Joanne Rock - Promises Under the Peach Tree

“Ally brings me home on her break,” Gram called through the lowered window after Mack shut the door to the vehicle, wrenching Nina from her dark thoughts. “Don’t worry about me, sweetie. You should enjoy a few hours of freedom.”

Nina attempted a smile as the sedan drove away. But as soon as her grandmother was out of sight, she didn’t bother pretending anymore.

Mack Finley stood ten feet away from her. She hadn’t seen him for eight years and she was better off that way. So, striding closer, she got into his line of vision and folded her arms.

“Satisfied?” She tried not to fume. But it wasn’t easy when frustration roared inside her and the pain of her own failure was still so fresh.

He lifted a brow. Tucked a thumb in the front pocket of his jeans. Stared at her.

“With what, exactly?” His gold-flecked gaze wandered over her.

Her heart raced, which only ramped up her anger.

“With yourself.” She pointed to his well-cut dress shirt that was probably custom-made. To his expensive vintage convertible sitting nearby. “With this chance to make me feel like dirt when my life is imploding—”

“Whoa. Wait.” He held up both hands to stop her, his strong forearms bared where he’d rolled up his shirt sleeves. “What are you talking about?”

“Oh, please.” She shook her head. “It can’t be a coincidence that you show up in Heartache just when my business has gone down in flames and my partner has fled to the Cayman Islands with all our assets and a celebrity groom.” Nina had always known her business partner was selfish, but she’d never expected her to do something criminal.

Mack frowned and raked a hand through his hair, a gesture she’d seen him make a hundred times before. Back when she’d spent her days studying algebra with him or playing cards on that sprawling front porch a few yards away. Back when she’d thought nothing of leaning over to kiss his cheek or walk her fingers up his shoulder just for an excuse to touch him.

“Me being here at the same time as you is a coincidence.” He lowered his voice and glanced toward his mother’s house. “At least, as much of a coincidence as it can be when two people from a podunk town end up back home in the same week. If you ask me, it’s a damn miracle it hasn’t happened before now.”

He’d stepped closer to make his case and the scent of his aftershave had her thinking about whisker burn again. It was all she could do not to put a hand on her cheek to make sure her skin wasn’t really stinging the way she imagined.

“Is that so?” She felt shaky. Embarrassed at the possibility that he hadn’t come to town to humiliate her at the suggestion of his mother.

What if her accusation had been yet another impulsive leap, just like he’d always accused her of?

“That’s the absolute truth.” His eyebrows furrowed in a way that meant business. “You’re the one at my house, remember? If anything, I ought to be calling you out for showing up at my mom’s house with—” his expression darkened “—peach pie.”

“Excuse me? You’re angry I brought food?” She didn’t understand him any better now than she had eight years ago. “For that matter, how did you know about the pie?”

She looked up at the house again, convinced more than ever that his mother was in there, grinding her teeth until Nina left.

Mack’s chin jutted. “Scott called to give me a heads-up that you were here.”

Even in their tight-knit family, the brothers had been particularly close. Mack said it was because Scott had hauled him out of a frozen pond once when Mack had fallen through while skating. Nina remembered Scott as the family ringleader, carting his siblings to sports practices and showing up at Mack’s football games.

“We came over because Gram did a lot of baking yesterday and had some extra pies. She figured your mother could use some company.” Mack’s mom had been widowed last spring, but even before then, she had rarely left the house due to...personal issues. Not wanting to dwell on the topic, Nina shifted gears in a hurry. “I’m staying with Gram for...a while.”

“How long?” He loomed over her and she realized her back was almost against the pickup truck.

Too bad reclaiming her ground would mean getting closer to him.

“A few weeks at least.” Needing a distraction, she whistled softly to Luce. The black lab lumbered over to have a seat beside her, offering her head for a scratch. “I originally planned to come here to escape the flak around my business’s closure. But Gram’s health has also gotten worse. Bad enough that my dad mentioned assisted living—”

She stopped herself from confiding anything more personal. Mack hadn’t been a friend for a long time.

“Nice of him to show up and help his mother out,” Mack muttered, obviously remembering her father well.

“No kidding.” For all that Mack had broken her heart, he would never have turned his back on his family as her father had done.

She’d always dreamed of a family of her own one day, and the chance to give her kids the kind of home she’d always wanted. She’d assumed Mack would share that dream. But he’d told her once he would never have his own children.

“I’m sure your grandmother appreciates having you here.”

“I never would have even known she was so frail if I hadn’t come here and seen her with my own eyes.” The last Nina had seen Gram six months ago, she’d been recovering nicely from knee surgery. “She fell recently and didn’t tell me—” And there she went again, sharing something personal with Mack. “Anyway, I’ll be in town for a while and it sounds like you will, too. We’ll just...avoid each other.”

There. Done. She gave him a nod and turned to get into the truck.

Fingers on the handle. Door levering open...

“Wait.” Mack dropped a large hand right beside hers on the open door.

She stilled, afraid a sudden movement might bring her in contact with him. He stood behind her, so close the small hairs rose at the back of her neck in a kind of good way. Her body must not have gotten the message that he’d broken her heart when he’d refused to leave Heartache with her.

And then a second time when he’d married...

“What?” The husky note in her voice revealed too much. She cleared her throat.

“Nina.”

A wealth of shared memories in that simple word. God, how many times had he spoken her name before?

“I’m listening.” She had no intention of turning around. No desire to fall into his gaze and be hurt by all the memories there.

“For the record, I hadn’t heard anything about your business and I’m sorry if Cupcake Romance isn’t working out.” The sincerity in his voice only reminded her of her failed dreams.

Although the fact that he remembered the name of her shop lifted her spirits just a little. Had he looked her up on Google at some point? Or asked Gram how she was doing? The thought eased some of the old hurt that he’d just written her off completely as soon as she’d left town. Not enough to forgive him, however.

“I don’t need your sympathy.” She faced him now, unwilling to let him believe that New York had gotten the better of her. “I’ll be fine.”

“I’m sure you will be.” He didn’t move away. “You may not believe it, but I’ve been rooting for you all along.”

That’s why he’d let her go to pursue her dreams alone, right? That’s why he’d chosen his family instead, insisted on staying behind in Heartache to pick up the pieces of the lives ruined on graduation night...

Old anger flared. Just like her parents, Mack talked a good game but he hadn’t really wanted her.

“You’re right. I do find that hard to believe.” She needed to leave. Needed to make sure she didn’t talk to Mack Finley for eight more years. “I really have to get home.”