Page 62 of Save the Last Dance
In the distance, he heard a siren.
“Rachel Wagoner. Please don’t tell my mother about this.” Her words were whispered but clear.
“Don’t talk if it hurts, Rachel. You’ve got a bad cut on your lip.” And he didn’t bother mentioning the totaled car would be tough to hide from the teen’s mother.
“I mean it. Don’t tell my mom. She’ll kill me.” She turned frightened eyes his way.
Determined to keep her calm, he said, “All teens feel that way. I’m sure your mom will just be relieved you’re alive.”
“You don’t know my mom.” She shook her head, then groaned, squeezing her eyes closed. “So glad I’m eighteen…almost free…” Her voice became wobbly.
“Calm down. It’s going to be okay.” Clearly, he needed to steer the conversation away from talk of her mother. “We’ll figure something out. I hear an ambulance now, okay? You’re almost out of here.”
The sirens grew louder and he knew from long experience in Heartache that the full contingent of rescue vehicles would have been dispatched. For once, he was glad as hell this was a small town, because there wouldn’t be any traffic to get in their way. They were going to take care of this girl.
“Please, call Ally instead,” the girl mumbled, her eyes sliding closed again. “I need to talk to her about something.”
Holding the girl’s hand as the sirens grew closer, Mack hoped her worries were just teenager melodrama and she was just overly concerned about wrecking the car and that was why she didn’t want him to contact her mother. Even so, since she was eighteen, technically, it was the girl’sdecision. Provided she wasn’t too out of it. All stuff for the police and hospital to sort out. For now, he could at least call his niece and let her know her friend needed her. No harm in that.
In spite of what he and Nina had been through today, he really, really wished he could pick up the phone and call her, too. Because no one else on the planet was going to understand what a unique hell this night had been for him. Although, now that he thought about it, maybe that wasn’t entirely true.
His mother would.
It’d been a long time since he’d had that particular thought. But since he already had a failed marriage and now that he’d sabotaged the fledgling bond he’d tried to rebuild with Nina, maybe the time had come to at least to heal that relationship. Tomorrow, he’d work on repairing things with his mom. If he was lucky, Nina might forgive him one day, too. But for now, he knew he’d never make it through the night without at least hearing her voice.
Nina’s phone rangin the middle of the night.
Sleepy and confused, she answered before she was fully awake. Cradling the cell to her ear, she hoped it wasn’t bad news.
“Hello?” She’d been too groggy to even look at the caller ID.
“Nina.” Mack’s voice came through the phone, so deep and warm that for a second, she forgot how chilly things had been between them when they’d parted earlier.
And then…she remembered. He wouldn’t be calling for phone sex after the words they’d had, that was for sure. Her heart hurt all over again as she stared at the exposed-beam ceiling in the upstairs bedroom where she’d spent her teen years.
“Is everything okay?” She shifted on the pillow, propping one eye open long enough to read the illuminated dial of the old-fashioned alarm clock on the painted white washstand. 3:00 a.m. He’d dropped her off over two hours ago.
She’d been scared he’d never speak to her again.
“I’m all right.” He sounded exhausted and wide-awake at the same time. Vaguely she wondered how she could tell. But she’d known Mack a long time and no matter how they’d hurt each other, she knew him well.
“What do you mean you’re all right? Why wouldn’t you be? What happened?” She flipped over on her stomach and propped her elbows on her pillow, all sleepiness vanished. Now, she was worried for him and whatever had happened that had made him phone her.
“After I dropped you off, I took the long way home. Up Quarry Road.”
He didn’t need to explain why. She’d been restless and edgy, too, only just falling asleep about half an hour before the phone rang. But the way he launched into the story—like there was a lot to tell—made her nervous. He wouldn’t have called unless it was serious.
“I noticed a sign was gone at the top of the hill, so I pulled over to see if it was in the grass.” In the background, the wind rose in a rushing sound, distorting his last few words. Mack must be somewhere outdoors.
“I would never have noticed something like that.” Who spotted missing signs in the dark? But then again, the Finleys had been raised to believe that they were caretakers of the town. That Heartache was their family. Sad thatMack needed to escape his family so badly that the town was off-limits for his future.
“Right, but I remembered this one. And when I stepped out of the car, I heard someone calling out.”
She gasped. “Calling out how?” She had visions of a robber or carjacker.
“It sounded like someone was hurt.” He huffed out a breath. “I tracked the noise down the steep hill.”
Her stomach hurt as she wondered what he’d found. “And?”
