The Stranger: The Heroes of Heyday (Harlequin Superromance No. 1266) by Kathleen O`Brien

better bimbo do us part.’”
    â€œSo true.” Slip winked at Linda. “And, as the ex Mrs. Austin Tremel, I guess you’d know.”
    Linda ignored him, except for a slight elevation of perfectly waxed eyebrows. She might not have Austin Tremel’s social backing anymore, but she obviously still felt superior to Slip Stanton from the Absolutely Nowhere.
    â€œSeriously,” she said to Mallory in her husky voice. “These days most marriage vows are written in disappearing ink. You tell her I said be careful, okay?”
    Mallory nodded. “Sure,” she said calmly. “I’ll tell her.”
    Some people in town hadn’t forgiven Linda forsome nasty behavior in the first couple of years following her bitter divorce. Rumor had it she was an alcoholic and had sometimes warmed her cold bed with hapless teenage boys.
    Rumors, of course, weren’t always true. But Mallory, who knew that even good people might have a shameful secret or two, couldn’t help feeling sorry for her.
    Especially since, for the first time since her marriage, Linda was going to have to work for a living. Her new garden store would open in just a few days, and she was already getting a taste of the rigors of owning a small business.
    Mallory hoped she could make a success of it. At least she’d picked a good market. Here in the Shenandoah Valley people loved their gardens and might be willing to spend more money on that than they ever did on books.
    Mallory had just finished ringing up Linda’s cards when, with a merry tinkling sound, the front door opened. Hopefully, she looked up, and smiled as she saw Mindy enter, like a breath of fresh air, in a glow of sunshine curls and a cloud of soft blue cotton.
    Most of the men in the store stopped what they were doing and stared, even the ones who had been enjoying Binky Potter’s Madeline performance.
    Mallory knew what the men saw. Mindy was a beauty, young but ripe and subtly sexy. Hair that fell halfway down her back in glimmering waves. Round, large eyes as blue and sparkling as any of Binky Potter’s sequins.
    That’s what the men saw, but in that first instant Mallory was looking for things that mattered more. Mindy had, thank heaven, put on at least another five pounds. A year ago, Mindy’s bones had jabbed unnaturally at her too-pale skin, stretching it like broken twigs stuffed in a plastic bag.
    And she was relieved to see that Mindy’s eyes looked more normal. For the past few years, they had been feverishly bright in deep, haunted sockets.
    Mallory knew that, after everything she’d been through, Mindy would never be exactly the same again. But Freddy Earnshaw must be very good for her. She was clearly getting stronger every day.
    Mallory said a quick prayer that she was strong enough.
    And that, when the time came, Freddy would be, too.
    â€œMallory!” Mindy spied her at the cash register and called out in a delighted, musical alto that made several of the customers instinctively smile. “Mallory, I’ve got a surprise! Look who came with me!”
    She moved out of the doorway, and with a flourish ushered in a tall, blond, beautifully dressed man. Her fiancé, Freddy Earnshaw.
    Freddy was smiling in a self-deprecating way that was so charming Mallory felt cynical to find herself imagining him rehearsing it in front of the mirror.
    Mindy held his hand protectively, as if she had found a Norse god wandering loose on the highway and brought him home as a gift to the city. He wasspectacularly good-looking, Mallory had to admit. Now the women were staring, too, smiling, thrilled at their luck.
    Mallory wasn’t thrilled. She had wanted Mindy to herself this weekend.
    But worst of all, as she hugged her future brother-in-law and struggled to hide her dismay, she couldn’t help wondering whether, somewhere in this crowded store, or out there on Hippodrome Circle, a blackmailer was staring at Freddy,