Beach Lane

“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.

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