Praise for the novels of New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author

Sherryl Woods

‘Sherryl Woods always delights her readers—

including me!’

—No.1 NewYork Times bestselling author Debbie Macomber

‘Woods…is noted for appealing, character-driven stories that are often infused with the flavour and fragrance of the South.”

—Library Journal

‘A sweet read, perfect to enjoy again and again’

—RT Book Reviews on A Chesapeake Shores Christmas

‘Infused with the warmth and magic of the season, Woods’s fourth addition to her popular, small-town series once again unites the unruly, outspoken, enduring O’Brien clan in a touching, triumphant tale of forgiveness and love reclaimed.’

—Library Journal on A Chesapeake Shores Christmas

‘Timely in terms of plot and deeply emotional, the third Chesapeake Shores book is quite absorbing. The characters are handled well and have real chemistry—

as well as a way with one-liners.’

—RT Book Reviews on Harbour Lights

‘Sparks fly in a lively tale that is overflowing with family conflict and warmth and the possibility of rekindled love.’

—Library Journal on Flowers on Main

‘Launching the Chesapeake Shores series, Woods creates an engrossing…family drama.’

—Publishers Weekly on The Inn at Eagle Point

Beach Lane
Sherryl Woods

www.mirabooks.co.uk

Dear Friends,

From the very beginning, not only the O’Briens, but all the rest of us, have been befuddled by the not-dating stance determinedly taken by Susie O’Brien and Mack Franklin. Finally these two are getting their act together in Beach Lane. This book will also give you a glimpse into Susie’s side of the family—father Jeff and his ongoing tense relationship with his brother Mick; his mother, Jo; and Susie’s brothers, Matthew and Luke.

As if Mack and Susie’s relationship hasn’t been difficult enough, they’re about to be thrown a major curve, which has the power to pull them together or tear them apart. To his everlasting credit, when those very scary chips are down, Mack doesn’t even hesitate to step up. For me he’s the ultimate hero! I hope you’ll agree.

Beach Lane will hopefully make you laugh, but it’s almost guaranteed to have you shedding more than a few tears, so keep the tissues handy! And be attuned to the next budding romance in this series between two very unlikely people. It will play out in An O’Brien Family Christmas, which you can look out for later this year from Harlequin MIRA.

All the best,

Table of Contents

Cover

Praise

Title Page

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Epilogue

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

Copyright

1

Men were the bane of Susie O’Brien’s life. She was surrounded by them, all of them stubborn in the extreme, beginning with her father, Jeff. Add in her uncles Mick and Thomas, her brothers and, the very worst of all, Mack Franklin, and it was a wonder she could get through a day without screaming.

Today, in fact, already seemed likely to test the limits of her patience in never-before-imagined ways. Before she’d even had the first sip of her coffee, her uncle Mick came charging into the Chesapeake Shores real estate management company that she ran with her father.

“Where’s Jeff, that—” At her frown, he cut off the disparaging epithet he’d apparently been intent on using. “Your father, where is he?”

“Dad had an appointment with a client,” she said, then chose her next words about her father’s whereabouts carefully. She knew that this particular piece of property was a hot-button issue for Mick. “He’s showing her a house on Mill Road. It’s the third time she’s gone through the place. He’s almost certain she’s going to sign a contract today.”

Mick frowned, obviously clicking through his own mental data bank of properties on Mill Road. Then astonishment dawned. “The Brighton house? He’s finally going to unload that old eyesore? How’d he get the listing? Last I heard, no one in that family would even speak to an O’Brien.”

Susie hid a smile. It still stuck in her uncle’s craw that old Mr. Brighton had refused to sell him a key piece of shoreline property when he’d been developing Chesapeake Shores. Apparently the refusal had something to do with a Brighton-O’Brien family feud several generations back that neither coaxing nor big bucks had been able to resolve. For all Susie knew, some great-great-uncle’s rooster had chased a Brighton, who’d lopped off its head and cooked it for Sunday dinner. In her family that was all it would take to start a feud that could last for eons.

“Seems that way,” she confirmed. “Apparently Mr. Brighton’s heirs don’t have the same aversion to dealing with an O’Brien that he did.”

“Stubborn old coot,” Mick muttered.

“Why did you want to see Dad?” Susie asked. “Is there a problem?”

For years now the only things that brought the two brothers together were problems and the entreaties of their mother. Nell O’Brien insisted that even the sparring brothers and their families had to spend holidays under the same roof. Susie couldn’t recall a tension-free holiday meal in her entire lifetime. The antacid business probably thrived thanks to the O’Brien dynamics.

Mick and her dad could be civil for an hour or two, which was more than she could say for Mick and her uncle Thomas, at least until recently. Lately they’d apparently struck some kind of accord, which was akin to achieving peace in the Middle East. Like those treaties, Susie suspected this one didn’t have a lot of hope of lasting, though now that Thomas was with Connie Collins she seemed to have a soothing effect on him. She also seemed determined to maintain the détente.

“There’s water leaking in Shanna’s bookstore again,” Mick told Susie, referring to his daughter-in-law’s business on Main Street. “And, frankly, the plumbing in Megan’s gallery should be checked, too. The last thing she needs is a flood ruining all that expensive art.”

Susie gave him an innocent look. “Isn’t the art hanging on the walls?”

Her uncle scowled. “What’s your point?”

“Only that it would take quite a flood to ruin the paintings.” She beamed at him. “Besides, since you gave Megan that space for a dollar a year, didn’t you agree to take care of all the upkeep? I can look at the lease, if you like. We kept a copy here—at your insistence, as I recall.”

Mick gave her a sour look. “If your daddy stayed on top of details the way you do, he’d be a better businessman.”

“He doesn’t need to,” Susie retorted. “He has me. I will get the plumber over to Shanna’s today, though. The last thing we need is another insurance claim. And I can send him by Megan’s as well, as long as the bill comes to you.”

Though he looked disgruntled, Mick nodded. “That’ll do.” He studied her. “You’ll be at the house for Thanksgiving dinner?”

“Of course.”

He eyed her speculatively. “You bringing Mack?”

Susie stilled. “Why would I? I’ve never brought him before.”

“I’ve seen you around town with Mack Franklin for at least three years now,” Mick replied. “Maybe longer. Isn’t it time the two of you either got serious or called it quits? What kind of man drags his heels this long, and what sort of woman lets him? You deserve better than that, Susie. You’re an O’Brien, after all, even if you’re not one of mine. Nobody would have gotten away with treating one of my girls that way.”

“Mack and I aren’t dating,” Susie said stiffly. “We’re friends. Besides, how he treats me is none of your concern.”

Mick just shook his head. “Damned waste, if you ask me. Reel the man in or move on, that’s my advice.”

“Not that I asked for it,” Susie said. She’d heard some version of the same advice for a couple of years now from just about everyone in her family, and a few outsiders to boot. It was getting tiresome, mostly because it was sound advice she didn’t particularly want to heed.

Unfortunately, as crazy as she’d been about Mack for most of her life, she was also a realist. Handsome, sexy ex-jocks who dated sexy, sophisticated, powerful women weren’t going to be seriously interested in a woman who was ordinary on her very best day and downright pitiful when the sun freckled her pale skin and her bright red hair refused to be tamed. Despite a college degree and a few family trips to Ireland, Susie was basically a small-town girl, not Mack’s type at all.

Though Shanna, who was married now to Susie’s cousin Kevin, had suggested that Mack was as infatuated as she was, Susie didn’t entirely believe her. She’d also discovered it was next to impossible to break a non-dating pattern once it had been established. With Mack and her, it was practically carved in stone. Other than one kiss under the mistletoe that had gotten decidedly out of hand, their relationship was strictly platonic. That kiss, however, had given her enough hope to give things between them more time to heat up.

“Maybe I’ll ask Mack to dinner myself,” Mick said, studying Susie intently as if to gauge her reaction. “How about that?”

She shrugged. “Up to you.” Being around Mack wasn’t the problem. They were together all the time. Turning it into anything romantic, that was the problem. Tying him to her bed and having her wicked way with him seemed extreme, though she was getting desperate enough to consider it.

Beyond that, she didn’t have one single idea about how she could change things without risking total humiliation. She wondered what her uncle would have to say if she asked him straight out how to get Mack to make love to her. Her lips curved just thinking about Mick’s reaction to such a query.

Mick regarded her suspiciously. “What are you smiling about?”

“I was just wondering how far you’d be willing to take your meddling,” she said, studying him curiously.

“Meaning?”

“You pride yourself on getting all five of my cousins happily married. What do you think you could do to get Mack and me to the altar?”

At the immediate glint in his eye, she reconsidered her question. “Not that I’m asking you to intervene,” she said hurriedly. “I’m just wondering.”

Mick pulled up a chair and sat down, his expression suddenly serious. “Okay, let’s think about this. I imagine I’ve still got a few tricks up my sleeve that might work.”

The daring side of Susie’s nature failed her at the eagerness in his voice. The status quo might well be better than the disaster her uncle might unleash. “Never mind, Uncle Mick. I think I’d better deal with Mack myself.”

“You sure about that?” he asked, looking disappointed. “Like you said yourself a minute ago, I have a track record.”

Susie knew for a fact that most of her cousins had found true love despite their father’s interference, not because of it. “I’m sure,” she said.

He shrugged. “Up to you, but I’m around if you change your mind. It’s obvious your father’s no help, but you can count on me.”

Susie fought to hide her smile. Once again, her uncle’s competitive spirit had reared its head. She might not know a lot about what the future held with Mack, but she knew with absolute certainty that the very last thing they needed was having her father and Mick in the middle of their relationship, vying for control of their future. Somehow she’d just have to figure out a way to get Mack to stop seeing her as a pal and realize that she was a desirable woman.

As Mick left the office, Susie glanced ruefully at her reflection in the window. First, though, she had to learn to see herself that way.

Mack walked into the managing editor’s office at his Baltimore newspaper a week before Thanksgiving, took one look at Don Richmond’s face and sat down hard.

“You’re firing me,” he said before his boss could. He should have known that being summoned into the office this morning couldn’t mean anything good.

“I hate this,” Don said, which wasn’t an outright confirmation, but it certainly wasn’t a denial.

He met Mack’s gaze with an earnest expression that begged him to understand. “I don’t have a choice, Mack. You know how it is. We’re making cutbacks in every department. The newspaper business has been going downhill for quite a while now, and we’re not immune.”

Don scowled at the computer on his desk. “It’s because of this,” he grumbled. “Darn things are taking over. I know the world is changing, but I didn’t think I’d live to see the day when newspapers would be all but obsolete.”

Mack had been anticipating the possibility of being fired for a while now. His sports column was widely read and sometimes controversial. The publisher didn’t always like dealing with the fallout after Mack had called some local athlete or team management on a boneheaded move. He said it was ruining his digestion when he had to face those same people at some benefit or other and defend Mack’s words.

Worse, of course, was that Mack was the highest-paid writer in the sports department. By firing him, they could hang on to a couple of low-paid interns and turn them into reporters. as the theory went these days, what they lacked in experience they’d make up for in energy.

“I’m sorry,” Don said, looking miserable. “You’ll get a decent severance package that should give you some time to look around for something else. Not that someone as good as you are will need them, but I’ll give you glowing references and every contact I have in the business.”

“But the bottom line is that I’m going to run into the same cutbacks anywhere I go,” Mack said realistically.

He’d tried to plan for this. The handwriting had been on the wall for months, but getting the news was still a blow. And none of his ideas for the future so far had excited him.

Still, as Don said, he’d have some time. It wasn’t as if he was going to be destitute. He was, however, going to be unemployed. Even though it was through no fault of his own, it left him feeling like a failure. He wondered if this was the way his own father had felt when he’d been jobless. Was that why he’d taken off before Mack was even born?

“How soon?” he asked Don. “Will they keep me on through football season?”

“Nope. End of the week. The publisher thinks keeping people around once they’re fired is bad for morale.”

Or maybe he was just afraid that if the body count became obvious, the remaining employees would cut and run. That’s what a few had done immediately after the last round of cutbacks.

Mack wasn’t sure he had the stomach for finishing out the week, much less football season, anyway. “How about I write a couple of columns from home this week?” he suggested. “Wrap things up from there?”

Don looked torn. “You want to just slip away? People are gonna be real unhappy about that. You should at least stick around long enough for the kind of blowout party you deserve down at Callahan’s.”

