Page 14 of Seven Year Itch

Garrett took the coffeepot from her and filled his mug. "I'm sorry, sweetheart, but I don't have the power to change the meeting. We'll do something special tomorrow night instead." He capped his mug then brushed his lips against hers. "Gotta go. If I don't answer my phone, leave a message, and I'll call you back."

"Why wouldn't you answer your phone?" she called out to his retreating back, but he didn't answer as he left the kitchen, and a few seconds later, she heard the door to the garage slam.

≈≈≈≈

"Oh... my God... what are you wearing?" Mia asked between bursts of belly laughter.

Ali looked down at herself. Black leggings and a black, long-sleeved, turtleneck tee covered almost every inch of her skin. She'd slicked her hair back into a low ponytail and wore the biggest sunglasses she could find, the lenses covering half her face.

"What?" She was slightly affronted. She'd thought she'd done a good job. She would blend into the shadows, and no one would recognize her.

"I'll repeat, this isn't Mission Impossible or a James Bond movie." Mia still had a ridiculous grin on her face.

"This is what people wear when doing things like this," Ali argued her case.

"Only at night when it'sdark. Ali, the sun is shining, and where we're going people will be dressed to the nines. You'll stick out like an Eskimo at a nudist colony."

"Does anyone really stick out standing next to a nudist?"

"Well, maybe not, but you know what I mean."

"I's thinks mommy looks pretty," Emma chimed in her two cents.

"Thank you, baby." Ali ran her fingers through her daughter's soft curls.

Then Mark walked into the room, and she lost her daughter's attention. "Uncle Mark," Emma squealed running to the larger-than-life man and hugging his tree-trunk-sized leg.

"Hey, munchkin." His rich baritone filled the room as he leaned down swooping Emma up in his arms. "Callie's been waiting for you all morning. Should we go find her?"

"Yes!" Emma exclaimed, pounding him on the shoulder.

Mark's gaze hit Ali and Mia. "I don't even want to know what you girls are up to." Shaking his head, he turned and left the room.

Mia looked over at Ali breaking out in a laugh. "He really doesn't."

Ali's giggle burst forth. Shaking her head, she agreed, "No, he doesn't."

≈≈≈≈

After a makeover session in Mia's closet—where, Ali ended up wearing a gauzy, swishy, flowered-print skirt and cream, silk blouse—they were ready to go.

It had taken twenty minutes to drive from Mia's neighborhood to the swanky hotel, and in that time, they'd argued about what they would do once they got there. All they had to go on was a date, time, and location. But Ali hadn't taken into account how large the hotel was and how they were going to locate Garrett in it.

Then Ali had an idea. "All phones have tracking capability these days, his should, especially since I just bought him the latest model."

"Do you even know how to activate something like that?" Mia asked, flicking on her right-turn signal and merging into the turning lane.

"I'm sure it's just an app. Everything is an app nowadays." Ali took out her phone and pulled up the app store. After a minute, she said, "It seems easy enough."

Mia smacked the steering wheel. "There you go, problem solved."

"It also says the phone you're tracking needs to have its locator turned on." Ali moved her gaze from her phone to her friend. "I'm not sure if it is."

"Only one way to find out."

Ali hit the download button then watched the progress bar fill. "Okay, fingers crossed this works." She opened the app and typed in Garrett's phone number. A screen appeared. "It's not very detailed. We already know what hotel he's at, and it's not giving me any more info than that," Ali said with a sigh of frustration.

"Maybe it'll get more detailed the closer we get to him." Mia took a right then promptly swore as some guy cut her off.

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