Page 48 of Keeping Our Secrets

It had been almost two days, and I hadn’t seen or heard from Mairi since the morning of our golf trip. She wasn’t answering any of my texts. So I called instead, and she sent me straight to voicemail. She hadn’t been home in two nights and I was getting worried since she didn’t have any friends here.

I searched through my room to see if she had left me a note, but there was nothing.

Then when I heard Alana moving around in the kitchen, I approached her to see if she knew anything. She hadn’t been acting frantic over her daughter being gone, but who knew what was happening.

“Where’s Mairi?” I asked her.

“She told me she was going to stay with her father for the weekend.”

“So she’s coming back?”

“As far as I know, but I’m not completely sure,” she replied. “After she came home from meeting up with your friend at the mall, she was visibly shaken and I couldn’t get a word out of her why she was so upset. She went upstairs and packed a bag and left before I could get much more out of her.”

I schooled my features. “She met up with one of my friends?”

“I think her name was… Amanda,” she answered.

“Miranda?”

“Yeah, that’s it, Miranda. I don’t know what happened. She really wanted to find friends in the area. She misses her best friend Jen like crazy. I think she needs someone closer to her age to hang around with, especially in her condition.”

Now I was even more pissed than I was before I talked to Alana. Miranda made it sound like she had run into Mairi at the mall, not that she had invited her to meet up.

Something had changed in Miranda, and it had to do with more than just our strained relationship.

“Have you talked to her since she left?”

“No, but I’m going to call her tonight to see how everything went. She hasn’t told her father about the pregnancy yet.”

That was news to me. I thought she had planned to tell him around the same time as she told our parents.

“I hope everything’s okay.”

“I’m sure it is. When I talk to her, I’ll tell her you were asking about her.” She smiled. “Liam, I just wanted to tell you how happy I am that you’ve made Mairi feel at home. She’s been through a lot.”

“She told me about Michael.”

Her hand went to her chest, and her eyes glistened with unshed tears. “She has?”

“A couple of weeks ago.”

“That’s good. That’s good. She doesn’t talk about him enough.”

“She’s still dealing with his loss.”

“She misses her brother,” she whispered. “We both do.” She turned around and focused her attention back on the dishes.

I was the same when my mom died. I didn’t want to talk to anyone about it and my dad was a mess so he wasn’t able to be there for me like I was sure he wished he could. Things were better now, but we were going through another change in our dynamics because of his new marriage.

I left it at that. Alana and I weren’t close enough to have a heart to heart.

* * *

Mairi would either be coming home with me or I’d be camping out on her doorstep until she took me back. Bag in hand, I was out the door thirty minutes later.

Only to be stopped by the last person I wanted to see.

“Miranda? What the hell are you doing here?”

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