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
