That Thing You Do (Whispering Bay Romance Book 1) (Volume 1) (18 page)

Allie waved to him. “Sorry! Wrong house!”

He waited until she backed the van out, then scowled and slammed his door shut. Boy, what a grouch.

She drove around the rest of the neighborhood but there was no sign of a red mustang. The only other residential area close by the soccer field was across Beach Street, a main
thoroughfare in Whispering Bay. Claire said that Jordan’s house was close enough that they wouldn’t have to go through any main roads to get there, but of course, Allie now realized that was probably a lie.

When had Claire become so duplicitous? Allie felt like crying. Instead, she tried calling Zeke and Mimi again, but it was like their cell phones had been abducted by aliens.

“Maybe
we should stop and ask for directions,” Henry suggested.

“Good idea. If I had an address, that is.”

“I have to go to the bathroom,” Cameron said.

“Of course you do. Do you think you can you hold it, big guy? Just for a few minutes? I’m going to go through this neighborhood one more time.”

And then what? Give up? Drive the boys back home?

Allie was about to call Claire
one last time when she glanced into the rearview mirror to see a patrol car behind the van, its blue lights flashing obnoxiously.

T
he patrol car wasn’t
after her, was it? She hadn’t been speeding and she’d stopped at every stop sign. She even used her turn signal even though the van was the only vehicle out in the neighborhood. She stuck her arm outside the car window and waved the police car by. But instead of passing her, the cruiser turned on its siren. Allie’s palms broke out into a sweat.

Cameron and Henry
began whispering in excited tones.

“Uh-oh,” Cameron said. “Are you going to jail?”

“Jail!” Allie faked a laugh. “Don’t be silly. It’s okay, boys, I got this.” She only wished she felt as confident as she was trying to sound. She pulled the minivan over to the side of the road. To her relief, it was Rusty who got out of the cruiser.

Allie practically leaped out of the car and
hugged him. “Rusty! Thank God, it’s you. You have to help me find Claire.”

Rusty disentangled himself from the hug. “Allie, what are in tarnation are you doing driving?”

“What? Oh, I know this looks bad, but it’s an emergency.” She went on to explain how Claire had tricked her. “And believe me, I now know what people mean when they say
teenagers
in that tone of voice. So, do you know
this Jordan person? Has Zeke ever mentioned her to you?”

“Can’t say that I recall the chief ever mentioning a friend of Claire’s named Jordan.” He peered inside the van. “Is that Cameron in there?”

“And Henry Donalan. I was supposed to supervise Claire’s driving. From a purely theoretical standpoint, of course, because I know my license is still suspended, and I
certainly
knew it was
wrong of me to drive, but I didn’t know what else to do. Neither Zeke nor Mimi are answering their cell phones right now.”

Rusty’s face scrunched up like he was constipated. “You know, Allie, I cut you a break and gave you a warning the other night. Breaking and Entering is bad enough. But this second infraction? I can’t overlook it. No matter who you’re related to. Zeke would be the first
one to tell me that I gotta do the right thing here.”

“You’re
kidding.
Claire could be God knows where and you’re worried about something as stupid as a suspended license?”

“Now, Allie,” Rusty said like she was some skittish poodle about to be put down. “I’m going to have to ask you to lower your voice.”

“Lower my voice? Lower my voice!” She sounded hysterical but she couldn’t
help herself.

The man from the red brick house who’d poked his head out the door earlier, joined them on the street. “That’s her,” he said, pointing to Allie. “She’s been driving up and down the street real suspicious like. Probably casing out the neighborhood.”

Allie stared at him in disbelief. “You called the cops on me? Is this a joke? I’m driving a minivan with two eleven-year-olds
in the back seat! Does that sound like the modus operandi of a cat burglar?”

Rusty scratched his head and began mumbling to himself. Then he grinned, like a light inside his brain had just been turned on. “This is a test, ain’t it?”

“A what?”

