Page 27 of Save the Last Dance
“He must have felt bad when he remembered the allergy.” Nina didn’t know what else to say. Men could be forgetful and clueless. But Scott always seemed so well meaning. She wasn’t sure Bethany would thank her for standing up for him just now, though.
“I wouldn’t know how he felt. He was in Nashville with his mom that day. I got the flowers from a delivery truck and went into anaphylactic shock. His sister took me to the hospital and picked up Ally from school.”
Oh, Scott.
Did he have any idea how close his marriage was to imploding? Nina’s heart squeezed tight for both of them. She wanted to ask more, to find out how Ally was doing, but Bethany stood abruptly.
“I’m so embarrassed for talking about me the whole time, Nina. We need a girl date where guy-talk is off-limits. But there’s the delivery I was expecting.” She pointed to a tractor trailer just pulling into the parking lot, its smokestack puffing a gray cloud into an otherwise blue sky. “I shouldreally?—”
Her walkie-talkie crackled to life, a woman’s voice suddenly blaring from it.
“Mrs. Finley?”
“I see the truck, Grace. I’m coming.” Bethany gave Nina an apologetic look as she got to her feet.
“I’ll let you get back to work.” Nina rose, careful not to split the skirt of her sheathe dress as she hopped off the picnic table bench seat.
Grace’s voice crackled again. “It’s The Strand Salon on the phone for you, ma’am. They said it’s urgent. Ally is hurt and they need you to come down there right away.”
Mack hated hospitals.
He shoved through the main doors downstairs at the facility in Franklin, a full half hour drive from Heartache. He understood why Bethany had brought Ally here after the girl had cut herself—purposely—at work today. But damn it. The scent of antiseptic and bleach always brought him back to the nights as a kid when his mom had an “accident” with her medicine.
Or later, when he’d brought Jenny to this very same hospital.
His phone vibrated—as it had every five minutes with a text from his mother asking for an update. Stalking toward the elevators, he pulled his phone out of his back pocket, tempted to heave the thing across the reception area so he didn’t have to answer it anymore. Didn’t have to pretend everything was okay for his mom’s sake.
“Mack?”
Nina’s voice stopped him. She appeared out of the crowd on his left, her red linen dress and heels making it apparent she hadn’t planned to spend her day in a hospital,yet here she was. Her expression looked as worried as he felt inside.
And he couldn’t deny a rush of relief to see her, even if he still wondered what had gotten into him when he’d asked her out again. She’d always be a restless spirit with notions of the white picket fence and family he’d never be able to fill.
“Hey.” He shoved his phone back in his pocket, another text already causing it to vibrate. “Thank you for coming.”
She gave a jerky nod, a caramel-colored strand of her hair teasing her cheek while the elevator doors swept open and a crowd of people carrying flowers and “get well” balloons rushed to fill it.
“I was with Bethany when she got the call that Ally had—” She gave a helpless shrug. “Hurt herself.” She breathed out a shuddering sigh. “I feel so bad for their whole family. Bethany was close to the breaking point even before the call. I drove her to the salon because there’s no way she could have gotten behind the wheel.”
“Thank you. You don’t seem that steady yourself.” Unable to stop himself, he reached for her hand. Squeezed it. “How are you holding up?”
Seeing her fingers wrapped around his helped to settle him even if it didn’t do a damn thing for her. He had to be careful. It was one thing to ask her out to dinner so they could put the past to rest. But having her here, with his family, stirred up so much more.
He wished they wanted the same things. But he’d be leaving Heartache soon and he could never fulfill the longing she had to have a real family of her own. She deserved it after what she’d gone through with her parents,never having siblings and barely having her parents in her life. But Mack’s family had created so many problems for him that he refused to recreate the same situation with children of his own. He’d visited shrinks plenty of times over the years just to be sure his occasional bad days were normal. Level. He wasn’t about to pass on those fears to a kid.
“I’m okay.” She let go of his hand to retrieve some tissue from a leather purse tucked under one arm. “I drove her and Ally here because Bethany didn’t want to call an ambulance, and I didn’t blame her. Ally’s arms had stopped bleeding by then.”
The weight of what his niece was going through him hit him like a semi-truck.
“I got a text from Scott.” He didn’t mention the thirty texts he’d received from his mother.
“He beat us to the ER so he was able to help Bethany when we arrived. I stayed down here to wait for you because I didn’t want to be in the way, and I knew coming here would be—” she gestured to the waiting room “—tough.”
Nina must remember him telling her about the nights as a kid when his dad would wake them up so he could drive their mom here. She didn’t know about that darkest of ER visits with Jenny.
“The toughest part is realizing that Ally could be facing the same kinds of issues Mom does.” The elevator doors swished open and an orderly pushed a wheelchair with a smiling young mom holding a newborn wrapped in pink. A dad juggling bags and flowers sprinted out ahead of them, car keys jingling.
“You don’t think—” Nina bit her lip, her gaze lingering on the pink bundle before returning to him. “That neveroccurred to me. I guess I just figured…I don’t know. Teenage angst.”
