Page 26 of Save the Last Dance (Take the Backroads #1)

She frowned and he could see the doubt in her eyes. “Not if I start a new business here.”

He fought the urge to tip her head up and cradle her chin in his hand.

To make her listen to reason. “Nina, I listened to the dreams you had about moving to New York and making your mark on the city from the time you showed up in this town.” First, she was going to be a ballerina.

Then a Rockette. Later, a chef. But she’d always dreamed big.

“I know you’re worried about your grandmother, but she could go to New York with you. ”

“So for my own sake, I pack her up and move her away from the only home she’s ever known?

” She spread her arms wide in exasperation and the whole boat wobbled.

“Mack, she asked me specifically to help her stay in her house since my dad is talking about sending her to assisted living. If I uproot her now to live with me a thousand miles away, how am I any better than him?”

Seeing how worried she was shredded his last defense. Normally, she was so sure of herself. He didn’t stand a chance of keeping his hands off her when she needed comfort. To hell with keeping an eye on the fairgrounds.

“Because she’d be with you instead of with strangers.” He reached for her, his hand landing on her denim-clad knee. “Come on, Nina. You know it’s different than your dad shuffling her off just so he can sell the house.”

Nina’s parents had earned no respect from him in the few times he’d meet them. First, because they’d broken their proud daughter’s heart a little more every year that they all but ignored her existence. Second, because their selfishness extended to Daisy Spencer, who deserved a whole lot better.

“I can’t do that to Gram.” Nina shook her head and wiped the back of her hand along her eyes even though he hadn’t glimpsed even a hint of a tear. “She gave me a home and a family when I needed one more than anything. I’m not going to take that home away from her.”

Hearing the resolution in her voice, he realized he wasn’t going to change her mind. Nina Spencer was coming home even if it meant letting some of her old dreams die.

“Come here.” Mack found himself tugging her closer. “By me.”

He needed to hold her and it wasn’t just for his own sake, damn it.

He could see what this decision had cost her.

When he pulled her by the hand, she shifted positions so that she was sharing the bench seat with him.

He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and drew her close, bringing her vanilla scent near enough to inhale.

She laid her head on his shoulder and it felt like… his dreams.

He pressed a kiss to the top of her head, allowing his lips to linger against her silky blond hair longer than he probably should have.

She fit against him as though she was made for him.

As though she’d never left his side. He steeled himself against that line of thinking; they had a past they couldn’t change and a future they could never share.

So right now, he just wanted to offer her a shoulder.

“I still say your home is wherever you make it.” He guessed her grandmother would have gone with her to New York, but he understood why Nina wouldn’t ask.

“For me, maybe. But not for her. For Gram, home is where she lived with my Gramp, where she raised her son and, eventually, me. She likes being close to the fruit trees so she can make jam and pies.”

She lifted her head to look at him, her eyes full of emotion. Her lips within kissing range. His gaze dipped down to her mouth. And stayed there. Just like she was staying in Heartache.

“You’re really moving back here.” He realized he hadn’t really let himself believe it that first night when she’d told him under the stars in his convertible. It would take a while to sink in.

“I really am.” She sounded so damn sure of it. So steady.

His heart slugged a hard rhythm against his chest, his fingers moving over her shoulder, down her upper arm along the sleeve of a silky shirt until he touched bare skin.

It was an old dream of his for her to say these things to him while he held her tight. But damn it, he didn’t even want the same things anymore. Still, he’d dreamed it for so long he couldn’t deny the fierce grip the moment had on him…. The thought of her here, in Heartache.

And Nashville wasn’t as far away as New York… Damn it, what was he thinking?

Except he didn’t want to think. Hadn’t they agonized about their relationship enough? He only wanted to feel, unable to resist the full-on draw of Nina. Always Nina.

With his free hand, he cupped her chin. Cradled her face. Gave her plenty of time to back away. Instead, her eyelids fluttered and closed.

Something about that small acquiescence hit him square in the chest. She’d been so scared of being hurt again. No matter how much he wanted her, he had to keep her safe from that. Keep her safe from him. But right now, he couldn’t possibly stop himself from kissing her.

His lips brushed over hers once to remind himself how good she tasted.

Another time to savor the exquisite softness of her.

And a third time to make sure she knew how much he wanted her and how combustible they could be together.

It was that kiss that kicked things into high gear.

He teased her lips apart with his tongue, needing more of her taste.

She met each stroke of his tongue with one of her own, answering his kisses with a fire all her own.

And suddenly, it didn’t matter that they were floating in a tin boat around a little lake at the back of the fairgrounds.

The moment was all about Nina.

Mack wrapped both arms around her, his palms meeting at the small of her back. He cupped the curve of her waist and followed the delicate flare of her hips with his hands. She arched into him, her fingers sliding around his neck to lace together there.

He breathed her in, the sweet edible scent of vanilla urging him to find the source of the fragrance. He kissed along her jaw and to the delicate hollow behind her ear, making her gasp with pleasure.

Reminding himself to explore that spot further later, he kissed lower, nipping a path down her neck to find the root of that scent that was making him crazy.

“Mack.” Her fingers gripped his shoulders now as she clutched him tight. “What if someone sees us?”

A damned legitimate concern.

