Home > When I Found You (Silver Springs #8)(5)

When I Found You (Silver Springs #8)(5)
Author: Brenda Novak

   “No, it’s a piece of shit.”

   Lucas’s eyes widened. “Oh... I’m going to tell Mom!” he said, covering his mouth. “You’re not supposed to say that word.”

   Mack gave the boy a sheepish look. “Don’t tell on me,” he whispered.

   “Okay.” He grinned as though he liked having a secret, but then he started saying, “Shit. Shit, shit, shit,” to himself, as though he was practicing it.

   “Who’s with you?” Dylan asked.

   Hoping Lucas would forget what he’d learned before they got back to the house, Mack returned to his conversation. “Natasha’s boy.”

   “What’s he like?”

   “He’s a cool little dude.” He didn’t add that Lucas might be his cool little dude. He wasn’t going to tell anyone that, not until he knew for sure.

   “I’d like to meet him,” Dylan said. “I’m surprised that Natasha has never brought him back to Whiskey Creek.”

   So was Mack. That she’d stayed away felt intentional, and he thought he knew why. “She was busy with her residency, then starting her practice.”

   “It’s amazing what she’s achieved, especially considering what she started with. I thought she was in the clear, you know? I can’t believe what’s happened. How’s she handling everything?”

   “She’s lost weight, isn’t sleeping well.” He’d heard her walking around the house late at night, could see the weariness in her movements and the dark circles under her eyes as they packed up the van. “What happened would be a nightmare for anyone. But she’s tough. She’ll pull through.” He planned to see to it. That was another reason he’d packed up and headed to LA almost as soon as he learned about her divorce.

   “I wish there was something more we could do.”

   “I’m doing what I can.”

   “Whatever happened to the woman who destroyed her practice?”

   “She’s in prison and she won’t be getting out.” He dodged a sword thrust that would’ve hit him in the nuts and couldn’t help laughing as he once again guided Lucas’s sword in a safer direction.

   “What’s so funny?”

   “Nothing. This kid—Never mind. Has Natasha ever mentioned to you what went wrong in her marriage?”

   “No. I called her when the news about her nurse first broke, and we discussed the stress it was putting on the relationship. She admitted things were getting rocky, but that’s it.”

   “She didn’t say why they were rocky?”

   “Even if she did, I couldn’t go into it, Mack. She wouldn’t like me discussing the details with you, and you know it.”

   “With me specifically? Why not?”

   “Come on. Things have always been...complicated between you two.”

   That statement bothered Mack, but he didn’t want to examine why, so he let it go as Dylan followed up with, “When are you coming back?”

   “Do they have the window?” Lucas asked at the same time.

   Mack smoothed the hair off the boy’s face. “We’ll check in a sec,” he told him. Into the phone, he said, “I’m not sure that I am coming back.”

   “What? You live here, remember?” Dylan sounded shocked.

   “I’ll get my stuff, of course, but I think it’s time we go ahead and expand into LA.”

   “Now?”

   “Why not?”

   “No reason, I guess. Just seems sort of sudden. It isn’t because Natasha would be close by and you could help her get back on her feet, is it?”

   Mack heard the wry tone of his brother’s voice, but he wasn’t going to apologize for wanting to take care of Natasha. “That’s part of it. She needs me,” he said simply. “Her bastard ex took almost everything.”

   “That makes me defensive, too, but I don’t know that you’ll be doing her any favors if you stay.”

   “What are you talking about? I’ve always done my best to look out for her.” There was only that one time when he’d screwed up. Surely that night didn’t negate all the good things he’d tried to do over the years.

   Or did it?

   “You’ve done a lot,” Dylan conceded. “But all she’s ever really wanted was for you to love her.”

   Mack straightened in surprise. His brother would say that now, after all the pressure he’d been under to stay away from her? “I couldn’t love her,” he said. “She was only sixteen when she came into our lives. I was twenty-five. And our father was married to her mother!”

   “I know,” Dylan said with a sigh. “I’ve felt bad for you both from the beginning. And I’ve always admired you for not taking advantage of her feelings. You had to have known how much she adored you—there was no way you could miss it. She followed you around like a lost puppy, tried to get close to you at every opportunity. I’ll never forget one night I went into the kitchen to eat, and she told me dinner was gone. But then you came home and I found out the food wasn’t gone—she’d just saved all that was left for you.”

   Dylan chuckled at the memory, but Mack couldn’t laugh. Natasha had made her feelings plain, all right, and, Lord help him, he’d managed to keep his own feelings under control for many years. But all the wins didn’t matter; he’d succumbed in the end—and Lucas could be proof of that.

   Did Natasha get pregnant without telling him, and then marry someone else? Once he’d learned of the pregnancy, he’d tried to ask her, but she’d insisted the child belonged to Ace—and if they were happy together, he couldn’t get in the way of that.

   “I’ve got to go.” Mack was suddenly anxious to get off the phone. Today, everything his brother said seemed to upset him. “We’re in a store.”

   “Okay. I’ll talk to you later. Give Natasha my love.”

   “Sounds like you two stay in touch.”

   “So...”

   “I guess you can do that yourself.” After he disconnected, he regretted the curtness of his response. If not for Dylan, he would’ve been put into foster care when he was just a boy. He loved and admired his oldest brother more than any man in the world.

   Besides, the way he’d acted just now would only confirm that Dylan had hit a tender spot. But Mack had always been torn when it came to Natasha. The way he’d met her, and her young age at the time, had set them both up for a tug-of-war that had left him facing something he’d never anticipated.

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