Page 23 of Save the Last Dance (Take the Backroads #1)

Chapter Nine

“ N ina!”

Gram’s voice carried up the stairs on the same shrill note Nina remembered from her childhood days. Back then, her grandmother had called her like that only when Nina had overslept and was going to miss the bus. Now, Nina worried she needed help or was trying to do too much on her own.

“Coming!” Still damp from a late morning shower, Nina stuffed her arms into the sleeves of a heavy flannel robe that had magically appeared in her closet a few days ago after Gram said Nina had forgotten how to dress for the farm.

Nina had refrained from arguing the point, even though the “farm” hadn’t been operational for a long time and maybe Nina didn’t care to dress in jeans and flannel like a country girl cliché. Although, damn it, she had to admit the robe was incredibly comfortable and warm for a chilly morning.

Hurrying down the stairs, she found Gram leaning her elbows on her walker in the kitchen, talking through the screen door.

She looked comfortable enough, smiling at Nina as she entered.

Her color was good and she seemed to be moving well enough after her fall at the Owl’s Roost. So why had she bellowed?

The mail carrier stood on the other side of the screen door, holding a few envelopes and what appeared to be a flyer from the local supermarket.

The woman was the same carrier who had been delivering Gram’s mail for the past two decades, but it took Nina a second to recognize Josephine with her gray hair dyed red now.

She smiled at Nina and waved with the mail while chomping her gum with enthusiasm.

“Registered letter for you, sweet pea.” Her grandmother edged the walker away from the door. “You need to sign for it.”

That couldn’t be good, could it? Nina shoved damp hair off her forehead and opened the door to reach for the pen the mail carrier held.

“Thank you.” Nina scrawled her signature where Josephine indicated. Distracted by the mail carrier’s rhinestone manicure, Nina almost forgot to check to see who had sent the letter while she signed. “Rathmore Hotels?”

“Rathmore. Isn’t that the last name of the man your partner ran off with?” Gram asked, pushing her walker so close Nina felt the bar in her hip.

“Bobby Rathmore is on the cover of one of the tabloids this week,” the mail carrier informed Gram. “He’s got a little slip of a girl under his arm. A blonde.”

“Really?” Nina handed Josephine back the pen, nervous about what the registered letter might say. “It wasn’t Olivia Delmonico, was it?”

The description sounded like Olivia. Bobby Rathmore’s fiancée had been a curvy redhead.

The postal worker shrugged. “I don’t know. Those jet-setters and Hollywood types change lovers every week. I see it on the covers all the time when I deliver the mail.” She handed Nina the envelope. “You ladies have a nice day.”

“Thank you,” Nina and her grandmother said at the same time while they turned to stare at each other.

“I don’t want to nose into your business.” Gram nodded at the delivery, the silk daisy pinned to her gray sweatshirt bobbing as she moved. “But I am dying of curiosity right now.”

“Me, too.” Nina pointed toward the table. “Should we sit?”

“Heck, no! You should start shredding into that paper, sugar plum.”

Too distracted to gripe about this morning’s dose of endearments, Nina did exactly what Gram suggested. She tore open the envelope, letting a few stray bits float to the floor. Inside a trifold piece of blank hotel stationery, there was a handwritten note on a smaller sheet of purple paper.

Nina smoothed out the lavender page, recognizing Olivia’s handwriting immediately.

Dear Nina,

I am so embarrassed to have learned that my actions have caused Cupcake Romance to close.

When I asked Bobby to leave town with me that night, I was caught up in the moment and did not consider how it would impact you.

I am enclosing contact information for Bobby’s lawyer, who has instructions for refunding your half of the money in our business account.

I hope this will not affect our friendship! I’ve had so much fun working with you.

Love always ,

Olivia

P.S.-The Seychelles are breathtaking!! You must visit.

Gram whistled softly as her finger trailed down the lines on the page, stopping at the last one.

“Unbelievable.” Nina realized her hands were trembling as she held the paper, but she couldn’t begin to pinpoint what emotion was responsible for the tremor.

Incredulity? Relief? Or the swell of anger that returned to her now along with a renewed sense of betrayal?

“You are a generous, warmhearted woman, Nina.” Gram lifted a hand from her walker to lay on Nina’s back. “But even so, this bimbo has lost her marbles if she believes draining your bank account and running you out of business isn’t going to affect your friendship.”