“No, thanks,” Mack said, shuddering at the thought. Being fired sucked, no matter the reason. He didn’t want to wallow in the humiliation in front of his colleagues. He didn’t much want to commiserate with them, either.

“Okay, then, whatever works for you,” Don agreed with obvious reluctance.

Unfortunately, what worked for Mack was keeping a job he loved in a business that was disappearing practically overnight.

At home that night, as the news really sank in, along with all of the financial implications for the short term, Mack stared morosely at the black velvet box sitting on his coffee table.

He’d finally decided to take a huge leap of faith and ask Susie O’Brien to marry him, even though she’d always said she’d rather eat dirt than even go out on a date with a promiscuous player like him. He’d figured several years of dating without acknowledging it ought to just about equal officially courting her for a few months.

Maybe she’d overlook the fact that they’d shared only one memorable, bone-melting kiss in all that time. He doubted she’d forgotten it. He certainly hadn’t. The heat and sweetness of it were burned into his memory. He’d never anticipated falling in love, much less with a vulnerable bundle of contradictions like Susie, but it had happened. It had caught him completely off guard.

Now, however, with his financial prospects in doubt, proposing was out of the question. He couldn’t even think about marrying anyone until he figured out what he was going to do with the rest of his life. And right this second, with a couple of glasses of scotch dulling the pain of his firing, he didn’t even want to cross paths with Susie, who’d been telling him for weeks now that he was in a dying profession. Not that he’d ever contradicted her—how could he?—but he wasn’t quite ready for an I told you so.

When his phone rang repeatedly that night, he ignored it. When his cell phone rang off and on the next day, he ignored that, too. Messages were accumulating on both lines, but he wasn’t interested. Normally an upbeat, positive guy, he was in an unparalleled funk. He figured he was entitled to wallow there for a few days at least.

Unfortunately, his friends Will Lincoln and Jake Collins had other ideas. After one day of not joining them for their regular lunch at Sally’s, they were banging on his door. Since each of them had a key for emergencies, Mack wasn’t surprised when they barged right in two seconds after knocking. Both of them stopped and stared at the mostly empty bottle of scotch and the box of half-eaten pizza, then took in his disheveled appearance.

“What the devil happened to you?” Will demanded. “You’re not answering your phone. You didn’t show up for lunch. You didn’t call. And, sorry to say, you look like hell.”

“Actually you look worse,” Jake added, regarding him speculatively. “When was the last time you shaved? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you looking less than immaculate. Did you and Susie have a fight?”

“Susie and I don’t fight,” Mack said wearily. “This has nothing to do with her.”

“Then explain,” Will said, sitting down and regarding him patiently.

Mack knew that as a shrink, Will was perfectly capable of sitting there exactly like that for the rest of the evening, waiting him out. “Lost my job,” he said eventually. “I’m not taking it well.”

Neither of his friends reacted with shock, which proved that they, too, had seen the handwriting on the wall.

“Why would you be expected to take it well?” Jake asked. “Nobody likes being fired. I’m really sorry, man.”

Mack sighed at the sympathy. It was exactly what he’d been hoping to avoid, but now that he couldn’t, it felt good knowing that his friends were in his corner.

“I loved that stupid job,” he told them mournfully. “I was good at it.”

“And you’ll find one that’s even better,” Will said. “Like you said, you’re good.”

“Newspapers are a dying breed,” Mack lamented, taking another sip of scotch. “If I stay in the business, I’ll just be prolonging the inevitable.”

“Now, that’s a cheery attitude,” Jake said, this time without a hint of sympathy. Taking his cue from Will, he’d apparently gone into booster mode, as well. “Can I tag along on your first job interview?”

“Bite me,” Mack retorted, smiling despite his sour mood.

“You have any more of that scotch?” Will asked.

“Why?”

“If you’re going to sit here and get drunk, we’re not going to let you do it alone,” Will insisted. He found two glasses, then poured the drinks.

Jake took a sip and grimaced. “I hate this stuff. Tastes like medicine. Do you have any beer?”

“Of course,” Mack said. “Why do I suddenly feel as if I should be playing host? I’m supposed to be sulking.”

“Was the sulking helping?” Will asked.

Mack shrugged. “Not that much.”

“Then leave it to us to cheer you up,” Will said. “Or would you rather we call Susie? I’m sure she’d be happy to come over if she knew what was going on.”

“Absolutely not,” Mack said at once. “I don’t want her to know about this.”

Both men regarded him incredulously.

“That’s crazy,” Jake said. “You can’t keep a secret like this, not in Chesapeake Shores.”

“I want to have something new lined up before I see her,” Mack insisted. “I will not have her pitying me or hovering over me. Besides, she’s been predicting something like this for a long time now and, in her own less than subtle way, trying to get me to plan for it. I’m not up for the gloating.”

“Gloating?” Will shook his head. “Do you really think that would be Susie’s response?”

“Probably not, but even gloating would be better than pity.”

“Has it occurred to you that Susie has a pretty level head on her shoulders? She could help,” Jake said. “I think she’d want to.”

“No,” Mack said flatly.

“How are you planning to avoid her?” Will asked reasonably. “You two have practically been joined at the hip for a very long time. If you check your messages, I’m quite sure you’ll find that several of them are from her. I’m sure she’s already worried. She’s called both Jake and me to see if we know what’s going on.”

“You could let her know I’m okay,” Mack suggested. “Tell her I had to go out of town or something.”

Jake immediately shook his head. “I don’t think so, pal. The way I hear it, Mick is inviting you to the family Thanksgiving next week. Turn him down at your peril.”

“Why?” Mack asked, feeling panicked by the thought of his news coming out amid all those well-meaning O’Briens. “I mean, why me? Why this year? I’ve never been invited before.”

“Bree’s theory is that Mick’s decided it’s time for you and Susie to get off the dime and move this relationship forward,” Jake said, obviously quoting his wife. “Bree thought Mick ought to wait for Jeff to do it, but you know how Mick loves trumping his brother on anything. Sadly, you also know what Mick’s like when he starts matchmaking. His tactics have as much finesse as a bulldozer.”

Mack moaned. “Can I get out of this? Maybe I really will go out of town.”

Will chuckled. “Bad idea. I don’t see how you can get out of this, at least not without offending Susie, which I don’t think you want to do.”

“If she knew what was going on, she’d understand,” Mack said, a note of desperation in his voice.

“But you don’t want to tell her,” Jake reminded him. “You’re pretty much between a rock and a hard place here.”

It was a catch-22, all right. If Mick officially issued that invitation to Thanksgiving dinner, Mack would have to be there. And while everyone else was counting their blessings, he could be praying that his news didn’t leak out with a serving of humble pie for dessert.

Or he could bite the bullet, call Susie and fill her in. Maybe she wouldn’t hover over him as if there’d been a death in his family. He supposed in some ways losing a job could rank right up there with the loss of someone important, but he didn’t need pity or well-meant advice right now. He didn’t know what he did need, but it wasn’t that.

The third option would be to get out of town tonight so the invitation could never be issued in the first place. That one held the most appeal, but it smacked of cowardice. Mack might be an unemployed member of a dying profession, but he was no coward.

Suddenly Will’s gaze landed on the jewelry box sitting on the coffee table. His expression brightened. “Is that what I think it is?”

Jake followed the direction of his gaze. “An engagement ring? You bought an engagement ring? Is it for Susie?”

Mack scowled at the question, “Who else would it be for? I haven’t been out with another woman for a long time now.”

Jake shrugged. “You could be dating a whole slew of them. People have secret lives that not even their best friends know about. I heard about it on Oprah.”

Will and Mack both stared at him. “Since when do you watch daytime television?” Will inquired, his eyes alight with amusement.

“Bree has it on at the flower shop sometimes,” Jake responded defensively. “I see it when I make deliveries there. It’s not like I race home to watch every afternoon.”

Mack grinned. “Good to know.”

“Hold it,” Will said. “How’d we get away from the real question here? Are you planning to ask Susie to marry you?”

“Not anymore,” Mack said, sinking right back into despondency. “How can I? The timing sucks.”

“I doubt Susie would agree,” Will said. “She’s been waiting for a very long time for you to wake up and see the light. I don’t think your temporary unemployment would deter her from saying yes.”

“It wouldn’t be right,” Mack insisted. “I need to get my life back in order first.” He frowned at his friends. “And if either of you mention a word about this to anyone, I swear you’ll live to regret it. Am I clear?”

“Got it,” Jake said.

“No one will hear it from me,” Will agreed.

“Thank you.”

“But I am going on record telling you that waiting is a mistake,” Will said. “Life’s short. Don’t waste a minute of it.”

“Says the man who took forever to get around to asking Jess O’Brien to go on a date, much less marry him,” Jake commented.

“Different situation entirely,” Will claimed, then grinned. “But, yeah, I wasted too much time. Don’t follow my example. Learn from my experience.”

“The timing’s all wrong,” Mack reiterated. “And I don’t want to talk about any of this anymore. What do you guys think about that backup quarterback the Ravens picked up? He’s looking good, don’t you think?”

Will and Jake exchanged a look, then sighed.

“Real good,” Jake agreed.

“I was planning to write a column about him next week…” Mack began, but his voice trailed off. He reached for his scotch again. It didn’t seem to matter what they talked about. Right this second, his entire life sucked.

“You guys might as well go,” he said. “I’m lousy company.”

Both men shook their heads.

“Doesn’t matter,” Jake said. “We stick together.”

“Jake’s right,” Will said. “But if I’m going to drink any more, we’d better think about ordering a pizza. This disgusting day-old glob sitting on the table is starting to look downright tasty to me. And if I don’t eat, I’ll wind up falling asleep on your floor, and Jess will be on the warpath.”

“Ditto with Bree,” Jake said.

Mack saw the determination on their faces and sighed. “I’ll make the call.”

“Extra sausage,” Jake said.

“Extra cheese,” Will added.

Mack chuckled. “I know you two don’t order like that when your wives are around. Last I heard, you were limited to the veggie specials.”

“Sadly true,” Jake said despondently. “That’s why we love you. You don’t judge us for our disgusting eating habits.”

“Who knew that pizza was the bond that would keep us together for a lifetime,” Mack said wryly.

“That, and knowing too many of each other’s deep dark secrets,” Will added. He held up his glass of scotch. “To friends.”

Mack and Jake tapped his glass with their own. Maybe there was one part of his life that didn’t suck, after all. He had some of the best friends around.

That one of them also happened to be the woman he loved was just a bonus. He’d have to think about that after these two went home. Maybe talking to Susie about all this wouldn’t be quite the disaster he’d been envisioning.

Then again, a man had his pride.

2

Susie had to admit she was a little freaked-out when she didn’t hear from Mack as usual. He’d gotten into the habit of calling on his way back from Baltimore. Most nights they made plans to have dinner together. Sometimes she cooked. More often, they grabbed a bite to eat at one of the cafés along Shore Road, then went for a walk or sat somewhere by the bay and talked. Once in a while they played Scrabble or cards. It always astonished her how competitive Mack could be over a silly game.

As quiet and relaxed as they were, she’d grown to count on these evenings. Of course, that had probably been a mistake. It wasn’t as if they had any kind of commitment, for heaven’s sake. It was just dinner and conversation, night after night, for what seemed like forever.

Though she felt thoroughly foolish doing it, she swallowed her pride and walked into Sally’s at lunchtime to see if Mack was there with Will and Jake. The three of them had been claiming the same booth ever since Jake and Bree had split up years before. Will and Mack had done it to support their friend during the roughest period of his life. And the tradition had stuck. Only after lunch did Mack occasionally make the drive to Baltimore to put in an actual appearance at the newspaper office.

Since he did his interviews from home or in team locker rooms, then emailed his columns, going into the office was purely to remind people what he looked like, or so he claimed. Since the paper had plastered his face on billboards and bus benches, it seemed unlikely to Susie that there was a person in the region who wouldn’t recognize him, but Mack thought it was important to show up in person from time to time. She thought he enjoyed the interaction with his colleagues and the bustle of the newsroom more than he wanted to admit.

At Sally’s, she found Will and Jake in their usual spot, but Mack wasn’t with them. His absence alone was enough to give her another disquieting twinge. She slipped into the booth and studied them intently.

“Why do the two of you look hungover?” she asked bluntly. “Now that you’re married, I thought your carousing days were behind you.”

