by Maria Geraci
A few seconds later, Tom emerged from the house. He walked over to the minivan and propped his arm on the car’s roof, then leaned his head in through the open window. His gaze quickly took everything in. “Hey, Cameron, how’s it going?”
“Doing good, Mr. Donalan,” Cameron answered from the back seat.
“You boys have a good practice.” He glanced over at Claire, then back at Allie. “So, Claire’s driving, huh?”
Claire was busy messing with the car’s radio dials, clueless to their conversation.
“With my supervision, of course,” Allie said.
“Of course.” After a few seconds, he stepped back and tapped his hand on the car’s roof, as if giving the go ahead for take-off. “See you later,” he said to his son. “Don’t forget, after practice you’re going to your mom’s tonight.”
“We’re dropping Cameron off at Lauren’s?” she asked.
“Is that a problem?”
“No, of course not. I just thought it was probably your night…you know, to have him over.” Allie didn’t know much about the way divorced couples split their child custody arrangements, but since they’d picked Henry up at Tom’s Allie had naturally assumed Henry would be spending the night with his dad.
“I pick Henry up at school most afternoons while Lauren is at the shop. It gives me a chance to spend more time with him and it helps her out, too. But he doesn’t always stay over.”
The way Tom talked about his son made Allie pause. He sounded so…proud and protective. She had never found fatherhood sexy. Until now.
“You could join us, you know, at soccer practice,” Allie blurted. “I plan to stay and watch.”
His face went blank. “Thanks, but I have something important to do.”
“Like what? A hot date?” she joked.
“Something like that.” Before Allie could respond, he told Claire to drive safely, then stepped away from the minivan, clicked open the door to his pickup truck and got inside.
Claire backed the minivan down the driveway and they were off.
A hot date? Argh! Why had she said that? And then of course, there was that evasive response of his. Something like that.
Was he serious? Normally, she could tell when he was joking. At least, she used to be able to. He didn’t look like he was kidding around, but he did look taken aback by her invitation to join them at soccer practice. Which meant he probably did have something important to do.
They drove the rest of the way to the soccer field without any incident, which was good, considering Allie was having a hard time concentrating on the road. So what if Tom had a date? Bully for him! He was a divorced man and Allie had made it abundantly clear after this morning’s kiss that she wasn’t interested in a romantic relationship.
“Good job driving,” Allie said, ignoring how Claire parked the minivan halfway into the adjacent space. The boys ran toward the grass where the rest of the team was already warming up. Allie unloaded a couple of folding chairs from the back of the van and offered one to her niece.
“You’re really going to stay and watch?” Claire asked.
“Of course I am.”
“I thought that was just a pretext.” Claire shrugged. “You know, to spend more time with Mr. Donalan.”
“Why would I want to do that?”
“Why wouldn’t you want to do that? It’s okay. Your secret is safe with me. So you have a crush on Henry’s dad. Big deal. He likes you, too, by the way.”
“I think you’ve been watching too much cable T.V.”
Claire made a face that made Allie feel like she was a hundred years old. “I’m not a child, Aunt Allie. And by the way, he wasn’t going on some hot date.”
Allie narrowed her eyes at her niece. “I thought you were messing with the radio.”
“That doesn’t mean my ears have fallen off.”
There was something semi-pathetic about talking to one’s niece concerning your love life. But Allie couldn’t seem to help herself. “Okay, Miss-Sixteen-Going-On-Thirty, how do you know he wasn’t going on a date?”
“Because he was wearing faded jeans and a T-shirt, and a guy like him doesn’t wear that on a date.”
“Oh? What does a guy like him wear on a date?”
“Hot guy stuff.” Claire batted her eyelashes. “Nicer jeans, black turtleneck, and cowboy boots.” She was describing what Tom had worn last night for their senior center slumber party. Which had certainly not been a date.
Allie tried to shrug it off. “Maybe he was taking some poor girl…fishing or something. Let’s change the subject, please.”
“Whatever you say.” Claire moistened her lips. “I was thinking of driving by my friend Jordan’s house. She only lives two blocks away.”
“Not a good idea. I think we pretty much promised your parents I’d supervise your driving tonight.”
“Parents!” Claire said with a conspiratorial smile. “Can’t live with them, can’t live without them.”
“Yeah, well, I think my brother would pretty much have my head if I disobeyed his orders.”
“Dad can be pretty intense,” Claire agreed. “Okay, so you can watch me drive to Jordan’s house and then you can drive back here to the soccer field. Just pick me up on the way back home.”
“No can do, kiddo. My license is suspended. You know that.”
“You’re kidding, right? It’s like three blocks away. What’s going to happen in three blocks?”
“I thought you said it was two blocks.”
“Two blocks, three blocks. What does it matter? It’s not like you’re going to be on a major road or anything. The most that can happen is you might hit a squirrel. Big deal.”
“Aw, don’t say that. I love squirrels.”
But Claire didn’t smile. Instead, she rolled her eyes.
Allie had seen her niece pull the eye roll plenty of times, but never with her.
Claire was right. Three blocks didn’t sound like a big deal, but Allie was in a precarious situation with her license. If anything happened (and with Allie’s luck lately, something would happen), she’d never be able to talk her way out of this one with Zeke. “Sorry, hon, but I can’t chance it. I don’t want to put your dad in a bad position.”
“Then you don’t mind if I walk there, do you?” She placed her hands on her hips. That’s when Allie noticed Claire had on the short skirt from the other morning. The one Mimi had banned her from wearing to school. How had Claire gotten out of the house without anyone noticing? How hadn’t Allie herself noticed? Probably because she’d been too busy noticing what Tom had and hadn’t been doing.
