmured with a smile. “You will want a veil, yes?”
    Abby started to speak. Chayce caught her hand in his and pressed her fingers.
    â€œYes,” he said quietly. “She’ll want a veil. Something long and delicate,” he added, searching Abby’s face covetously.
    â€œI have just the thing! One moment…!”
    The little woman went into the back of the shop.
    â€œShe thinks…we’re marrying each other,” Abby murmured.
    He tilted her sad face up to his and searched her eyes. With a long, hungry