by Maria Geraci
“Yep.” He ran into the living room, taking Allie’s phone with him.
“Thank God Zeke will be home tonight,” Mimi said, putting the leftovers in the fridge. “Oh, before I forget, take this.” She handed Allie a large wicker basket.
Allie opened the lid. Inside were candles, a lighter, a woolen blanket, cheese, crackers, and a thermos. “Gee, all that’s missing is a bottle of wine and some mood music.”
Mimi smirked. “Don’t think I wasn’t tempted.”
“This is all great, but I’m not going there to have a picnic.”
“Of course not, but you might get hungry. And there’s coffee in the thermos with a little zing added.”
The doorbell rang.
“I’ll get it!” Claire yelled.
“It’s Mr. Donalan!” Cameron chimed in a few seconds later.
Allie steeled herself. She could do this. She was, after all, a professional, and tonight could be the biggest night of her journalistic career. She picked up her backpack and Mimi’s basket of goodies and headed into the living room.
Tom wore jeans and a black turtleneck sweater and he looked…good. Too good as far as Allie was concerned. The stubble he’d been sporting this morning was gone, which meant he’d shaved for the occasion.
Claire stood behind him and mouthed WOW.
Yeah, my thoughts exactly.
Mimi shooed Claire away and that was when Allie noticed that Tom wasn’t alone. Standing next to him was a miniature version of him whom Allie could only assume must be Henry. No one seemed surprised to see him. Well, no one except her, that is.
“Thanks for letting Henry spend the night,” Tom said to Mimi.
“Henry’s welcome here any time,” Mimi said, smiling down at Tom Donalan’s progeny.
Cameron grabbed Henry’s overnight bag and the two of them were about to take off for Cameron’s bedroom when Tom interrupted them. “Hey, it’s rude not to say hello,” he said to his son. Tom turned to her with an expression Allie couldn’t read. “Henry, this is Cameron’s aunt, Allison Grant. She’s a journalist doing a story on the old senior center.”
As well as my ex-girlfriend, Allie thought he might have added. Probably wouldn’t have been appropriate, though.
Henry politely extended his hand. “Nice to meet you, Mrs. Grant.”
“That’s Miss Grant,” she said, shaking Henry’s hand. “And…it’s nice to meet you, too.”
She was meeting Tom Donalan’s son. It was like she was in a real live version of the Twilight Zone.
Mimi must have known all along that Henry was coming over tonight. The fact that she hadn’t said anything…
A myriad of emotions washed over Allie. Confusion, betrayal (for the love of God, Mimi could have warned her!) and strangely enough, a tiny bit of pride. Although why she should feel proud, Allie didn’t have a clue. Except that although she’d just met him, she could see Henry was a terrific kid. Handsome, polite, well-spoken. The kind of kid Mimi and Zeke would be happy to include among Cameron’s friends.
Allie stood there, frozen, listening to Mimi and Tom talk about the upcoming soccer season, and then Tom mentioned calling Zeke to set up a potential father/son camping trip for the four of them. Talk about cozy! Her ex was wiggling his way into her family’s life and there was nothing she could do about it.
Four more days and she could get back to her old life in Tampa.
It couldn’t happen soon enough.
“You ready?” Tom asked her.
She tamped down whatever emotion she hoped wasn’t showing on her face and nodded.
Cameron handed her back her cell phone. “When you get a chance, check your apps,” he whispered so that only she could hear.
She grabbed the rest of her things and followed Tom out the door.
*~*~*
Tom unlocked the door to the senior center and handed Allie a flashlight. “I’ll get the rest of the stuff out of my truck.”
“Hey, look, I know this is a huge imposition. You really don’t have to stay the night. I promise, I’ll be a good girl. No broken windows this time. Scout’s honor.” She used her finger to make the cross symbol over her chest and even smiled at him. Just to show him she meant it, which she did, of course.
“Sorry, like I said, it’s an insurance thing.”
