by Joanne Rock
Had he honestly just said he was in town for two weeks? Right when her cupcake shop had failed and her business partner was up to her ears in scandal? Nina had never thought Mack was the type to gloat. Then again, they’d ended on bitter terms.
“I can manage from here,” Nina interrupted as the Finleys’ old black lab walked with them toward Nina’s pickup truck. “Thanks for the help, Mack, but we’ll be fine.”
Her heart beat hard in her chest. Indignation and wounded pride were stupid things to feel toward a guy who’d dumped her eight years ago. Apparently, coming home brought out her childish side.
“Actually.” Gram cleared her throat. “I have my own ride and I’ll be fine.” She freed her elbow from where Mack had held it and waved at a silver sedan just cruising up the street. In her pink track suit with a big silk daisy pinned to the collar, she was tough to miss.
“A ride where?” Nina squinted into the sunlight. “Gram, I came home to take care of you—”
“But I’m in very good hands,” Gram protested as the car slowed to a stop behind Nina’s truck. “Scott’s daughter, Ally, works at the hairdresser and I need a little color touch-up.” She cupped a handful of white curls and winked at Mack. “A girl is never too old to want to look her best.”
“That’s Ally?” Nina waved at the young woman behind the wheel of the car, trying to reconcile the sad-eyed teen with the wild-child nine-year-old she remembered from when she’d dated Mack. She used to babysit the girl regularly.
Ally held up a hand in the barest excuse for a wave, but her expression remained sullen.
“She picks me up once a month for my salon day,” Gram explained as she shuffled toward the car, favoring one knee. “This time, I texted her to let her know I’d be right around the corner from her house.”
Nina watched Mack help her grandmother move toward the car as he exchanged a few words with his niece and made sure that Luce didn’t trip up the older woman. Had Gram suspected Mack would be here today? Was that the reason for this hasty exit that would leave her alone with Mack?
Nina started digging for her keys to be sure she could make a fast departure of her own.
“Call me if you need a ride home, Gram.” She backed toward her truck once Mack had Gram comfortably settled in the car.
The two of them were chatting as easily as if they saw each other every day. Gram had always had a soft spot in her heart for Nina’s first boyfriend, but then, she didn’t know the whole story.
He’d always accused her of being too impulsive—one of many reasons they’d broken up. But she was different now. Stronger. Smarter. Though Mack Finley—and especially his mother—would likely always see her as little more than a headstrong teenager. Had Mack’s mom called him to say Nina was coming home? He hadn’t been surprised to find her here. No doubt the older woman had also filled him in on Nina’s recent humiliation.
“Ally brings me home on her break,” Gram called through the lowered window after Mack shut the door to the vehicle, wrenching Nina from her dark thoughts. “Don’t worry about me, sweetie. You should enjoy a few hours of freedom.”
Nina attempted a smile as the sedan drove away. But as soon as her grandmother was out of sight, she didn’t bother pretending anymore.
Mack Finley stood ten feet away from her. She hadn’t seen him for eight years and she was better off that way. So, striding closer, she got into his line of vision and folded her arms.
“Satisfied?” She tried not to fume. But it wasn’t easy when frustration roared inside her and the pain of her own failure was still so fresh.
He lifted a brow. Tucked a thumb in the front pocket of his jeans. Stared at her.
“With what, exactly?” His gold-flecked gaze wandered over her.
Her heart raced, which only ramped up her anger.
“With yourself.” She pointed to his well-cut dress shirt that was probably custom-made. To his expensive vintage convertible sitting nearby. “With this chance to make me feel like dirt when my life is imploding—”
“Whoa. Wait.” He held up both hands to stop her, his strong forearms bared where he’d rolled up his shirt sleeves. “What are you talking about?”
“Oh, please.” She shook her head. “It can’t be a coincidence that you show up in Heartache just when my business has gone down in flames and my partner has fled to the Cayman Islands with all our assets and a celebrity groom.” Nina had always known her business partner was selfish, but she’d never expected her to do something criminal.
Mack frowned and raked a hand through his hair, a gesture she’d seen him make a hundred times before. Back when she’d spent her days studying algebra with him or playing cards on that sprawling front porch a few yards away. Back when she’d thought nothing of leaning over to kiss his cheek or walk her fingers up his shoulder just for an excuse to touch him.
“Me being here at the same time as you is a coincidence.” He lowered his voice and glanced toward his mother’s house. “At least, as much of a coincidence as it can be when two people from a podunk town end up back home in the same week. If you ask me, it’s a damn miracle it hasn’t happened before now.”
He’d stepped closer to make his case and the scent of his aftershave had her thinking about whisker burn again. It was all she could do not to put a hand on her cheek to make sure her skin wasn’t really stinging the way she imagined.
“Is that so?” She felt shaky. Embarrassed at the possibility that he hadn’t come to town to humiliate her at the suggestion of his mother.
What if her accusation had been yet another impulsive leap, just like he’d always accused her of?
