California Girl (10 page)

Oh, no, she wasn’t
doing this to him again
. No more dallying. Elliot opened the passenger door
to indicate he was ready to leave. In no hurry, Alys leaned over to hand the
whirligig to the enchanted child.

She slid off the car hood, leaving the mother to stroll
away, smiling and listening to her toddler’s excited chatter.

Oblivious to Elliot’s observation, Alys slipped into the
driver’s seat and stretched her legs. She snapped on the seat belt, and handed
Elliot a roll of Tums. “Mame was in the collectible store this morning. The
owner didn’t know for certain, but he thought she was with a young Hispanic
girl. Short, long braid, wearing jeans. That’s as much as he remembered. Sound
like anyone you know?”

She’d have him spinning like the damned whirligig. He didn’t
know anyone in Mame’s life these days. Frowning at the Tums, Elliot tore open
the package and popped one into his mouth. “You’re more likely to know her than
I am.” He hated admitting that. He wanted to be annoyed at her delaying
tactics, but she kept unbalancing him.

He scooted the seat farther back so he could stretch out. He
missed the Rover’s headroom, but he was damned glad they had the Caddy and not
one of those rolling eggs they called cars these days.

“I don’t know everyone at the school,” Alys said, switching
on the ignition. “And I don’t know your neighbors. I can’t think of anyone
fitting the description. Do we need to buy a spare before we leave here?” She
steered the car from the parking space into traffic.

“It’s a regular tire, not one of those disposable ones.
It’ll hold. We can buy a new one in Tulsa after we find Mame.”

* * *

Alys contemplated telling him that they wouldn’t find Mame
unless she wanted to be found but decided that defeated her purpose. She could keep
Elliot entertained while Mame enjoyed her freedom, and she would see the USA as
well. She mentally waved good-bye to Baxter as she drove into the unfolding
fields of Kansas.

She really ought to be thinking about how she would travel
on to California after they reached Albuquerque, but she was more interested in
what she would do with the man beside her. How could she reach his positive
energy and heal his spirit if he wouldn’t relax?

“Can you sing?” she asked. At his look of inquiry, she
shrugged and turned the radio dial. “My turn to choose.”

“The passenger gets to choose.” He dialed the radio back to
the news.

“Then the passenger should go soak his head.” She switched
the dial back to a classic rock song and jumped in on the chorus singing
“Jeremiah was a bullfrog.”

It felt smashing to sing again. She’d always loved cruising
down the highway with the windows open and the radio blaring. Maybe she needed
to rediscover the things she loved. “I don’t suppose travel writers can afford
convertibles?” she asked as the song ended.

“Real estate might. Stick to what you know,” he advised.

“I want to go forward, not backward.”

“You think running away to New Mexico and becoming a travel
writer is going forward?” he asked incredulously. “Are you sure you’re not sixteen?”

“I am
not
sixteen.” Grumpily, she glared out the window. Catching sight of the sign
ahead, she cried, “Oklahoma!”

She veered suddenly out of traffic and onto the shoulder,
causing Elliot to pop another Tums. Two states in one day!

She ran up to the WELCOME sign to have her picture taken and
admired the lanky doctor adjusting the camera. He really was quite patient
despite his pragmatic tendencies. He even sat on the ground in his fancy dress
slacks to aim the photo upward for a different angle. He looked much more human
sprawled on the ground.

And masculine. She had a bird’s-eye view of his crotch.

As if catching her wavering interest, he rose hastily,
brushing off grass. Realizing she had the ability to turn on the
self-controlled doctor. Alys let exhilaration zing through her veins when they
climbed into the car again.

She returned to their earlier conversation while the cow
pastures and hay fields of Route 66 passed by. “I don’t see any reason why I
shouldn’t explore new horizons.”

“Because you haven’t
explored the old ones?” He didn’t miss a beat.

Good man.

“Because you can’t run from who you are,” he finished
complacently.

Bad man.
That was
about as asinine a piece of advice as she’d ever heard. How could she run from
who she was if she didn’t know who she was?

Singing along with the radio, she tuned out Elliot Roth and
his sexy shoulders and sleepy eyes. No wonder Mame had run away. The man was
infuriatingly predictable.