“I’m sure she thinks if I go to the Seychelles it will magically be all better.” She stood in the quiet kitchen, hair still dripping while a songbird trilled just outside the screen door. And something about the tone of the letter suddenly reminded her of other letters and other broken promises.

“What exactly are the Seychelles?” Gram asked. “Am I supposed to be impressed?”

She pronounced it like “sea shells” and let the brunt of her Tennessee accent fully brutalize the word.

Nina couldn’t help but smile. “It’s an island chain in the Indian Ocean that most people only get to see on National Geographic. ”

But then, Olivia had visited lots of places Nina had only dreamed about.

Maybe that had been part of her appeal as a friend.

Nina had often lived vicariously through Olivia’s adventures.

These days, though, she wondered why she’d cared.

Living in New York had fulfilled some of her wanderlust. Besides, she wasn’t the girl who’d been left behind anymore, always wishing she could jet off to wherever her parents might be.

Gram gave a dubious harrumph and pointed a weathered finger at the purple notepaper. “You know who she sounds like in this letter?”

Nina shook her head, too overwhelmed to say much.

“Your mom.” Gram edged her walker away from Nina toward the kitchen cabinets, the awkward movement rousing Nina from her reverie to help.

“Seriously?” Funny she’d just been thinking about her parents. She kept an eye on Gram’s feet to make sure each shuffling step landed securely.

“Well, sure.” Gram pointed to the cabinet where she kept the tea, so Nina opened it and then reached sideways to heat the kettle on the stove.

“She’s sorry for letting you down, but sends her love and wants forgiveness.

She’s off running around the world with no real worry about her responsibilities back home because all her life, someone else has cleaned up her messes. ”

Nina let that sink in while Gram lifted one tea tin after another, searching for the flavor she wanted today.

“You’re right,” she acknowledged finally, amazed to realize that Gram had seen through Olivia in five seconds flat. “I can’t believe I went into business with a clone of my mother.” Maybe, in some weird way, she’d hoped Olivia wouldn’t let her down all the times her mom had.

“I wouldn’t go that far.” Gram unearthed a faded tin of Lemon Zinger from the back of the cabinet and brought it down to the counter.

“It makes total sense, though. I left here because I was restless and needed a change of scenery after Vince’s death.

” She hadn’t been thinking about Mack or Jenny or Vince’s family.

She’d been focused on burying her own hurt.

“And because I was trying to forget the past, I hung out with friends who were equally…self-involved.”

Her shoulders slumped.

“Oh, honey, don’t be so hard on yourself.

You were a driving force behind the success of that business in spite of the fact you partnered with a flighty nut.

” Gram’s phone rang but she ignored it. “Don’t mistake your natural vivacious personality for some kind of defect.

You are enthusiastic and optimistic and we wouldn’t want you any other way. ”

She appreciated her grandmother letting her off the hook so easily, but Nina wasn’t quite as sure.

“You want me to grab that?” Nina searched around the kitchen for Gram’s phone while it chimed again.

“No. I’ll call him back.”

“Him?”

“Just a hunch.” She winked. “How about you fix that tea while I take a seat and you can tell me all about your next move? If you really think Miss Olivia will return that money, are you going to try and save that business you worked so hard to build?”

A week ago she would have answered in a blink, ready to start whipping up some cupcakes. Not anymore. She wasn’t sure what she would do professionally, but she was still certain she wanted to come home.

Nina watched her grandmother edge across the kitchen with the walker, angling the device through a narrow spot between an antique secretary and the corner of the table.

It was a constant battle for Nina to restrain herself from helping too much, since that only riled Gram up and Nina understood her need for independence.

Plus, Gram’s new physical therapist had showed Nina the kinds of tasks that Gram should be able to manage on her own.

But there was an increasingly long list of things she couldn’t manage, and if she was going to keep any part of her independence, she needed Nina here.

“No.” She felt a new peace settle over her as she confided her plans to her grandmother. “I’m staying right here.”

“Really, honey?” Gram looked surprised for a second before she grinned. “I’m so glad to hear it. You deserve some closure with Mack. He’s such a fine man.”

Mack? Nina’s sense of peace evaporated. When had she said anything about Mack, let alone closure? Their wounds went too deep to slap a bandage on them and be done.

Too late, Nina realized that now that she was staying, she needed to find a way to keep a surface peace with Mack and protect her heart at the same time.