“Just a late night,” Will said with his usual circumspect caution.

“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.

“So help me, Mack Franklin, if you don’t surface soon and tell me what’s going on, I’m calling the police and putting out an all-points bulletin on you.”

Mack winced. He knew she’d do exactly that. Susie might appear shy and vulnerable, but she had a spine of pure steel and a glint of determination in her eyes that could scare a man half to death. It might take a while for that gutsiness to kick in, but once it did, she was formidable. Normally Mack considered that admirable, but tonight it made him shudder.

She was still ranting when he picked up the phone. “No need to alert the police,” he said calmly. “I’m right here.”

She breathed an audible sigh of relief. “Well, thank God,” she said, then immediately started berating him. “Why haven’t you picked up all the other times I’ve called, or at least called me back?”

“Most women would already know the answer to that question.”

“Is this one of those he’s-not-into-you things?” she asked, “Because if it is, that is so not the point. I was worried about you.”

“No, it’s one of those I-don’t-want-to-talk-to-anybody things. And I’m sorry if I worried you. Maybe I should have checked in before going into seclusion.”

“Yes, you should have,” she said fiercely. Then her voice softened. “What’s going on, Mack? Talk to me.”

He chuckled despite himself. “Did you not hear what I just said?”

“That you don’t want to talk to anybody, blah-blah-blah. I’m not anybody, Mack. I’m your friend, just like Will and Jake. I’ll bet you’ve talked to them.”

There was a note of hurt in her voice that twisted him up inside. “You are nothing like Will and Jake,” he said.

“I see,” she said stiffly. “Okay, then. I’m very sorry I bothered you.”

She hung up before he could tell her she’d misunderstood. He muttered a curse and called her back. It took ten rings before she finally answered.

“Now I don’t want to talk,” she said heatedly. “You know what that’s like.” She hung up again.

Mack redialed. “Will you just listen to me for ten seconds?” he said. “Then you can slam the phone down in my ear if you want to.”

“It will be my pleasure,” she retorted. “Okay, talk.”

“I just meant that the relationship you and I have is different from the one I have with Will and Mack.”

“Friends are friends.”

“Come on, Susie. You know that’s not entirely true. I’m not saying men can’t be friends with women, but the dynamics are not the same.”

“You’re talking about sex,” she said bluntly. “Since we’ve never had sex, then it’s exactly the same.”

“No,” he insisted, a little startled by the fact that she’d even mentioned sex. It wasn’t a topic they discussed. Since she’d brought it up, though, he couldn’t seem to stop himself from saying, “We always have the potential for sex.”

Silence greeted the comment.

“Is that so?” she said at last, amusement now threading through her voice. At least she no longer sounded insulted or furious. If anything, she sounded intrigued. “Just how great do you think that potential is?”

“That’s always depended on you,” he said before he could stop himself. Going down this road now with his professional life in turmoil was a very bad idea. While starting to think about or even to act on the idea of sleeping with Susie would be a fascinating distraction, that wasn’t the way he intended to get through this rough patch. It would be too unfair to her.

Mack realized just how big a mistake he’d made when she sucked in a deep breath and murmured, “Oh, really? It’s up to me? I had no idea I had that kind of power over you. I’ll have to think about exploring some new possibilities.”

“Susie, you don’t want to sleep with me,” he said, as if the idea were ludicrous.

“Maybe I do,” she said, sounding dead serious.

Mack almost swallowed his tongue. “Susie, you don’t even want to date me, much less get seriously involved with me. How many times have you told me that?”

“Possibly a few too many,” she said candidly.

“Meaning?”

“You’re not dense, Mack. It means I might have changed my mind.”

“It’s the might have part that worries me. Men wind up in jail over maybes and might haves.”

“We could get together and talk about it,” she suggested.

“Oh, no,” he said at once. “You’re obviously having some kind of mental lapse tonight about the kind of man I am. In fact, you’re starting to sound downright reckless, which isn’t you at all. I don’t want to take advantage of that.”

She sighed heavily. “I was afraid you’d say that. Are you ever going to try to seduce me, Mack? It’s giving me some kind of complex that you’ll apparently hook up with every other female on earth except me.”

“I do not hook up at all,” Mack said indignantly. “At least not recently.”

“What’s recently?”

The pitiful truth was that he’d lost interest in all other women the minute he and Susie had started hanging out together on a regular basis. She was in his head all the time. In his heart, too. It had taken him a while, but he knew it now. Talk about lousy timing!

“It doesn’t matter,” he said. “Look, I’m going to let you go. We’ll talk about this next time I see you.”

“Which will be on Thanksgiving at Uncle Mick’s, right?”

He hesitated. “I don’t know about that, Susie. It’s probably a bad idea. Besides, Mick hasn’t mentioned it to me.”

“He will,” she predicted. “And you will say yes. Even if he doesn’t track you down, I’m asking you now, and again, the correct answer is ‘Yes, thank you very much, I’d love to come.’”

To Mack’s surprise, she sounded awfully determined. “Why?” he asked.

“Because I haven’t had a date for one of these family shindigs since I turned eight and dragged Joe Campbell along. It was his second Thanksgiving dinner of the day and he threw up. After that, nobody ever encouraged me to bring someone.”

“Joe Campbell always did have a weak stomach,” Mack said. “You had lousy taste in boyfriends back then.”

“Did you not hear me say I was eight? What did I know about boys?”

“And now?” he asked, suddenly on edge. Had he missed something? Was Susie interested in someone else? He’d seen no evidence of that, but maybe she was as sick of living a totally celibate life as he was. Maybe Thanksgiving was some kind of test. If he failed, was she ready to cut him out of her life for good? Was that what this whole conversation was about?

“Apparently I’m still on shaky ground when it comes to figuring out men,” she said. “Which makes it even more important that the next man I turn up with at a family function is the kind of solid guy my family will approve of. They all like you, and I’m pretty sure you won’t throw up before the pumpkin pie.”

“Not even after,” he promised. He cursed himself for his inability to stick to his guns. There were way too many ways this could go badly. Even so, he said, “Okay, I’ll see you there.”

“Maybe you should pick me up,” she said. “That way you aren’t as likely to chicken out.”

“And your family will think it really is a date,” he speculated. “Is that wise? I gather Mick is already getting ideas about taking our situation in hand.”

“He is, which is annoying, but not unexpected. Frankly, though, the non-dating thing really isn’t working for me anymore,” she said, startling him. “I think it’s time for a serious attitude adjustment.”

Once again he heard that bold, reckless note in her voice. What on earth had gotten into her? And why, heaven help him, now?

“Susie, maybe we should rethink this,” he said urgently. “I might not be around for Thanksgiving, after all. I have some things I need to take care of.”

“More important than showing up for dinner with friends?” she asked. “Are these things so important that you’re willing to let me down?”

There was a warning note in her voice that caught him off guard. It strengthened his suspicion that this dinner was, indeed, some kind of a test.

“Okay, what’s going on here, Susie? You’ve been saying stuff all night that’s not like you. Now you’re issuing some kind of subtle warning. What’s that about?”

“Maybe I’ve decided it’s past time to shake things up,” she said. “Maybe I’m sick of all this dancing around we’ve been doing for way too long now.”

“And you’ve just had this epiphany this week?”

“Yes,” she said flatly. “Just tonight, in fact. Deal with it.”

The blunt order was so unlike Susie, he had no idea how to respond to it.

“Have you been drinking?” he asked, because he couldn’t come up with any other explanation.

“Have you ever known me to drink more than an occasional glass of wine?”

“No, but there’s a first time for everything,” he said. “Has somebody been talking to you, putting ideas into your head?”

He envisioned Will having some kind of heart-to-heart with her and getting her all stirred up to take charge of things. It would be just like him, since he knew Mack was having second thoughts about the whole proposal thing.

“Have you seen Will?” he asked suspiciously when she remained silent.

“I saw him earlier today, but he didn’t give away any of your closely guarded secrets, if that’s what you’re worried about. He and Jake are more tight-lipped than some international spy. I’m sure they could give lessons to the CIA.”

“Good to know,” he said with relief. Of course, that still raised the question of what had gotten into Susie tonight. Maybe he should invite her over and get to the bottom of this.

Then, again, given her reckless, unpredictable mood, that could be dangerous…for both of them.

“I’ll give you a call before Thanksgiving,” he said eventually. “We’ll make plans.”

“And in the meantime, what?” she demanded. “You’re going to be in hiding?”

“Something like that. Like I said earlier, don’t worry about me. I’m fine.”

“Whatever you say,” she said. “But don’t even think about standing me up on Thanksgiving. If you try to, I will come over to your apartment and drag you out, if necessary. I will bring my brothers, Will, Jake, whoever I need to, to get you to Uncle Mick’s—is that understood?”

Mack laughed. “What’s not to understand? I have to say, though, that this bossy side of you could take some getting used to.”

“Something tells me you’re going to have plenty of opportunities to do just that,” she said, her tone unexpectedly sassy.

She hung up before Mack could come up with an adequate reply. Whether it was alcohol or something in the water, this was definitely Susie as he’d never seen her before. Despite its emergence at the worst possible time, he couldn’t help being fascinated. He’d never before thought of her as having a devious bone in her body, but perhaps he’d been wrong. Perhaps intriguing him had been exactly what she’d been counting on.

On the day before Thanksgiving, Laila Riley sat in her office at the bank, staring out the window, her mood dark. The upcoming holiday weekend promised to be the most depressing ever. Her parents had decided to take a spur-of-the-moment trip to London. Her brother would be with Abby and the twins at the O’Briens, leaving her to do what? Nothing, as usual.

She glanced up as Jess O’Brien—Jess Lincoln, she corrected—walked into her office without being announced.

“Just as I suspected,” Jess said. “You’re sitting here in a funk.”

“Who says I’m in a funk?” Laila demanded, sitting up straighter and trying to look more cheerful. “I have a four-day weekend stretching out ahead of me. I have all sorts of plans.”

“Oh, really? To do what?”

“You know, the usual Thanksgiving holiday things. I’ll eat a little turkey, hit all the holiday sales on Friday and Saturday.”

“Let’s say I buy that for a single minute,” Jess said. “With whom are you having that turkey dinner? Your parents have already left for England, and Abby tells me you turned down their invitation to join us.”

“You can’t possibly shove another person around that already overcrowded table,” Laila said. “Besides, I’m getting tired of the pity invitations.”

Jess regarded her indignantly. “Since when has anyone in my family made you feel as if you were being included out of pity? It’s a well-known fact that we invite you for your scintillating personality.”

Laila knew what her friend was trying to do, and on some level she wanted to say yes. Spending Thanksgiving on her own would be more depressing than any of the other meals she’d eaten alone since she’d sworn off dating after the whole online dating fiasco, when she’d wound up being stalked and harassed.

“Look, I appreciate the invitation, but I’ll be okay,” she insisted.

“Okay, then, I’ll back off,” Jess said a little too readily. “On one condition.”

Laila regarded her with suspicion. “What condition?”

“You tell me what your other plans are—and they’d better be good. Frozen turkey and dressing heated in the microwave and eaten all alone doesn’t count.”

Defeated, Laila sighed. “What time is dinner?”

“Three o’clock,” Jess said, obviously happy over her victory. “Will and I will pick you up at two so you can help with the preparations. That’s part of the fun.”

“Says the woman who lets the chef at her inn fix all of her meals.”

Jess grinned. “I don’t want my husband to starve, do I? Or to die from my cooking?”

“Exactly what does your grandmother let you do to help prepare Thanksgiving dinner?”

“Last year I dished up the stuffing and the cranberry relish and put them on the table,” Jess said proudly. “This year I’m pouring the wine that Will picked out from the inn’s wine cellar.”

Laila laughed. “Well, I have no idea how I’ll compete with that, but since the standard’s pretty low, I suppose I won’t fall flat on my face. There’s bound to be some task at which I can excel.”

Jess grinned back, but then her expression sobered. “You do know we all love you like family and that you belong with us, right?”

Unexpected tears stung Laila’s eyes. “Thanks.”

“Don’t you dare cry,” Jess ordered. “Just be ready on time tomorrow.”

“Promptly at two,” Laila promised.

Maybe Thanksgiving wouldn’t turn out to be half as depressing as she’d envisioned after all. Or else, once again, she’d feel like a fifth wheel among all those exuberantly happy O’Brien couples.

