Page 15 of Save the Last Dance (Take the Backroads #1)

“Really?” Frowning, Bethany checked her watch. “Wow, it’s almost noon. Actually, I have some deliveries coming soon. Would you mind if we sat out back for a few minutes instead? There’s a picnic table, and it’s so nice outside.”

A few minutes? And no food?

“Is it too late to call Grace back with the cupcakes?” As soon as she said it she realized it was rude to give a gift and then ask to eat it. “Kidding,” she covered lamely. “I’d love to sit outside.”

Ten minutes later, they had cups of water from the water cooler and cupcakes that Bethany requested on her walkie even though Nina had tried to fake like she didn’t need one.

Nina devoured a huge bite of hazelnut yumminess while Bethany carefully nibbled the edges of her cupcake where there was no frosting.

“You seem to have a huge amount of responsibility here,” Nina observed between bites, wishing she could have taken Cupcake Romance to the level of success that the store was obviously experiencing. “I can’t believe the size of the new building.”

“We’ve more than doubled it.” Bethany set down her cupcake and glanced back toward the building.

A delivery truck was just pulling into one of the loading bays.

“I thought at the time working on the new building would bring Scott and I closer. I quit teaching so I could be here full-time.” She shrugged.

“But I think, since I lobbied for the expansion, he figured I could handle the added workload. I went from occasional hours to full-time to manager in the course of a year.”

Nina tried to put the pieces together and couldn’t make them fit. “Doesn’t he work here anymore?”

She didn’t mean to pry, but Scott used to be a fixture at the store when Nina lived in town.

“Unofficially? Yes, he comes in and helps with deliveries now and again.” Bethany’s posture turned stiff and she crossed her arms. “But he hasn’t collected a paycheck in years.

The owners of the company—Scott and his siblings—only make money if the business realizes a profit, so you can bet I’m motivated to see that we operate in the black.

Since I left teaching, the store is our only source of income. ”

“You’re obviously doing an incredible job. I wish I had half your business smarts. Maybe I’d still have a bakery business.”

“Well, thank you.” Bethany gave a clipped nod while twisting the antenna on her walkie-talkie.

“I appreciate that. I did have a lot of help from Scott when I was starting out. He taught me so much in the early years about what makes a successful business. Although, if I had it to do over again, I don’t think I would have chosen to run a hardware store. ”

Nina couldn’t miss the wistful note in her voice.

“If Scott came back to the store, you could open a business of your own.” She remembered the thrill of those early days at Cupcake Romance, setting up all the social media sites and deciding how the logo should look.

Every day had been a new challenge and she’d worked from sunup to midnight for months straight, running on adrenaline and enthusiasm, utterly invested in her dream.

“That would be…amazing.” Bethany came close to smiling. “Amazing but impossible.”

Nina wanted to ask why, but maybe the problems in their marriage were too deep for Bethany to contemplate making any other changes in her life right now. It was a shame that she had worked so hard toward her husband’s dream while the whole Finley family benefitted and she grew resentful.

“Well, I won’t press you about it. But I’ll bet your husband would come back to the store if you chose to do something else.

I remember him being here all the time when I was younger.

He’s such a hard worker.” Nina had admired that in the whole Finley family.

She and Mack had served on student government together long before the days when he’d helped Nina pick peaches for her grandmother’s homemade jam.

Mack and Scott both took after their father, a man who had run a business before he ran the town.

Their sisters also owned a business, a second-hand boutique in town, turning their love of flea market shopping into a money-making venture.

There was no stopping the Finleys.

Bethany’s smile was tight. “And he still works hard. He helps anyone in town who’s building a house, for example, giving out advice for free that used to be part of the contracting side of the business.

” She shrugged. “Between you and me, I think Scott’s been lobbying for that mayor job since the day his father started to cut his hours at the county courthouse. ”

Nina’s vision of Scott shifted as she tried to picture the arrangement in their household. Bethany worked twice as hard to get Scott to notice her contribution. Meanwhile Scott seemed content to let her so he could do good works.

