That Thing You Do (Whispering Bay Romance Book 1) (Volume 1) (12 page)

T
om watched as Allie
held her phone in her hand like her life depended on it. Whatever she was looking at had distracted her enough that she hadn’t heard him enter the room.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

She jumped around, her brown eyes wide. “You scared the heck out of me!”

“Sorry.” He hadn’t meant to sneak up on her, but he’d wanted to make sure she was all right. “Why
are you holding your phone that way?”

“No reason,” she said as if he couldn’t tell when she was lying.

He glanced down at her phone. She tried to hide it behind her back but then it began to beep.

“Oh my God. Hold still.” She aimed the phone in his direction. “Dang! It disappeared!”

“What disappeared?”

“Nothing.” She stared at her phone like it was going to explode.

 “Are you going to tell me what’s going on?” he asked.

“Believe me, you don’t want to know.”

“Yeah, actually, I do want to know. I can’t have you going around in the dark where you can fall and get hurt again.”

“I only fell last night because I lost my balance going through the window.” He opened his mouth to say something but she cut him off. “And yes, I know it was my
fault because I was trespassing.”

“I wasn’t going to say that.”

“Maybe not, but you thought it.”

She was right. It had been exactly what he’d been thinking. “Look, I’m here for the night so I might as well help you.”

“What about your baseball game?”

“The game’s over.”

She thought it over for a few seconds, then shrugged. “All right, if you really want to know
what I’m doing, I’m using a ghost detector. Cameron downloaded it for me.” She handed him her phone and pointed to the screen. “See? It’s searching for any disturbance in the quantum flux. Which just occurred. According to this, there was a ghost right where you’re standing,” she said in a tone that dared him to contradict her. He wondered if she knew how damn adorable she looked right now.

“The quantum flux?”

“I know, it sounds hokey, but basically it’s a disturbance in the force. And please no
Star Wars
or
Back to the Future
jokes.”

“According to this…ghost detector, there was a ghost,” Tom said. “Right where I’m standing now?”

“Well, there was
something
there. Something with enough energy to make this thing go off. I mean, besides you.” She glared at him.
“Maybe you scared it away.”

“
I
scared it away?”

“Or maybe it just doesn’t like you.”

More like
she
didn’t like him. Not that he blamed her.

Tom studied her phone for a few minutes. “Henry would get a kick out of this.” He handed her back her phone then pulled out his own cell and downloaded the app. “Now we both have one. You want to start back in the main room?”

“Are you kidding? You’re really going to help me?”

“The Braves just won their division playoff so I’m feeling pretty good right now. Besides, there’s not much else to do, is there?”

“Nope, nothing else to do,” she said, which of course, immediately made him think of the one thing he did want to do.

Especially with Allie Grant.

Exclusively with Allie Grant, if he were being
honest.

When was the last time you got laid
?

If anyone other than Lauren had asked he would have told them it was none of their fucking business. The thing was, she had a point. After the divorce, he’d slept around a little. Not enough to put him in the man whore category, but enough to satisfy his newly divorced fragile ego. Since moving back home, though, he’d been living like a
monk. Working a sixty hour week, relieved only by an occasional fishing trip with Henry or a Sunday night dinner with the folks.

Maybe his mother was right and it was time to start dating again. Not the kind of dating she had in mind. He wasn’t ready for anything serious. He had too many responsibilities. A son. An ex-wife to support, even if she didn’t want to take a penny from him. A new
job. And a bonus to collect. If he could ever get this new rec center project off the ground, that is.

No, what he needed was something more casual. If the right sort of woman were to come along. As tempting as Allie Grant was, she was definitely the wrong woman. For one thing, there was too much history between them. Sure, he’d been a teenager and dumb as rocks but there were some things
in life you couldn’t take back. Besides, she had to be dating someone. She was gorgeous. Smart. Funny. Even if she was willing to overlook their past, there was no way she was available.

They spent the next hour scouring the building with their “ghost detectors” in hand, but both their phones had gone silent. They ended up back in the center’s main room.

“I swear this thing really
did go off.” Allie tossed her phone into her bag in disgust.

“I believe you.”

She threw him a look that said,
Liar
.

“No, really, I believe you saw something on that phone.” He didn’t want to add that the ghost radar was probably programmed to go off if it encountered too much dust in the air or something else equally hokey.

He glanced at his watch. It was nearly midnight.
He shook out a couple of the blankets and spread them on the inflatable mattress, then pocketed his cell phone and sat down. “What do you got in there?” he asked, pointing to the picnic basket.

“Goodies. Made by Mimi Grant herself. Since you’ve been such a good boy, I might even be inclined to share.” Although there was plenty of room on the mattress, he noticed that she chose to sit on
a blanket she’d tossed on the floor. “Coffee?” Without waiting for his response, she poured them each a cup.

Tom took a swallow. “Whiskey?”

Allie didn’t look surprised. “So that’s what Mimi meant when she said she added some zing.”

“As good a way as any to keep warm,” he said, downing the rest of his coffee.

She emptied her cup then raised it in salute. “Here’s to Mimi.”
She immediately refilled their drinks. Because she was cold and wanted the warmth the coffee offered? Or because she was nervous and needed the fortitude supplied by the whiskey?

Either way, he didn’t plan to mess this up. He was alone with Allie Grant and neither of them were going anywhere. It was a chance he thought he’d never have. A once in a lifetime opportunity to really talk to her.

“So why journalism school?” he asked. Twelve years ago she’d wanted to become a lawyer. What had changed her mind?

“Because I flunked out of nursing.”

He smiled at the joke. The Allie Grant he knew in high school would never have gone to nursing school. There was that blood thing, after all. She smiled back, knowing he’d gotten it. And then her smile turned pensive and he realized
they were remembering the same thing.