3

Thanksgiving turned out to be one of those perfect fall days in Chesapeake Shores. The sky was a brilliant blue, the air crisp and cool. There were whitecaps on the bay, churning the surface to a froth.

It was, in fact, an ideal day for playing touch football, which almost all of the O’Brien men and the spouses of the women had gathered for on the lawn. Before heading outside, they’d claimed—as usual—that it was the absolute best way to work off the huge meal. The women knew better. It was a way to get out of cleanup. Not that there was room in the kitchen for another person to squeeze in, but it might have been nice if at least one of them had offered, Susie thought as she stood at the kitchen door staring at them.

She had a dish towel in one hand and a Waterford crystal goblet in the other. She’d finished drying the glass long ago, but she couldn’t seem to take her eyes off Mack, who was in the thick of the game. Nor could she stop thinking about how well he fit in, as if he were already one of the family. Just the thought created a twinge of longing.

Her grandmother came over to stand beside her. Nell O’Brien was known for her insight and for her good sense. She also spoke her mind.

“He’s a good-looking one, isn’t he?” she said, her eyes alight with mischief.

“Who?” Susie asked.

Nell gave her a disbelieving look. “Don’t play coy with me, young lady. Mack, of course. You haven’t been able to keep your eyes off him all day. For what it’s worth, he seems to have the same problem.”

Susie felt a faint spark of hope. Surely her grandmother wouldn’t say what she knew Susie wanted to hear. Surely Nell, if no one else, would tell Susie the unvarnished truth. “Do you really think so, Gram?” she asked, unable to keep the plaintive note from her voice.

Gram gave her a chiding look. “Come now, girl. You know the answer to that as well as I do. I’ve seen a lot of men fall in love through the years. Mack looks as smitten as any of them. He’s looked that way for a long time now,” she added pointedly.

“I want to believe that,” Susie admitted.

“Then believe it,” Gram said briskly. “I’m glad you finally brought him around to join us for dinner. I was beginning to think you were going to let him get away. That would have been a real pity.”

“Mack’s not really mine to lose.”

“Nonsense!” Gram responded with asperity.

“No, it’s true. We’ve been friends a long time,” Susie said, a wistful note in her voice. “That’s as far as it’s gone.”

“But you want more,” Gram surmised. “You’re certain of it?”

Susie nodded. “I really do.”

“What’s stopping you from reaching for it?”

“Habit,” Susie said at once. “And fear. I’m afraid if we try and don’t make it, I’ll lose my best friend.”

“If Mack’s friendship is that important to you, you’ll find a way to make it work, even if having a more intimate relationship fails,” Gram said confidently. “One thing I know for sure—if you truly love this man and don’t try to have the relationship you really want with him, you’ll regret it for the rest of your life. When you’re as old as I am, the one thing you know is that it’s too late to make up for the things you didn’t do.”

Susie hugged her grandmother, felt her frailty that was belied by her strong spirit. “You’re very wise.”

“I should hope so,” Gram said. “After eighty-some years, I hope I’ve learned a thing or two.”

Susie grinned. “Eighty-some? You’re finally admitting to being eighty?”

“At some point it was going to be obvious to anyone looking at this wrinkled old face that I couldn’t pass for sixty or even seventy anymore. Why not own up to the truth?”

“You’re going to be young when you’re a hundred and two,” Susie predicted.

“If I live that long, I hope it’s with my wits about me and the ability to work in my garden. Otherwise, what’s the point?” Nell’s expression turned wistful. “And I’d like to see Ireland one more time. If that doesn’t happen soon, I fear it will be too late.”

Something in her tone worried Susie. It was the first time she could recall hearing her grandmother come close to admitting that she didn’t have a whole lifetime left to her.

“We’ll make it happen,” Susie assured her, determined to find a way. If the others knew this was Gram’s dream, they’d want to make it come true before it was too late. “I’ll see to it.”

“Don’t you worry about an old woman’s daydreams,” Gram chided. “Concentrate on making your own come true.” She took the glass and towel from Susie’s hands. “Now go out there and get into that football game. You could always run as fast as most of the men in this family.” She gave Susie’s hand a squeeze. “Just be sure you don’t run so fast that the right man can’t catch you.”

Susie had always been a bit of a tomboy, but Mack hadn’t expected her to throw herself into the family’s touch football game with such enthusiasm. In fact, he’d been counting on her staying inside with all the other women, while the men blew off steam. He’d needed some distance. Being caught up in an O’Brien celebration had been a little bit like a fantasy for him. It made him yearn for things that right at this moment seemed out of reach.

Okay, it was more than that. His wish for her to remain safely inside might hint at a disgustingly sexist attitude, but it was also a matter of self-preservation. Being around her today had stirred up some totally unexpected responses. It was as if all that talk about sex the other night had taken root in his brain—or in his libido—and the only thing he saw when he looked at her was a desirable woman whose clothes he wanted to strip off.

Now she was out here in the yard in an old pair of snug-fitting jeans she’d apparently borrowed and some kind of soft, touch-me sweater in a shade of red that should have looked ridiculous with her hair, but instead simply looked daring and downright provocative.

Standing just to the left of one of her brothers, a former college quarterback, she had her hands on her hips, a spark of mischief in her eyes and the kind of challenging expression that was giving Mack all sorts of ideas that had nothing to do with football. He almost regretted playing for the opposing team, since playing behind her with a clear view of her delectable backside held a lot of appeal.

Trace suddenly nudged him in the ribs. “Hey, pay attention! You do know that you can’t wimp out and go easy on Susie just because she’s a girl, right? If they hand the ball off to her, you take her down. You know that’s what they’re going to do because they think you’ll go easy on her. Do not let them get away with it,” he commanded.

Mack frowned at him. “I thought we were playing a friendly game of touch football.”

“We were until ten minutes ago, when Susie joined their team. They’re out to win. So are we.” Trace looked him squarely in the eye. “Do I need to move Will into your position?”

“Will hasn’t made a tackle since grade school,” Mack scoffed. “Who are you kidding?”

“Hey!” Will protested. “The game isn’t always about brute force. Sometimes it’s about finesse.”

“Tell that to the National Football League,” Mack said. “I’m sure the commissioner will be interested in your point of view.”

Jake joined the huddle. “Are we going to play or not? We can’t let their bringing in a girl psyche us out. Susie’s been playing in these games for years. She can take care of herself.”

He paused and glanced at Trace. “How about your sister? Maybe Laila would want to play. She’s tall and it would even things up. It would freak Matthew, Luke and Kevin out if the shoe were on the other foot and we had a woman playing for us.”

Trace frowned. “I am not letting my sister get pummeled by that team. Laila was never the tomboy that Susie was.”

“Hey, it was just a thought,” Jake said defensively. “You don’t have to go all macho and protective on us.” He turned back to Mack. “Okay, then, you can’t let Susie get past you. The woman runs like the wind. Remember high school? She blew away every other sprinter in the region when she competed in track.”

Mack frowned at the whole lot of them. “Oh, for heaven’s sake, which one of us made all-American all through high school? No girl is going to get the better of me.”

“Not even Susie?” Trace asked doubtfully.

Mack gritted his teeth. “No, not even Susie.”

“Okay, then,” Trace said as their players fell into position.

“About time,” Susie’s brother Matthew taunted. “I was starting to think I had enough time to go back inside for more pie.”

He called a play, the ball was snapped and, sure enough, it was handed off to Susie, who made a remarkable move to her right to avoid Jake’s tackle. Mack streaked after her, picked her up off her feet and fell to the ground, cushioning the fall with his own body. Her expression startled, Susie stared into his eyes.

“You tackled me,” she said with an indignant huff.

“Just following directions,” he said. “You okay?”

She scrambled up. “Of course I’m okay, but this is touch football, you idiot.”

Mack stared at her. “I was told the rules had changed.”

She stepped closer until she was toe-to-toe with him. “Is that so?”

“Swear to God.”

She looked around at the other players, then nodded. “Okay, then. You won’t catch me off guard again, Mack Franklin, I promise you that.”

She stomped back across the yard to join her own team. Mack got the distinct impression he’d stirred up her temper in ways he couldn’t possibly envision.

Fortunately, the last play had been fourth down and his team had the ball back. He took the hike from center and started to run, only to have 110 pounds of fury cut him off at the knees. This time when he hit the ground, Susie rolled with him. She jumped up before he could catch his breath.

“Okay, now we’re even,” she said. “I feel better. How about you?”

He stared at her incredulously. “You’re a little crazy. You know that, don’t you?”

She grinned. “I’ve spent a lot of time being one of the guys. Don’t sell me short, Mack. I have moves you can’t possibly imagine,” she boasted, then grinned. “On and off the field.”

Suddenly heat flared in Mack’s belly. All of the moves he envisioned were in a bedroom, not in the middle of a yard with her entire family surrounding them. He reached out, snagged her hand and pulled her into his arms, then leaned down to whisper in her ear.

“Do not taunt me, Susie. You’ll be asking for trouble.”

Amusement lit her eyes as she stared right back at him. “You don’t scare me. You’re all talk. I have years of experience to testify to that.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“All talk,” she taunted again.

It was Matthew who walked over, gave his sister an odd look, then broke up the standoff. “Hey, guys, we’re playing football.”

Susie blinked and looked away, her cheeks flushed. Mack dropped his hold on her and walked back to his own team, not sure if he was more disconcerted by her taunt or infuriated by it.

Will and Jake were grinning. “This O’Brien holiday tradition has just gotten interesting,” Jake commented. “You might want to keep in mind, though, that Jeff and Mick are sitting right up there on the porch watching. I’m not sure how thrilled they’re likely to be if you decide to seduce Susie right here and now. I know Mick, especially, talks a good game, but at heart, they’re pretty old-fashioned guys.”

“Seducing Susie never crossed my mind,” Mack said with grim determination. Making her take back her words, now, that was something entirely different.

Jake rolled his eyes. “Just like I didn’t pine away for Bree all those years she was off in Chicago writing plays.”

Mack just stared him down.

Across the yard he overheard Susie’s brother Luke arguing heatedly with Matthew.

“You’ve got to stop giving her the ball,” he told Matthew. “She’s not exactly a secret weapon right now.”

Susie marched right up to her brothers. “I am in this game to win it,” she declared fiercely. “Give me the ball.”

Mack had to hide a grin at the family squabble. He could hardly wait to see how it turned out. His money was on Susie. She was determined to run the ball past him and score. That grit was another aspect of her never-say-die spirit that he enjoyed. At least until today, when she seemed determined to use it to drive him wild.

On their next two plays after they got the ball back, Matthew tried passing downfield to Kevin, but Connor broke up the plays. On the next play Susie took a handoff and tried sprinting around Mack’s blind side. He caught her by the waistband of her pants and tumbled to the ground with her.

“You are so annoying,” she grumbled, but she didn’t scramble away from him quite as quickly this time. In fact, as she looked into his eyes, she suddenly seemed a little out of breath. He didn’t think it could be blamed entirely on her run or their fall.

Mack reached over to brush a streak of dirt from her cheek. To his astonishment, his fingers trembled as he touched her skin.

His own breath hitched.

“Susie,” he murmured softly.

She couldn’t seem to tear her gaze away, either. “Uh-huh,” she said in a distracted whisper.

“We should stop this before you get hurt.”

She blinked for a second, then punched him in the ribs. “Me? What about you? Or Will, or any of the others?”

Mack held her in place, his gaze never leaving her face. “You’re the only one I’m worried about.”

“Just because I’m a girl,” she said, as if it were a curse.

“Just because you’re the girl I care about,” he said. He hesitated, scant inches from her mouth. He could kiss her right here and now. He wanted to. One look into her blazing eyes told him that was what she wanted, too.

“Mack?” she said, a questioning note in her voice. “What’s going on here?”

“I wish I knew,” he said with frustration.

Before he could do something they’d both regret, he scrambled to his feet and held out his hand. “Let’s go for a walk.”

“Now?” she said, regarding him incredulously. “You want to go for a walk now, in the middle of the traditional football game?”

“I do.”

She looked around at the speculative looks on the faces of the men in her family, then nodded slowly. “Okay.”

Grateful that she wasn’t going to give him an argument, Mack tossed the football back to Trace. “Count us out. We’re going for a walk on the beach.”

“In the middle of the game?” Matthew demanded, staring at his sister as if she’d betrayed him.

