That Thing You Do (Whispering Bay Romance Book 1) (Volume 1) (27 page)

“I didn’t think about it. I mean, all those Gray Flamingoes are pretty interesting if you ask me.”

Allie laid down her spoon. “Mimi, after Buela died, what happened to all her stuff?” Just two weeks after Buela’s death, Allie had gone off to college, dazed and heartbroken. Mimi had taken on the sorrowful task of closing up
the little house Allie shared with Buela. Allie had returned home to Whispering Bay for Thanksgiving break to find that Mimi and Zeke had made a place for her in their own home.

“You mean photos, things like that?” Mimi frowned. “You’ve seen them. They’re all over the walls. Plus, I have a few dozen albums in the den closet. You’re welcome to any of them, you know.”

“Thanks. But I
mean…the other stuff? Her furniture, things like that?”

“I think most of her furniture went to Good Will and to the church bazaar. I kept a few things, though, like her china and her wedding dress. It’s very cool, you know. Very retro. It would fit you perfectly.”

Buela’s wedding dress would fit her? Allie had never even entertained the idea. Of course, in order to wear a wedding dress
you had to have a groom first.

“Why do you suddenly want to know about Buela’s things?”

“I don’t know. Seeing Roger’s house, all his knickknacks, stuff from his trips, it made me a little nostalgic, I guess.” She studied her sister-in-law carefully and said, “He gave me some insight into who might be Concerned Citizen.”

Was it a figment of Allie’s imagination or did Mimi’s cheeks
go pink? “He did?”

“Roger thinks Concerned Citizen had a sneakier reason to write me that email. He thinks maybe someone wanted to delay the demolition. Or maybe…someone just wanted me here in town.”

 “Leave it to those Gray Flamingoes to turn this whole thing into some conspiracy theory.” Mimi raised an iced cupcake in the air to inspect it. “Do you think I’m putting too much icing
on these?”

“There’s no such thing as too much icing.”

“Agreed.” She placed the cupcake back on the tray and looked up to find Allie staring at her. “What? You don’t think
I
wrote that email, do you?”

“You didn’t? I mean, you seem pretty happy to have me back home.”

“Why on earth would I write your editor an anonymous email when I could just speed dial you and tell you I
needed you?”

Mimi was right. All she had to do was ask and Allie would have come running. There would have been no need for subterfuge. Still, Mimi couldn’t seem to make eye contact. She was hiding something. Allie was sure of it.

“So maybe you didn’t write the letter yourself, but…you know who did.”

Mimi’s eyes widened.

“Busted!” Allie said.

“Okay, so I had no idea
she was going to actually write it. We’d talked about different strategies, and if I’d known you were going to pin your hopes for a new job on that ghost story I
swear
I would never have gone along with any of it.”

“She? Who exactly are we talking about here, Mimi?”

She sighed and wiped the icing off her hands with a kitchen towel. “Lauren Donalan, who else?”

L
auren Donalan was Concerned
Citizen? It made no sense. “Start from the beginning, please.”

“You know that Henry and Cameron have become fast friends,” Mimi said, “and Lauren and I have become friends, too.” She made a pleading face. “Please don’t be mad, but we kind of thought it would be neat if we could get you and Tom back together.”

“Did you ever think of maybe just setting
us up on a date?”

Mimi rolled her eyes. “As if you’d ever agree to that.”

“Of course not, but—”

“I know what we did was wrong. Sort of. But to tell you the truth, I’d do it all over again in a heartbeat. If you’d seen your face when Tom came to pick you up the other night, well, you can tell yourself whatever you want but I’ve known you since you were thirteen-years-old. Whether
it’s a good thing or a bad thing, he’s the one you want. So while I feel bad that this might have interfered with your job, I’m glad Lauren had the balls to do it.”

*~*~*

A
llie pulled her car
into the last parking space and killed the engine. The Bistro by the Beach was hopping, as usual. She studied the entrance to Lauren’s shop,
Can Buy Me Love
. Gone was the Partridge family window
display. In its place were two mannequins dressed in retro Halloween costumes. She peered in through the glass window.

There was no sign of Lauren. Which didn’t mean anything. There was no sign of anyone, actually. Compared to the buzz of people coming and going through the Bistro door the little retro shop practically looked like a graveyard. How did Lauren make a living with this place?

Allie placed her hand on the doorknob and hesitated a moment. Mimi had made her promise she wouldn’t make a scene and she intended to keep that promise. She wasn’t mad at Lauren. More like confused. She understood Mimi’s rationale for wanting her and Tom to get together, but Lauren’s?
That
, she didn’t understand. Not one bit. But she wanted to.

She’d told Lauren she’d visit the shop
before she left town so she had a legitimate reason for being here. But she suddenly felt…shy. And nervous. Talking to Tom’s ex about the weather was one thing. But talking to her about Tom himself was something else entirely.

