Page 44 of Save the Last Dance
Ally wanted to ask her more about that, but guessed Rachel would only be offended. Why would she talk about herself when Ally hadn’t answered any of Rachel’s questions? Guilt stabbed at Ally while she made some adjustments to the maze design.
Ally decided she would ask Gram for advice on the Rachel situation when she went over to her house. Maybe that would distract Gram from quizzing Ally about thehospital visit. Because if Rachel hadn’t spilled the secret, maybe there was still a chance that Ethan wouldn’t find out. Unfortunately, just as Ally passed Rachel’s tablet back to her with a few changes to the facade of the maze, two people approached them who knew all about Ally’s problems. Wasn’t it just her luck that Uncle Mack and her old babysitter Nina Spencer were headed their way with the cans of spray paint for marking out the maze?
Chapter Ten
“You sure youdon’t want a hand?” Mack looked back and forth between his niece and her classmate.
The two girls had politely accepted the wagon full of spray paint cans and twine to mark off their maze, but they seemed more than ready to be left alone to do their work.
“Won’t you have to do a lot of measuring to be sure you don’t get off track with the dimensions?” Nina studied the image of the proposed maze on Rachel’s tablet. She’d dropped by the fairgrounds to meet with the Harvest Fest committee earlier about the food and had stayed through the afternoon to help out with an assortment of chores that needed to be taken care of before the festival began on Friday. “It seems like this will take forever.”
Ally shook her head while the other girl, Rachel, stepped forward.
“I’m texting the final layout to a bunch of our friends.” She held up her phone for proof. “I superimposed a grid on the image and we’ll each take a section to work on. It shouldcome together pretty quickly that way since all the measurements are on each portion of the image.”
“Cool.” Ally leaned closer to the girl’s phone to check it out. “What friends?”
Did Ally sound nervous, or was Mack just paranoid after the girl’s episode at work? He’d watched his mother for signs of mood shifts for so long that it was second nature. He glanced toward Nina, looking to see if she was thinking along the same lines.
And since when had he fallen right back in synch with her?
“Anyone from math class with a car.” Rachel shrugged, scrolling through screens on her phone. “You know, Brad, Davy, Ethan?—”
“He’s in your phone, too?” Ally asked.
Definitely nervous. Nina glanced his way, her look telling him she’d heard the tension, too.
“Girls, the maze is going to be spectacular.” Nina passed the tablet back to Rachel. “Ally, can I talk to you for just one quick second before we go?
When Ally appeared unsure, Mack asked Rachel about the maze design to distract her. But the girl came to life, firing off references to European labyrinths and math formulas he’d forgotten as soon as he finished college. His head hurt by the time Nina and Ally were done with their private chat. Rachel Wagoner finished her lesson by telling him to look up the Hollywood Stone because of his family’s Irish connections.
As he and Nina walked away from the girls, he heard Ally asking Rachel which piece of the grid she should take so they could begin painting. His niece seemed okay today. Grounded.
He wished he could say the same about himself. Heturned his attention to the woman beside him, a woman who was still tying him up in knots half the time.
He and Nina continued along the perimeter of the fairgrounds toward the manmade pond where there would be cardboard boat races over the weekend.
“You have time for me to give you a rowboat tour?” Mack pointed to the assortment of vessels along the shore of the pond. There were two pedal boats and two rowboats. “You can fill me in on the finalized food service plans. And you can tell me what Ally said in that secret conversation you just had with her.”
“Of course.” Nina glanced over her shoulder toward the girls. “I feel guilty I haven’t made it a point to visit Ally before now. Bethany had asked me to, but I didn’t realize how much the girl needed a friend or I would have made it my top priority.”
“Was Ally upset just now? I got the sense she didn’t want Rachel to have anything to do with Ethan Brady.” He halted as they reached the water’s edge, hoping like hell Ally was going to be okay.
How did parents cope with that kind of stress? He had no idea how Scott dealt with all the pressures of being a parent plus the knowledge that his daughter would face some of the same battles their mother had.
“Me, too.” Nina slipped out of her low heeled leather boots while Mack checked the boat over.
She climbed in while he pushed it into the water. He smiled to himself, enjoying the simple ways they still worked in harmony. Conversations might be awkward. And the dance they were doing around the sensual chemistry was definitely a cautious interaction, but he’d be an idiot to deny the connection between them. They’d shared all their hopes and dreams at one time. You didn’t just forget thatexperience. He’d never opened his heart to anyone as much as he had to her. No matter how much he’d loved Jenny, he’d already been burned. He’d been more defensive. Less apt to share the same kind of stuff about himself that he’d shared with Nina because she’d been his best friend before she was his girlfriend.
“So what did you say to Ally? Do you think she’s…okay?”
“I just gave her a heads-up that she was wearing her heart on her sleeve as far as Ethan was concerned. I wanted to let her know because I didn’t think he and Rachel were an official couple.” Nina put a hand in the water, letting her fingertips glide along the surface while he stepped into the boat. “Also, I reminded her I’d love to get together any time she wanted to talk or bake or just hang out…” She shrugged. “I doubt she’ll take me up on it, but I wanted to at least put it out there.”
“That was nice of you.” Mack dipped the oars in the water and powered them forward, appreciating the workout since he hadn’t found enough time for physical activity since coming back to Heartache. “I’m worried about her and I think Scott’s got a lot of other things on his mind between Mom and Bethany.”
“Gram says half of parenting is worrying.” Nina winked. “So maybe you’re a natural father after all.”
Mack focused on each pull of the oars through the water.