“Seems like as good a time as any to me,” she said.

Matthew turned to his brother. “Do you have any idea what is going on with her?”

Luke laughed. “Oh, yeah, and if you ask me, it’s about time.”

All the way across the endless expanse of Uncle Mick’s lawn and down the steps to the beach, Susie clung to Mack’s hand and cast sideways glances at his unexpectedly grim expression.

“Was there something you wanted to talk about?” she asked eventually, when the silence had gone on way too long.

“Not really,” he said. The soft sand made walking difficult, but he was eating up the distance as if he had some destination in mind.

“Are we going someplace specific?” she asked, glad for her track experience and long legs. She had no problem keeping up with him, even though she would have preferred a leisurely, romantic stroll.

“Nope.”

“Are we on a deadline?”

He scowled. “Of course not.”

“Then could we slow down? I know I ran track in high school, but I stopped competing years ago.”

He glanced at her. “Sorry,” he said, slowing his gait.

“Mack, if you don’t mind me saying so, you don’t seem happy about going on this walk. Why did you suggest it?”

“Because I didn’t like what was happening back there.”

She studied him in confusion. “Me getting tackled?”

He shook his head. “I knew I wasn’t going to hurt you.”

“Then what?”

He heaved a sigh, stopped and met her gaze. “I came within a heartbeat of kissing you.”

She blinked at the shock in his voice. “Would that have been so terrible? Do you think the world would have come to an end or something?”

“I can’t just start kissing you because I feel like it,” he said angrily. “Not after all this time.”

“Maybe you should leave that decision up to me. Maybe I want you to kiss me. Maybe I think we’ve been waiting way too long to start kissing like crazy.”

“No way,” he said adamantly. “Not now.”

“Why?”

“Because the timing’s all wrong.”

“Because we had an audience?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. What makes you think I’ve ever cared what anyone else thinks?”

“Okay, then, if it’s not because you were afraid that Will, Jake, my brothers and all the rest of them would give you a rough time, what was going on?”

“I told you the timing was bad,” he practically growled. “Now leave it alone.”

“No,” she said fiercely. If he’d wanted, even for a second, to change things finally—and hallelujah for that—and she wanted to change their relationship, why shouldn’t they? They were both consenting adults, for heaven’s sakes. “I’m half of this equation, and I get to have a say in what happens, too.”

“Not now,” he insisted grimly.

“Are you worried because my dad and Uncle Mick were there? Do you not want the pressure of getting those two all worked up, because believe me, I get that.”

“It’s not that,” he insisted.

“Then enlighten me, because I am totally confused.”

“You just have to take my word for it that this isn’t a good time for us to be thinking about getting any more involved than we already are.”

“I’m sorry,” she said, stopping and looking directly into his eyes. “But I happen to think it’s way past time, so if there’s something I’m missing, you need to fill me in.”

“No,” he said. “Once I’ve worked everything out, we’ll talk. Until then, you just have to give me some space, Susie. I mean it. It’s the only thing that’ll work right now.”

She scowled at his edict. He’d obviously made yet another arbitrary decision and was expecting her to go along with it without argument. Well, not this time.

“You want space?” she said heatedly. “You’ve got it. But don’t count on me being at home waiting when you’ve worked everything out to your satisfaction. That’s not how it works, Mack. Either we’re friends or we’re not. Either we’re something more or we’re not. Whatever you want to call what we have, we both need to be all in. Otherwise, what’s the point?”

He regarded her miserably. “Susie, please don’t pick now to start issuing ultimatums.”

“Why not? Isn’t that exactly what you just did? Give me space, or else, Susie. That pretty much sums it up, doesn’t it?”

“Okay, yes. If you can’t accept that I know what’s best, then I won’t have any choice but to walk away.”

Fighting tears, she simply nodded. “Your decision,” she said quietly.

But despite his words, she was the one to turn and walk away. At least she was able to cling to her dignity, if only by a thread, by not letting him see her tears start to fall.

Back at the house, Susie managed to slip around to the parking area without anyone noticing her. Fortunately she’d driven earlier, and her car keys were tucked in her pocket. Mack could get home under his own steam. It would serve him right, though, if every one of the O’Briens declined to give him a ride.

She was about to pull out of the driveway when Shanna tapped on the window, a worried expression on her face.

“Why are you leaving without even saying goodbye?” she asked. “Did you and Mack have a fight? Everybody inside has been speculating about what’s going on ever since the two of you took off together. Add in the fact that Laila and Matthew got into some kind of argument and she left in a huff, and it’s turning into an interesting day.”

Momentarily distracted by that bit of news, Susie said, “Laila and Matthew argued? What on earth would they argue about?”

“I have no idea,” Shanna admitted. “But it caused quite a stir when she left. Now you’re doing the same thing. Curiosity is at a fever pitch.”

“Then is it any wonder I don’t want to come inside?” Susie asked wryly. “I’m not in the mood for talking right now.”

Shanna studied her face, clearly saw the dampness on her cheeks and sighed. “Then you did have a fight,” she said with real regret. “I’m so sorry.”

“Not really,” Susie replied wearily. “Mack doesn’t fight. He just makes decisions and expects me to abide by them with absolutely no explanation at all. I’m sick of it. If he has all these secrets he suddenly doesn’t want to share with me, that’s his right, I suppose, but it makes me feel like an irrelevant outsider.”

“Oh, sweetie, I’m sure that was never his intention. He’s just the kind of guy who’s used to relying on himself. Isn’t that what he’s had to do for years now?”

It was true, Susie was forced to admit. Mack’s family had been a far cry from the O’Briens. He didn’t even know who his father was, and from an early age he’d been more of a grown-up than his irresponsible mother. As his confidante through a troubled adolescence, she knew better than anyone how tough it had been on him to maintain a facade of good cheer when his home life was a shambles.

College would never have been an option if it hadn’t been for an athletic scholarship. He’d taken any odd job available to pay for extras, and he’d worked as an unpaid stringer for the Baltimore paper just to prove himself. His work ethic as much as his knowledge of sports and his writing ability had earned him his coveted column.

“You’re right,” Susie reluctantly admitted to Shanna. “I know Mack isn’t used to leaning on anyone, not even Will and Jake. I guess I just hoped I was different, that he trusted me enough to let me help. He used to.”

“Maybe that was before you were the problem,” Shanna suggested gently. “Besides, what did you do the second he trusted you enough to say he needed time? Instead of taking him at his word and giving him time, you got in a snit and bolted on him.”

“I’m not in a snit,” Susie said, not liking the characterization.

“Really?”

She sighed. “Okay, maybe a little bit of a snit.” She regarded Shanna plaintively. “You’re not saying I have to go over to his place and wait for him and apologize, are you? I don’t think I could do that right now.”

Shanna laughed. “Heavens, no! That would definitely be asking too much. I’m just saying that when he does come to you, and he will, you should keep an open mind. Really listen when he decides to talk.”

“I’ve always listened.” She regarded her friend curiously. “I don’t suppose you have any idea what’s going on, do you? Has Kevin said anything?”

“Not a word, but he’s the last to know anything. He’s so wrapped up with his work with the foundation and their attempts to protect the bay, he has no idea what’s going on with me and the kids, much less the rest of the family or this town. Trust me, when I do manage to snag his attention, local gossip is not on my mind or his. We’re trying to make a baby.”

Susie finally had a reason to smile. “Really?”

Shanna nodded, though she didn’t look especially happy. “Sadly, accomplishing that requires two people to be in the same room, preferably in the same bed, and awake. It’s not as easy as you’d think.”

“It will work out,” Susie assured her. “You two are such wonderful parents for Henry and Davy. Any child you have together will be totally blessed.”

“Thanks. Now, as for you and Mack, be patient, Susie. I know things will work out with the two of you the same way you know Kevin and I will find a way to make that baby. It’s just destined to happen.”

“Patience isn’t my best trait, but I suppose it won’t kill me to give it a try,” Susie replied.

“Mack’s worth it, don’t you think?”

“I’ve been waiting all these years, so I must believe that,” Susie said.

But after a thoroughly frustrating day like today, it was really, really hard to remember why.

4

Jeff O’Brien felt as if he’d always lived in the shadow of his older brother. Mick was like a force of nature, the kind of man who was confident in his own skin, a talented architect with amazing vision. Though Jeff had worked with him on the development of Chesapeake Shores, he’d merely overseen the construction details and ultimately the sales. The town had been built according to Mick’s specifications and modified to fit with Thomas’s ideas on doing the least harm to the bay. They were the visionaries behind it.

The three O’Brien brothers had butted heads repeatedly. Mick won most arguments through an absolute sense of self-confidence that couldn’t be shaken by law or reason. The only time he’d been trumped was when Thomas had used legal means to ensure that Mick adhered to the strictest interpretation of environmental regulations. Mick had never entirely forgiven him, or Jeff for siding with him. He’d labeled Thomas a traitor and told Jeff he had no backbone. Jeff hadn’t bothered trying to contradict him, which had only further infuriated Mick.

Things were easier among the three of them now that they’d wisely decided against working together. Ma insisted that some level of family obligation bring them together on Sundays and holidays and, over time, they’d managed to handle the occasions with a certain amount of grace and goodwill.

Still, Jeff couldn’t deny that it grated when he’d heard about Mick threatening to interfere in Susie’s relationship with Mack Franklin. Now that Mick’s own children were all happily married, apparently he’d decided to take on Jeff’s.

Personally Jeff had never understood the need to meddle in someone else’s life. He and Jo had raised Susie with good values and good sense. Whatever was going on between her and Mack, he trusted her to get what she wanted out of it. Susie had never been some shy little wallflower. She was every bit as stubborn and determined as anyone else in the family.

At least, he’d felt that way until he’d seen her with Mack on Thanksgiving, recognized the sparks flying during that traditional family football game, and then seen his daughter come back from a walk with Mack with tears on her cheeks. For the first time, he’d wanted to throttle a man for making his little girl cry. He’d told Jo about it that night.

“She has a good head on her shoulders,” Jo insisted. “And she’s loved Mack as far back as I can remember. All we can do is be there for her if things don’t work out the way she wants them to.”

“I suppose,” he’d said. “Are you sure I can’t sit him down and knock some sense into him?”

She laughed. “You could, but then you’d be just like Mick. Is that what you want?”

The suggestion had been enough to keep him away from Mack. For now.

He glanced at the list Susie had given him of things he needed to do on Saturday morning. Bringing her into the real estate management company had been the smartest thing he’d ever done. She could organize an army battalion without batting an eye. He could easily see her with a houseful of kids underfoot, handling the chaos with total competence and ease. A part of him longed for the time when she’d do just that. Watching his older brother with his grandkids had made Jeff just a little envious.

“Are you heading over to Shanna’s now, Dad?” Susie called out to him. “I told her you’d be there first thing to check on that plumbing. Dwight’s good, but we don’t want to take any chances that he missed something.”

“On my way,” he assured her, then paused after taking a closer look at her pale complexion. “You okay?”

She looked startled by the question. “Of course. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“You don’t look so hot, and you took off pretty suddenly on Thanksgiving.”

“I…I didn’t feel well,” she said, then hurriedly added, “Then. I didn’t feel well then. I’m perfectly fine now.”

“Something you ate? I haven’t heard about anyone else feeling ill.”

“Maybe nobody else got thrown on the ground as many times as I did right after dinner,” she retorted with a faint grin.

Jeff recognized the perfect opening. “About that,” he began.

“Dad, leave it alone,” she said tersely, her expression forbidding.

“You sure? If you ever want to talk, your mother and I, we’re always on your side. You do know that, don’t you?”

She managed to pull off a reassuring smile that Jeff didn’t entirely buy. “Of course I know that,” she promised. “Now, get started. It’s going to take you all day to get through that list I gave you, and Mitzi Gaylord is coming in at five to sign the contract for the Brighton house.”

“On my way,” he said, still oddly reluctant to leave his daughter.

A few minutes later, though, he was in the bookstore when he overheard someone make a comment about Mack’s column not being in the paper. He realized he’d noticed the same thing this morning at breakfast, but hadn’t seen any reason to be alarmed by it.

“Well, I heard he was fired,” one of the women said. “That’s why he’s been hiding out the past few days. Who can blame him? His whole identity was wrapped up in that job. I think he was convinced it was his ticket to respectability—not that he needed one as far as I’m concerned. Still, after all he went through as a boy, this had to be a blow.”

