Read Online Somewhere In-Between by Donna Milner - Free Book Online

Darla knew she was still grounded.
    â€œPleeease, Mom. Just this once. Please, please. The whole cast is going.”
    Julie hesitated. “Where is it?”
    â€œAt Wade Morrey’s, the guy who played Danny. He lives up on Cottonwood Drive,” Darla’s eyes pleaded. “Kajul’s going. Honestly! Her parents are letting her. You can ask them. They’re right there.”
    Julie glanced over at Kajul, standing between her parents, beaming behind her wild bouquet.
    â€œLevi will drive us,” Darla said. “Say it’s okay. Pretty please, Mom.”
    Julie was aware that she was being played. Still, she had to trust Darla again sometime. She checked her watch. It was just past nine thirty. Not that late. The entire cast was going. How could she say no? She had hoped to share this excitement, this moment, with Darla and Ian. She had envisioned the three of them cuddled in front of the TV with a bowl of popcorn and a blanket while Darla rehashed every nuance of the evening.
    â€œCome on, Mom, it’s only ten minutes from our place. We’ll be home by midnight.” Darla tugged on Levi’s arm. “Won’t we?”
    â€œYeah,” he said. “I’ve got a hockey practice tomorrow morning.”
    Looking from her daughter’s hopeful face to Levi’s, Julie shook her head, half in exasperation, and half in surrender. “All right then,” she said, holding his gaze, “but promise me you’ll see her home safely by midnight. I’m counting on you.”
    â€œYes!” Darla gave her a quick hug. Then as if afraid she’d change her mind she turned away pulling Levi with her.
    As he allowed himself to be tugged away, he glanced back over his shoulder. “Don’t worry Mrs O.D.,” he said, “I promise I’ll bring her home before midnight.”
    Watching them disappear in the crowd she wondered if Ian would have caved in so easily. Probably not. It might be difficult to explain to him why she had let Darla off the hook, before her grounding period was up. But Ian wasn’t here, so whose fault was that?
    Outside the school doors, Julie pulled up the collar of her coat and wrapped it tighter. The cold night air smelled crisp and clean. The rain had stopped, and she looked up at the full moon in a star-filled sky as she made her way to the car. The temperature had dropped in the last few hours leaving a crystalline sparkle on the asphalt parking lot. She hoped that this weather would not last until Wednesday like it had last Halloween when all the trick-or-treaters showed up at her door shivering in the frigid wind.
    Pulling out of the school parking lot she turned right, instead of left to the highway and the shorter route home. She would just spin by Ian’s office; see if he was finished, she told herself. Maybe they would have a nightcap together. Downtown she slowed the car in front of his office, a renovated two-storey Heritage home on the corner of Pinewood Street. The windows were dark.
    Was this why I gave into Darla’s request so easily, she wondered, because of some anonymous voice on the telephone? Was that all it took to turn her into a madwoman who chases around town late at night checking up on her husband?
    She turned into the alley. Two vehicles were parked in the empty lot behind the office—Ian’s Jeep and a silver Lincoln Towncar. Pulling up beside the Lincoln she switched off her motor. She stared at the familiar vehicle, could almost smell Valerie Ladner’s heavy-handed Tabu perfume. In all the years she had worked with Valerie at Black’s Real Estate, they were never close friends. But they were cordial business associates. Just that afternoon, as she rushed out of the office, Valerie had given her a message to pass on to Darla to ‘break a leg’ tonight. Julie knew that she was going through a difficult divorce and Ian was her accountant, but at this time of night?
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