Sherryl Woods - Beach Lane

“With Mack?” she inquired pointedly. She noted that Jake and Will were a little too careful to avoid each other’s gazes. “Okay, what’s going on with him? I know you know. Maybe you didn’t when I called to ask you, but you do now. I can see it in your faces. Heaven help either of you if you ever decide to play high-stakes poker. You couldn’t bluff worth beans.”

“Susie, anything I know, assuming I do know something, would be confidential,” Will said piously.

Susie rolled her eyes, then turned to Jake. “And you? Have you taken some oath of confidentiality, as well?”

Jake simply held up his hands. “No comment.”

She glowered at the pair of them. “This is ridiculous. I haven’t been able to reach him for two days now. It’s not like Mack to vanish without a word. Can you at least assure me he’s alive?”

“Of course he is,” Jake said. “I’m sure he’ll give you a call soon.” Though he sounded certain, his expression showed unmistakable skepticism.

“Of course he will,” Will added. Unfortunately, his upbeat tone sounded forced, as well.

“Has he started seeing someone else?” Susie asked, laying her worst fear right out there. These men might be Mack’s friends, but they were hers, too. It wasn’t as if they didn’t know how she felt about Mack. Maybe asking for reassurance made her sound pitiful, but she needed to know the truth. If it was time to move on, she’d rather hear it from them than from someone else.

“Absolutely not,” Will said with satisfying conviction. “Don’t let your imagination run away with you, Susie. Mack just needs a little time.”

“Time for what?” she wanted to know. It wasn’t as if Mack were prone to long periods of introspection. To the contrary, he generally talked everything to death, then moved forward or put it behind him. He wasn’t all that complicated, except when it came to figuring out how he felt about her. That seemed to elude him completely.

“Susie, just give him a little space,” Jake advised.

She frowned. “Time? Space? From me?”

“No,” Will said. “This has nothing to do with you.”

“It does if he’s shutting me out,” she said, then shook her head. Talking to these two was pointless. They’d apparently sworn some oath of silence, which they were unlikely to break no matter how many ways she asked all the questions they’d stirred up. “Never mind. I suppose he’ll fill me in whenever it’s convenient for him. I guess it was too much to hope that he’d consider me the kind of friend who’d want to support him if he’s in some kind of trouble.”

She stood up.

Will regarded her with alarm. “Susie, please, don’t get the wrong idea here. You know how Mack feels about you.”

She met Will’s concerned gaze. “No,” she said softly. “Actually, I don’t, and that’s precisely the problem.”

She walked away before either man could see the tears that were building in her eyes. Crying in front of them would be just too darned humiliating to bear.

“They were lying to me,” Susie told Shanna after she’d left Sally’s and walked to the bookstore down the block for moral support. “Right to my face.”

“I don’t think they were lying,” Shanna said reasonably. “I think they were following Mack’s wishes, as misguided as those might be. You put them on the spot, sweetie. What were they supposed to do? Betray their friend?”

“I’m their friend, too.”

“Of course you are, but they’re guys. There’s some kind of loyalty oath they all take when they’re, like, eight. We don’t stand a chance.” She set a cup of coffee, heavily laced with cream and sugar, in front of Susie. “What are you really worried about?”

“That Mack has made a decision finally to cut me out of his life,” she said. “What if he’s just working up the courage to tell me?”

“Has there been even the tiniest indication lately that he’s tired of spending time with you? Last I heard you were still inseparable, which has caused no end of confusion for the rest of us.”

“Not really,” Susie admitted. “But come on, Shanna, this can’t be normal. We’re supposed to be friends. It’s the one thing I’ve been able to count on all this time.”

Shanna shook her head. “Now, that’s the part that’s not normal. How the two of you have gone this long deluding yourselves that you’re nothing more than friends is beyond me. It’s beyond all of us, for that matter. Sometimes I want to lock the two of you in a room—preferably a bedroom—and leave you there until you figure out what the stupid bed is for.”

Susie smiled despite herself. “I’m pretty sure Mack has sufficient experience with beds to know what to do in one. I’m kind of counting on that,” she said wistfully.

“And yet how many times have you reiterated to him that all that experience is precisely why you won’t date him?”

“I have done this to myself, haven’t I?” Susie said despondently. “It started out as a defense mechanism, but Mack took all those protests to heart, and now neither one of us knows how to change the dynamics between us.”

“It’s pitiful, that’s for sure,” Shanna said.

“What do I do?”

“You could start by telling him what you really want,” Shanna suggested. “I hear that’s the mature way to go about these things.”

Susie winced. “And risk total humiliation?”

“Or get exactly what you want,” Shanna countered.

“I’ll think about it,” Susie said eventually. “Of course, telling Mack what I want when he’s not even answering his phone could prove to be tricky.”

“Then go over to his apartment,” Shanna suggested.

“Will and Jake said he needs time to deal with whatever is going on.”

“They’re men. What do they know? At the very least, keep calling until he can’t stand listening to your voice on his answering machine and either takes your call or calls you back. This is no time to be faint of heart, Susie. Go after what you want.”

“And if I fail?”

Shanna gave her a commiserating look. “Will you really be any worse off than you are now?”

“What if I lose him for good? At least now we’re friends.”

“I repeat, will you really be any worse off than you are now? No matter how often you say it to me or to yourself, it’s obvious that just being his friend isn’t cutting it for you anymore.” She looked into Susie’s eyes. “Or am I wrong about that?”

Susie sighed. “No, you’re not wrong. I want more. I want it all, everything you have with Kevin, everything Abby, Jess and Bree have found with the men in their lives. I even grew up with perfect examples all around me, at least when it came to my parents. Even Uncle Mick and Megan finally got it right.”

“Okay, then, do whatever it takes to get what the rest of us have. Personally, I don’t think there’s the slightest risk in hell that Mack is going to reject you. In fact, I think he’ll welcome you taking the initiative.”

“Maybe,” Susie said, though she still had her doubts. Hundreds of them, in fact.

Then again, something had to change. Limbo had been bad enough. She certainly wasn’t going to let herself wallow in misery.

“Thanks, Shanna,” she said, giving her friend a hug.

“Keep me posted, okay? I’m here anytime you need me. The whole family’s on your side, you know.” She grinned. “Especially your uncle Mick. In fact, if you need motivation, just remember that resolving this yourself will be a whole lot better than letting Mick work up a full head of steam as a matchmaker.”

“I’ll definitely keep that in mind,” Susie said. As Shanna had said, it was the best possible motivation.

Mack sat in the dark listening to what had to be Susie’s twentieth message in the past forty-eight hours. She was starting to sound just a little frantic. Or maybe angry. He couldn’t recall ever hearing Susie sound quite so fit to be tied before.