“Fired? Are you sure?” a second woman asked. “The paper’s been making a big fuss about him for a long time now. Have you been up to Baltimore? Everywhere you look, his picture’s right there. It’s even on the sides of buses. He’s like some kind of sports columnist superstar.”

Jeff stepped out of the back room and looked around to identify the speakers. One of them was Ethel, whose nearby shop specialized in souvenirs and local gossip. He glanced around and caught Shanna’s eye, then beckoned her to the back.

“Did you hear them?” he asked.

She nodded. “But I have no idea if what they’re saying is true. I only know Mack’s been really upset. He wouldn’t tell Susie why. That’s why they fought on Thanksgiving.”

Jeff nodded, absorbing that news. “I see.”

“Please don’t tell her I told you about the fight,” Shanna pleaded. “She’d hate having you worry about her.”

“Yeah, Susie never wants anyone to worry,” he said. “Thanks, though, Shanna.”

After he’d finished checking to make sure the plumbing had been fixed, he was about to leave when he saw Will browsing through the nonfiction section. Jeff confronted him. If anyone would know what was going on, Will would.

“Have you got a minute?” he asked Will.

“Sure. What’s up?”

“Outside,” Jeff commanded, not wanting Ethel to overhear anything she could pass along to her customers.

When he and Will had walked to one of the benches along the bay and sat down, Jeff asked, “Has Mack been fired from his job? That’s the talk going around town this morning.”

Will’s uncomfortable expression was answer enough. Jeff sighed. “Then it’s true?”

Will nodded. “It happened the week before Thanksgiving. It’s really rocked him.”

“I can imagine,” Jeff said, feeling a certain amount of pity for him. Like everyone else in town, he know how much the job had meant to Mack. It had been his dream, and as Ethel had noted, it had given him the respect he’d always craved. Of anyone Jeff knew, no one had been more deserving of finding a little happiness.

“Has he told Susie?” he asked. “She hasn’t mentioned it to us.”

Will frowned. “I don’t think she knows. Can you leave it alone, Jeff? She should hear it from Mack.”

“I don’t know. Seems to me it’s something she deserves to know before everyone else in town starts blabbing about it. From what I overheard back at the bookstore, it won’t take long for the word to get back to her. Ethel has a pipeline that those TV tabloids would envy.”

“I agree with you. I’ll see if I can get Mack to talk to her today, but frankly, he hasn’t wanted to discuss it with anyone. Jake and I found out only after going over to his apartment and confronting him.”

“Tell him to do it today,” Jeff said. “Or I’ll see to it she finds out tomorrow.”

Will nodded. “Fair enough. I’ll do my best, but Mack’s not exactly listening to reason right now.”

“While Mack has my sympathy, he’s not the one I’m worried about,” Jeff said grimly.

And whatever it took, he was going to try to make sure Susie wasn’t the one who wound up getting hurt because Mack didn’t have the guts to own up to what was going on in his life. There was no shame in losing a job. But there was something wrong with not sharing that news with someone who supposedly mattered.

Susie had been living on her own in a small apartment above the shops on Main Street ever since she’d graduated from college and gone to work for her father. It was convenient to her job, which was just downstairs, and in the heart of downtown Chesapeake Shores, which was lively in the summer and quiet this time of year.

Though the apartment wasn’t spacious—just an open kitchen, living room and dining room area, plus a single bedroom and bath—it suited her, or at least it had until it filled up with her parents and her brothers, as it did on the Sunday after Thanksgiving.

It wasn’t as if she’d been expecting them. They’d all turned up uninvited, armed with coffee and croissants from Sally’s, apparently staging some sort of intervention. She was still trying to get a fix on what had them in such an uproar.

“Okay, slow down,” she finally shouted, hoping to be heard over the commotion. “I can’t even think, much less understand a word any of you are saying.”

Thankfully, they all shut up and looked to her mother. Josephine O’Brien had been a high school and college athlete who, as a physical education teacher, had encouraged Susie’s love of sports and who’d coached her on the high school track team. She’d been the perfect mother for two energetic, athletic boys, and an even better one for a tomboy daughter. When she had something to say, they all listened.

“We’re worried about this ongoing infatuation you seem to have with Mack Franklin,” her mother began. “Especially right now.”

Susie frowned. “Why especially now?”

Rather than giving her a direct answer, Matthew said, “We all like the guy, but he has a lousy history with women, Suze. You know that.”

“Yeah, we thought that’s why you’d refused to date him,” Luke chimed in. “We all thought you’d made a smart decision.”

“Okay,” Susie said slowly. “All this is old news. Mack and I have been friends for a long time now. You’ve never objected to that. And I still don’t know what Mom meant when she said something about it being a bad time for our relationship to change.” She gave them a defiant look. “Not that I’m admitting it has.”

Her brothers exchanged a look as if deciding who should respond to that point.

It was Matthew who stepped in. “You let him tackle you on Thanksgiving,” he said as if it were a crime. “More than once.”

Susie frowned. “I didn’t exactly do it by choice.”

“But you didn’t even try to get away from him,” Luke countered. “No one has ever tackled you before. So, what? Did you want to roll around on the ground with him? That’s how it looked.”

Susie’s temper stirred. “Are you mad because I didn’t fight Mack off or because I didn’t score a touchdown? Since when is it all up to me to win a stupid family football game?”

“Well, we do count on you,” Matthew admitted. “None of us like losing.”

Luke scowled at him. “So not the point. Susie, you looked like you wanted to kiss him, right there in front of everybody.”

“If I hadn’t come over to help you up, I think you would have,” Matthew added. “Are you crazy? This has gone too far, Susie. Or it’s about to. That’s why we’re here, to stop you from doing something you’ll regret.”

“And you think I’d regret kissing Mack?” she inquired, her voice like ice. “Or is it sleeping with him that really worries you? Maybe falling in love with him? Well, I have news for you—it’s too late.” She avoided looking at either of her parents when she said it. She didn’t want to see any sign of shock on either of their faces, but she had to put a stop to this nonsense.

Matthew regarded her with alarm. “You’ve already slept with him? I’ll kill him. I swear I will. He should not be taking advantage of you. We’ve all told him that.”

Susie froze. “Excuse me? Who’s warned Mack to stay away from me?”

“We all have,” Matthew said. “Well, me and Luke, anyway. I think maybe Kevin and Connor have said something, too.”

Susie couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “How dare you interfere in my life like that! If and when Mack and I decide we want to sleep together, believe me, it will be none of your business.”

“Then you haven’t slept with him already?” Matthew asked, sounding relieved.

She groaned at his persistence. “No, I have not slept with him, though I would have if I’d had the opportunity.”

“Then what?” Luke asked suspiciously. “You said it was too late. So, have you kissed him? I guess that’s not so bad. People kiss all the time and it doesn’t mean anything.”

“This is so not about kissing,” Susie declared. “It’s about all of you meddling in my business. Who I kiss or sleep with is none of your business. Haven’t any of you noticed that I’m in my late twenties? In most worlds that’s considered old enough to make my own decisions.” She turned toward her mother, who gave her a commiserating look.

“We’re just concerned, dear. None of us want to see you get hurt,” Jo O’Brien said gently.

Susie didn’t buy the sudden onset of parental or sibling concern. “Oh, come on, this thing between Mack and me, if there is anything, has been coming on for a long time. If you all were so dead set against it, why didn’t you speak up sooner?” she demanded, then waved off the question. “That’s irrelevant. I’m a grown woman. I get to choose my own dates.”

She looked to her father for support. Unlike her uncle Mick, her dad wasn’t known for meddling in his children’s business. They’d grown especially close since they’d been working together. He trusted her judgment. She knew he did. “Dad, you’ve been awfully quiet. Do you have an opinion about this? If you do, I’d like to hear it.”

He regarded her with an uncomfortable expression. “You have a good head on your shoulders,” he began. At a nudge from his wife, he faltered. “That said, this might not be the best time to consider getting closer to Mack. Circumstances have changed.”

Her gaze narrowed at his careful choice of words. The comment suggested he knew more than she did, perhaps even the very thing that Mack had so determinedly been keeping from her.

“Why not now?” she asked, keeping her gaze steady on her father. “What circumstances have changed? Has he run off and married someone else?”

Though she asked her father, it was her mother who responded. “He’s unemployed,” she said bluntly, startling Susie.

“He is?” she said before she could stop herself.

“There you go,” Matthew said triumphantly. “He didn’t tell you, did he? What kind of man keeps that kind of thing a secret from someone he cares about? It’s pretty significant news, don’t you think? It’s the kind of news friends share with each other.”

Susie couldn’t deny that. It explained a lot, in fact, especially the dark funk of a few days ago, the repeated comments about the timing for starting up a real relationship being all wrong.

She wasn’t sure exactly what she was feeling—anger at Mack keeping such a huge secret or pity over him losing something that mattered so much to him—but she did know this wasn’t where she needed to be. She stood up, grabbed her coat and her purse, then turned to her family.

“Sorry. I need to go.”

“You’re leaving?” Luke asked incredulously. “Nothing’s decided.”

“Believe me, I’ve heard everything I need to hear. Lock up when you leave.” She brushed a kiss across her mother’s cheek, then another on her dad’s. “Love you.”

Though they both looked worried, they didn’t try to stop her.

All the way across town to Mack’s, she stewed about being blindsided by news this monumental. She was torn between wanting to kill him for keeping her in the dark and wanting to hug him to take away the pain he must be feeling. No matter what, though, he should have told her. Her family was right about that.

Of course, she could guess exactly why he hadn’t: pride. Mack had a boatload of it. But friendship should have trumped pride. She would have helped or just listened, whatever he wanted.

Halfway to Mack’s, it sank in that maybe he simply hadn’t trusted her with the news, that he didn’t even think she had a right to know. It was also possible that he’d been embarrassed to tell her, especially after all the conversations they’d had about newspapers being a dying breed. He might have worried she’d gloat, instead of offering a shoulder to lean on.

Or maybe Matthew had been right for once in his mostly insensitive life. Maybe she didn’t really count as a true friend with Mack after all, not enough to be his sounding board in a crisis this big.

She pulled to the side of the road as she considered that possibility, then pounded a fist on the steering wheel in frustration.

A friend wouldn’t care about his reasons. A friend would charge right in and offer support. The woman who didn’t quite know her own place, however, hesitated.

And then, filled with too many questions and no answers, she turned around and drove back home, relieved to find that her family had gone. She’d have all the privacy in the world to wrestle with what she should be doing next…or with accepting the fact that she wasn’t the one who could do anything at all.

“You know the word is out about the newspaper letting you go,” Will said to Mack at lunch on the Monday after Thanksgiving. “Have you said anything to Susie?”

Mack grimaced. “No. How’d the word get around this fast, anyway? It’s not as if it was worthy of a big announcement on Entertainment Tonight.”

Will simply stared at him. “You really don’t get it, do you? We’ve always thought you had this rock-solid ego, but you have no idea how people talked about your columns, especially in this town. Everyone here has always been so proud of you, especially those of us who know what you overcame to get there.”

“You’re exaggerating,” Mack said.

Will shook his head. “I’m not, am I, Jake?”

“Absolutely not,” Jake agreed. “Which is why people noticed that you didn’t have a column about the Ravens in Saturday’s paper. Somebody else did. And somebody else also wrote about yesterday’s game. People have drawn their own conclusions. Speculation was running wild by the time I stopped by here for coffee this morning.”

“I hate to tell you, but the news gets worse,” Will told him, his tone dire. “On Saturday I stopped by the bookstore to pick up a book and ran into Susie’s dad. Jeff was there checking on some plumbing repair, I guess. Anyway, he cornered me and asked point-blank if I knew what was going on. Said he’d heard some talk about you losing your job. What was I supposed to do, lie?”

Mack sighed. “No, but you could have warned me on Saturday.”

“Don’t you think I tried? I called your apartment and your cell phone. Not only didn’t you answer, but I couldn’t leave a message because both voice mailboxes were full.”

“You should have come looking for me,” Mack said, knowing that the real fault wasn’t Will’s, but needing to blame someone. “Maybe there would have been time for me to get to Susie. I’m sure by now her dad’s filled her in.”

“No question about it,” Will said. “He told me he intended to do it if you didn’t. He was pretty insistent about that.”

