Running From Fate (34 page)

With a heavy sigh
she
stood up and headed for the kitchen.
She would pour herself a glass of wine, order a pizza and spend the night curled up with a romance book.  Hopefully, the plight of the fictional lovers would tak
e her mind off her own problems.

She had the wine poured and was checking her new oak bookcase for something to
read when the phone rang
.  She
determinedly ignored it.
T
here were only a few people that it could
possibly
be
and she had no wish to talk to any of them. 
If it was Pat he
would want to talk about James,
Amy would want to discuss
James
,
and
if it was
James
calling
, well,
she would rather not talk to him either
.

The annoying noise finally stopped
and she
pulled out an
older Julie Garwood featuring a to
ugh Scottish laird and a strong-
willed English lady.
With a glass of wine next to
her, she curled up on the
sofa
and settled in
to enjoy herself
.  Food
could
wait
. 
She was fully immersed in Medieval Britain following the heroine as she made her way to the barbaric Scottish highlands, when her cell phone rang
.

With an irritated
groan
she glanced at the caller id.  The number wasn’t local, but
it was
definitely one she recognized.
She supposed t
he book could wait.
With a girlish squeal she hit accept
. 
“Sarah,” she
gushed
happily
, “
a
m
I glad to hear from you.
When did you get back from Rome?
How was the second honeymoon?
Did you have fun?
How are the kids?
How’s Pete?
”

“Everyone’s great,”
her
other best friend said.
“
And
Italy was wonderful, but
I didn’t call to talk about me.  This is about you.
” 
She paused
. 
“Lil
y called me.”

“Ah
,
” Mira
said in comprehension.
She
finished her wine and stretched out on the sofa.  Thi
s would be along conversation so
she might as well get comfortable.
She
smiled as she
picture
d
her beautiful friend curled up in a corner of a large sofa in the den of that h
uge ranch house in Montana.  Her Golden Retriever, Lucy, was probably curled up
at her feet and Matt and
Anne
were arguing
in the background.  Wait a second,
she
thought, there was no noise.
“
Where are the kids?
” she asked.
 
“
It’s way too quiet.”

“I’m in the bedroom.
I didn’t want to be interrupted.
Now, what is this I hear about James Kelly?
Lily say
s that yo
u’re working for
him.
She seemed
very
worried that you’ll
do something stupid and end up
get
ting
hurt again.”

“I’m working at his company,” Mira hedged,” but everything is fine.
There’s n
othing to worry about.”

“What are not telling me?” Sarah asked
suspiciously
.

“I don’t know
what you
mean.”
Mira bit her lip and wished she had a phone cord to twirl around her finger.

“Come on honey,” Sarah cajoled.
“We’ve been friends for a
long time.
I know when
you’re
hiding something.”

Sometimes it was a pain having such good friends.  She might as well give in gracefully
. 
At least Sarah wasn’t likely to yell at her
.  She
was one of the sweetest, most empathetic people that Mira knew. 
“I’ve been
really
stupid,”
she
finally admitted.

Half an hour later she
was
holding the phone away and
sincerely wishing she had kept her mouth shut
.  Her ear was
starting to throb
and she felt somehow betrayed.  With great care
and a quick prayer,
she
lifted the phone
from where she had laid it on the sofa
.
“Are you about finished yelling at me?” she asked.

“I’m sorry
that I lost my temper
,” Sarah replied,
“but
somebody has
to make you
see the error of your ways
.
I’ve known you for years and you’ve never been the type of person who h
id from the truth or someone who
deliberately deluded themselves.
I can almost understand why you
originally
concealed
your identit
y, but how could you let it go on this long?”

“I was scared,”
she
said defensively.

“Of what?
That you wouldn’t get the job or that he wouldn’t like you?”

“No. 
I was scared that whatever caused me to lose him 15 years ago would happen again.
”

“
First of all, you did nothing to lose him so get that through your thick head.  He was the one who acted like a complete bastard.”  She took a couple of deep breaths before continuing.  “Secondly,
I’ve never known you to be a coward.
You’re going to have to tell him, soon
. 
He may not have figured it out yet, but James was your friend for years.
He will
eventually realize who you are.”

“I know
and I will
.”
Mira sighed and rubbed the back of her neck.

“Good
.
”  Sarah’s voice was much calmer.  “Do it soon though.”

“
Absolutely
,” Mira promised.
She just had to figure out how.

She
had
decided that the safest thing to do was invite James over to her house for dinner
.
Even though s
he had seen very few outward si
gns of temper in the new James people didn’t change that much and w
hen she told him who she was, there
was bound to
be a lot of yelling
and screaming.  Coupled with the stress she was already feeling, a public scene was definitely not what see needed.

With her ey
e on the clock, Mira sliced open a loaf of French bread and spread garlic butter on both halves.
Despite the fact that she had
been raised in
a fairly privileged
household
, at least until she was 15,
her mother had insisted that she learn
to cook and she even enjoyed it
on occasion.
She had
originally had the idea of
making colcannon in the hopes that a dish from James’ homeland would soften him up, but considering
some of what he had told her of
his early life in Ireland, she had opted to prepare
lasagna
instead
.
It was both a neutral dish and one that she had made numerous times so preparing it took little thought.
Of course
,
that gave her more time to think and worry so it might not be such a good thing.

Deciding, for the moment, to concentrate her attention on the meal, she slid the garlic bread into the oven, where the lasagna was just finishing up, and glanced around the kitchen for something e
lse to do
.  There
was nothing.
An etched glass bowl overflowing with a
lovely green salad already sat
by the sink and
t
he nice bottle of Chianti t
hat she bought for the occasion was already
breathing on the counter.

A quick glance
at the clock over the stove
told her that she
had just enough time to run upstairs and freshen up before
James
arrived.
As she was walking through the living room, however, she spotted something white
lying
on the floor.

When
she
bent down to pick it up, she realized that it was the envelope she had received in the mail yesterday.
It
must have somehow
been knocked
off the
end
table.
A little curious n
ow
s
he
picked it up and looked at the front.
Her address was typed in some swirly font, but t
here
didn’t appear to be any
return
information
.