Harlequin Superromance September 2014 - Bundle 1 of 2: This Good Man\Promises Under the Peach Tree\Husband by Choice (31 page)

“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 day, 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

M
ACK
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, people 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.

“God, no.” Mack had kept his feelings for Nina Spencer locked down for a lot of years. He wasn't about to break the seal on it now. He was here to help Scott. “I think we can only handle one woman-problem at a time.”

“It might be too late for me, brother.” Scott sat his beer at the base of the red oak tree and leaned a shoulder against the bark.

Tall and rangy, the firstborn Finley was a natural leader. Smart and capable, Scott had always been good at coming up with things for his brothers to do outside the house when their mother was having a bad day. He'd taken over Finley Building Supply Store when their father first ran for mayor so the old man could focus on the town's problems. Mack often felt guilty that Scott had taken on so many family obligations while Mack lived in Nashville, away from the daily drama.

Nina seemed to believe that Mack had stayed “at home” because he'd never left Tennessee. But in his family's eyes, he'd ditched them all by moving an hour up the interstate. His absence forced Scott to pull more than his share of the weight where family obligations were concerned. Their sisters were busy with a fledgling business and had even more complicated relationships with their mom than either Scott or Mack—and that was saying something. Scott's contribution to the family was all the more reason to make sure this event went off without a hitch. Mack owed his dad, but he owed Scott even more. Mack refused to stand by while his brother's marriage disintegrated.

“It can't be too late. Why don't you take off for a week or two? Plan a getaway with just you and Bethany and see if you can work things out?”

“I'm not sure we should leave Ally now when she's having such a rough go of it. Plus, I can't leave town with the festival coming up—”

“First of all, screw the festival.” Mack grabbed the nearby tire swing and wrapped his arms around it to steady the old truck tire. “I'll take care of whatever needs doing there. And as for Ally, don't you think it would go a long way toward helping her problems if you and Bethany got back on stable ground? You've got to work on the marriage first.”

“Like you did with Jenny?”

Mack nearly spewed his drink but ended up just coughing instead. He set the beer on the ground.

“That's a low blow.”

“That didn't come out right.” He swiped an impatient hand through the air. “I just mean, you ended that marriage after three years. Something must have told you it was over. How...” Scott scraped the toe of his boot through the patch of grass beneath the tree. “How did you know for sure there was nothing left?”

Nina.

Her name flashed in his brain but he wasn't about to share that vague, ill-timed thought. As much as the sight of her had stirred his attraction to her today, that attraction had been tempered by resentment.

And he
hadn't
been pining for Nina during his marriage. If Jenny hadn't walked, he'd still be married and he would have turned the car around today to make damn sure Nina stayed out of his mind.

“Jenny made the decision, not me.” He lifted a boot to rest on the inside of the truck tire, the weight of his foot shaking free a few leaves from the oak to rain down around them. “I'm too stubborn to give up on anything once I commit to it. She was the one who changed the rules and decided she wanted kids when she was aware of how I felt about that. After that—for her—it was over. No going back.”

Mack had experienced the ravages of his mother's disorder and understood the propensity was genetic. Why put a kid through that? As for Jenny...she had her own reasons after a miscarriage as a teen. He never would have asked her to marry him if he'd dreamed she'd change her mind about children.

“You must have fought for her, though.” Scott gave him the oldest brother, I-know-best scowl that he'd perfected as a teenager. “You didn't just let her go without a fight.”

Mack debated how to answer that one. But Jenny wasn't like Nina. She wasn't the kind of woman you could argue with. Both women were strong-willed, but Jenny had become a bulldozer after Vince's death—nothing got in her way. Not even her husband.

“You just let her go?” Scott prodded.

“This isn't about me.” Mack took a long swallow of his beer and tried to get his head on straight again. The day was throwing him curveballs left and right. “I messed up with my marriage and won't let you do the same.”

“I'm not sure Bethany is going to be as agreeable to your plans. But, assuming I still have a snowball's chance in hell of winning her back, what do you suggest?”

“Take tomorrow off to be with your wife. Give me a list of what needs to happen for the Harvest Fest and I'll cover for you there and at the store. If you can get Bethany to take off with you for a few days, just leave. I'll watch out for Ally.”

“I don't put many hours in the store these days, so you don't have to cover for me there.” Scott leaned down to pet Luce even though the dog had curled up for a nap in a patch of flattened grass. “Besides, my wife will never go for this.”

Mack wondered where Scott was spending all his time if he wasn't working at the store. That used to be his full-time gig. When they'd expanded the business, Bethany had quit her teaching job to help him manage the project.

“But you have to try, right? Isn't that what you just finished telling me?”

“Fine.” Scott pulled out his phone. “I'll send you my notes from the last town council meeting on the Harvest Fest.”

“Anything that needs to get done right away?” He should visit his mother. Maybe arrange for the house to be painted. He hated being idle. Gave him too damn much time to think.