Allie stepped inside the shop, setting off a chime. Although she didn’t usually frequent boutiques of any kind (Target was more in line with her current budget), she
had to admit the place had a certain appeal. Racks of clothing were strategically placed along the weathered hard wood floors and each wall was painted a different color. It didn’t take but a few seconds to realize that each “section” held clothing from a different decade. Allie had thought the place was a sixties retro shop, but she recognized clothing from the fifties and seventies as well as
the eighties, too. The Shirelles’
Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow
played in the background.

Goosebumps erupted along her arms. Allie shook off an eerie feeling of…what? An odd sort of familiarity?

Lauren emerged from a back room carrying a hanger with a pleated skirt. By the expression on her face she seemed genuinely surprised to see Allie. Good to know Mimi hadn’t forewarned her
partner in crime. “It’s you! I’m so glad you’re here!” She hung the skirt on a side rack and pulled Allie into a hug.

Allie awkwardly hugged her back. “Yes, well, I did promise I’d stop by before I left town,” she said, feeling squirrelier by the minute.

Lauren’s face momentarily fell, but she rapidly composed herself. “You’re leaving town? Right now?”

“Tomorrow. I’m going to
the big football game tonight.”

“Along with half the town. It should be fun. Kind of like old times, huh?”

Allie nodded absentmindedly. Old times meant Tom playing first string quarterback, Lauren leading the cheerleading squad, and Allie sitting in the bleachers, watching.

“So, what can I show you? There’s an adorable navy blue pencil skirt that I think would look awesome with
those legs of yours. What size are you? A six?”

“Lauren, I know you’re Concerned Citizen. Mimi told me all about the plot the two of you hatched up.”

Lauren frowned. “She did?”

“I kind of guessed. At least, I guessed Mimi’s involvement. But yours? Sorry, but I don’t get it.”

Lauren walked over to the shop door and flipped the OPEN sign backward, then turned the lock. “Just
in case anyone should come by.” She glanced nervously to the back of the shop, then at Allie. “First off, I just want to say that I’m sorry for the mystery but I’m not sorry I wrote that letter. I meant it every word of it, you know.”

Allie stilled. “You’re really a fan of my Perky the Duck story?”

“How could anyone not be? I
love
that story.”

Of course this was something Allie
would never get tired of hearing. “Thanks, but what about the other stuff? The stuff about a ghost?”

“Okay, so maybe I let my imagination run away with me a little, but there really has been some strange stuff going on around town. It all started when…” she frowned, “When I bought that record player over there.”

Allie followed the sound of The Shirelles to the back of the store, where
a beat up old record player sat on a brightly painted wooden table. She stared at the black vinyl 45 turning round and round. A dozen or so album jackets lay stacked next to the player. Allie picked up the jacket on top. It was The Beatles’
The White Album
. In the corner, written in faded blue ink was the name Barbara Alvarez. She quickly flipped through the albums—there it all was, Jim Morrison
and The Doors, Franke Valle and the Four Seasons. Even Buela’s favorite salsa singer, Celia Cruz.

“Oh my God. This is Buela’s old record player. But…what are you doing with it?”

“I bought it at a garage sale a couple of months back, along with that stack of records. I figured it would be a great novelty for the shop, but the record player wasn’t working. Not until Tom fixed it.”

“Tom fixed this?”

“Oh yeah. He’s terrific with his hands, you know.” As a matter of fact, Allie did know. Was Lauren making a double entendre? Her smile was vague enough that Allie couldn’t tell. But she could certainly see why Lauren and Mimi had become friends. There was something so dang nice about her. But there was also this quirky side that Allie had never known about.

This
woman had been Tom’s wife. She was the mother of his child. Allie couldn’t help but feel jealous, even though she had no right to.

She eyed the record player again. She remembered it, of course, it had sat in their little living room for years. Mimi said she’d saved all the photos and the heirlooms and the rest had gone to Goodwill. A scratched up record player would have probably seemed
like a piece of junk. But where had it been all these years? Doing the garage sale circuit? How strange was it that it landed in Lauren’s hands? And that Tom was the one who’d made it work again.

“Of course, if you like, you can have it. I didn’t know who Barbara Alvarez was. Not until Mimi saw it and told me.”

Allie shifted from foot to foot. “The thing is…I know it sounds crazy,
but—”

“You’ve been hearing some of this music. Like, in your head,” Lauren said with a completely straight face. If Allie was being punked then Lauren should be up for an academy award. “I have, too! Well, just a few snippets of it here and there. Isn’t it awesome?”

Allie felt the blood rush to her ears. “I don’t understand.”

Lauren gently took her by the elbow. “Let’s go to
my office where we can sit down.”

*~*~*

L
auren handed her a
cup of tea. Allie wasn’t a hot tea drinker but she gratefully took it. “Thanks.” She took a long sip, letting the warm liquid soothe her frazzled nerves. This was definitely turning out to be the strangest week of her life.

