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He closed his eyes for a second and shook his head as if to clear his thoughts. “Did you just say you need my…help?”
She frowned. Tom wasn’t faking this clueless routine. There had been a time when Allie could have read his mind, they’d been that close. It might have been over a decade since she’d last seen him but no one changed that much. Maybe after all these years of working construction sites he’s gotten hit on the head one too many times by a rogue ply board.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
There were dark smudges under his eyes like he hadn’t slept well. What had he said last night? That he’d been “patrolling” the senior center?
He took off his hard hat and squinted up into the sun as if searching for something.
“Donalan, you’re kind of scaring me here. You look tired. Maybe you should go lie down.”
This seemed to pull him out of whatever trance he was in. “I’m fine.”
He didn’t seem fine, but he also seemed irritated by her questioning. “All right, so are you going to help me or not?”
“Okay, okay.” He threw up his hands in surrender. “You win. I’ll give you twenty-four hours.”
“You mean it?”
“Of course I mean it.” He glanced around apprehensively. After a few seconds, he let out a big breath and muttered, “Thank God.”
Allie wasn’t sure what God had to do with it. Or what had just happened. Not that she was complaining, but this sudden reversal of his seemed almost too good to be true.
“Twenty-four hours,” Allie repeated, wanting to make sure she’d heard him right. Because honestly? Tom still looked a little disoriented. “This building is staying intact for the next twenty-four hours. You promise?”
“Yeah,” he said. “But you have to promise me something in return.”
Was he serious? She’d promise him just about anything right now. Well, almost anything. “Name it.”
“This is it. No matter what happens. Ghost or no ghost, and I can pretty much guarantee it’s going to be no ghost, but one more day, that’s all the time I can give you because tomorrow the building comes down.”
“Sure, sure! I promise. No more delays. Twenty-four hours, that’s all the time I need. I’ll even toss the first wrecking ball myself,” she said, giddy with relief. “So, I can go in the building now?”
“Not now,” he said, looking more like the old Tom. In control again. “I can’t let you in the building unsupervised and if I’m going to call off this demolition then I’ve got to get this crew off to another work site.”
Yikes. Was she putting all these men out of work for the day? Her Catholic guilt tried hard not to think about that. “All these workers? They’re still going to get paid, right?”
“Would it matt
er if they weren’t?” Before she could answer, he said, “We have a project going on in Mexico Beach that’s short of workers. If I can the crew out there in time then no one will lose a work day.” He stared at her hard. “You can get in tonight at eight. Not a second before.”
“Works for me,” she said trying to sound humble. Because despite the fact that she’d hated asking him, she was grateful that he’d capitulated. She should be ecstatic. Except… “Can I ask you a question? What made you change your mind?”
For a long time Allie didn’t think he’d answer. Then he did this twitchy thing with the corner of his mouth that she’d seen him do once, twelve years ago, when he’d lied to his mother about where they were going. “You’re right. I owe you.”
Kitty drove Allie’s car, while Mimi followed them in her minivan. The plan was to then drive Kitty back to The Bistro so she could get her own car. All this brouhaha because Allie couldn’t be bothered to read the back of a traffic citation. She was embarrassed by all the trouble she’d caused, but she was more stunned by what had just happened back at the senior center.
Apparently, so was Kitty. “I can’t believe Tom postponed the demolition. I mean, that’s great for you and all, but I really got the impression…why do you think he did it?”
“Who knows? I’m just glad he did.” As casually as she’d just answered, Allie had been racking her brain with the same exact question, but she hadn’t been able to come up with any sort of answer that made sense.
Why had Tom changed his mind?
The only logical answer was that she had guilted Tom into giving her a break. She should probably feel ashamed for using their angsty teenage history against him. But she didn’t. Especially since she was pretty certain their history had nothing to do with his reasoning. The only thing Allie was one hundred percent sure of, was that he was all ready to say no, and then out of the blue, he said yes.
“Do you think he’s still into you?” Kitty asked.
“What?”