Scott slid a finger across the screen to scroll through a document on his phone.

“There's a festival subcommittee meeting tomorrow at three.” He frowned. Paused. “Also I'm supposed to pick up the hay wagons from Spencer Farm.” He glanced at Mack. “I can take care of that one, though.”

Mack remembered the last time he'd been there, the night he'd picked up Nina for the graduation party. How often had he wished he could rewind to that moment? Change any one thing about that day to make the result different.

“No.” Mack wasn't about to start shirking jobs he'd just volunteered for. “I'm here to handle this stuff. Besides, I don't think Nina is going to be spending her days in the barn while she's home. Odds are, I'm not going to run into her again for a while.”

Scott keyed in a few commands and then put his phone back in his pocket. “You forget how small Heartache is.”

Mack hadn't forgotten. But he was sure Nina wanted to avoid him as much as he planned to avoid her. “All the more reason for you to get out of here for a few days.”

“If Bethany will even go.” Scott shook his head. Stared at the ground. “That's a big
if.
”

“Did you screw up that badly?” He found that tough to imagine and fought the urge to ask for details. Those were up to his brother to share. “You two have been together for what...eighteen years? She must not want to throw that away any more than you do.”

“I've been doing the same exact things I've been doing for eighteen years. Then one day, that wasn't good enough.” He shrugged. “Believe me, if I had screwed up, I'd be busting my ass to fix it. But getting bored with your life isn't an excuse to bail on it. Not in my book.”

Scott's jaw flexed. His mouth settled in a flat line. Even his tone warned Mack not to argue that point, although Mack seriously doubted Bethany was “just bored.” So for now, he simply nodded.

“Right. So maybe a couple of days alone together will help you figure things out.”

“Thanks.” Scott looked back at the house where they'd grown up. “You sure you don't mind staying with Mom?”

“I'm going to clean up the apartment that Gramp's field manager used to live in. Maybe do a little restoration work.” It hadn't been occupied in years, but it was built above an equipment barn that had been well maintained even after the farm folded. “That ought to keep me out of her way and keep friction to a minimum.”

Scott raised his eyebrows, skepticism obvious. “Good luck with that.”

“I'm going to tell her it'll raise the property value.” It was a cover story that wouldn't hurt his mother's feelings. She'd never admit that it was too much to have Mack in the house with her, but he knew perfectly well it would be. He'd only just convinced her to let a maid come in twice a week to do the heavy cleaning—a local woman who also kept tabs on her health. He didn't want to do anything to jeopardize her routine.

“Mack, I get that this isn't going to be fun for you. Especially now that Nina's in the picture, too—”

“We're family, bro. This is what we do.” It was a corny saying of their dad's—one that he'd used to cover the whole town when he'd been mayor. It was practically a town motto.

“Well, this is above and beyond, as far as I'm concerned. You have a whole life in Nashville you put on hold for this. So...thanks.” Scott clapped him on the shoulder once before he grabbed his beer and headed toward his own house just two doors down. He only took a few steps before he turned and lifted his bottle in toast. “And who knows? Maybe having Nina around will help put the past to rest.”

Mack shook his head. “No comment.”

Scott drank to that and kept on walking.

Mack took his time finishing his own beer, needing a minute to get his head on straight before he went in the house to talk to his mother. What did Scott know about putting the past to rest?

He couldn't deny that Nina stirred him up inside as much as ever. In fact, his ex-wife had accused him of never getting over Nina. Jenny had been wrong about that, though. He'd been furious with Nina Spencer. She hadn't been able to shake the dust of Tennessee off her shoes fast enough at a time when he'd needed her most.

She'd called him the night after the accident, upset and crying, saying she was leaving that night for New York. Right then. And she begged him to come with her. No warning of her change of plans, she just wanted to go.

But he couldn't leave his family when they were falling apart, and she'd never forgiven him for it. Then again, things had only gotten worse after she left, and he'd blamed her for not being there with him. For impulsively taking off. Within the month, they were done speaking for good.

So just because Mack's temperature spiked into the triple digits whenever he saw her didn't mean he'd ever forget the way she'd bailed on him.

* * *

W
HEN
N
INA
HAD
left Manhattan, she'd taken only her espresso machine and her cat on a red-eye flight.

Now, two days later, the rest of her worldly possessions were being unloaded off the back of a sketchy-looking moving truck and into one of her grandmother's barns. She hadn't wanted her things being manhandled by repo men in New York.

“Careful with that!” Nina blurted to one of the movers as he struggled with an antique pie rack that had been a gift from a client. Her apartment furnishings would all remain in the city just in case she could figure out a way to get her life and her career on track again. She was in a holding pattern for now between the business and her grandmother's health. She was mostly in Tennessee, but she'd left one foot in New York in case things were a total bust here. After all, if her grandmother truly needed to go into assisted living, there wouldn't be anything tying her to Heartache.