Lauren sat on the edge of her desk, facing Allie. “A couple of weeks ago, Tom was working at the
senior center site and I decided to surprise him by bringing him lunch. He works way too hard, you know.”

“That was…nice of you.”

“I know what you’re thinking. We’re divorced. What the hell am I doing bringing him lunch? But it’s not like that between us. I love Tom. Not in the I-want-to-spend-the rest-of-my-life-having-hot-sex-with-you kind of way, but in the let’s-be-friends-and-raise-a-son
kind of way.”

“O-kay,” Allie muttered.

Lauren tried to hide her smile. “So there I was handing him a Bistro by the Beach tuna melt—that’s his favorite, in case you might need to know for future reference—when all of a sudden I started hearing that old song,
Where Did Our Love Go?
in my head. You know, by The Supremes? At first I chocked it up as a side effect of listening to all this
great old music all day long, but the thing was…I only heard the song whenever I’d run into Tom and I began to wonder if the universe wasn’t trying to tell me something. That maybe we’d made a mistake by getting a divorce.”

Allie felt her stomach roil over. “And…was it?”

“No! That’s the thing. Our marriage was the mistake, not the divorce.”

Allie let go of the breath she didn’t
know she’d been holding in. Not until now, anyway. “All right. But I still don’t get it. Why the phony ghost email?”

Lauren’s face scrunched up. “That was initially Mimi’s idea. Like I said, we’ve become good friends and I told her about the music thing. How it seemed too weird of a coincidence that it began with the salvaging of your grandmother’s record player. Don’t you see? The song
wasn’t about me and Tom. It was about
you
and Tom. It’s like the universe is trying to get you and Tom back together. With some help from your grandmother, of course.”

Allie laid her mug down on the desk. “Sorry. You’ve totally lost me here.”

“Mimi and I knew that if we tried to fix you up with Tom you’d never go for it. Not with your history. But she thought you wouldn’t be able to
pass up on a ghost story. And what with Tom in charge of that building, well, it seemed like it would be inevitable that it would throw the two of you together. I had no idea you’d prove so stubborn. Mimi wanted to give up when you never responded, but I just couldn’t, so I sent it on your editor hoping you’d eventually get it.”

“I get why Mimi wants me and Tom together, but, sorry, I don’t
understand why you’d go to such lengths.”

Lauren’s cheeks pinked up. “Would you believe me if I told you the song was driving me crazy? And that it didn’t stop until I sent that email? It’s like someone was compelling me to write it.”

Allie blinked. “Um, yeah, I guess I could believe that.”

“Look, I know we don’t know each other well, but this is what I do know. Tom is the best
guy I’ve ever known. The absolute
best
. We got married because I was too afraid of being a single parent, and because I couldn’t stand letting my parents down. It was a dumb reason, but twelve years ago it was the best decision we could come up with. I knew Tom was into you. Way more than he ever was into me. But he gave up everything to try to make our marriage work.  And I love him for that.
And because he’s the best dad ever. When Tom takes something on, you get one hundred percent of him.”

Allie cleared her throat. “So what happened? If Tom is such a saint why didn’t the marriage work?”

“I know this sounds like a big cliché, but one day I looked at the calendar and realized that in a year I’d be turning thirty. And I knew that if I didn’t do something, I’d be forty,
and then fifty, and I would have spent half my life with someone I shouldn’t be with. So I put on my big girl pants and asked Tom for a divorce.”

“I bet that was one interesting conversation,” Allie said.

“Yeah.” Lauren grinned. “When Tom makes up his mind it’s like moving a two ton boulder uphill. But eventually, he caved in. And I moved back home to be near my parents.”

“Mimi
told me your daddy’s been having some health problems.”

Lauren nodded sadly. “Tom was terrific about it. According to our divorce settlement he didn’t have to agree to the move. Taking Henry out of state was a no-no. But you know what? He helped me pack up and settle in, and then for nearly a year straight he drove down almost every weekend to see Henry. Because that’s the kind of guy he
is. Tom doesn’t go around telling you he loves you. He proves it with his actions.”

Allie swallowed hard. “Can I ask you a question? What do you think is making us hear the music? I mean, do you think maybe…”

“Do I think your grandmother is using her old records to communicate with us? I don’t know. I just think there’s too many unexplained things in the universe to rule anything out.
It’s like the idea of an afterlife. I don’t have to have proof to know one exists.” Lauren smiled. “Maybe there’s just some things we aren’t meant to figure out.”

For a long moment, neither of them said anything. Then Lauren glanced down at her watch. “I should open the store back up. In case any customers decide to show up.”

Allie jumped from her seat. “Oh, yeah, of course.”

“Look, Allie, for what’s it worth, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to mess with your professional life. It’s just, Mimi was convinced that you still had feelings for Tom. And I’m convinced he still has feelings for you. And all I know is that any woman lucky enough to be on Tom Donalan’s radar would be an idiot to not give him a shot.”