Chapter 51 A Certain Crime
By the time she received Rob’s text, Hallie was walking with her mother through an outdoor market, tasting samples of olives, dips, and chips. They had decided to enjoy the rest of the day shopping and sightseeing.
“Is that Terry?” her mama asked after Hallie had looked at her phone.
Hallie shook her head. “Actually, it’s Rob. He’s coming to town too, it’s some kind of invasion.”
Her mama laughed lightly. “Be nice to him. He really cares about you, you know.”
“I know,” Hallie said wearily.
She knew just how much Rob cared about her since he had seen her at her worst when she was a teenager who felt misunderstood by her family and angry at the world. He knew too much about her, and that was why she was always reluctant to see him.
Every time she saw Rob, she felt the shame of being caught in her stupidest actions all over again.
But Hallie was in a good mood, and she decided to meet up with Rob for breakfast. It was time to turn over a new leaf and stop dwelling on the past. She wanted see Rob for who he is, an honest, nice guy and a loyal friend.
Soon after Rob’s text, she also received a text from Luke:
*Hope everything is good and you didn’t get in trouble with your parents.*
She replied:
*Thanks, it’s all good. You charmed them again :)*
He texted her back again, which was pretty unusual:
*Are you hung over?*
She replied:
*Only a little. You?*
He responded:
*Are you kidding? That was extremely mild drinking.*
She couldn’t help but smile. While shopping for new clothes, she sporadically texted back and forth with Luke. Maybe he was starting to care about her, or maybe it was just that he was making more of an effort now that he knew he had competition.
***
SHE MET UP WITH ROB the next morning at a café not far from her workplace in the city.
But when Rob entered the café, Hallie could see something was off. He was wearing his police uniform, plus a somber expression on his handsome face.
“So, what brings you to town?” she asked.
Rob sat down at the small table, looking at her in a direct and almost piercing way. “To be honest, I came to see you.”
“Me?” Hallie tried to be playful, desperately hoping to lighten the mood. “I didn’t think little old me was worthy of such a visit from the hometown hero.”
“Terry told me something,” Rob went on, unsmiling, “and I know I should take it with a grain of salt because of the sibling rivalry you two have going on, but I had to see you. Is it true that Luke isn’t really your boyfriend? Is your whole relationship a fabrication, some kind of game?”
“What?” Hallie exclaimed, trying to sound as surprised as possible. “You know Terry, you said so yourself.”
He fidgeted in his seat.
“I’ve also heard rumors around town that Luke’s been seen flirting with some of the local women. So it’s not just Terry saying it.”
Hallie gasped. “You’d believe some rumors over me?”
“I don’t want to dredge up the past, but you’ve been known to be dishonest before, so I’m just making sure.”
“You just did!” Hallie cried angrily.
“What?”
“Dredge up the past!”
“It’s just that I worry about you sometimes.”
Hallie knew why he worried. She had been known to party too hard in her teenage years, and Rob had once seen her hanging out with some “undesirable characters” as he called them.
Even though daylight streamed through the window on this busy morning in Austin, Hallie could easily recall the darkness of that night, interspersed with flares from a flickering bonfire.
The smell of smoke and alcohol filled the air. She had been partying in a well-known teenage hangout spot not far from a graveyard in the cover of dense trees.
Rob had confronted her about it then. She said it was just a one-time thing, but the truth was she had sometimes snuck off to drink beer and whiskey, any liquor that was available, letting out her frustration with her family.
But the really horrible thing happened when she was seventeen. Hallie had been really angry at her dad for taking Terry’s side over hers in one of many fights between the sisters, and she went for a drive, stopping by a small town.
She went into a drug store and stole a lipstick and some makeup out of sheer anger and boredom.
She had been spotted by the store’s security guard and taken to the manager’s office to wait for the authorities. The police officer called to the scene happened to be Rob Hernandez. He was just a fresh graduate then, extremely young and na?ve-looking.
Hallie would never forget the moment when his eyes landed on her and how shocked and disappointed he looked. It was as if his face suddenly aged, turning to a bitter expression. He asked the other officer with him to wait in the car while he dealt with this matter.
It was strange to see Rob in the sterile, boring environment of the store’s management office.
Hallie suddenly burst into tears and told him how mad she felt about her family, how alone she felt all the time.
Rob was not harsh with her at all. He just seemed sad.
“I’m sorry that you’re feeling this way,” he said, “I’ll let you off with a warning this time, but please don’t do this again.”
Hallie nodded, tears rolling down her cheeks.
When she looked up through hazy eyes, he was gone.
She actually never broke the law again, too embarrassed by the incident. She didn’t even drink alcohol again until she was 21.
Still, it could never erase what had happened, and Rob was the only one who knew she wasn’t the good girl everyone believed her to be. So far, he had always kept her secret.