A Timeless Romance Anthology: Spring Vacation Collection (20 page)

“You ratted me out, see,” he said with a 1920s gangster inflection. “So I’m taking you out with me, see.”

She laughed. “Your twenties gangster impression needs work.”

“You no-good, dirty rat.” He even tried to make a Humphrey Bogart face. That hadn’t improved since the night they watched
Angels with Dirty Faces
on cable because he’d been sick and didn’t feel good enough to leave his apartment. He’d been doing that ridiculous impression ever since. She’d been laughing at it from day one.

“So, Bugsy,” Maddi said. “Is the coast clear?”

Derek looked inside again. “We have a clear shot to the concession stand. We can get you some Junior Mints before the show starts.”

“Wow. Dinner
and
dessert.”

He flashed her a big, goofy grin. “That’s right. I know how to show a girl a good time.”

“I probably should be footing the bill for this. It’s my investigation, after all.”

He pushed open the door, holding it for her. “You can pay for tomorrow’s itinerary.”

“Tomorrow’s?” She stopped halfway through the door. He was planning to spend the next night with her as well?

He looked surprised by her confusion. “Did you think you would find out everything you needed to know about my uncle in one night? I thought you’d want to be more thorough than that.”

She
had
taken off a full week of work, after all. If Mr. Fabulous had been a pig from the first minute, she’d have sent him off and spent the rest of her vacation with Mom. But a more subtle jerk, she realized, would require more observation. So far, Grant McGee didn’t seem like a jerk at all. Either he wasn’t one—which was hard to even imagine—or he was better at hiding it than most.

“I intend to be completely thorough,” she told Derek.

His nod seemed like approval. She liked that. No lecture, no treating her like an incompetent child. Not enough men were like him.

He ordered a large popcorn like he always had and got her a box of Junior Mints. She, of course, remembered his usual movie-theater snack, but it surprised her that
he
remembered hers. Her own father didn’t remember her birthday half the time, let alone her favorite candy.

Derek stuck his head in the theater where their movie was showing, checking to see where Mom and his uncle were sitting. Folsom Lake didn’t have the new stadium-style theaters, but the old school ones with the entrance at the very back.

“We’re in luck. They’re about halfway to the front. If we take a seat here in the back, they’ll never spot us. Maybe in the corner where light from the door won’t hit us.”

Dark corner. In the back.
She liked the idea, but she couldn’t deny the fact that most of the appeal had nothing to do with hiding from her mom.

They slid into the back row, taking the two seats closest to the wall. Apparently Derek remembered she preferred not being next to the wall. He took that seat without having to be asked.

“A person could fall asleep here, and no one would see them for days,” she whispered.

The theater was only about a quarter full. Enough people to go unnoticed, and not so many that they couldn’t whisper now and then without getting shushed.

“Here’s what I’m thinking,” he whispered. “You keep an eye on your mom—watch for any signs of being unhappy or miserable or anything. I’ll watch Uncle Grant and let you know if he does anything you might object to.”

Her eyes hadn’t adjusted yet; she could only just make out Derek’s silhouette in the dark. How could he possibly see what his uncle was doing from clear across the room?

“What kind of things will you be watching for?” She squinted, trying to get a better look at her mom in the dark.

“Well, if he pulls the old yawn-and-stretch move, like this.” Derek gave an exaggerated yawn, then held one arm out, as if getting a good stretch, and rested it along the back of her chair, effectively putting his arm around her.

“Mom won’t fall for that.”

“Probably not.” He settled in with his arm still around her shoulders. “I’ll also let you know if he leans in too close to whisper in her ear.” He, of course, leaned in close to whisper the last few words—where else?—in her ear. “Or if he convinces her to sit alone with him in a dark corner of the theater.”

She whipped her head around to look at him. By now, her eyes had adjusted enough to see the look of mischief in his eyes.

“I don’t think we really have to worry about that last one, though,” he whispered. “There aren’t any corners left.”

On that declaration, the previews ended and the movie began. Derek didn’t show any signs of pulling away. He sat casually eating his popcorn with his arm around her, leaning in her direction.

