Page 4 of Save the Last Dance (Take the Backroads #1)

Chapter Two

M ack watched the ancient blue pickup barrel away, Nina’s words still rattling around in his head.

Mack’s best friend had been hitting on Nina after a graduation party.

Nina had called him out on it—making a scene in front of Vince’s girlfriend, Jenny, and the rest of their friends.

Mack knew it was because Vince had gotten friendly once too often with Nina.

But to the rest of their friends, her reaction had been harsh.

Especially when they learned that afterward, Vince had taken off in Mack’s car and crashed into a steel bridge support, dying instantly.

For a couple of hours, people had assumed the body was actually Mack’s, working his bipolar mother into a state that eventually led to a brief hospitalization. It had all been…pure hell. Mack had been pulled in every direction, everyone in his life had needed something from him.

Meanwhile, Nina had dealt with it by speeding up her timetable for leaving Heartache.

She packed her bags and took off. He hadn’t blamed her.

But how could he have gone with her, considering the fragile state of everyone is his life?

His mother. Vince’s mother. Vince’s girlfriend, Jenny.

But Nina had never forgiven him for choosing them over her.

In the front yard, a screen door across the street slammed. Boots strode along pavement in an even, purposeful rhythm. Mack yanked his gaze from his mother’s house to see Scott heading across the shared lawn separating the neighboring homes, two beers in his hand.

“You okay?” Scott asked as he approached, pressing one of the longnecks into Mack’s palm.

“Positively crappy.” He snapped the top off his beer and indulged in a rare drink. As an occasional bartender at his Nashville club, he cleaned up enough sticky alcohol at closing time to make him stay away from the stuff most days.

Today was not most days.

“That about sums it up.” Scott tapped the bottom of his drink against Mack’s. “I take it Mom didn’t bother answering the door?”

Mack shook his head. “They left the pie on the side porch. I’ll bring it in when I go say hello.”

“Mom doesn’t always answer for Bethany anymore, either.” Scott shrugged. “I’ve been meaning to ask her doctor about it, but she cancelled her last appointment.”

His mom had been quiet lately, not saying much when he phoned her. But he hadn’t realized she’d retreated to this extent. She’d always been happy to see Daisy Spencer.

“I noticed you and Nina exchanged a few words before she left.” Scott took a long drink and waited for information Mack had no intention of sharing. “You want to talk about it?” he asked finally.

“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.”