The two-lane carried them through flat farms, but to her
disappointment, no oil wells. Instead, she spotted a longhorn and insisted on
having her picture taken with the animal while she sat on the fence. She needed
a cowboy hat.

They drove through small towns that might have been
forgotten by time but not by McDonalds. A humongous coal and tractor-trailer
train halted them on the main street of Vinita. Elliot leaned his seat back and
closed his eyes—probably counting to ten before he blew a blood vessel. Alys
was relieved he didn’t demand that they return to the interstate.

The old road became a well-traveled four-lane outside
Vinita. After Elliot read the guidebook aloud, Alys drove around downtown Foyil
until she located the road’s original pink concrete. He didn’t read the book to
her again after that.

By the time they reached Claremore, it was obvious they
wouldn’t be able to see Mame or the Range Rover unless it was directly in front
of them. There were far too many cars. Since Mame had a solid head start, Alys
didn’t count on them catching up with her anytime soon.

Elliot turned the radio back to the news at the first road
sign for the interstate into Tulsa.

“The interstate is a toll road,” she informed him with a
touch of frost. “Route 66 takes us directly to I-44. It’s even a four-lane.”

“How far is the hotel?” was all he asked.

“Other side of Tulsa. The place Mame stayed in for her
wedding night isn’t there anymore so we chose a Doubletree nearby.”

“Swimming pools and screaming kids.” He grimaced. “If you’re
really Mame’s friend, you’ll convince her to come back with me to get some rest
and have those tests run.”

“And would you let her continue to Albuquerque if she’s
fine?” So far, Oklahoma didn’t look much different from Kansas. Or Springfield,
she decided, watching still another McDonald’s pass by as Route 66 entered the
interstate.

“Once we have her medication adjusted, I’ll put her on a
plane and send her straight out there,” he promised. “Driving is too stressful
at her age.”

Alys rolled her eyes. “You are so
clueless
.” She shifted lanes and pointed out a sign ahead. “Seventh
Street is where the hotel is. We’re not far from the Museum of Western Art that
Mame wanted to visit. She was eager to see how much Tulsa had changed, so I
don’t know what she would do first.”

Mame had old friends here she wanted to look up as well, but
Alys decided to keep that bit of information to herself. It wasn’t as if she
knew who the friends were, much less how to reach them.

Elliot tensed as they exited the interstate merging into
downtown traffic and found the hotel—a skyscraper towering over the Convention
Center, a far cry from the old motels of the sixties. “Drive through the
garage,” he ordered. “Let’s see if the Rover is there. I’m hoping she found a
driver and isn’t out there on city streets in rush hour.”

“Mame has stayed alive for sixty years without your help. I
imagine she knows what she’s doing. I’m not entirely certain you do.”

She shouldn’t be insulting the man with the credit card.
Mame had paid the travel agent in advance, but she had reserved only one room a
night. Alys was supposed to drive to earn her half of the hotel cost. Before
Fred died, the banks had cancelled her credit cards after she’d exceeded her
limit and fell behind on payments. How did she explain that? She didn’t think
he’d given an instant’s consideration to the possibility that he wouldn’t find
Mame and head home today.

“Pull out on that side street,” he commanded after they’d
gone up and down the hotel parking garage ramps and back to the exit without
seeing a single black Range Rover.

She stared at him incredulously. “Why? You want to pay for
parking just for driving up and down ramps? Shouldn’t we at least go into the
hotel and ask?”

“We have to hide Beulah. If we’re here before Mame, she’ll
probably run off if she sees the car and knows we’re waiting.”

“You think she doesn’t know you’d follow her?”

She parked in a church parking lot several blocks away.
Elliot jumped out, obviously in too much of a hurry to answer.

Enjoying the lovely autumn day, studying the city around
her, Alys followed at a more leisurely pace. To her secret delight, Doc Nice
slowed down so she could keep up. “Did you have other business you should be
seeing to besides Mame?” she inquired.

“I was on a book-signing tour which I canceled the minute I
heard Mame was in the hospital. Mame knew I would.”