“That’s the absolute truth.” His eyebrows furrowed in a way that meant business. “You’re the one at my house, remember? If anything, I ought to be calling you out for showing up at my mom’s house with—” his expression darkened “—peach pie.”
“Excuse me? You’re angry I brought food?” She didn’t understand him any better now than she had eight years ago. “For that matter, how did you know about the pie?”
She looked up at the house again, convinced more than ever that his mother was in there, grinding her teeth until Nina left.
Mack’s chin jutted. “Scott called to give me a heads-up that you were here.”
Even in their tight-knit family, the brothers had been particularly close. Mack said it was because Scott had hauled him out of a frozen pond once when Mack had fallen through while skating. Nina remembered Scott as the family ringleader, carting his siblings to sports practices and showing up at Mack’s football games.
“We came over because Gram did a lot of baking yesterday and had some extra pies. She figured your mother could use some company.” Mack’s mom had been widowed last spring, but even before then, she had rarely left the house due to...personal issues. Not wanting to dwell on the topic, Nina shifted gears in a hurry. “I’m staying with Gram for...a while.”
“How long?” He loomed over her and she realized her back was almost against the pickup truck.
Too bad reclaiming her ground would mean getting closer to him.
“A few weeks at least.” Needing a distraction, she whistled softly to Luce. The black lab lumbered over to have a seat beside her, offering her head for a scratch. “I originally planned to come here to escape the flak around my business’s closure. But Gram’s health has also gotten worse. Bad enough that my dad mentioned assisted living—”
She stopped herself from confiding anything more personal. Mack hadn’t been a friend for a long time.
“Nice of him to show up and help his mother out,” Mack muttered, obviously remembering her father well.
“No kidding.” For all that Mack had broken her heart, he would never have turned his back on his family as her father had done.
She’d always dreamed of a family of her own one da
y, and the chance to give her kids the kind of home she’d always wanted. She’d assumed Mack would share that dream. But he’d told her once he would never have his own children.
“I’m sure your grandmother appreciates having you here.”
“I never would have even known she was so frail if I hadn’t come here and seen her with my own eyes.” The last Nina had seen Gram six months ago, she’d been recovering nicely from knee surgery. “She fell recently and didn’t tell me—” And there she went again, sharing something personal with Mack. “Anyway, I’ll be in town for a while and it sounds like you will, too. We’ll just...avoid each other.”
There. Done. She gave him a nod and turned to get into the truck.
Fingers on the handle. Door levering open...
“Wait.” Mack dropped a large hand right beside hers on the open door.
She stilled, afraid a sudden movement might bring her in contact with him. He stood behind her, so close the small hairs rose at the back of her neck in a kind of good way. Her body must not have gotten the message that he’d broken her heart when he’d refused to leave Heartache with her.
And then a second time when he’d married...
“What?” The husky note in her voice revealed too much. She cleared her throat.
“Nina.”
A wealth of shared memories in that simple word. God, how many times had he spoken her name before?
“I’m listening.” She had no intention of turning around. No desire to fall into his gaze and be hurt by all the memories there.
“For the record, I hadn’t heard anything about your business and I’m sorry if Cupcake Romance isn’t working out.” The sincerity in his voice only reminded her of her failed dreams.
Although the fact that he remembered the name of her shop lifted her spirits just a little. Had he looked her up on Google at some point? Or asked Gram how she was doing? The thought eased some of the old hurt that he’d just written her off completely as soon as she’d left town. Not enough to forgive him, however.
“I don’t need your sympathy.” She faced him now, unwilling to let him believe that New York had gotten the better of her. “I’ll be fine.”
“I’m sure you will be.” He didn’t move away. “You may not believe it, but I’ve been rooting for you all along.”
That’s why he’d let her go to pursue her dreams alone, right? That’s why he’d chosen his family instead, insisted on staying behind in Heartache to pick up the pieces of the lives ruined on graduation night...
Old anger flared. Just like her parents, Mack talked a good game but he hadn’t really wanted her.
“You’re right. I do find that hard to believe.” She needed to leave. Needed to make sure she didn’t talk to Mack Finley for eight more years. “I really have to get home.”
“Can I just ask you one more thing?”
Absolutely not. Breathing the same air as him was killing her.
“What?” She gripped the heart-shaped locket around her neck, a present Gram had sent her when she’d finished her college program on a scholarship.
“Did your grandmother say if she’s had a falling-out with my mom?”
Nina released a pent-up breath. The subject was safer—for her, at least. Mrs. Finley’s moods had always made her family walk on eggshells around her. Nina had witnessed a few episodes in the years she and Mack had dated, but never anything like the argument they’d had the night she’d left Heartache. Left Mack.
“No. Gram just mentioned that your mother is sticking close to home even more since your father’s death, which I was very sorry to hear about. Your dad did so much for this town.” Not only had Mr. Finley been mayor for longer than anyone else in the history of Heartache, he’d been a genuinely nice man.
“Thank you. We all miss him.” Mack swallowed hard before he glanced toward his mother’s house. “And Mom misses him the most, of course. Scott’s been having a tough time even getting her to her doctor appointments lately, and she’s stopped having Ally overnight on the weekends. I’m debating where to stay for the next couple of weeks while I help Scott with the Harvest Fest.”