“Zeke put you up to this, to see how I’d react.” Rusty opened the driver door to the minivan and stuck his head inside. “Is there a hidden
camera in there?”

A hidden camera
?

“Rusty, are you high?”

“Oh, no worries. I’ve already passed my drug test for this quarter.” He put a hand up in a peaceful gesture to the idiot who’d called the cops on her. “Don’t worry, sir, the Whispering Bay Police Department has this all under control.” He unclipped a set of handcuffs from his belt. “Allie, can I get you to turn around?”

“You’re going to
handcuff
me?”

Rusty leaned forward to whisper in her ear, “It’s just for the cameras.”

“There are no cameras!”

Car lights caught their attention. Allie turned to see a familiar black pick-up truck.
Great
. Just what she needed. Tom Donalan witnessing this latest humiliation of hers.

Tom parked his truck behind the police cruiser and calmly walked toward
them. “Hey, Rusty, what’s going on?”

“Where did you come from?” Allie asked.

“Henry phoned and said you were in trouble. I was just a few blocks away.” He eyed the handcuffs. “Looks like he was right.”

“Hey, Tom,” Rusty said amiably like they were all on a picnic. “Allie’s giving me a hard time about these handcuffs.”

“Yeah, I don’t think Allie is a handcuffs kind of girl,
Rusty. Of course, I wouldn’t know that first hand, if you know what I mean.”

Even under the dim streetlights she could see Rusty’s face turn the color of a splotched tomato. “Uh, the thing is, I don’t have a choice here, Tom. Caught her red handed breakin’ the law.”

“Wait a minute.” Tom glanced between her and Rusty in mock disbelief. “Don’t tell me Allie was driving.”

“That
she was, Tom. And I have to tell you, she’s put me in an awful pickle here.”

“I can see that, Rusty.”

“Stop talking about me in the third person,” she said, waving her hands in the air. “I’m right here.”

Cameron and Henry got out of the minivan and joined them on the street. The relieved looks on their faces when they saw Tom made Allie feel like the world’s most irresponsible
adult.

“Hey, boys,” Tom said, “would you mind getting back in the car? We’ll be done here in a few minutes.”

Both boys instantly obeyed him, for which Allie was grateful. She didn’t want her nephew (or Tom’s son, for that matter) witness her trying to argue her way out of being arrested. She’d already lost her cool aunt status (and frankly, she didn’t care anymore) but she’d really
like to maintain some sort of credibility. At least with the eleven-year-old crowd.

“I’m curious,” Tom asked Rusty, “How did you happen to catch her in the act?”

“Got a call saying there was a car driving up and down the neighborhood. Been a few burglaries here in the past couple of months so I drove over to check it out.”

“I think you should check out the back of that van,”
Neighborhood Guy said. Allie had almost forgotten about him. “Just to make sure there’s no stolen property stashed in there.”

Rusty’s jaw dropped. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what he was thinking. The minivan he was being pressured to “check out” was registered to none other than his boss, Ezequiel James Grant, Whispering Bay’s police chief. Rusty was in way more than just a pickle.
More like an entire onion.

Allie almost felt sorry for Rusty, except he could have handled this whole thing a bit differently. Of course,
she
could have handled the whole thing a whole lot differently (as in, she could have adhered strictly to the rules).

Tom smiled at Neighborhood Guy. “Matt Connelly, is that you? Remember me? Reverend Donalan’s son?”

“Tommy? What are you doing
back in Whispering Bay? Thought you lived in Atlanta.” His expression sombered. “Heard a rumor that your wife left you. Guess it’s true, huh?”

Allie cringed, but Tom shrugged good-naturedly. “True enough.”

Neighborhood Guy shook his head sympathetically. “Tough break, man.”

“Yeah.” Tom glanced at Rusty, then back at Neighborhood Guy. “Say, Matt, I think there’s been a misunderstanding.
This young lady here is a personal friend of mine. As a matter of fact, she’s got my son Henry in the car. Giving him a ride home after soccer practice. I think she got confused by the neighborhood.” Tom slapped him on the back. “By the way, I haven’t see you in church lately.”

