Running From Fate (9 page)

“Don’t distract me.
”
She picked up a heaping forkful
and moaned with delight
.
“
I’m having a religious experience her
e
.
We’ll talk later.”

“Suits me,” Pat mumbled.

For several minutes the clanking of forks and the occasional sigh of pleasure were the only sounds.

When the
y were both finished
,
the plates
were cleared away
,
and they sat with coffee, Mira picked up the conversation.  “
Why did my last question make you nervous, Pat?
  Professionally
,
I’ve always been Mira Anders.
Do you think
he
’ll
know that I’m also Mira Sween
e
y?”

“I ne
ver understood why you did that,” he groused.
“
You were
no
married for more that six months.”

She thought about the young, carefree man with a sense of bittersweet regret. 
“That’s the reason that I kept
Kevin’s
name.
He was a young man with no family.
He died too young.
If I hadn’t kept his name, there would have been nothing to remember him by.”

“You’re no still pining away for love of him, are you?  You’re s
t
ill
a
woman
and much t
oo young to lock yourself up like that.”
He
clasped
her shoulders and shook her.

“Where did you get such a ridiculous notion?”
She reached up and pulled his hands away.  “I kept his name as a sign of respect
and a reminder that he mattered to someone
. 
Yes there are times when I still mourn the potential that we never had the chance to realize, but
I’m not the kind of person who would pine away for a man.”  Except for James Kelly, she added silently.  Of course, she had finally gotten over him.  Thinking of him, however, reminded her of their original topic.

She narrowed her eyes and glared at Pat.
“
But y
ou
still haven’t
answer
ed
my question.
Does James know who I am
?”

He cleared his throat and looked away.

“Oh my God.
He doesn’t know,
does he?
What can you
be
thinking?
This will never work.  James hasn’t spoken to me in almost 15 years. 
He never answered
my letters or calls and he
stayed away from your house when I visited from school, even before
Fiona
died.
For some reason he decided to cut me entirely out of his life.
W
hat makes you think he’s changed his mind?”

“He never dislike
d you, honey,
” Patrick reassured her.
“Y
ou just made him feel
more deep
ly then he was comfortable with
and it wasn’t you James avoided.
He
stayed away because of me and tis
nae something
that I’m willing to talk about yet.
There was much more going on than you were aware of.”

She felt a
small
spark of hope.
“
How do you know that?
Did he say something?”

“No
, but I’m his fa
ther, I could tell
.
”

“
Perhaps, but, tell me
truthfully.  D
id he ever ask about me
when you did talk
?”

“No
exactly
, but the fact that he made an effort not to mention you must mean something.”

“Yeah, it means
that he didn’t think of me.”  She sighed, defeated.  “It was a nice thought, but I guess I’ll start looking for work tomorrow.”

He stood and placed
a twenty
on the table.
“Don’t give up so easily
girl.”

“What do you mean,” she said as they
walked outside and
waited for
the cab that the
bartender
had called
.
“What else can I do?”

“He hasn’t seen you in years and you
r
name has changed.
You
’d no
have to tell him who you are.”

A
cab pulled up and he ushered he
r in.

“Why is it so important
to you?” Mira asked
curiously
as they headed
back to
Boston.

He gave her a sad-
eyed look.
“You’re l
ike a daughter to me and I’m no getting any younger. 
I’d like to see my children speaking to each other before I die.”
  His eyes turned misty and faraway, as if he was looking into the future and liked what he saw.  “You’d m
ake me beautiful grandbabies
.
”

“What?”

Pat waved his hand.  “Oh tis nothing but the ramblings of an old man.” 
He reached
into
his suit pocket and pulled out a
scrap of paper
.
  “
I’ve already
spoken
to his
secretary
. 
She’ll
be expecting to hear from you.
It’ll no hurt to give them a call.”

“This is ridiculous,” she said, but she took the
paper
anyway.

**********************************************
************

God this is so stupid, Mira thought as she headed toward the assigned
gate.
She glanced franticly
around the crowded terminal at Logan Airport and tried to
make sense of a world that seemed to have gone crazy
.
  Parents stood by chairs, clutching the hands of sleepy looking children.
Young couples sat on benches resting against each other.  Men and woman in wrinkled business suits clutched briefcases or talked on cell phones.  A beautiful young woman walked by holding the hand of a dark haired toddler
. 
They
spoke to each other in rapid Italian.
It was a sight that she had seen many times, but she somehow felt divorced from the scene, like she was merely watching a bad movie.

Delta Flight 6970,
non stop
service to Raleigh-Durham International is now boarding at Gate A10
.

The announcement seemed to come from nowhere, but it brought her back to herself.
If she
were to start screaming and run from the airport, she thought with a return to humor,
she’d probably be taken into custody and interrogated as a possible terrorist.
It would be just her luck.
She took a deep breath and checked that her bag was still sl
ung securely over her shoulder.

This is the final call for Delta flight 6790 to Raleigh-Durham International.
All passengers please report to gate A10 for boarding.

If things didn’t work out
she rationalized,
she could always change her mind.
Besides,
her chin lifted,
she had never been a coward and she wouldn’t become one now.

Will Mira Anders please report to Gate A10 for boarding.
Passenger Anders please report to Gate A10 for boarding.

Ignoring the stares
, Mira clutched her bag and sprinted toward the gate.

The meeting at
EcoSpace
was scheduled for 10 a.m
. 
Unfortunately, i
t was already
quarter till
and
she wasn’t even close.
Mira looked out the windshield at the unfamiliar street
and the slow moving traffic and groaned
.
Five more minutes
and she would have to call and tell them that she would be late
. 
Damn it, this shouldn’t have happened
,
s
he
thought
as she turned down yet another street and hit a dead end
. 
She
had
actually left early
.

Granted, s
he
had been so exhausted by the time she had picked up the rental car and checked into the hotel
last night
that she had done the bare mi
nimum before falling into bed
, but she had set t
he alarm
to wake her two hours ago so that she would have enough time to do everything.  Tr
ue
, she
had
spent 20 minutes
making sure her hair and makeup were right and trying to choose between the two suit
s
she had brought with her
. 

In the end she had gone with the
deep red
suit
that
elegantly showcased her body
.  A judicious use of eye shadow had
made her eyes glow like emeralds
.
It was just a plus that
the short s
kirt and
strappy sandals with
t
w
o
-
inch heels helped show off her toned legs.
 
She had, however, built in extra time and e
ven with the extra
minutes spent primping
she had left in plenty of time
.
She just hadn’t planned on getting lost.  The directions had seemed so simple.