Heartbreak, Tennessee by Ruby Laska

her face, the vehemence in her voice, were real. Mac, watching
carefully, was convinced. Something in him relaxed then.
    The fear he’d never
named slipped away, and in its absence, he realized how big it had really
become.
    Mac loved children
with a passion rare in men who aren’t fathers. Charlene’s children were like a
niece and nephew to him, and the hours spent at their birthday parties and
holiday dinners and taking them to movies and ball games had cemented his
status as favorite uncle. So often, though, as he tossed a ball with Buddy or
helped Louise catch fireflies on a summer night, his heart caught with the fear
that he might never have children of his own.
    And always, always,
the hidden part of his mind had wondered if the thing that was so awful that it
had driven Amber away had been a baby.
    “How...why would you
think that?” Amber said, her eyes wide with astonishment. “We always were careful—”
    “Things happen,” Mac
said sharply. “Accidents.”
    “And you think I
wouldn’t have told you?” Spots of color rose high on Amber’s cheeks, and a dark
cloud passed in her eyes. “How could you think that? I told you everything. Have
you forgotten? Every single dream I ever had, every time I was afraid or lonely
or sad I shared it with you.”
    “Yes,” Mac said
slowly, drawing the word out. “We shared almost everything.”
    And there it was on
the table again, the final betrayal. He waited to see if she would open up, but
when the fire went out of her eyes it was replaced by the impenetrable screen
again, the bland, imperturbable smile that was the one feature of Amber’s that
Mac despised.
    Mac turned his hands
palms up in a gesture of capitulation, and rested them on the table. Another
day would pass without him knowing any more, but even so a measure of peace had
settled in him, knowing Amber had not been carrying their baby.
    “All right,” he said,
forcing a smile. “You win. I give up. It’s early, neither of us seem to have
plans tonight, and dinner’s on the stove. Let’s make the best of the evening,
shall we?”
    Amber hesitated, and
slowly the anxiety melted from her. “All right,” she said in a voice so small
he had to strain to hear it. “I don’t know if I can stand another hamburger
platter from the Sunset Diner.”
    Smoothing a few loose
strands of hair back into place, Amber stood to clear the dishes. “This was delicious,” she added, though she’d
taken only a few bites.
    “Ah, wait until you
try my home-made spice rub on a good piece of Texas beef. Heaven on earth, if I
do say so myself. Hey, sit back down. You’re the guest here.”
    Amber took her seat as
commanded, and watched Mac work. He’d let go of his anger so quickly. Another
new skill he’d picked up over time. In some ways, Mac was a very different man
than the one she’d known. Gone was the boy she’d loved with all her heart, and
in his place was this man who measured his thoughts before speaking, who kept
his quiet wisdom to himself, who wore his sadness deep in the azure sea of his
eyes.
    Mac had changed. Nothing
was the same. So why was her reaction to him the exact same heart-pounding,
dry-mouthed shameless desire she’d felt so long ago?
    When he touched her
moments before, it was as if his unspoken thoughts flowed through her
fingertips into her body. He wanted her.
    Would he be
different...making love?
    “Music?”
    Mac’s voice jarred her
from her train of thought, causing a flood of crimson to rise to her face. Thankfully
he kept at his work without turning, opening a hidden cabinet.
    “Yes,” she said
weakly. “If you like.”
    He flicked a switch in
a panel recessed in one wall of the kitchen, and music began playing softly,
Patsy Cline’s soulful voice filling the room.
    So, some things hadn’t
changed, after all. Patsy Cline was where Mac had always retreated when he was
feeling especially down. When something went wrong at home, one of his mother’s
cruel tirades or