“We’re adults now.” He found a spot along her neck that made her sigh and traced it again. And again. “No more sneaking around in the orchard at night.”

She was quiet for so long he wondered if she was still worried about a possible PDA. Lifting his head from the decadent indulgence of kissing her, he glanced back to the fairgrounds .

Only to realize they’d floated toward the far shore, their boat already half-hidden by trees surrounding a quiet inlet.

“Look where we are.” He spoke into her ear, watching her face as she opened her eyes slowly and got her bearings. A smile curled her lips before she peered up at him. “It’s almost as if the universe conspired to give us this one anonymous kiss.”

“Or this one anonymous hour,” he said, pressing his luck, not letting the moment slip by him. “No one will come searching for me any time soon.”

“You? Mr. Festival Coordinator and a Finley at that?” Her fingers sketched a light touch along the back of his neck that made him want to row the boat to the closest shore so he could take her home with him. Stay in bed with her for days.

He was too consumed with the thought to answer. She smiled as she continued to tease him.

“Someone is going to be desperately searching for you any second with an urgent matter, like the haunted house ran out of spider webs. Or there’s been a rash of worms in the apples designated for bobbing.

” She leaned in to place a kiss under his jaw, her lips catching on the five o’clock shadow he wouldn’t have noticed if not for the way Nina skimmed along it.

High, firm breasts pressed against his chest, making him forget completely where they were and what they were supposed to be doing.

Heat rocketed through him and he recalled how potent her touches could be.

She channeled all the passionate hunger she brought to life into the way she kissed.

He remembered she did the same in the way she made love.

“It’s going to take a whole lot more than an apple bobbing issue to tear me away from you.” He slid his hands up her spine and back down, memorizing the feel of her again. And then, deliberately, he forced himself to pause. “But only if you’re sure this is what you want.”

She stilled, blinking. Her lips parted as if to speak and then snapped shut again.

“Because I didn’t row you out into the center of the lake to seduce you.” As much as the idea tempted him. “I only wanted to hold you because I know moving back here was never what you envisioned for yourself. But it’s not easy for me to touch you and not…want you.”

“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want you too.

” She tipped her forehead to his, the warmth of her skin seeping into his as the water lapped gently against the sides of the rowboat.

“But I don’t have anything figured out beyond tomorrow.

I’m not sure what to do about my business.

I don’t know if I should get a house in town or live on the farm.

And I definitely have no idea what to do with the feelings I have for you, so it wouldn’t be fair to start something when I’m not sure where I want it to go. ”

“Don’t worry about what’s fair for me.” He couldn’t say what tomorrow held either, but he did know she’d been on his mind constantly since he’d cruised into town. “I realize I can’t have forever with you, Nina. But what if we just enjoyed the time we have together again. Here. Today.”

“You make it sound so simple.” She bit her lip.

“It is simple.” His cell phone started to buzz in his back pocket; their window of time was closing.

But he couldn’t let the moment pass without making his point.

“Nina, you say you want to be less impulsive and I get that. But what we have isn’t some random itch to scratch.

We said as much that night we danced at Lucky’s and I kissed you on the swings. ”

A breeze blew through the nearby trees, casting shifting shadows over her face and stirring the scent of fall leaves .

“And what about that night on the bleachers? We didn’t follow the impulse then, or later when we parked the car and seriously considered climbing in that backseat.”

“I’ve been trying so hard not to be impetuous and make another mistake with you.” She stared at a point in the water and he could almost see the thoughts racing through her head as she weighed his words.

His cell phone buzzed again.

“Maybe this time our mistake will be not being impetuous.” He reached for the oar next to him and then slid an arm behind her to grab the one near her.

“And ironically, while you’re struggling to be more deliberate with your decisions, the years since Vince’s death have had the opposite effect on me. ”

She shifted to the seat across from him, studying him with wary gray eyes. “What do you mean?”

Dipping the oars in the water he leaned hard on one to get the boat turned around. They needed a new direction.

“Losing a friend showed me that life is too precious not to make the most of every second.” That’s what had finally pushed him to leave Heartache.

And it was the drive behind his business success at a young age.

“I’m not second-guessing myself these days, Nina.

We can’t possibly think through all the consequences of our actions when the future is impossible to predict. ”

“You’re right.” She nodded, her eyes shiny with unshed tears.

Damn it, he hadn’t meant to upset her, and he definitely hadn’t meant to talk about Vince.

“I didn’t mean to bring that up.” Frustration threaded through his muscles and pulsed at the base of his neck. “The past has stolen too damn much from both of us.”

“Not anymore.” She met his gaze with a level one of her own. “I’m not any happier when I drive myself crazy worrying about a decision before I make it.”

“What are you saying?” He didn’t want to jump to conclusions about what that might mean for them, but his nerve endings were already humming at the possibilities. He leaned harder into the oars, driving them faster toward the shore.

“That I’ve decided you’re right. I’m ready to enjoy the right now.

” She arched back to look up at the sky and lifted her hands in the air like she was on a speeding roller coaster ride instead of a rowboat.

The wind tossed her hair and fluttered through her blouse, making her smile and exposing a patch of skin just above the waist of her jeans. “I’m ready to live in the moment.”

His mouth dried up at the sight of her.

“Then come home with me tonight.”