Her box of Junior Mints sat unopened in her hand as her stomach had tied itself in knots. Derek’s cologne, the warmth of him next to her, the sound of his voice and the feel of his breath on her ear. She hadn’t been prepared for this.

Just as the on-screen couple had their mandatory contrived misunderstanding, Derek balanced a popcorn kernel on the top of her Junior Mints box. He set another one next to it. Then another.

“What are you doing?” she whispered.

“Uncle Grant isn’t doing anything. I’m bored.”

He tried to fit another kernel on the box, but it fell to the floor.

“Boring is good. It means he’s behaving.”

Derek leaned in close again, his breath tickling her ear. “Did you notice he whispered to her a few times?”

“
He
didn’t get as close as you are right now.” She turned her head enough to look at him out of the corner of her eye. Having him so close actually scared her. Not in a fear-for-her-safety kind of way, but she felt... worried. “You should set a better example for him. You’re making me wonder if your entire family—”

Derek popped the kernels from her candy box into her mouth, cutting off her words. “You’re interrupting the movie.”

She chewed at the unexpected mouthful as she tore open the candy box. She pulled out a mint and tried so stick it in Derek’s mouth, but he turned away. The candy almost went up his nose.

Madison laughed—she couldn’t help herself.

Derek put his hands over her mouth, though she could hear him fighting back a chuckle himself. A couple people in the theater looked over their shoulders at them. They slid down in their seats in perfect unison.

“This is not very covert,” Derek said. The flickering light of the movie illuminated his grinning face. “We’re gonna get caught.”

Madison bit her lips together. If she laughed half as hard as she thought she might, the entire theater would march over and throw them out.

The onscreen couple made up and broke up again before Madison had herself under control. She and Derek didn’t even look at each other. The first hint of a glance, and they’d start all over again.

As the movie reached the big final, convenient solution to everyone’s problems, Derek broke the silence between them.

“Do we try to sneak out now, before our relatives see us, or do we wait here until we know they’re gone?”

“We wait,” she whispered back.

“So did Uncle Grant pass this first test?”

She shrugged. “He did okay, I guess.
You
, on the other hand...”

That smile of his did her in. It always had. “I shared my popcorn with you. Don’t I get credit for that? And”—he pointed as if emphasizing the importance of his next example—“I let you shove a Junior Mint up my nose.”

She didn’t hold back the laugh that time.

The theater cleared out quickly, so they were able to slip away. He tossed his almost-empty popcorn bucket in the trash on the way out. It was a typical cool spring evening. She should have brought a jacket. She’d have to remember that tomorrow.

Tomorrow.
She would spend another night with Derek. There were certainly worse things in the world.

She’d thought of him many times over the last two years, but had never let her thoughts linger. That
night she spent hours doing just that, and found herself walking a dangerous line. Spending so much time with Derek McGee could only lead to heartache. She’d start to remember all the reasons she loved being with him. If she wasn’t very careful, she’d forget all about the pain men always brought into her life, and she would open herself up to be hurt all over again.

Chapter Six

Derek managed to talk Uncle Grant and Teresa—during the course of their conspiracy, they’d switched to first names—into making their fifth “fake date” a walk around Folsom Lake. The night after the movie, they’d gone for dinner at Romanelli’s. That had been interesting to explain to the person who’d seated them:

 “We want a seat in view of those people’s table, but where they can’t see us.”

But the ridiculousness of it had made Maddi laugh, so it was worth every moment of embarrassment.

After Romanelli’s, they’d hit the bowling alley, picking a lane as far from Uncle Grant and Teresa as they could.

Last night he and Maddi had made up a lame excuse about him needing banking advice for his insurance office. They’d sat at Teresa’s kitchen table, in full view of the living room and the horrible made-for-TV movie their relatives were staying at home to watch.

Five dates wasn’t exactly rekindling their relationship, but they were enjoying each other again. Maddi was smiling and laughing with him. It was almost as if that night two years earlier had never happened.

