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“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?”
She shook her head. “I’m…okay.”
“The hell you are.” He turned on the ignition and got back on the road, going as fast as he could. “It’s going to be all right. I’m taking you to the hospital.”
She sat up slowly, still looking dazed. “No, I’m okay. Honest.”
He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. She looked pale, and she was still shaking.
“You’re in shock. You need to see a doctor.”
“No,” she said with a little more vigor. “I’m okay, I was just…scared, is all.” She reached down to the floor of the car and began picking up bits of scattered food and stuffing it back into the McDonald’s bag with an eerie sort of calm precision that should have reassured Tom. Instead, it did the opposite.
He eased off the accelerator. “Are you sure you don’t need to go to the hospital? Do you want me to take you home?”
“No, I want to go to the bridge. Please.”
He slowed down to ten miles under the speed limit, trying his best to keep his eye on both her and the road at the same time. She seemed better, but he was still a little freaked out by her reaction to the near-accident. Despite her protests, maybe he should take her to the hospital anyway. Or at least, back home, where she could lie down. Her breathing seemed normal, though, so he decided to go along with her. For now. But if she started going pale on him again, he’d take her straight to the hospital, no matter what she said.
He parked his car in their spot and killed the engine. Neither of them said anything, so he pulled her trembling body next to his and wrapped his arms around her. “It’s okay, baby, I was scared, too. I thought that asshole was going to ram right into us.”
She shuddered. “I just need to calm down a little.”
He tucked her head into his shoulder and held her. Her skin was beginning to warm up. He’d held her like this before, but not to comfort her. She sighed and shifted closer. He tightened his arm around her. He knew her mother had died in a car crash when she was seven. But they’d never talked about it. Is that what this was? Was she remembering her mom’s accident?
“What happened?” he asked quietly.
He could feel her shudder all the way through his own body, almost as if they’d melded into one person. “I was sitting behind her in the back seat, coloring. I had my seat belt on, but…I wasn’t happy about it. Zeke was in the front, next to her. He was…happy, though. He’d just made the baseball team and he was talking non-stop when all of a sudden…I don’t know, it was weird. I didn’t even see it. Not really. It was like a bomb exploded or something. At least, that’s what I thought.”
She didn’t say anything for a few long seconds.
“I found out later we’d been T-boned. The driver from the other car was hurt pretty badly, but he survived. He ran a red light. Not on purpose, though. He was having chest pain, a heart attack. Kind of weird, huh? I guess you could say my mom was killed by some other guy’s heart attack.”
Her attempt at brevity made his throat go tight. As a pastor, this must be the kind of stuff his dad listened to all the time. What would he say? How would he help her? Tom’s mind came up a big fucking blank. You’d think maybe some of his dad’s genes would have rubbed off on him. Instead, all he’d been able to think about tonight was getting a blow job. He was worthless.
“Zeke went unconscious, but I didn’t know that. I thought he was…dead. I kept screaming for Mom to help him, and then I realized that she couldn’t because she was hurt, too. There was all this blood oozing from her chest and she kept trying to reach out and hold my hand.”
Her body began shaking again. Only this time it was accompanied by great big sobs. He’d never heard anyone cry like that before. He kissed the top of her head, only because he had no clue what else to do. After a few minutes, the sobs began to space out.
“It took the EMTs a long time to get her out of the car. Zeke…he was on the side that hadn’t been smashed, so they got him out right away. He’d hit his head on the dashboard, but they told me he’d be okay. But Mom and me…they had to get us out through the other way, because our side of the car was all crumbled up. And all that time, she kept trying to grab my hand, but I couldn’t reach her.”
She tried to shift away and Tom realized that he was probably crushing her. He reluctantly loosened his grip around her shoulders. Allie took a deep breath. “If the other car had hit us just a little more to the rear, I would have been the one crushed in the car. Everyone told me afterward how lucky I was.” She glanced down at her hands. “And I know it could have been worse. Zeke could have been killed and then I wouldn’t have anyone. Well, except Buela.”
Tom had always wondered what happened to Allie’s father. He’d asked her once, but she’d brushed it off and he hadn’t wanted to press her. “What happened to your dad?”
