Page 34 of Save the Last Dance (Take the Backroads #1)

“You remember, we sneaked back home after midnight.” Mack had taken a bike from the farm to make the trip home faster.

Gram had been waiting up for her to find out what had happened since she’d heard only half the story—that there’d been an accident in town.

Back then, Gram hadn’t used her phone much, let alone any other technology.

“And you called me after you got home to say?—”

“That I shocked the hell out of my family by being alive.” He didn’t even look at her. “Yeah, I remember.”

They’d realized then that it had been Vince who’d been killed. Nina had been almost too stunned to speak. The guilt, disbelief and sorrow literally took her legs out from under her. She ended up on the floor.

“Well, I was worried for you.” And shaken. God, her world had changed irrevocably in that moment. “I never did go to sleep.”

“Neither did anyone else, Nina.” He sounded weary. Impatient.

She tried to remember what her college counselor had said about people handling grief differently and knew that had been true for her and Mack. She’d felt so much at once, while he’d felt each facet slower and deeper. Longer.

“Right.” Toying with a saltshaker, she knocked it over, spilling salt everywhere. “So I drove over to your house just before dawn. To talk to you. Or just see you. I couldn’t stand being by myself.”

Mack might have needed her in the months after Vince’s death and considered her absence an abandonment. But damn it, she’d needed him right then. She’d cursed the fact that they were only eighteen because in her heart, she’d already believed he was her soul mate.

“I was probably in my father’s office, getting another lesson about how to talk to police officers and what to say to the press. We discussed the best approach to expressing Finley grief.” The bitterness in his voice was evident. “But I didn’t think you’d show up at the house because we’d agreed?—”

“I figured the circumstances were unique.” She bit off each word, anger rising.

Finally, he looked up at her. “You’re right.”

Being justified didn’t make telling the rest of the story any easier. And since Mrs. Finley had been in a horrible, horrible place that night, it wouldn’t serve anyone any good to tell him everything that had been said. She hoped his mother didn’t remember.

“Your mom answered the door when I knocked.” Nina remembered thinking she didn’t look anything like the woman she saw at church sometimes.

Her blond bob had stuck up in odd directions.

A chunk of hair had been missing in the front to reveal a patch of bloody scalp. She’d obviously torn a section out.

Nina had known right away that she’d made a huge mistake.

Mack swore under his breath, but there wasn’t any heat in it.

“You know what?” He stood abruptly. “I’m not sure I can handle hearing this right now. And I’ve already got a damn good idea of the kind of things she would have said to you that night. She screamed enough crap at me that I’ll never forget without me taking on everything she said to you, too.”

Nina had never seen him truly angry. But he was mad now. The emotions he normally kept on lockdown animated his body movements and simmered in his eyes. She tugged his shirt tighter around her and wished she’d never opened her mouth.

Wished she’d never been foolish enough to act on impulse with him. When would she ever learn?

“I’ll get going.” She stood, backing out of the banquette on the side opposite him. “I have baking to do.” It was a lame thing to say, but she was too upset to think clearly.

“Right. Great.” He rapped the side of his fist lightly against the stainless steel fridge, the tension in him coiled tight. “But I wonder how in the hell you justified being pissed at me for not telling you about Jenny’s miscarriage when you kept this tidbit to yourself for eight years.”

She’d been trying to protect him, hadn’t she? She brushed past him to get into the bedroom so she could put her clothes on.

“Because my mother ended up in the hospital after that showdown, Nina. It might have been helpful to us if we’d known what had driven her over the edge.”

She whirled on him.

“You take that back.” She’d spent many therapy sessions talking about that particular point and trying to come terms with her guilt. “I did not cause your mother’s breakdown.”

He said nothing. Eight years ago, that would have devastated her. Now, she saw it for what it was. He never talked about his emotions and he stuffed everything deep down to take care of others. So when those emotions came out, he didn’t have a clue how to handle them.

“Mack Finley. I’m calling a cab. I am leaving.

But before I do, you’re going to apologize for that piece of nastiness because you know it’s not true.

” She picked up her clothes and marched toward his bathroom to try and pull herself together, knowing it wouldn’t be as easy to resurrect her heart as it would be her outfit .

“Wait.” Mack didn’t move at first, then he executed a sprint that put him between her and the bathroom door just before she reached it. “I’m sorry.”

She shook from the force of all she’d been feeling—the guilt, the anger and, yes, the heartbreak. Because she understood that this fight wasn’t just about the past. It was about their inability to find their way toward a future.

“Me, too.” Her voice cracked. “I was hopeful today, Mack. I almost believed we could turn things around and…I don’t know. Figure out a way to build something together.”

Even now, every cell inside her seemed to strain toward him, craving his touch. Maybe even his love. But she smothered that thought as soon as it flickered in her consciousness. It wasn’t too late to salvage some pride and sense of self.

“That’s what I wanted, too, Nina.” His hands reached toward her and then stopped in midair. They stayed there for a second before falling uselessly at his sides. “But I didn’t have all the pieces of the puzzle to make that call. I didn’t know?—”

“What?” she prodded when he didn’t seem inclined to finish the sentence. “That you weren’t the only one with secrets from that summer? That I hid things from you too?””

His jaw flexed. “I didn’t know that I’d failed to keep you safe from the family drama. All these years, I thought I’d at least done that much right.”

She instantly regretted needling him. He’d been thinking of her and she’d been too busy being defensive to realize it. Nina was still struggling with how to respond when he turned on his heel.

“No need to call a cab. I’ll bring you home when you’re ready.” He was almost out of the bedroom when his cell phone rang .

It vibrated on a table near where Nina stood, so she picked it up and brought it to him, her heart an absolute mess. She wanted to fix something, anything. Smooth over the rough edges all around them. But Mack seemed so distant now.

Flipping over the device, he looked at the screen as the phone chimed again. They could both read the name of the caller.

Mom.

“I’ll call her when we get back.” Mack jammed the phone in his pocket. “I’ll be in here when you’re ready to go.”

He disappeared into the other room, leaving Nina to dress in privacy. She moved slowly, though, knowing when she left here today, she wouldn’t ever be coming back. Mack didn’t trust her anymore, for one thing. She’d kept one too many secrets and crossed a boundary with his mom.

Never mind that he’d said damn hurtful things, too.

Sometimes romance couldn’t be repaired. Her mother had told her as much during her parents’ divorce, but she’d refused to believe it.

She’d even opened Cupcake Romance thinking she could help others toward the happy-ever-afters she wanted desperately to believe in.

Too bad she had no clue how to forge one of her own.