“Oh, yeah, well, been doing a lot of fishing and Sundays are usually the best day for that,” he mumbled.

“I bet Dad would love to see you back. You being such an upstanding member of the parish and all.”

Neighborhood Guy nodded slowly. “Yeah, I should go back to church,” he said as though the idea were his to begin with.

“So, no problems here?” Tom asked.

“Sure. If you vouch for her then everything’s good here, Tommy.”

“Then I say we all get back to our lives. I’ll take care
of the car situation, Rusty, so you can get back to more important things, like patrolling the city.”

Rusty looked equal parts confused and relieved. “Thanks, Tom. About Allie—”

“Oh, no worries. I’ll make sure she doesn’t drive until everything’s copasetic.”

“So, no hidden cameras?” Rusty said, clearly disappointed.

“I can guarantee you there are
no
hidden cameras anywhere,”
Allie said.

“And Rusty,” Tom said, “there’s no need to involve Zeke in this, is there?”

“I won’t tell if you won’t,” Allie quickly added.

Rusty scratched his chin. “Well…I guess you’re right, there’s no need to involve the Chief. Especially not if I got Tom’s word that you won’t be driving anymore.” He turned to Tom. “And I can count on you getting Allie and the boys home?”

“You have my word. She’s not getting behind the wheel of a car until she can legally drive again. Even if I have to handcuff her myself.”

“Gee, thanks!” Rusty tipped his hat at Allie then drove away in his police car.

Neighborhood Guy shook Tom’s hand then headed back to his house and, before Allie knew it, she was standing alone in the middle of the street with Tom.

“Handcuff
me yourself? Really?”

“Don’t say another word,” he said in a quiet voice that should have been reassuring, but wasn’t. “Because I’m pretty close to wringing your neck. You can do whatever you want on your own time but that’s my son you’ve got in that car. If you’d gotten arrested what would have happened to him? And to Cameron? Did you think about that?”

Allie blinked to keep the tears
from falling. Of all people, she didn’t want to cry in front of Tom, but she was perilously close to doing just that. Not because he’d just berated her for her stupid behavior, though.

 “Tom…I’m…I can’t find Claire.” She blurted out the whole story. “I know it was incredibly naive of me to let her go off like that. And now I can’t get ahold of Zeke or Mimi and I don’t know what to do. What
if someone’s kidnapped her?”

His expression softened. “Nobody’s kidnapped her.” He pulled out his cell phone. “What’s this girl’s name again? The one in the red mustang?”

“Jordan. I don’t know her last name.”

He punched in some numbers then waited. Allie wanted to ask who he’d called but she didn’t want to interrupt him. And frankly, she was more than just a little relieved that
he seemed to have some sort of plan. Especially since she’d been batting zero.

“Keith? It’s Donalan. Sorry to call you at home but I need some information. Tyler’s a junior over at the high school, isn’t she? Does she know a girl named Jordan? Don’t know the last name. Drives a red mustang. Maybe friends with Claire Grant?”
Pause.
“Sure, I’ll hold.” Tom glanced her way, then nodded toward
the minivan. “Go check on the boys.”

Something that Allie was more than happy to do, partly because it gave her
something
to do. Plus, she wanted to make sure they hadn’t been traumatized by her near arrest.

Both boys were immersed in a video game on Henry’s phone. Okay, good. No trauma here that Allie could see.

She went back to check on Tom’s progress. “Her name’s Jordan Young
and she lives near Grayton Beach,” he said.

“Grayton Beach! That’s not a couple of blocks from here.”

“Yeah, more like ten miles. Get in the car,” he said. Then he plucked the minivan keys out of her hand. “Obviously, I’m driving.”

T
hey pulled up to
a swanky beach house. Lights, music,
lots
of parked cars. Cameron stuck his nose to the car window. “Wow. I’d like to live there!”