“Call her now,” Jake said. “Better yet, stop by the management office. She’s probably there. You should tell her something like this face-to-face.”

“I’m not sure I’d be able to take it if she starts pitying me or saying I told you so,” Mack said, though he wasn’t sure that was his real concern. He was more worried that she’d lose faith in him, walk away before they ever got the chance he wanted for the two of them.

“Why would she say I told you so?” Will asked. “The woman’s crazy about you.”

“I told you a while back that she’s been warning me that I ought to be planning ahead,” Mack said. “I guess she’s read all the stories about newspaper cutbacks.”

“Well, I seriously doubt she’s going to throw that in your face,” Will said. “Susie’s not that kind of woman.”

Mack thought about the way their discussion had veered off on a tangent about sex the week before, about the way she’d looked into his eyes when he’d tackled her on Thanksgiving, holding his gaze until it had required every last ounce of willpower he possessed to keep from kissing her.

Then he thought about the fight they’d had on the beach when she realized he was keeping something from her. Now that she knew what it was, she was likely to be even more furious. He could even understand her point of view. He’d be livid—and hurt—if she kept a secret this huge from him.

“I’m not sure I know what kind of woman she is lately,” he said despondently. “She seems to be changing.”

“Well, she’s not mean,” Jake said. “We all know that. Talk to her, Mack, before this becomes some huge issue between you. If it gets blown all out of proportion, you’ll both wind up being miserable. Fix it now. That’s my advice.” He turned a sheepish look on Will. “Not that I’m the expert.”

“Couldn’t have said it better myself,” Will said. “Go. Fix.”

Mack sighed when they left him on the street, just a few paces away from the Chesapeake Shores Real Estate Management Company. He had a hunch both of his friends were sitting in their respective vehicles watching to see if he took their advice or chickened out.

Since he’d been humiliated enough lately, he sucked in a bracing breath and walked into the office, wishing he had even the first clue about what to expect or what to say to her. Susie might have a cheery, live-and-let-live demeanor most of the time, but facing her right now was no less intimidating than walking into a lion’s den. Something told him that whatever happened in the next few minutes would decide his future…and whether or not Susie was likely to be a part of it.

5

At the sound of the door opening, Susie glanced up from the contract she’d been reading for the past hour without one single word registering. An automatic smile had her lips curving up until she recognized Mack.

“Oh, it’s you,” she said, her tone flat. To her chagrin, her pulse skipped several beats despite her mood. Apparently chemistry was slow to catch on to reality. Thankfully, Mack couldn’t possibly know all the conficting emotions churning inside her.

Mack winced. “I gather you’ve heard the news.”

“From my family,” she confirmed accusingly. “Why would you let me find out something that monumental from my family, Mack? How could you do that to me? You had to know how humiliating it would be.”

“Sorry,” he said, looking genuinely contrite. “Really. The honest-to-goodness truth is that I just couldn’t work up the nerve to tell you. I’ve dealt with my share of humiliation since this happened.”

On some level she understood his reluctance, the blow to his pride, but she couldn’t let it pass. Communication was the one thing they’d always had going for them. If they lost that now, she was afraid they were doomed.

“Mack, we keep saying we’re friends, but it doesn’t seem like it to me right now. If you can’t even tell me that you lost your job, then what kind of friendship do we really have? Is it some superficial thing that’s good for a few laughs? Am I just some woman you hang out with to keep from being bored?”

His expression pleaded for understanding. “Susie, this isn’t about you and me, what we are or aren’t to each other. I’m the one who lost a job that meant everything to me. Don’t try to make it about something else. I can’t fight that battle right now.”

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I have to. This is like some huge turning point for us on so many levels. Can’t you see that?”

He sat down on the chair beside her desk. Though he obviously still didn’t want to have this conversation, he settled in, apparently ready to have the talk they should have had days ago.

“Okay, hear me out,” he said, a coaxing note in his voice. “This just happened a little over a week ago. I was trying to absorb the news, work through what it meant for the future.”

“Thus the funk,” she said.

“Exactly.” He regarded her earnestly. “I wanted to have a plan before you found out. I needed to feel as if I was in control of the situation.”

“Mack, I adore you, but you don’t think that fast.” When he was about to protest the insulting comment, she added, “What I’m saying is that you ponder things, think them through from every angle. It’s a good trait in many ways, but it’s not a fast track to decision-making. You had to know the gossip mill in this town would beat you to the punch.” She couldn’t keep the hurt out of her voice when she repeated, “I should have heard this from you, not from my family, who heard it on the street.”

“Okay, you’re right,” he said apologetically. “I knew I was taking a huge risk, but I didn’t want to see that look in your eyes, the one you have right now.”

She couldn’t imagine what he meant. “What look is that?”

“You feel sorry for me. No man wants a woman’s pity.”

Susie rolled her eyes. It was such a guy comment. “I do feel sorry for you, but certainly not because I think you’re some kind of failure, if that’s what you mean.”

He shrugged. “More or less.”

“Well, here’s a news flash. I feel bad for you because I know how much that job meant to you. You live and breathe sports. That column was all tied up in who you are. It gave you a very public professional identity. Losing it has to be killing you.”

He looked vaguely relieved by her words. “That’s exactly it,” he said.

“You don’t have to sound so surprised that I get it,” she said wryly. “I’ve had a lot of years to figure out what makes you tick.”

He met her gaze. “I really am sorry about how you found out about this.”

She gave him an amused look. “Do you actually know how I found out? Not just that it came from my family, but the circumstances?”

“Your father filled you in?” he guessed.

“And my mother and my brothers,” she said. “They staged an intervention to warn me against getting involved with you right now.”

For the first time, he looked truly guilt stricken. “Geez, Susie, I am so sorry.”

“They forced me to consider for the first time that I must not mean much to you if you’d keep such a huge secret from me.”

“You know that’s not true,” he said emphatically, then studied her closely. “You do know it, don’t you?”

“Actually, no, I don’t. And to make this little intervention of theirs even more fun, Matthew also mentioned that he and Luke had warned you to stay away from me. Why on earth didn’t you tell me about that? I was horrified.”

He waved it off. “Trust me, it was no big deal. They were just being protective brothers.”

“Then what they said had nothing to do with why you and I, well…” She couldn’t quite bring herself to put it into words. “Why we haven’t, you know, done anything?”

He blinked in apparent confusion, then caught on. “No,” he said quickly. “Hell, no. We’ve just had these boundaries between us. I guess I always knew the rules. Heaven knows, you were clear enough about them, made sure I understood that we had this totally platonic thing going on.”

Susie sighed. “Forget the stupid rules, Mack,” she snapped impatiently. “I’m sick to death of them.”

Looking a little stunned by her vehemence, he stood up and started to pace, then paused to meet her gaze. “We talked about this on Thanksgiving, Susie. Now’s not the time—”

“Who says?” she challenged.

“I do,” he told her. “And your whole family, for that matter. Didn’t you listen to what they said?”

“They don’t get a say.”

“I just think it’s for the best,” he insisted stubbornly.

Susie knew better than to push too hard right now, no matter how badly she wanted to. As she’d told him earlier, she sensed they were at a turning point, but with Mack’s career in turmoil, he wasn’t ready to make another life-altering decision. She had to respect that.

“Okay, then, let’s figure out what comes next for you,” she said briskly, letting the rest go for now. They’d get back to it. She made a promise to herself to be sure of that.

He paused in his agitated pacing and stared at her. “You sound as if we can do that between now and your next appointment,” Mack said, sounding vaguely disgruntled. “It’s not going to be that easy. Right now I’m thinking I might have to put out feelers, see what else is out there and then move to wherever I can find a job opening.”

Susie didn’t even attempt to hide her stunned reaction. “You’d leave Chesapeake Shores?” she asked in dismay.

He nodded, though he looked almost as miserable as she was feeling. “I might not have a choice.”

“No,” she said flatly, determined not to have things end between them before they’d even gotten started. And if Mack left now, they would surely end. Distance, especially with their undefined relationship, would kill whatever chance they had.

“That’s not going to happen,” she added even more emphatically. “You love it here as much as I do. Granted your experiences growing up in Chesapeake Shores were far different from mine, but this is your home, Mack.”

“Susie, it’s not that simple,” he argued. “Good jobs in journalism don’t grow on trees, especially not these days. Haven’t you been warning me about that for months now? I was the one who was an idiot. I thought my column was so successful, I’d be immune from cutbacks. Instead, it made me the perfect target. Even if I could find another newspaper job, the salary probably won’t be what I was getting in Baltimore.”

“Then create your own,” she blurted. “Your own job, I mean.”

Mack blinked at the suggestion. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me. Create a job for yourself.”

“Did you have something specific in mind?” he asked, sitting back down, his expression curious.

This was exactly why he should have talked to her the minute he was fired, she thought. Mack plodded through lists of pros and cons. She was quicker and much more creative, especially, it seemed, when it came to holding on to someone she didn’t want leaving her world.

Thinking on her feet, she said, “You could blog about sports on a national scale. That’s the big trend these days, isn’t it? Everything’s going on the internet. You have the experience and reputation. You’d have a built-in following.”

Though he looked intrigued, he shook his head. “I don’t see how it could bring in much money.”

“Build up a subscriber base, paid or unpaid,” she said, thinking off the top of her head. This might not be her usual area of expertise, but since Mack was in journalism, she’d been paying attention to the field recently. “The point would be to get hits. You get enough hits, you can find advertisers. Who knows, maybe you’d even be picked up by newspapers in syndication or something. I don’t know. It just seems like it could work. The internet is the future, isn’t it?”

“So my boss told me as he was kicking me out the door,” Mack said wryly. “Any other ideas?”

Her expression turned thoughtful. “Well, speaking as someone who wants to get real estate listings in front of a targeted local audience, what about starting a weekly newspaper right here? I know that seems counterintuitive, since newspapers are dying, but I think the local ones will continue to be in demand, if only as a vehicle for advertising.”

“I’m a sports columnist, not a publisher,” Mack argued. “Or even an editor. I haven’t had to worry about getting a paper out on time since college.”

“Have you forgotten everything you knew back then?” she asked.

“No, but…”

She frowned at his negative attitude. “These are just ideas, Mack. Don’t dismiss them out of hand or make excuses for why they won’t work. Think about the independence you’d have with your own blog. Or imagine how exciting it could be to start something brand-new, something that’s needed in this community. You could shape it into the kind of newspaper you always dreamed of working for.”

Mack continued to look skeptical. “I don’t know,” he murmured.

“Just think about it,” Susie ordered. “That’s my contribution for now,” she said. “I have an appointment. Go home and do what you do best, ponder. I’m not saying these two ideas are the only possibilities, but even you have to admit they’re interesting options. And either one is better than packing up and leaving your home.”

“True,” he conceded. “I knew there was a reason I came by here today.”

She gave him a chiding look. “You came by here to apologize for leaving me out of the loop,” she corrected. “Now that you’ve seen what a help I can be, next time maybe you won’t be so reluctant to talk to me.”

Mack grinned at her. “Of course, if I follow your advice and take on either of these challenges, I’ll be my own boss, and there won’t even be a next time.”

“Mack, there will always be a next time when you’ll need to make a choice about either trusting me or keeping something to yourself,” she said. “If this incident is an indication of some pattern, I’ll tell you now that I won’t stand for it.”

She was relieved to see that her comment actually seemed to shake him a bit.

She stood up, planted a kiss on his cheek, then walked out of the office. “Lock up when you leave,” she called back over her shoulder, not bothering to wait for him.

The man had a lot of thinking to do, and they both knew he’d do it best without her hovering over him.

She’d hover tomorrow. Or the next day. And probably for days after that.

Mack was too restless to sit around in his apartment. Over the past few years he’d gotten used to spending his evenings with Susie. Now that the truth was out and she understood his situation, there was no reason for that habit not to resume.

Okay, there was one reason. Things were obviously changing between them, and the timing for that still sucked, but he couldn’t seem to keep himself from walking over to her apartment around dinnertime. He needed a booster shot of her eternal optimism.

When she opened her door, he shoved his hands into his pockets and inquired casually, “Have you eaten yet?”

Her expression brightened. “You’ve seen my refrigerator. What do you think?”

Relief spread through him. Things weren’t going to be awkward between them, after all. Thank goodness for that. “Italian? Chinese? French?”

“Pizza?” she asked hopefully.

He shook his head. “Between you, Will and Jake, that’s my primary food group these days.”