“Just how far away is this house?”
Claire sighed the sigh of the long suffering. “Forget it. I’ll call Jordan. She’ll come pick me up.”
That sounded reasonable enough. Despite Claire’s teenage attitude, she was trying to compromise, so Allie should, too. Kids respected that. “Are you sure that’s okay with your mom and dad?”
“Sure, it’s cool.”
“I’ll just check with them first.” Allie took out her cell phone and dialed Mimi but it went directly to voice mail. Next, she called her brother but he didn’t pick up either. “That’s weird. Maybe they’re at a movie and had to silence their phones.”
“Yeah, right.”
“What does that mean?”
“Nothing.” Claire squeezed her cell phone out of the back pocket of the tight little skirt (a magician’s trick if ever Allie saw one) and made a short call. “Jordan’s picking me up,” she informed Allie. “We’re cool now, right?”
Allie thought about it a second. Claire was right. What could it hurt for her to visit her friend? And it wasn’t as if Allie hadn’t tried to get in touch with Mimi and Zeke. They’d placed her in charge of the kids and it was up to Allie to use her own common sense.
“Sure, it’s fine.” She set up her chair to watch the practice, which turned out to be a scrimmage. Cameron dribbled the ball, zigzagging around his opponents. Henry
, who was playing goalie, was no slouch either. He blocked the ball every time it came near him, except the one time Cameron managed to score a goal.
Allie couldn’t help but cheer, which garnered her a few friendly smiles from the other adults present. After about fifteen minutes, a red Mustang convertible driven by a girl who appeared to be Claire’s age, pulled into the parking lot. Claire practically flew into the front seat. Allie stood to go talk to the girls but before she could get to the car they were already halfway down the block.
Claire turned and waved goodbye. “See you in about an hour!” she cried cheerfully, all evidence of her prior sulking gone. Teenagers. Allie shook her head. It seemed like a lifetime ago that she’d been one herself.
The rest of the practice went by quickly. Daylight Savings Time was still in effect but even that wasn’t enough to keep it from getting dark by eight-thirty. The coach blew a whistle, signaling the end of the scrimmage. He spoke to the boys, going over a few points, then dismissed them. The boys all grabbed a water bottle from a cooler and soon everyone had taken off, leaving Cameron, Henry, and Allie the only ones on the field.
“Where’s Claire?” Cameron asked.
Allie glanced at her watch. “She went to her friend Jordan’s house but she promised she’d be back by now.” She dialed Claire’s number but there was no answer. Allie texted her and waited for a return message. “Do you know Jordan’s number by any chance?” she asked her nephew.
“Jordan who? I don’t any of Claire’s friends with that name.”
Henry pulled out a smart phone from his backpack and he and Cameron entertained themselves by playing Tetris. Allie began to pace the parking lot.
Fifteen minutes went by and it was now completely dark. Why hadn’t she gotten Jordan’s last name? She felt like the ditzy spinster aunt who was easily bamboozled. She hated calling Mimi and Zeke but there was no choice. She dialed both their numbers, but once again, neither of them answered.
“I must be in a dead zone.” Allie shook her phone. What that would do, she didn’t know, but it felt like a good substitute for Claire right about now.
“My cell phone works fine,” Henry said. “I just called my friend Pete to check on our math homework.”
“I’m hungry,” Cameron said.
“Again? Didn’t you eat less than four hours ago?”
“That was first dinner. I eat light whenever I have soccer practice then I eat again when I get home.”
“Me, too,” Henry chimed in.
“Oh. Well, maybe there are some snacks in the van.”
There were no snacks, but the key was still in the ignition. All this time they’d been on the soccer field the minivan was sitting in the parking lot just waiting for someone to come along and steal it. Not that Whispering Bay was any sort of crime hub, but still. Claire had been in such a rush to leave that she’d foolishly left behind the keys. Why hadn’t Allie thought to ask her for them?
Allie was torn between being angry at herself, angry at Claire, and worried sick that something had happened to her. Maybe this Jordan had gotten in a car accident. Or maybe they hadn’t even gone to Jordan’s house at all.
A vision of Claire in her tight little skirt smoking pot, shooting up drugs, and having unprotected sex with the sleaziest boy in the high school (who even now was giving her an STD) flashed through Allie’s brain in a panoramic nightmare.
Oh God. She was too young to be a great aunt. Or dead. Because Zeke was surely going to kill her when he discovered that she’d lost his daughter.
It was a miracle Mimi’s hair wasn’t entirely gray.
There was no choice. She was going to have to find Claire. Now. She wasn’t supposed to drive, but this was an emergency.
She’d just cruise around the adjoining neighborhoods, very slowly, going at least five miles under the speed limit. There was no way she could get in trouble if she didn’t call any attention to herself.
“Boys, buckle up your seatbelts and be on the lookout for a red Mustang parked somewhere nearby.” Allie clutched the steering wheel and glanced at the dashboard clock. It was almost nine p.m. It had been over two hours since Claire had taken off. When she found her, Allie was going to wring her neck. Or throw her over her lap and spank her. Or grab her and hug the hell out of her. Probably all three.
Cameron and Henry each manned a window and Allie began to slowly drive up and down the streets. Within a few minutes, she was certain she spotted Jordan’s car but after pulling into the driveway of a modest red brick ranch, Allie could see that it wasn’t a Mustang after all, but some foreign model. The front door to the house opened and a man poked his head out, probably to see what the heck a strange car was doing in his driveway.
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.
The 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.”
&nbs
p; “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.”