“Who wouldn’t?” Allie muttered. A party! She should feel relieved that it was nothing worse than a case of Claire lying to her. But she didn’t.

Tom unbuckled his seat belt. “Need me to come inside?” he asked.

Allie knew this
was probably something she should do on her own but she’d never played the role of angry-disappointed guardian before. She was pretty sure Claire would come willingly, but she had no idea what kind of scene to expect. Having Tom by her side seemed smart. Or cowardly. She didn’t really care which it seemed to him. She only knew she wanted Claire safely home as soon as possible. So that she could strangle
her.

“If you wouldn’t mind?”

Tom twisted around in his seat to address the boys. “Stay here. We’ll be back in a few minutes.”

“But I have to go to the bathroom,” Cameron said.

Henry jumped on the bandwagon. “Me, too.”

Tom tossed Allie a look that said they were probably being played, but what choice did they have? “I guess we’re all going in, then.”

The boys
smiled at each other but were smart enough not to say anything else. The four of them walked to the front of the house. Somewhere upstairs Fergie and Will.I.Am’s version of
True
played loud enough that Allie could hear it through the closed door. Twelve years ago she and Tom had slow danced to the classic original by Spandau Ballet. To this day she couldn’t hear it without thinking of him. Or
of the kiss he’d given her afterward…

Flash forward, Allie.

What was she going to say to Claire? Better yet, how was she going to explain this to Mimi and Zeke?

Allie rang the doorbell but the music was so loud that they couldn’t hear whether the ringer worked or not. A couple of minutes went by but no one answered. Tom raised his fist and pounded on the door.

A teenage
boy holding a red plastic cup finally answered. “Yeah?”

Tom’s gaze zeroed in on the cup. “You live here?”

“Who wants to know?”

“How about you answer my question first,” Tom said in a far more neutral tone than Allie would have used.

The kid must have decided they didn’t look old enough to be the parents of anyone inside because after a few moments he visibly relaxed. “Nah,
this is Jordan’s house.”

“We’re looking for Claire Grant,” Allie said

“And Jordan’s parents,” Tom added.

“Claire…yeah, I think I know her. Hold on.”

The kid attempted to close the door, but Tom was too fast for him. He propped the door open with his shoulder, grabbed Allie’s hand, and whisked all four of them into the foyer.

The house was a large, two-story Mediterranean
with tiled floors and plush leather furniture. All the noise seemed to be coming from upstairs. Still holding on to her hand, Tom headed toward the party. “Everyone stay together,” he instructed the boys.

“Hey! You can’t go up there,” the kid shouted.

“Watch us!” Allie said, scrambling to keep up with Tom.

They took the stairs two at a time and found themselves in a rec room,
complete with a wet bar and a huge flat screen T.V. The scene in front of them seemed typical of most teenage parties but Allie couldn’t help but feel a bit shook up. She still thought of Claire as playing with her American Girl dolls. Not being a typical American girl herself. A typical
teenage
American girl, that is. But there she was, a beer in one hand, giggling away at something some pimply
faced skinny hipster kid was saying to her.

Allie marched over to confront her niece. “Do you have any idea how worried I’ve been?” she heard herself screech.

Claire whipped around. The look on her face was almost comical. “Aunt Allie! What…what are you doing here?”

“What am
I
doing here? I thought someone kidnapped you, for God’s sake!”

“I know this looks bad,” Claire
began.

“Looks bad? Claire! You lied to me.”

 Some of the kids began looking their way. “Can we just talk about this outside?” Claire whispered.

“She’s right. Save the reunion for later,” Tom said. He took the beer out of Claire’s hand and dumped the contents down the wet bar sink.

“Where’s your friend Jordan?” Allie demanded

Claire’s nervous gaze darted through the
room. “She’s here somewhere.”

“And her parents?”

“I think…her mom’s outside by the pool.”