Gone was the flirtatious mood Allie thought she’d detected from their text messages this afternoon. Right now, Tom was all business. Which was good because she needed to be all business, too. Only she really didn’t want to spend the next twelve or so hours alone with him. All business or not.
She brought in her belongings, careful to keep her flashlight aimed at the ground. Hopefully the cockroaches would make themselves scarce tonight. She found a clear space in the center of the main room and set down Mimi’s picnic basket, then opened up her backpack and checked the contents: laptop, cell phone (which had a pretty decent camera), and a yellow legal pad for note-taking.
The building looked exactly the way it did last night except the window she’d broken into was now patched over with clear vinyl sheeting and duct tape. Did Tom do that?
Allie couldn’t help feel just a tad bit guilty over the trouble she’d caused him. She wondered again for the umpteenth time exactly what had made him change his mind about delaying the demolition. Maybe tonight, if the timing was right, she’d ask him again. And maybe this time, he’d tell her the truth.
Tom lugged in more supplies. He had a broom, a blow up mattress, blankets, and a few kerosene lamps. He’d also brought along a radio, which he immediately set to a station carrying a baseball game.
“Hope you don’t mind,” he said. “The Braves are playing tonight.” He swept over a large area to clear it of debris, then squatted down and began inflating the mattress with a hand pump.
Allie watched as the mattress filled with air. Queen size, she’d guess. She hadn’t given a thought to actually sleeping tonight. No, the mattress was all his. She was here to work.
She pulled out her cell phone to check the camera setting. There was a new app on her phone. She clicked on the icon and the small screen opened up to reveal…a ghost detector. No wonder Cameron had been so pleased with himself!
She read the directions then casually held her phone out in the palm of her hand. On the screen, a yellow band went round and round in a circle, like those radar things from a submarine movie. According to the instructions, a blip would come across the yellow band in the presence of “extra energy,” aka a ghost.
Tom would probably laugh at this bit of technology, but Allie was thrilled. Not that she really believed it might work, but hey, you never knew unless you tried, right? Plus, it would give her something to do besides watch Tom set up camp for the night. A queen sized air mattress, blankets, and Mimi’s secret basket of goodies all combined were way too cozy as far as Allie was concerned.
“I’m going to walk around,” she said.
He barely glanced up at her. “Go for it.”
With the flashlight in one hand and her cell phone in the other, she slowly walked the perimeter of the main room. She glanced down at her phone screen. No blips, no beeps. She made her way down the hall facing the entrance to two rooms that had once been used as classrooms. The rooms were dark and strewn with the same scattered trash she’d encountered last night.
She randomly picked the room on the right and went inside. Since Tom couldn’t see her all the way back here, there was no point in hiding what she was doing, so she held the phone out in front of her, allowing it to guide her steps. The yellow line continued round and round in the same circle.
Nothing.
She should probably be disappointed, but she wasn’t. After all, it wasn’t as if she expected the thing to work. Fighting off a fit of the giggles, she repeated the routine in the next room. All she needed to complete the ridiculousness was the Ghostbusters theme playing in the background. She was about to give up when her phone made a strange sound. Allie glanced down to find a red blip on t
he screen.
She shook the phone. Just to make sure she wasn’t imagining it. The blip was still there.
This was priceless! Too bad Cameron wasn’t here to share in the fun.
All of a sudden the room went warm. The smell of lemons hit her like a slap in the face. It was the same sensation she’d experienced last night. Allie had almost begun to believe that she’d imagined it, but this was as real as the ground beneath her boots. Her hand trembled, making it difficult to concentrate on the screen. She willed herself to take a deep breath.
The blip became bigger and the lemon smell stronger. It should have gagged her, but it didn’t. Instead she wanted to drown in it. To sink against its warmth, like a fire on a cold winter day. She shook away that ridiculous thought and concentrated on her phone screen. According to her location, whatever was making the ghost radar go off was standing directly behind her.
Tom 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.
*~*~*
Allie 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?”