*~*~*

A
llie had just finished
whooping his ass at the bowling alley. She tossed her long brown hair over one shoulder, and began doing a little victory dance in the parking lot. “I beat you—I beat you—” she chanted, then laughed. Two guys came out the front door of the Bowlarama and stopped to stare. Allie, as usual, was oblivious. Did she really
not know how fucking gorgeous she was?

“Admit it, Donalan, you let me win,” she said, her dark eyes glittering with happiness.

He grinned. “Never.” And it was the truth. He was a decent bowler, but Tom hadn’t been able to concentrate on his game. Not when he knew what they would be doing afterward.

They got in his car and went through the drive-thru at McDonalds before heading
toward the bridge. Allie was feeding him a French fry—and still gloating over her victory—when out of nowhere, a white pick-up truck tried to run him out of his lane.

“Shit!” Tom swerved to the right, causing his car to go off the road. Food went flying everywhere. He slammed his foot on the brake just in time to avoid plowing into a fruit stand.

“God damn it!” He jumped out of the
car and ran down the road to try and get a look at the pick-up truck, but it was already speeding away. “Come back here, you fucker!” he yelled.

Not that anyone could hear him, but it felt good to let out some of the steam. He paced back and forth in front of the car, then after he’d calmed down, he inspected the driver’s side for any damage. He’d saved all his money from his part-time job
at Ace Hardware to buy this puppy. A shiny red 1987 Ford LTD Crown Victoria that he’d bought from one of his dad’s parishioners—the proverbial little old lady who only drove her car to church on Sunday. He’d just detailed it this morning. Luckily, there were no scratches or dents that he could see, which was a good God damn thing, or he’d track that son-of-a-bitch from here to the ends of the earth.

He got back in the car. “Man, I wish I’d gotten his license plate. Too bad your brother wasn’t here to—” Allie was lying on her side, her long legs tucked beneath her in the fetal position. Fuck! He was an idiot. It had never occurred to him that she’d been hurt.

He reached out and touched her arm. It was late June and still at least eighty degrees outside, but her skin felt like ice.
“Baby, are you okay? What happened? Did you hit your head?” His gaze searched frantically for any signs of blood, but there was none that he could see. Fear swamped through his veins, making him break out into a sweat. “Allie, you need to talk to me. Where does it hurt?”

She shook her head. “I’m…okay.”

“The hell you are.” He turned on the ignition and got back on the road, going as
fast as he could. “It’s going to be all right. I’m taking you to the hospital.”

She sat up slowly, still looking dazed. “No, I’m okay. Honest.”

He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. She looked pale, and she was still shaking.

“You’re in shock. You need to see a doctor.”

“
No
,” she said with a little more vigor. “I’m okay, I was just…scared, is all.” She reached
down to the floor of the car and began picking up bits of scattered food and stuffing it back into the McDonald’s bag with an eerie sort of calm precision that should have reassured Tom. Instead, it did the opposite.

He eased off the accelerator. “Are you sure you don’t need to go to the hospital? Do you want me to take you home?”

“No, I want to go to the bridge.
Please
.”

He
slowed down to ten miles under the speed limit, trying his best to keep his eye on both her and the road at the same time. She seemed better, but he was still a little freaked out by her reaction to the near-accident. Despite her protests, maybe he should take her to the hospital anyway. Or at least, back home, where she could lie down. Her breathing seemed normal, though, so he decided to go along
with her. For now. But if she started going pale on him again, he’d take her straight to the hospital, no matter what she said.

He parked his car in their spot and killed the engine. Neither of them said anything, so he pulled her trembling body next to his and wrapped his arms around her. “It’s okay, baby, I was scared, too. I thought that asshole was going to ram right into us.”

She shuddered. “I just need to calm down a little.”

He tucked her head into his shoulder and held her. Her skin was beginning to warm up. He’d held her like this before, but not to comfort her. She sighed and shifted closer. He tightened his arm around her. He knew her mother had died in a car crash when she was seven. But they’d never talked about it. Is that what this was? Was she remembering
her mom’s accident?

“What happened?” he asked quietly.

He could feel her shudder all the way through his own body, almost as if they’d melded into one person. “I was sitting behind her in the back seat, coloring. I had my seat belt on, but…I wasn’t happy about it. Zeke was in the front, next to her. He was…happy, though. He’d just made the baseball team and he was talking non-stop
when all of a sudden…I don’t know, it was weird. I didn’t even see it. Not really. It was like a bomb exploded or something. At least, that’s what I thought.”

She didn’t say anything for a few long seconds.

“I found out later we’d been T-boned. The driver from the other car was hurt pretty badly, but he survived. He ran a red light. Not on purpose, though. He was having chest pain,
a heart attack. Kind of weird, huh? I guess you could say my mom was killed by some other guy’s heart attack.”

Her attempt at brevity made his throat go tight. As a pastor, this must be the kind of stuff his dad listened to all the time. What would he say? How would he help her? Tom’s mind came up a big fucking blank. You’d think maybe some of his dad’s genes would have rubbed off on him.
Instead, all he’d been able to think about tonight was getting a blow job. He was worthless.

“Zeke went unconscious, but I didn’t know that. I thought he was…dead. I kept screaming for Mom to help him, and then I realized that she couldn’t because she was hurt, too. There was all this blood oozing from her chest and she kept trying to reach out and hold my hand.”

Her body began shaking
again. Only this time it was accompanied by great big sobs. He’d never heard anyone cry like that before. He kissed the top of her head, only because he had no clue what else to do. After a few minutes, the sobs began to space out.