“Wonderful,” Allie said. “Let’s go meet her.”

“No, Aunt Allie,
please
, don’t make a scene.”

“You’re just lucky your dad’s not here.”

At the mention of Zeke, Claire’s eyes widened. Allie gave Hipster Boy a steely glare before they headed down to the pool area, where they
found a slim blonde woman in her forties lying on a recliner, reading a magazine and sipping what looked like a margarita, complete with salt around the glass rim. Allie fought the urge to snatch the drink from the woman’s perfectly manicured hands and either toss it into the pool or gulp it down herself.

“You know you got kids drinking inside the house?” Tom said.

The woman slowly
folded herself out of the lounge chair. She wore a tight white tank top emphasizing a set of knockers that probably cost the equivalent of six months’ worth of tips at The Blue Monkey. Her denim skirt was almost as short as Claire’s. “Who are you?” she demanded.

“I’m her aunt,” Allie said, pointing a finger at Claire. “And she’s barely sixteen.”

The woman didn’t even blink. “Are you
her guardian?”

“No, that would be her father, the police chief of Whispering Bay.”

“Police?” The woman made a frowning motion but her brow remained frozen in an obvious case of plastic surgery overdose. “I think there’s been a misunderstanding.”

“Yeah, well, you have about ten minutes to clear it up before he gets here,” Allie said. Tom raised a brow. Okay, so she was bluffing.
But Jordan’s mom didn’t have to know that.

“I suggest you round up the kids and have them call their parents. Underage drinking in your home is one thing. But letting these kids drive while under the influence is asking for trouble. Not to mention all the law suits that could come out of it.” Tom gazed around the ritzy pool area. “Of course, seems to me you could probably afford it.”

Jordan’s mother appeared shock. “You mean, the kids are drinking
liquor
?”

“No, they’re having milk and cookies upstairs,” Allie said.

The woman barely glanced at Allie but she gave Tom a more generous perusal. “Good idea about getting the kids to go home. Ever since my divorce, it’s just been me and Jordan and I’m afraid I’ve let her get away with too much. Maybe you could stay
to help me?” she asked Tom, batting a set of eyelashes that had be extensions. As if she was fooling anyone! Was there any part of her that was real?

“Sorry, but my husband’s busy,” Allie said. Maybe a shove in the pool would bring this woman back to reality. Except Allie had a feeling Jordan’s mother wouldn’t mind a little wet T-shirt action. Especially not if Tom was around to witness
it.

The woman’s gaze honed in on Allie’s left hand. “The two of you are married?”

“It’s a modern marriage. We don’t believe in rings.” Allie grabbed Tom’s hand and led him back through the house and out the front door. She glanced back briefly to make sure Claire was following, which thankfully, she was.

Claire meekly took a seat in the mid row of the minivan and buckled herself
in.

Allie turned to Tom. “Can you believe that woman? And by the way, you can thank me later for saving you from that…Botoxed barracuda back there.”

The corner of his mouth twitched up into a half grin. Then he glanced around and the grin disappeared. “Um, I think we lost the boys.”

“What?” She whipped around. Tom was right. The boys were MIA. It was official. She was world’s
worst adult. “
Captain Crunch
,” Allie muttered.

“In this case I think I would have gone with something a little stronger.”

She shrugged. “If I could, I would.”

“Right. You stay here with Claire and I’ll go back in the house and find them.”

As she watched Tom walk away she couldn’t help but yell, “Watch out for the water!”

He didn’t turn around but he put a hand up
in the air acknowledging her remark. Allie grit her teeth, instantly regretting her little outburst. He probably thought she was jealous. Which she most certainly wasn’t. As a fellow member of the female species, she was simply embarrassed for Jordan’s mother, that’s all.

Speaking of the female species.

She climbed into the front seat of the minivan, took a deep breath and turned to
face her niece. Somehow, Claire managed to make herself appear small and pitiful. Before Allie could think of what to say, Tom and the boys were back in the car. Henry’s eyes were bright were excitement and Cameron was beyond giddy.

