Page 20 of Save the Last Dance
“More like saving Kaleb from me.” She rolled her eyes. “What the hell is he doing out dancing on a Saturday night when he has young kids at home?”
“My sister told me he got divorced last year.”
“Right. That’s what he told me, too. So on his weekend with his kids he hires a sitter?” She shook her head. “It’s almost as bad as dumping your kid with a grandparent and never returning.”
There had been a time when Mack would have kissed the top of her head or given her an extra squeeze to comfort her when she made a comment like that. Now, fighting the urge to do both, he kept his eyes on hers and tried not to dwell on how perfectly she still fit in his arms.
“Have you seen your folks much over the years?” Her father was an entrepreneur who’d made a tidy sum in a dot-com venture, and her mom had lived off a small trust fund until she’d met Rick Spencer and then wealthier husband number two whose name Mack had forgotten.
“My mother called me after Olivia ran off with the hotel magnate and asked whyIhadn’t been the one to elope with a billionaire.” She stepped closer to him to avoid a couple of giggling kids chasing each other through the dancers and then racing back toward the playground equipment near the gazebo.
“Leave it to your mom to be a source of support in a crisis,” he muttered, pissed off for Nina’s sake.
“That’s not totally fair of me, I guess.” She plucked at the edge of his shirt collar absently while she spoke. “Mom was a good customer, with a standing order for cupcakes on all my half siblings’ birthdays.”
A good customer didn’t make a good mother, but of course, Nina was well aware of that. Besides, Mack didn’t really want to talk about her family or her business.
“Sorry I didn’t show up for the meeting last week about the Harvest Fest.” She quit playing with his collar, probably only just becoming aware that she’d been doing it.
The back of his neck tingled.
“I’d only asked you about it that morning. You’d mentioned you might not be able to be there. No big deal.” Although it pleased him that she was committing to the festival. Romantic history aside, Nina was a hard worker.
“I felt terrible that Bethany made the trip out to the farm to bring me the notes.”
“Don’t.” He’d tried not to take sides in his brother’s marital problems, but it wasn’t easy when he heard only one half of the arguments. “She finds reasons to stay busy so she can avoid Scott. And I don’t think either of them realize how deeply it’s effecting Ally.”
“I saw Ally earlier tonight and she barely waved at me when I said hello. She looked really unhappy.” Nina frowned. “For that matter, they all seem really unhappy. I don’t understand how you can go from being deeply in love to being so…uncaring about each other. Once you love someone, you don’t juststop.”
Her gaze flipped up to his, searching for answers he couldn’t give.
“For what it’s worth, I didn’t just stop caring about you, Nina.”
Even in the dim twinkle of white lights, he noticed the color rise in her cheeks.
“I didn’t mean us.” Nina shook her head, pink beads jangling from her earrings. “We were hurt because of a traumatic event that changed the world around us. We were still teenagers. We didn’t have all the history of along-married couple. What changed for Scott and Bethany?”
The slow song they’d been dancing to came to an end and Mack realized he’d have to let Nina go. His hands lingered.
“Some people fall out of love. I’ll be damned if I understand why.” They stopped their shuffling steps on the grass, but didn’t move away from each other.
“If you speak the vows, there shouldn’t be any falling ‘out’ of anything. You stay. You fight through it and stand up for the person you made promises to—” She paused. Cursed. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for it to come out like that.”
Because he knew her well—at least he used to—he understood that the passionate words weren’t about Scott and Bethany. They were about her own parents.
Knowing that on an intellectual level didn’t stop Mack from feeling like it was an indictment of his own marriage. Somehow, he’d failed Jenny. But even before that, he’d failed Nina.
“Right.” He agreed 100 percent. “Keep in mind I’m not the one who left. Not with Jenny. Sure as hell not with you.”
Her hands fell away from his shoulders, her gray eyes registering confusion and—for a split second—hurt. The music shifted into another upbeat tune, sending dancers near them back into a two-step while he and Nina remained locked in old memories and hurts.
“I didn’t mean?—”
“Yeah. I know.” He understood her better than she realized. That didn’t lessen the bite of the words. “Thanks for the dance.”
Unable to handle the pressure sitting on his chest or theunique hurt of simply being close to her, Mack turned and walked away, wondering how many times it would take letting go of her before he finally stopped feeling her in his arms.
And the Footin Mouth Award goes to…
