by Joanne Rock
“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.
* * *
WHEN NINA 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.
But for now, Nina would stay in Tennessee until the scandal surrounding her business died and she’d liquidated some assets, then she’d figure out where to go next. Her partner had been in charge of the books for their shared bakery venture and she’d drained their account before eloping with a high-profile client on the eve of his wedding.
Big, fat mess.
“I’ve got it,” one of the movers assured her, sweat dripping off his forehead as he struggled to keep the pie rack off the concrete floor. “We can handle this.”
Telling herself not to micromanage, Nina nodded and took the opportunity to grab a cup of coffee from inside the house. She could smell bacon frying before she reached the screen door.
“Gram!” What was she going to do with her? Even with a cane, her grandmother stood at the stove with a fork in one hand.
Yanking open the screen, Nina hurried to take her place.
“You’re just in time for breakfast.” Gram tried shooing her away, her freshly colored blond locks tucked behind one ear. “I can get it, for crying out loud. How do you suppose I ate before you got here?”
“Humor me.” Nina guided her to a padded metal chair from a mismatched bunch of flea-market finds clustered around a butcher block table. “Let me at least serve, okay?”
“Only because I love you and want to make you happy.” Her grandmother kissed her cheek and took a seat, her swollen knuckles clutching the table as she lowered herself slowly. “Just don’t get in the habit of waiting on me, dear.”
“Okay.” Nina made quick work of plating the eggs and bacon, her stomach growling the whole time. “But if you’re doing well, why does Dad say you should be considering assisted living?”
She’d been surprised by his tersely worded email urging Nina to convince his mother to move into a new place where she would have someone checking on her.
“Because he doesn’t want to be bothered by phone calls from his mother.” Gram winked at her over the rim of her coffee cup, but Nina didn’t think she was joking.
She peered over the white ruffled café curtains on one window to check on the movers’ progress in the barn and then took a seat at the table.
“I know he’s selfish, Gram.” He’d never inconvenienced himself for them, and Nina doubted he was any different with his second wife or her children—half siblings Nina had met only because she insisted on visiting twice a year to at least make an effort. “But he’s never brought up something like assisted living before. Did the doctors voice new concerns to him?”
“I have no idea what any of my doctors would have told him.” Gram rose to refresh her coffee even though she’d hardly taken three sips.
“That sounds...carefully worded.” Nina’s eye strayed to the oversize vintage stove that Gram had used since her wedding, a Wedgewood appliance where Nina had learned how to bake.
This kitchen had been a refuge for a child continually shuttled between feuding parents. When she was in Heartache, she wasn’t in the crossfire. On the downside, being left here time after time as a child and then permanently when she was ten years old only underscored that she wasn’t wanted. “I may have tuned out some of what your father said.” Gram shuffled back to the table, slower this time. Because of the full coffee cup, or did that knee still bother her more than she wanted to admit?
Nina wanted to help, but also didn’t want to hover. She watched every cautious step and felt tense inside.
“Would you mind if I followed up with your doctors?” Nina sipped her orange juice and tried to focus on the moment and what needed to be done—and not on Mack Finley.
“You want to talk to my doctors. So they can tell you what? That I’m eighty-four and my bones are brittle?” Gram chuckled and pointed a pink fingernail at her. “We both know that already. I’m being careful. I don’t even wear cute shoes anymore.” She stuck out her mint-green-colored tennis sneaker as a reminder. “But if you really want to talk to them, sugar plum, of course you can.”
“Sugar plum?”
Gram smiled and patted her cheek. “I’ve missed you, pretty girl. You never visit for more than a weekend anymore, and I have a lot of endearments to cram into these days together.”
Guilt pinched, but this time, it mingled with nostalgia.
“I’ve missed you, too.” She sipped h
er coffee, her grandmother’s brew so strong she wondered if she’d have to hook up her espresso machine after all. “I don’t think I realized how much.”
“I knew the bacon would win you over.”
“Even the coffee is better here.” Everything tasted better at home. Maybe it was because she’d learned all that she knew about cooking and baking from the woman seated next to her. “I’m actually dying to cook in this kitchen again. I forgot how much I loved the stove. And I’ve been so focused on baking the last few years that I haven’t spent much time on other kinds of dishes.”
“You cook all you want. I’d rather have you in the kitchen than playing sleuth at my doctor’s office.” Gram frowned and tapped her newly manicured nails against her coffee cup for a moment before she met Nina’s gaze. “I don’t want to give up my independence or this house, hon. So, please, make sure your father doesn’t try and pull a fast one on me to get me out of here, okay?”
Worry made Nina’s stomach clench. Her grandmother had always seemed invincible. She’d carved out a living for herself in a big old empty farmhouse after her husband died when he’d been fifty-five. Gram had been on her own ever since, living frugally and selling off pieces of land and equipment to supplement odd jobs like canning and making jellies for a local farm store. Not until recently had she ever spent a nickel on herself, and that was only because Nina had given her a year’s worth of salon services for Christmas last year. Gram was crafty and cagey. A survivor. And it sent a sharp pain through Nina to hear a note of fear in this strong woman’s voice.
“Of course.” As soon as she made the promise, though, she wondered how she would keep it if she ended up moving home to New York. “I mean, I’ll talk to Dad and clear things with your doctors since obviously, we all want you to be safe, too. But you look great to me.”
Gram quirked an eyebrow, clearly hearing the backpedaling.
A sharp rap on the kitchen door startled her and saved her from digging herself any deeper into a hole.
“It’s Ethan, Mrs. Spencer,” a young man’s voice called through the closed door.