“That was awesome!” Cameron said. He nudged his sister in the shoulder. “Boy, I bet Dad is going to ground you for a year.”

Miraculously, Claire had enough
sense to keep her mouth shut.

The boys began interrogating her for party details but Tom quickly put an end to it with the same kind of look she’d seen Zeke use. Allie leaned back in her seat and closed her eyes. Every synapse in her body raged on full alert. She tried to will herself to relax, but with each minute, it only seemed to get worse.

What if Tom hadn’t come along tonight?
What if he hadn’t known to call Hard Hat and get Jordan’s address? What if… Her brain spun with a hundred different
what ifs
. Each one worse than the last.

Allie turned around to make sure the kids were settled in their seats. And to assure herself once again that Claire was still really there. Claire glanced up and caught Allie’s eye. “I’m sorry,” she mouthed.

Allie nodded, acknowledging
Claire’s apology, but she didn’t think she was ready to talk to her yet. For one thing, what would she say? A part of Allie was still angry at her niece. But mostly, she was angry at herself. Yes, Claire had played her, but Allie had naively let herself be played.

Is this what being the parent to a teenager was like? A constant struggle just to make sure they didn’t do anything stupid? No
wonder Mimi and Zeke didn’t want Claire driving on her own. If was up to Allie, Claire would be locked up in the proverbial dungeon with the key thrown away. Tonight had been a real eye-opener. On all counts.

She took a moment to take a good look at Tom, discreetly, of course, because she didn’t want him to catch her staring at him. All these years, she’d always pictured him as the same
eighteen-year-old boy who’d carelessly played with her heart. But there was little resemblance between that Tom and the thirty-year-old man she’d gotten to know in the past few days. For one thing, he was such a…
dad
. His whole world revolved around Henry, and yes, it was sexy but it was also so…grown up.

She wasn’t the same Allie she’d been at eighteen, either. But while Tom had experienced
marriage and a son and
responsibilities
, she was still paying for all the fun she’d had in Part Two of her Life Plan. She’d frivolously squandered her share of the life insurance money that Buela had left her. It wasn’t a fortune, by any means, and although a part of Allie didn’t regret that she’d used the money to travel, she did regret that she hadn’t thought to hold some back. A nest egg. Security.
Those were the things she now craved.

The things she could have if she got the job at the magazine.

Correction:
when
she got the job at the magazine.

They drove the rest of the way back to Mimi and Zeke’s in silence. Thankfully, Zeke’s car was parked in the driveway.

“Henry, stay in the car,” Tom said to his son. He turned to her. “If you wouldn’t mind. I need Mimi or Zeke
to tag along so they can drive us back to pick up my truck.”

He didn’t seem mad. Or upset. Or even put out. He didn’t seem…anything, actually. Which was almost worse because Allie knew what it meant. It meant he felt bad for her. And he didn’t want to add to it by giving her any grief. She supposed she should feel grateful but she almost preferred he’d yell at her because the fact was she
was as much to blame for tonight’s fiasco as Claire. More so, because Allie was supposed to be the adult here. She’d been irresponsible and foolish. She tried to view herself through Tom’s eyes. The image she came up with made her cringe.

Claire dashed out of the car and into the house with Cameron hot on her heels.

Allie swallowed hard. “It seems like all I do these days is thank
you for something or other.”

“You’re going to tell Mimi and Zeke what went on tonight, right?”

“Of course. But…I was hoping Claire might come clean first.”

Tom glanced in the minivan’s rearview mirror to make sure Henry wasn’t listening. He lowered his voice. “You mean, like I told my parents and you told your grandmother about the time we spent the night on the beach?”

“Well, you know, nothing really happened that night. I mean, not
much
.” She was hoping that would elicit a smile from him, but it didn’t. She sighed. “Okay, I get it. Claire probably isn’t going to tell.”