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“Fine. Let’s give Claire a chance. And if after next week she hasn’t crashed the car, I say we let her go solo.”
“Thanks, Aunt Allie,” Claire said, getting behind the minivan’s wheel. “You’re the best.”
“Just drive safely.” Allie watched as her niece went through the routine of adjusting the mirrors.
Claire drove the short distance to Tom’s house perfectly. No speeding, no wobbling, no slamming on the brakes. Allie leaned back in her seat and relaxed. Mimi and Zeke were too overprotective. If she ever had kids, she hoped she wouldn’t be as anal as her brother and sister-in-law.
Claire cruised the minivan up a paved driveway leading to a cream colored stucco house directly across from the beach. Allie had to admit to being curious about Tom’s place of residence. From the outside the house looked small, but cozy. Nice location. A perfect bachelor pad. She’d love an excuse to take a look inside, but Henry was out the door the instant they pulled up.
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.”
