Joanne Rock - Promises Under the Peach Tree

Mack stared up at the waitress and tried to remember how he knew her.

“Nice to see you, too—” he peeked at her name badge, half hidden under a blond ponytail that rested on the front of her shoulder “—Shirley.”

“Sherry.” She rolled her eyes and took her pencil out of her mouth. “Thanks, Mack. I was only your lab partner in biology for a whole year.”

Ah, crap. He definitely hadn’t inherited his father’s ease with names and faces, which sucked all the more because everyone in town knew him.

“Sorry, Sherry.” He shook his head. “My mind was a million miles away.”

She frowned. “Are you sure your mind wasn’t on Nina Spencer?” She pointed to Nina and her grandmother sitting off to one side of the crowd. Daisy Spencer had her leg propped on a chair while she clapped in time to the music. Nina shared something from her plate with a bulldog on a leash held by Kaleb Riggs, a guy they’d graduated with. “Because I seem to remember that Nina was the reason I couldn’t snag your attention in biology, either.”

He’d probably ducked Sherry’s attention for more reasons than Nina if she was as abrasive then as she was now. He honestly didn’t remember. Mack handed her back the menu and tried not to stare at Nina while she smiled at some other guy.

Not that it ought to matter to Mack.

“I’ll just have a Coke and the rib special. Thanks.” He obviously hadn’t succeeded in not staring at Nina because she turned toward him just then and their gazes locked.

Seeing her still messed with his head. And not just because of the past they shared. If he’d never laid eyes on her before tonight, he’d still be attracted to her. And damned if that wasn’t going to be a problem.

What had he been thinking to suggest they could be friends? He trusted she’d do a great job with the festival because she’d never done anything in half measures in her whole life. But just because she threw everything she had into it, didn’t mean that she’d do it the way he wanted her to. And that meant they’d be thrown together far more often than was probably healthy.

“One rib special. Coming right up,” Sherry scribbled on her notepad and tucked it into her apron pocket. “You think Nina will move home for good now that her business went under? I heard she’s going to have to sell off all the assets if she doesn’t want to go bankrupt. That’s why she moved everything into the barn.”

“I’m sure she just wants to spend some time with her grandmother.” Mack may not have learned the trick to memorizing names and faces from his old man, but he sure as hell had learned how to deflect conversational landmines after growing up with his mom.

“Can you believe that partner of hers ran off with one of their clients the night before his wedding?” Sherry poked him in the arm with the menu she carried, as if they’d shared an inside joke. “Disaster has a way of finding that girl—”

She broke off in the middle of her sentence as if realizing how freaking insensitive she sounded. The whole town knew the biggest tragedy of Nina’s life had been her argument with Vince the night he died.

“Sorry, Mack.” She clamped the menu under one arm. “I’ll go put your order in.”

If Mack’s ears were ringing with this kind of crap, what must Nina be going through on her side of the bar? He stole another look in her direction even as he told himself to forget about her and focus on why he was here—to scope out Lucky’s and escape the house for a few hours.

Except for the people who came up to ask him about Harvest Fest, it was a perfect, clear night with a town full of people celebrating the fact that it was Friday. Bluegrass serenaded him as he finished his ribs and made lots of mental notes on Lucky’s bar business.

But he couldn’t seem to forget that Nina was ten tables away, and after an hour, he had no excuse not to go say hello to Nina and her grandmother.

Except by the time he got to his feet, an old farmer in his best Saturday-night jeans sat in Nina’s seat, chatting up Daisy Spencer. Mack knew Nina wouldn’t leave her grandmother there alone, so where had she gone?

He looked toward the gazebo and saw her on the dance floor with Kaleb Freaking Riggs. Mack didn’t care...yet he found his feet walking straight toward them.

Turn around.

Turn around.

An upbeat song played, and a handful of couples two-stepped on the grass near the stage beneath a canopy of white twinkle lights. Nina was smiling up at Kaleb in a way that made it impossible for Mack to just walk away, even though he cursed himself out about it the whole time he approached them.

“Nina.” He arrived beside them just as the song ended and the crowd applauded.

The smile faded from her face, her expression shifting to surprise.

“Kaleb, I got an earlier promise on this one, okay?” Mack couldn’t even take his eyes off Nina long enough to look at the guy as the band changed tunes and slowed down the pace.

“I’ve gotta get home anyhow and put the kids to bed.” Kaleb shifted closer to Nina, but if the guy thought he was going to steal a good-night kiss after one dance, he had another think coming.

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