Back in sync with him again, she took his arm. “She adores
you, you know. She tries not to brag, but she talks about you all the time.”

“Then why the hell is she putting me through this?” he
demanded with confusion, his long legs carrying him faster.

“I’m not Mame, so I can’t speak for her, but is there ever a
time when she isn’t thinking of what’s best for you?” She tugged his arm,
slowing him down.

“I don’t see how this can be good for either of us.”
Reverting to anger, he shoved open the door of the hotel lobby when they
reached it.

Alys couldn’t remember the last time she’d stayed in a
hotel. Surely she and Fred had taken a vacation at some time. It had just been
so long ago, the memory was buried under too much debris, and she couldn’t
recall it.

She didn’t have time to admire the huge vase of incredible
flowers in the center of the enormous lobby. Elliot strode directly to the desk
to ask if Mame had checked in yet.

The desk clerk checked his computer. “Are you Mr.
Seagraves?” he asked.

Alys stepped up. “I am Alys Seagraves. We reserved the
room.”

“Ah, yes, here we are.” He reached in a drawer and removed a
plastic key card. “Mrs. Emerson has already signed for the room. It’s on the
top floor with a view of the skyline.”

Could finding Mame really be that easy? Exchanging a glance
with Elliot, who looked both elated and skeptical, Alys accepted the key and
followed the clerk’s direction to the elevator.

“I smell something fishy,” she said as they entered.

“Probably the swimming pool,” he muttered, tensely shoving
his hands in his pockets.

She tried to stay nonchalant, but her heart kicked up
another notch with each floor the elevator climbed.

Elliot jiggled the coins in his pocket. “Mame’s probably
exhausted and napping. I hate to wake her,” he said as the elevator stopped at
their floor.

Alys cast him a look of incredulity. “When was the last time
you saw Mame nap?”

He had the grace not to argue. Snatching the card key from
her hand, he strode to the right as if he knew precisely where he was going. It
took Alys a moment longer to figure out the directional signs and linger over
the spectacular view from the window.

Oklahoma was
flat.
Well, so was a lot of Missouri.

She hurried to catch up as he opened the door. Admiring the
size of the elegant suite they swept into, it took her a moment to notice
Elliot’s silence. Not until he stalked across the room in obvious fury and
whipped out his phone at the window did she realize he’d really expected to
find Mame here.

Surely he didn’t believe Mame would drop dead just because
she’d eluded them? That sounded like Mame had all pistons churning to her.

“Maybe she’s out touring the museum?” she asked as a peace
offering after he checked his voice mail and apparently had none. “It’s right
down the road.”

Elliot shoved the phone back in his pocket and flung open
the draperies, as if that might reveal Mame’s hiding place.

Alys gave up attempting to interpret the wealth of emotions
in her companion’s silence. Mame was alive and up to her usual tricks. Elation
welled in her knowing Mame was fine—while she was standing in a lovely hotel
suite with a king-sized bed and the very appealing Elliot Roth, even if he did
appear on the verge of explosion.
Relish
the moment.

Rocking back on her heels, Alys contemplated the meaning of
Mame’s change in game plan. She and Mame had reserved rooms with two double
beds, not suites with king beds.

Obviously, Mame was using the situation to create mischief.
That Mame felt healthy enough to indulge in her usual tricks reassured Alys no
end.

Buzzing with anticipation while waiting for Elliot to work
this out, Alys stroked a tall plant on the suite’s coffee table. “I thought
hotels left chocolates or cookies on pillows, not orchids.”

Elliot was scanning a piece of hotel stationery he’d picked
up off the desk. His explicit curse answered a lot. He popped another Tums and
reread the missive.

Refusing to be deterred, Alys held the plant pot and bounced
on the end of the bed. How did one make an orchid bloom? And what color would
this one be? “I don’t suppose you know if Mame wore an orchid at her wedding?”

“There’s a picture in the photo album of her wearing a huge
one.” Elliot flung the stationery on the bed beside her. His expression was
enigmatic. “I may have to wring her neck.”

Dying of curiosity, Alys handed him the pot. “I don’t know
if the bloom on this one will be huge or not. We ought to buy her a corsage
when we find her.”