He didn’t need to spell out the difficulties of staying with his mother. He’d been as anxious to leave Heartache as Nina, and most of his reasons had revolved around his mother.
“You’re really going to pitch in with the event?” She remembered other Harvest Fests. Especially the Harvest Dance at the end of the festival each year. The year she left, she and Mack had been voted the king and queen, their straw crowns ridiculous and fun. The whole night had been sweetly magical beneath a twirling, pumpkin-shaped disco ball.
She’d told him she loved him that night.
“It’s a lot for Scott to manage on his own. Especially now, when—” He shook his head.
“Is he okay?” She’d been close to the whole Finley family once, as she’d spent half her time at his house during senior year. “I mean, he’s not ill or anything?”
“No. Nothing like that.” He pressed a palm to his forehead for a second and then lowered his hand, but he still looked...pained. “His marriage is going through a rough patch. The tension in the house has been making Ally act out, too. It’s been a tough few months for their family.”
“Really? I’m sorry to hear it.” That news came as a shocker. Scott and Bethany Finley had been the town’s golden couple even before Nina left Heartache. He ran the family construction business and building-supply store. She’d taught preschool and volunteered at the local nursing home. They were solid. Happy. Then, anyway. She’d kept her distance from the Finley family in general on the intermittent weekends she’d visited her grandmother.
But Nina could appreciate the havoc that feuding parents could wreak on a kid. Her heart ached for what Ally must be going through.
“Divorce is painful.” Mack straightened. “I don’t want either of them to go through that.”
Right. Because he knew what it was like.
Another old pain that ached anew.
“It’s kind of you to try and spare them that hurt.” Her arms felt heavy and wooden as she finally opened the truck door. One foot on the running board, she pulled herself up into the driver’s seat and steeled herself to acknowledge Mack’s marriage. “For what it’s worth, I was sorry to hear about you and—” she fought to keep her voice even “—Jenny.”
She stared out the windshield for a long moment, not sure she could look him in the eye. She sensed his gaze on her, though. And it made her feel...
Too much.
“Thank you.” He stood beside the pickup window and pounded his fist gently once, twice on the open sill. “You should call her sometime. I’m sure she’d enjoy hearing from you.”
Nina shoved the key in the ignition of the old Ford and started it up. The mayor’s son had just taken his Nice Guy Act too far, because that was not going to happen.
“Jenny made it clear to me years ago that she blames me for Vince’s death on graduation night, the same as plenty of other people in this town. So if there’s one thing I’m certain of, it’s that your ex-wife doesn’t ever want to hear from me again.”
She didn’t bother saying goodbye. They’d already said it enough to last a lifetime.
CHAPTER TWO
MACK WATCHED THE ancient blue pickup barrel away, Nina’s words still rattling around in his head.
Mack’s best friend had been hitting on Nina after a graduation party. Nina had called him out on it—making a scene in front of Vince’s girlfriend, Jenny, and the rest of their friends. Mack knew it was because Vince had gotten friendly once too often with Nina. But to the rest of their friends, her reaction had been harsh. Especially when they learned that afterward, Vince had taken off in Mack’s car and crashed into a steel bridge support, dying instantly.
For a couple of hours, peopl
e had assumed the body was actually Mack’s, working his bipolar mother into a state that eventually led to a brief hospitalization. It had all been...pure hell. Mack had been pulled in every direction, everyone in his life had needed something from him.
Meanwhile, Nina had dealt with it by speeding up her timetable for leaving Heartache. She packed her bags and took off. He hadn’t blamed her. But how could he have gone with her, considering the fragile state of everyone is his life? His mother. Vince’s mother. Vince’s girlfriend, Jenny. But Nina had never forgiven him for choosing them over her.
A screen door across the street slammed. Boots strode along pavement in an even, purposeful rhythm. Mack yanked his gaze from his mother’s house to see Scott heading toward him, two beers in his hand.
“You okay?” Scott asked as he approached, pressing one of the longnecks into Mack’s palm.
“Positively crappy.” He snapped the top off his beer and indulged in a rare drink. As an occasional bartender at his Nashville club, he cleaned up enough sticky alcohol at closing time to make him stay away from the stuff most days.
Today was not most days.
“That about sums it up.” Scott tapped the bottom of his drink against Mack’s. “I take it Mom didn’t bother answering the door?”
Mack shook his head. “They left the pie on the side porch. I’ll bring it in when I go say hello.”
“Mom doesn’t always answer for Bethany anymore, either.” Scott shrugged. “I’ve been meaning to ask her doctor about it, but she cancelled her last appointment.”
His mom had been quiet lately, not saying much when he phoned her. But he hadn’t realized she’d retreated to this extent. She’d always been happy to see Daisy Spencer.
“I noticed you and Nina exchanged a few words before she left.” Scott took a long drink and waited for information Mack had no intention of sharing. “You want to talk about it?” he asked finally.
