Free Promises Under the Peach Tree (Harlequin Superromance) by Joanne Rock

to me, but I can certainly offer an ear if you think it will help.”
    Bethany bit her lip. “She would never want me to interfere in her life. But I just thought...if you happen to be talking to her...”
    “Of course.”
    “I meant what I said about being glad to have you back in town, Nina.” Bethany’s smile was crooked, but didn’t look quite so pained this time. “Will you consider staying? Mack said you moved some of your baking equipment into the barn.”
    Nina smiled at how fast news traveled in a small town.
    “I’m keeping my apartment in New York for now. I’m not quite sure what I’m going to do.” Her stomach clenched whenever she thought about it. She didn’t want to leave Gram on her own. But how could she ever stay in this small town that had suffocated her and then—after that accident—looked at her as the woman whose words had driven Vince to his death? At least, that’s how she’d felt on the weekends she came home during college. When she’d tried asking one of her closest friends about it, she’d confided that most people had “sided with Jenny,” agreeing that Nina had let her temper get the better of her when she lashed out at Vince the night of his death.
    That had hurt. Still did.
    “New York.” Bethany backed up a step toward her pickup truck, considering. “Maybe I’ll go with you, then. The city sounds like the perfect place to start over.”
    Had she started over, though? Or had she just run away?

CHAPTER FIVE
    “M ACK F INLEY , you’re a sight for sore eyes.” The waitress at Lucky’s Back Porch sized him up as she chewed on the end of her pencil in a not-so-subtle attempt to flirt. “A fine, fine sight.”
    On weekend nights, Lucky’s Grocery turned into an outdoor rib joint with live music and picnic tables dragged over from the town gazebo. The town council had debated the permit for over a year before approving it, arguing that the family atmosphere of the town square would be compromised. But having live music and dancing outside brought out people in droves. All the vendors on the town square stayed open later and did more business because of it. Mack had dropped by to check out the place, always interested to see a successful bar business in action. Plus, tonight’s band had a growing following for their country-bluegrass blend of music.
    At sunset, the place was already rocking with a supper crowd feasting on barbecue chicken and ribs. Kids played on the playground near the gazebo while moms clutched their after-dinner coffee mugs and followed them around, the dads sharing beers on the “back porch”—an extended platform deck that was added on to the existing patio for the weekends. A bunch of white lights hung from low tree branches and a couple of patio heaters flanked the porch, but since the evening was mild enough, they hadn’t been switched on.
    Mack stared up at the waitress and tried to remember how he knew her.
    “Nice to see you, too—” he peeked at her name badge, half hidden under a blond ponytail that rested on the front of her shoulder “—Shirley.”
    “Sherry.” She rolled her eyes and took her pencil out of her mouth. “Thanks, Mack. I was only your lab partner in biology for a whole year.”
    Ah, crap. He definitely hadn’t inherited his father’s ease with names and faces, which sucked all the more because everyone in town knew him.
    “Sorry, Sherry.” He shook his head. “My mind was a million miles away.”
    She frowned. “Are you sure your mind wasn’t on Nina Spencer?” She pointed to Nina and her grandmother sitting off to one side of the crowd. Daisy Spencer had her leg propped on a chair while she clapped in time to the music. Nina shared something from her plate with a bulldog on a leash held by Kaleb Riggs, a guy they’d graduated with. “Because I seem to remember that Nina was the reason I couldn’t snag your attention in biology, either.”
    He’d probably ducked Sherry’s attention for more