He could still perfectly picture the moment. She had been shoving the last of her things in the trunk of that beat-up Altima.

“I took a job,” she’d said. “Out of state.”

“Permanently?” There’d been no warning, no hints that she was getting ready to leave. “Were you going to tell me about this?”

“An opportunity came along, and I’m taking it.” She didn’t even look at him, just slammed the trunk closed.

“What happens to us, Maddi? You’re packing up and taking off without even telling me? You’re leaving the state.”

She pulled open the driver’s door. “It’s just... it’s time.”

“Time to what? To move on?”

She’d kept her gaze on the inside of her car, not even glancing his way. “I’m sorry.”

“You’ve told me you love me, Maddi. Did that change?” He remembered so clearly feeling like she’d punched him right in the gut.

“I’m sorry,” she’d whispered and climbed in her car.

She’d driven away, leaving him baffled in the street. Every time she’d come home after that, and they’d run into each other, things were awkward. Whenever she was in town, he avoided her street. Last time, he’d simply left.

But she was here again. And he was here. The awkwardness was gone. Things between them were like they had been before she left.

Being with her that week had shown him something about himself that he hadn’t admitted over the past two years: he still loved her. He’d never stopped loving her. And he only had two more days to find out if she felt the same way.

“Your uncle thinks like you,” Maddi said as they walked up toward the path around the lake.

“What do you mean?”

“A walk around the lake.” She said it as if that alone should make her meaning clear. “Where have I seen
that
date idea before?”

She remembered. Their time together must have meant something if she still thought about it.

“You realize, of course,” he said, using the conspiratorial tone they’d adopted over the last few days, “that if their date ends the way ours did the last time we walked around Folsom Lake, you’ll have to decide if you’re going to interfere.”

That brought color back to her face. Yes, she definitely remembered that walk.

“Do you plan to stand around and watch them?” He laughed at the picture forming in his head: the two of them ducking behind bushes, spying on the older couple lost in a passionate kiss.

Maddi smiled, then grinned, then finally laughed outright. “No. I’m not going to watch.”

“You trust him enough, then?”

She thought about that a moment as they walked along. “I guess I do. Not entirely, but enough for that.”

“Are you still going to try to break them up?”

She shrugged a little. “Your uncle seems like a nice guy.”

“But you’re still not sure?”

She looked exasperated, frustrated. “I am glad he didn’t turn out to be a total jerk, but that doesn’t mean this won’t end badly. I worry about my mom, Derek. She’s been through a lot. I just don’t want to see her hurt. Not again.”

Derek put his arm around her waist and pulled her up next to him. She laid her head on his shoulder—exactly what he hoped she’d do.

“Did I ever tell you how great it is that you love your mom so much?” That probably sounded stupid to her, or cheesy. Still, he was glad he said it. He hadn’t always been good about telling her how he felt. Maybe that was partly why she’d left.

“She called me a ‘helicopter mom’ yesterday.” Though Maddi laughed, he could hear that the comment had hurt. “I don’t mean to hover over her, I just... Her life has fallen apart so many times. I want to save her from that. I don’t want to see her hurt again.”

“I know. I think she’s knows too.” He twisted his neck enough to kiss the top of her head. “But it has to be hard as a mom to need your daughter to come save you from your mistakes.”

Maddi put her arm around him as well. Definitely promising. “It’s not her fault. It’s how things work for us.”

For us?
“Men abandoning her throughout the Western U.S.? Breaking her heart? That’s ‘how things work’ for the both of you?”

“My dad walked out when I was a kid. No man has stuck around us since then.”

He stopped in his tracks.
No man? Us?
“I didn’t abandon you. I didn’t walk out on you, not once.”

She looked up at him. He didn’t see a denial in her eyes. He also didn’t see a defense of him. “Well, no, but—” She bit off whatever she was going to say.

“But
what
?” He pulled away, looking at her closely. She couldn’t accuse him of walking out on her. She was the one who had walked out on
him
, without any explanation, without any warning. “I stayed by you. I never even thought of leaving.”