That Thing You Do (Whispering Bay Romance 1)

Kitty made a dismissive motion with her hand. “Mimi told me the two of you used to be a hot item. First love, and all that. And now that he’s divorced—”

“That was twelve years ago.” First love. Ha! What a joke. First love implied a reciprocal relationship. “I’m pretty certain he has absolutely no romantic feelings toward me whatsoever. And I feel exactly the same toward him.”

“Oh.” Kitty looked disappointed. “Sorry, I don’t mean to be nosy. It’s just, I can’t help myself. I’m a hopeless romantic.”

“Hopeless would be the key word in any relationship between Tom and myself.”

Kitty suddenly looked uncomfortable, making Allie regret her last words. She sounded bitter. What happened to last night’s love, peace and que sera, sera moment? Maybe she should try to channel the Beatles again. Although, she hadn’t consciously channeled them last night…

“What I meant to say was, Mimi exaggerated. Tom and I dated one summer. You could pretty much say I was a rebound for him. Honestly, I’d forgotten all about it,” Allie said, forcing a smile.

“A rebound, huh?”

Normally, Allie would brush Kitty off. Talking about her sad little past with Tom Donalan wasn’t something she enjoyed. But Kitty seemed genuinely interested and she owed her. Not only had Kitty gone out of the way to try to help her with this ghost story, she was now giving up her morning to help chauffer Allie around town.

“It’s kind of a long story,” Allie said. “But basically, it’s a case of girl and boy date heavily all senior year of high school, then one week before prom girl breaks up with boy and boy turns around and asks his best friend to the dance, which then ends up in a summer romance. Best friend falls hard. Boy, not so much. Then two weeks before everyone goes off to college, girl discovers she’s four months pregnant and boy goes running back to her and they get married. Best friend ends up with a ‘Hey, it was nice, but…’” She shrugged.

Kitty frowned. “So Tom would be boy, you would be best friend, and Lauren is… Oh. I get it.”

“Yep. Then girl ends up divorcing boy and somehow, girl, boy and best friend all end up back in Whispering Bay like some bad alignment of the planets. Sorry to burst your bubble, but that’s it in a nutshell. Not much to resurrect in the form of a romance, I’m afraid.”

If Kitty doubted her, she was polite enough not to say so. “How long do you plan to stay in town?”

“Probably just until I get the story.” And fix her suspended license, of course.

“If you’re still here on Thursday, you should play Bunco with us. It’s at my house this week.” Kitty smiled proudly. “Most groups only play once a month, but we manage to meet every Thursday. Of course, some nights we don’t even play. It’s a great excuse to get out for a girls night and to gorge on Shay Masterson’s super-secret margaritas, which are the best you’ll ever drink.”

Allie nodded politely.

Mimi was always going on about Bunco night. When Allie was younger it had sounded like a suburban nightmare. But now she could see how it would be a nice diversion from her sister-in-law’s regular routine of picking up kids and doing housework. “Sounds fun, but I’m not sure what my schedule is going to look like,” she said, not wanting to make a promise she couldn’t keep.

“Sure, but if you’re available, we’d love to have you. We always need subs.”

*~*~*

Mimi left to go to the grocery store, leaving Allie home alone to do research. The first thing she did was call Emma with the good news. “So you plan to spend the entire night in the senior center? By yourself?” Emma asked.

“Just me, my camera, and I.”

“Ooh! Do you really think you can get a picture of this ghost?”

Well, first she’d actually have to find one. “Why not?”

“I thought ghosts didn’t like being photographed and that’s why they always end up looking like these funny looking orbs. You know, like little white blobs.”

“Oh, yeah, sure.” It occurred to Allie that she knew almost nothing about the paranormal.

“Well, whatever you can get, I’m sure it will be great. I filled Ben in on what you were working on.” Pause. “He’s really excited to read the piece.”

Oh Lord. Emma was an even worse liar than Tom. Ben was so not enthusiastic about her little ghost adventure.

“So what made this guy, what’s his name, the head of the construction crew—”

“Tom Donalan.”

“Yeah, him. I thought you said he was a jerk. What made him change his mind and delay the demolition to let you spend the night in the building?”

“Well, that’s the million dollar question.”