Page 28 of Every Star that Shines

Delanie’s shoulders tensed as Emma’s grinning face popped into her mind. She remembered all too well the reason why, but the years that had passed since didn’t make it less humiliating to talk about. While it wasn’t all that uncommon for people from her hometown to marry young, nineteen was younger than most. Unless they had a very compelling reason.

“Monica was pregnant,” Delanie said, the twinge in her gut a mere shadow of the knife that had ripped it open the night her mother had called to tell her all those years ago. Delanie had been in the middle of making Caleb a sappy Valentine’s Day card when Cheryl told her he and Monica had just gotten married and already had a baby on the way. “Caleb has always had an old-fashioned moral code. When he got Monica pregnant, he probably married her so Emma wouldn’t be born out of wedlock.”

Of course, the fact that he had slept with Monica when the two of them had never gone beyond necking was a different kind of salt in her wound. What happened to his old-fashioned moral code when he had done that?

Desmond grimaced. “Yeah, a pregnancy can complicate things.” He scratched his chin. “Must have happened pretty fast, huh?”

“You could say that,” Delanie muttered. She hadn’t made a Valentine for any guy since.

“Wait,” Marie said. “I know it happened fast, but you always told me he cheated on you before you even left. Are you sure he actually did that? Seems a little out of character for a guy who would give up college to help his sick dad and marry a girl so his baby wouldn’t be born out of wedlock.” She shook her head. “I mean, it’s not like that excuses him from everything—sleeping with another girl when you had only been broken up for a few months and you guys had been talking about marriage? That’s not cool. But still, cheating?”

“I . . . I don’t know. I thought he was. Monica was always hanging around, you know?”

Delanie frowned. Caleb being a cheater had always made sense to her before, but Marie had a point. Delanie had known Caleb better than anyone in high school, so she’d thought, and she hadn’t once got the sense he was unfaithful to her. He hadn’t even looked at other girls. That’s what had made his betrayal so much more hurtful, and why she’d had such a hard time trusting any guy she had dated since. She couldn’t help but suspect that no matter how sincere and loyal they seemed, they were probably hiding something, and it was only a matter of time before she would find out what it was. Betrayal had become her expectation.

But had he actually cheated on her?

Marie shrugged. “Stranger things have happened, I suppose, but he sounds a whole lot better than Josh the Jerk. That spineless weasel doesn’t care about anyone but himself.”

Desmond grunted. “Did you tell her what I found out?”

“Not yet,” Marie said, making a disgusted face, probably at whatever Desmond’s piece of news was.

“About what?” Delanie asked.

Desmond sat up and looked down into the phone, which he must be holding between his knees, his dark eyes serious. “You remember my friend Xander?”

“Your old roomie, the lighting tech?”

Desmond nodded. “He got a job on Trueheart. Sorry I didn’t tell you before.”

He looked a little sheepish, but Delanie could hardly be mad at him for that. He had probably been trying to spare her feelings.

“Don’t worry about it. What’s the news?”

Desmond cleared his throat. “Josh has already hired your replacement, and they’ve started filming. You’re not going to like who it is.”

Delanie tensed. “Who is it?”

“Kaitlyn Williams. But she didn’t just replace you as Maryanne. She and Josh went to a party together on the weekend, and word around the set is that they were pretty cozy.”

Delanie felt like she had been punched in her gut. She didn’t know Kaitlyn well, but Delanie and Josh had run into her at a house party celebrating the wrap-up of the pilot of Trueheart a few months ago, and Kaitlyn had then spent the entire night talking his ear off. When Delanie had later accused him of flirting with Kaitlyn, he had laughed it off, assuring her he had no interest in the glamorous beauty. Show techs were horrible gossips, so it didn’t surprise Delanie that Xander had been among the first to hear about the party, then relay the news to Desmond.

Desmond looked thoughtful. “You know, I’m noticing a trend here, with you dating guys that other girls steal.”

“Desmond!” Marie snapped, and he looked embarrassed.

“He’s right, though,” Delanie said hollowly.

She had been betrayed again. She had already been pretty sure Josh hadn’t defended her to Crystal. Now she couldn’t help but wonder if he and Kaitlyn had been seeing each other behind her back all this time. Maybe he had wanted her to mess up so he had an excuse to get her out of the picture and move on to his new favourite.

Just like Caleb and Monica.

She wrapped her finger in her ponytail. After what Marie had pointed out, she wasn’t sure she had her story straight about Caleb. The more she thought about it, the more she realized cheating was completely out of character for him.

For Josh Rosenburg, though? Not so much.

On the other hand, it seemed strange that Caleb and Monica had only stayed together for a few years. Maybe he had cheated on her, too. Those kinds of habits didn’t tend to go away. No matter how upstanding Caleb was in all other ways, being a cheater would be a pretty major character flaw, and one that would be difficult to overcome. Wasn’t that what her mother had been hinting at that day at Nan’s? Sometimes, she had to admit that her mother made a lot of sense.

---