“Are you complaining?”

“Not really, but I’d wanted to take you someplace a little fancier. How about Brady’s instead?”

She shook her head at once. “No way.”

He studied her with a narrowed gaze. “You don’t need to be worrying about the expense, Susie. I’m not destitute yet.”

“It’s not that,” she insisted. “We never go to Brady’s, except to the bar from time to time. It’s one of those places that people reserve for special occasions.”

“Maybe tonight’s a special occasion,” he said, suddenly determined to go to Brady’s for reasons that had more to do with pride than any real desire for an excellent crabcake.

“What are we celebrating?” she asked, looking suspicious. “You haven’t found some new job in Alaska or someplace else halfway across the world, have you? Are you going to stuff me with crabmeat and fine wine, then break the bad news to me?”

“Hardly. I thought we could celebrate getting past what happened.”

“If we start celebrating every time we move on after a disagreement, you’ll go broke.”

“A risk I’m willing to take. Now, are you really going to argue with me about going to the best restaurant in town?”

She held his gaze, then finally shook her head. “Not if it means so much to you.”

“Thank you,” he said solemnly. “That was easier than I’d expected.”

“Are you implying that I’m difficult?” she demanded, immediately irritated all over again.

He grinned. “You are,” he said without hesitation. “But it keeps things interesting. I’ve always been fond of a challenge.”

“I should think you have enough challenges on your plate right now without deliberately turning me into one.”

“I’m not responsible for your being a challenge. You just are.”

“Then I’m surprised you want to have dinner with me at all,” she said testily.

Mack laughed. “Come on, Susie. Let’s go before you work yourself up into a bad case of indigestion without having the first bite of food.”

She frowned but went with him. “I have no idea why I bother with you,” she muttered as she walked down the steps to the alley where his car was parked.

“Because I’m charming and sexy,” he suggested.

“No, those are the reasons I should steer clear of you,” she countered.

“Then it must be because I make you laugh.”

She smiled. “I’m sure that’s it.”

As he started the car, he glanced over at her. “Want to know why I bother with you?”

She looked flustered by the question. “I’m not entirely sure I do.”

“You need to hear this,” he said, suddenly solemn. “Because you ground me, you fascinate me and you make me feel like a whole person, someone worth loving.”

When she met his gaze, there were tears in her eyes.

“Oh, Mack, of course you’re worth loving,” she said softly. “You’re surrounded by friends who prove that, not just me. You have to let go of the past. Your father—who-ever he was—was obviously a worthless jerk, and your mother did the best she could. You’re worth a hundred of either one of them. When are you going to believe that?”

“I do sometimes,” he said, then added, “When I’m with you.”

And that’s why, no matter how this job mess worked itself out, he couldn’t let himself lose her. No matter what it took.

That one sweet moment in the car when Mack had admitted how she made him feel sustained Susie for the next week. She’d sensed that there was more he wanted to say. A lot more. But as always, he’d quickly made a joke that had altered the mood at once. And he’d keep things light all through dinner at Brady’s, casting a warning look in her direction any time she tried to turn the conversation to anything serious, or even remotely personal. She’d gone along with it, knowing he needed laughter right now more than he needed advice or even consolation.

Oddly, she’d concluded that evening feeling more hopeful about the two of them than she had for a long time. Not even Mack’s absence over the past few days had thrown her. He’d called regularly to let her know he was okay, but the brief conversations hadn’t been terribly revealing about how he was spending his time or what he was thinking about his future. She’d told herself to accept his need to work through things on his own. It was a struggle, but she was mostly succeeding.

In an odd way, it helped that she hadn’t been feeling all that great. In fact, today she’d actually gone home from the office, suffering from the worst cramps she’d ever had. She crawled into bed with a heating pad and slept most of the day away. She’d always had terrible periods, so she knew the drill.

When she woke up in the morning and the pain had gotten worse, she felt a momentary glimmer of concern. Something about this time felt different, but maybe she was just on edge about everything these days. At least, that’s what she told herself when she called her father and told him she was taking another sick day.

An hour later, there was a brisk knock on her door. Then a key turned in the lock before she could even think of stirring from bed, and her mother came in.

Susie immediately sat up. “Mom, what are you doing here? You’re supposed to be at school.”

“Your father called me. What’s going on?”

“Cramps. You know. It’s no big deal. Nothing to bring you racing over here.”

“Have you seen your doctor recently?” Jo inquired, worry creasing her brow.

“There’s no need. I had my annual checkup a few months ago. Everything’s fine.”

“How often have you had pain this severe?”

“It’s a little worse this time, but I’ve always been this way. Remember how often I had to stay home from school?”

“I thought you’d gotten over that long ago.”

“I guess when I started on birth control pills, it did get a little better,” she admitted.

“Are you still on them?” Jo asked matter-of-factly.

Susie blushed. “I haven’t had any reason to be. I took a break.”

“Well, maybe you shouldn’t have, if they were helping. Let’s call your doctor and get you checked out.”

Susie felt too lousy to argue. “Fine. I’ll call and make an appointment.”

“It’ll take weeks to get in, unless you tell him it’s an emergency. Where’s your address book? Do you have the number in there? I’ll call.”

“Mom, it’s not an emergency. By tomorrow I’ll be perfectly fine.”

“I’ll feel better if a medical professional tells me that.”

Susie regarded her mother curiously. “Why are you so worked up about this?”

Jo sat down on the edge of the bed, her expression drawn. “I’ve never really felt any need to get into this with you, but it’s obviously time I did.”

Susie regarded her with concern. She sounded so somber. “Get into what?”

“After I had Luke, I had to have a hysterectomy. For years I’d had symptoms very much like yours. After Matthew the doctor suggested I have one, but I refused. Your father and I wanted more children, and the symptoms weren’t that bad. I looked at the research on hyperplasia—that’s what I had, some abnormal cells in my uterus—and was convinced I could afford to wait. But when Luke was born, it was worse. They couldn’t stop the bleeding. They found the abnormal cells had spread. There was no longer any choice.”

Susie stared at her mother in shock. “You had cancer?”

“I suppose you’d call it precancer. The abnormal cells hadn’t spread beyond the uterus, and with that gone, along with my ovaries, the prognosis was good. I didn’t even need chemotherapy or radiation. You were much too young to be aware that any of this was going on. Since then, I’ve never really seen the need to talk about it, but I don’t like what’s going on with you right now. I think you need to get checked out. Will you do this for me?”

Susie nodded at once. “Of course, but you’re worrying for no reason. I promise.”

Her mother squeezed her hand. “I’m counting on that.”

She made the call to the doctor’s office, waited while Susie dressed, then insisted on driving her to his office.

Alone in the examining room, Susie sat on the cold, hard table and told herself that she was here only to put her mom’s fears to rest. There was no reason to panic. She’d been dealing with the same symptoms for years, and they hadn’t meant anything. They were more of a nuisance than anything else.

When Dr. Kinnear came in, he gave her a warm smile. “Under the circumstances, I’m glad you came in.”

Susie managed a wan smile in return. “I had no idea until today that there was any family history to be concerned about.”

“I’m glad your mother finally filled you in. Better to be safe than sorry,” he said. “Now let’s do a quick examination and see where we are.”

Gynecological exams had never been at the top of Susie’s list of favorite things, but this one proved more uncomfortable than most. At one point she nearly yelped out loud in pain.

Dr. Kinnear glanced at her. “Tender there?”

She nodded.

He patted her knee. “Okay, then. That’s it for now, but I’d like to have you go in for another test.”

Susie regarded him with alarm. “You found something?”

“Maybe,” he hedged. “I can’t say with certainty without more tests. There’s no need to start worrying yet. An ultrasound will be more definitive.”

An ultrasound wouldn’t be so bad, Susie thought. “And then?”

“Perhaps a biopsy.”

She swallowed hard, trying to force the words past the sudden lumps in her throat. “What?” she asked eventually. “What do you think’s going on?”

“There could be a problem with one of your ovaries. More than likely it’s nothing more than a cyst, but we don’t like to fool around with this. We’ll want answers as quickly as possible.”

Susie read between the lines and guessed what he wasn’t saying. “It could be ovarian cancer?” she asked, stunned.

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, okay?” he soothed. “I’ll get you in for that ultrasound in the next day or two. My receptionist will make the appointment and call you.”

All Susie knew about ovarian cancer was that it could be deadly, because it was generally caught too late. This morning she’d thought she was simply having a particularly painful period, and now she could die? She couldn’t even begin to process it.

Again Dr. Kinnear gave her a reassuring look. “One step at a time, young lady. If you have questions at any time, call me. We’ll find the answers, and whatever the situation is, we’ll deal with it.”

She nodded. After he’d left the examining room, she sat there frozen.

A few minutes later, her mother stepped into the room. Susie met her gaze.

“He told you?”

Her mother nodded. “He told me there’s no cause for alarm yet. You are not to panic, okay? Neither one of us is going to panic.”

Susie nodded, then gave her mother a plaintive look. “Is it okay to be scared out of my wits?”

Her mother gathered her into her arms. “We can be scared together, but we are going to think positively, Susie. I mean it. No negative thoughts. People do beat ovarian cancer, and we’re not even sure yet that you have it. It could be nothing more than a cyst, okay?”

Susie blinked back tears. “Got it.” She hesitated. “Mom, can we keep this just between us for now? It’s not as if we know anything. I don’t think I could stand having Dad and everyone hovering.”

“If that’s what you want,” her mother agreed. “I do wish you’d consider telling your grandmother, thought.”

“Why Gram? It’ll only worry her.”

“But she’s the one with the direct link to God,” Jo said with a smile. “I think her prayers are exactly what you need right now.”

Susie smiled back. The whole family counted on Nell O’Brien to save them. The rest of them might be believers, they might be churchgoers, but it was Gram’s faith that was steadfast, no matter what the crisis.

“Let’s see what happens with the ultrasound,” Susie said. “If there’s a problem with that, then we’ll call in the big guns.”

Her mother met her gaze. “What about Mack?”

“What about him?”

“I think he’d want to know.”

Susie shook her head. “It’s not like that between us.”

“Remember how upset you were that he’d kept losing his job from you? How do you think he’ll feel if he finds out about this later?”

“I can’t tell him,” Susie said simply. “Not until I know more.”

Because if she needed to have surgery, if she couldn’t have children, it would change everything between them. And, of course, if she wasn’t one of those who beat the odds, they’d have absolutely no future at all.

6

Mack didn’t like Susie’s pale complexion or the dark shadows under her eyes. It had been evident for a few days now that she was worried about something, and he was very much afraid it was him. He didn’t want to be responsible for making her sick.

“Okay, we need to get out of here,” he said after taking a good look at her when he stopped by her office at lunchtime. If anything, she looked worse than she had when he’d seen her the day before.

Before she could argue, he marched into Jeff’s office and announced, “I’m taking Susie away from here for the afternoon. You can manage without her for a few hours, right?”

Jeff frowned. “Of course, but I haven’t heard her say she wanted to go anywhere with you.”

“I’m not giving her an option,” Mack responded. “She needs some sunshine and a long walk on the beach. Haven’t you noticed her color’s not good?” He lowered his voice. “Any idea what’s going on with her?”

Jeff shook his head, then cast a worried glance in his daughter’s direction. “Not a clue. She took a couple of sick days, which isn’t like her, but she swears she’s fine, and Jo’s backing her up. I’m at a loss.”

Mack glanced in Susie’s direction. “No offense intended, but they’re both lying. I want to know why. I’m worried, Jeff. Something’s not right.”

Her father nodded. “I agree. If you can get to the bottom of it, I’d appreciate it. She’s not herself, that’s for sure. I thought it had something to do with you.”

“Maybe it does,” Mack admitted. “If so, I’ll do whatever it takes to fix it. That’s a promise.”

Just then Susie appeared at Mack’s side, her cheeks flaming. “I do not appreciate the two of you whispering behind my back as if I’m not right here.” She directed her scowl at Mack. “Nor am I happy about you making decisions for me. I have work to do, Mack. I’m not going anywhere.”

“The work can wait,” Mack countered, leveling a look into her eyes that matched his determination against her stubbornness. She looked as if she were wavering, so he cajoled, “If you won’t do this for yourself, do it for me. I need an outing and a fresh perspective. You can boss me around and tell me what I need to be doing. It’ll cheer you up.”

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