That Thing You Do (Whispering Bay Romance Book 1) (Volume 1) Read Online Free PDF

leather seat and tried to relax. Ten minutes . If she could spend eight hours on her feet wiping down tables and pretending she loved dishes with the name of Tofu Surprise, she could certainly do ten minutes in a car with Tom Donalan.
    Relax. Concentrate. On anything but him .
    She discreetly took in her surroundings. The insideof the truck was clean, not fancy or new, but well kept. No empty McDonald’s wrappers or beer cans strewn on the floor. A faint hint of him lingered in the air. Sniffing things out had always been a talent of hers. Some people remembered faces. Allie remembered smells. Eau de Tom Donalan was a mixture of ocean air, soap, and aftershave. Clean and sexy, not too overpowering. In other words, justright.
    Growing up, Zeke had grudgingly nicknamed her The Nose. She’d been able to smell Buela’s picadillo halfway down the block. But a more practical trick had been her ability to sniff out any lingering traces of pot (no matter how much Zeke had tried to mask it). Sibling blackmail had helped finance the ten-speed bicycle she’d used for beach transportation the summer before middle school.
    Had she imagined the lemon smell back at the senior center? She didn’t think so. But where had it come from?
    Tom glanced at her. “So, how are you?”
    “Well, let’s see. My license is suspended and some twit won’t let me spend a few hours in an abandoned building so I can make a living. But other than that, just peachy.”
    He shifted in his seat. “No, I mean, how have you been ?”
    “You mean, as in the past twelve years?”
    He nodded.
    “I’ve been great, Donalan. Really. I mean, other than the night you took a blowtorch to my heart, I’ve been just great . Of course, there was that year I spent in rehab after taking all those pills. But I hardly ever relapse anymore.”
    He looked mortified.
    Or ready to laugh.
    She couldn’t tell which (or which shepreferred). Mortification, she decided. After all, why shouldn’t Tom Donalan feel bad for the way he’d dumped her? And a mighty dumping, it had been. But she didn’t want his pity. Or anything else from him, either.
    Correction: She did want something from him. She wanted to spend time inside his precious building.
    “Oh, relax. It was just a high school romance. I was over you withintwo weeks.”
    He didn’t say anything, not that she expected a response, but it felt even more awkward now than before. So she began to babble, because that’s what she did whenever she got nervous. And it was hard not to be nervous around the guy she had practically begged to take her virginity. She wished she could say this was an exaggeration, but unfortunately, it wasn’t.
    Tom, please,just do me .
    Had she really said those words to him? Yep . She most certainly had. The Night of The Great Humiliation Part One, as she liked to call it. She wished she could say that over the years the sting had eased some. But it hadn’t.
    She kept her eyes on the road ahead and told Tom all about her current life back in Tampa. Her part time job at The Blue Monkey, her roommate Jen andher crazy antics—which elicited a laugh from him and startled her into glancing his way. She was shocked to find that the truck was parked in front of her brother’s house.
    How long had they been here?
    It was only a ten minute drive but she’d managed to talk non-stop. He, on the other hand, hadn’t gotten in one word. Geez. She’d probably bored him to death.
    Only, he didn’t lookbored. He looked—
    “So what about you? Are you happy?”
    He broke eye contact. “Happy enough.”
    Allie waited for him to elaborate, but he didn’t. She’d practically spilled out her entire life for him and all she got in return was two words?
    Great! She was happy.
    He was happy enough .
    They were good. Move along, people, there’s nothing more to see.
    “I hate toask again, but is there any way you can postpone the demolition on the building? Just for one more day?”
    “I know you think