“Sounds like being the perfect couple is taking a toll,” Nina said before she edited it in her mind. Crap. “Sorry. What I mean is that you two are both working so hard, making a positive difference in the community. But when you’re striving in opposite directions, it must be hard to reconnect.”

She knew she was oversimplifying. Yet she felt compelled to point out something positive about their relationship.

Scott and Bethany weren’t the kind of people who should split up.

They had always been such a force to be reckoned with, organizing family reunions or fun-runs to raise money for local families who fell on hard times.

“I’m sure it would be difficult—if we tried. ” Bethany’s voice broke, a small sob escaping. “But when we don’t try, of course, it’s totally impossible.” She clamped her lips shut as if to hold back another outburst. Then she stuffed a big bite of cupcake into her mouth.

There was no mistaking the frustration in her voice stemmed from more than anger. It hinted at a deep love and a deep hurt. Because who got that upset about someone they didn’t care about?

Nina weighed her words, not wanting to say the wrong thing.

She must have taken too long, though, because Bethany shook her head and blurted, “I have no right to burden you with my problems when I haven’t seen you in so long, Nina.

It’s just that I’m not close to my family and I can’t talk about Scott to anyone at work because, well, he’s the boss here.

You know? I would never undermine him like that.

” She blinked fast. “I don’t want to chase you off talking about my problems. It was so nice of you to stop by today. ”

“I’m glad to see you, too. I used to be so sure you’d be my sister-in-law one day, and maybe a part of me still looks up to you like that.” She reached across the table to give Bethany’s arm a quick squeeze. “I hate that you’re going through such a rough patch right now.”

“This year has been a real wake-up call for me. But I’m sure I’ll find a way to…get through it.” Her shaky smile didn’t seem one bit certain about that.

“I don’t mean to overstep, but have you considered talking to a counselor about it?

I’m not close with my family, either, and a counselor helped me deal with some of my issues after I left Heartache.

” Nina had visited the counseling office at Manhattan College, working through Vince’s death and her parents’ abandonment in those first lonely years away from Mack.

Those events still hurt, but she’d learned how to deal with them better.

She took more time making big decisions, waiting to be sure she wasn’t reacting based on emotion.

She hadn’t even peeled out of New York at the first sign of trouble. Not until she’d spoken to her grandmother and found about Gram’s health did she decide to return home. She’d discussed it rationally with her landlord and made practical arrangements for the furniture.

“I asked Scott to go to therapy with me once, but he’s convinced that counselors are only for people like his mom who have more…overt issues.” Bethany straightened her phone on the picnic table beside the walkie-talkie. Then st raightened the walkie-talkie. The stress practically hissed off her.

“Have you seen much of Scott’s mother since Mr. Finley died?” Nina wondered if it was common for her to lock the door when visitors came over. Or if it was just part of her illness. “His loss must have been hard on her. On all of you.”

Had Bethany been the recipient of the same kind of scathing set-downs that Mrs. Finley had given Nina long ago?

She couldn’t imagine how difficult it would be to have your husband’s mother be so antagonistic toward you.

Her stomach still clenched tight to remember Mack’s mother’s words from that night.

“She’s done better than expected, but her doctor has been monitoring her closely.

And while her problems have taken their toll on us, for the most part, we’ve been able to deal with those.

” She started to play with her cupcake again, turning it in a half circle and setting it down.

Then rotating it another ninety degrees.

“The bigger issues are the ones he and I create.”

Nina wished she had answers for Bethany.

What if she could have talked like this to her mother before her parents had separated?

Would their reasons for splitting have seemed so…

thin? Granted, she was no marriage expert.

But if you weren’t going to battle hard for a happily-ever-after, why stand in front of the world and God and promise to do just that? Especially when a child was involved?

“What does he say when you tell him how you feel?” She folded her discarded cupcake wrapper and tilted her face into the Tennessee sunshine. It was so beautiful here. In New York, the days were turning cold.

At the thought of New York, she imagined tabloid journalists haunting the corner near her storefront, waiting for news of Olivia, her elopement and the jilted socialite bride. One more love affair gone wrong.