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Was she hoping for more? Miranda panicked. She couldn’t keep up with this. She leaned in. Why was she doing that? The misty morning dampened her cheeks, the fog sticking around in the streets longer than it probably should—or at least longer than Miranda wanted it to. She had to stop herself. But what would it be like to take exactly what Tori was offering?
“I’ll think about it,” Miranda finally said, her tone curt. “I have to get to work.”
“Yeah. Right.” Tori stepped away, releasing Miranda’s wrist. “See you around.”
She said nothing as she got in her car and drove off. She couldn’t speak. Her mind was spinning with what she wanted to do.
“Tierney, thank God.” Miranda let out a sharp breath she had been holding for the last three days. She had tried to call several times and hadn’t gotten anywhere.
“What’s wrong? Did something happen to Rebel?”
“She’s perfectly fine. Are you okay?” Miranda asked, not entirely recognizing her own voice. She must have been more worried than she’d realized. Just hearing Tierney’s voice put her at ease. Texts were one thing, but with the strange men Tierney hung out with, Miranda couldn’t always be sure who was sending or receiving the texts.
“Yes, I’m wonderful.” Her voice took on a wispy quality, the tone Miranda associated with teenagers and morons. “Marcus is a true angel.”
Miranda needed to approach this carefully. But she needed information and to keep Tierney on track in the conversation. The downfall was that she could always hang up if she didn’t like the conversation, which she often did. “So where are you now?”
“We’re in Belize, and then I think Marcus is going to take me home to meet his family in Guatemala.”
“What?” Panic hit Miranda hard. Her heart skipped, and she clenched her fingers, staring down at Rebel who was playing with the toy Tori had brought back to her. She wouldn’t tell Rebel that, ever. She couldn’t.
“It’s okay. I promise I’m on my way back. Just another week or two.” Why did she sound so confident in that? She shouldn’t. She’d been saying just a few more days for six weeks now.
“Tierney.” Miranda stopped herself from snapping out her sister’s name, though she wasn’t sure she was completely successful with that. She had to remember this was about Rebel, not their own past. “Did you get the notifications about your apartment?”
“Oh, yeah, but it’s no big deal. I’ll stay with Mom and Dad for a bit until I can find a new place.” She didn’t even sound worried. But she had more than one eviction on her record now, which would make it next to impossible to find an apartment. Not to mention she was jobless and had no income, and Miranda was pretty sure she’d spent the last of her money on that plane ticket.
“I was thinking that maybe when you get back, you can stay here with Rebel until you get things sorted out.” It wasn’t solely so that she knew Rebel would have housing, but it would be consistent housing for her at least, which would be to her benefit. But if she said it like that, Tierney would be pissed.
“Really?” Tierney’s voice squeaked before a silent beat passed. “What’s the catch?”
“There’s no catch.” Miranda took a breath, deep but as quietly as she could.
“You’re going to take her away from me, aren’t you?” Tierney’s tear-filled voice warbled.
“What? No. If I was going to do that, I would have done it already,” Miranda said quickly, though the thought had crossed her mind a few times. “I don’t want her to be without her mom. She needs you, Tierney. I won’t ever keep her from you. I just want to help you.”
“You want to help me? What happened to soulmates being the stupidest thing in the world?”
“I still don’t think soulmates exist.” Miranda wanted to curse herself for letting the words spill automatically, but she pushed on. She wanted Tierney to understand. “But I know how hard it is to look after a child all on your own. And you need to be able to find someone for you, and for Rebel, without having to worry about it, or disrupt her.”
“I’m a bad mom, aren’t I?” Tierney’s words were so raw that it threw Miranda, and she sat back on her couch as though pushed over by the emotions. “Marcus tells me I’m an amazing mother. I’m a good mom.”
“I didn’t say you were a bad mom.” She might have implied it though, maybe not this time around but many other times they had talked. Miranda rubbed her temple. How could she keep this conversation going?
“Because I’m not.”
“No, you’re not.” Except right now, Miranda thought she was. Choosing a man over a child any day put her squarely into that category for Miranda. She just couldn’t say that. Not if she wanted to keep Tierney on the phone.
“Marcus is the one. We’ll come home, and I’ll show you.”
“Okay.” Miranda gave her standard one word answer, because what else could she say? She’d tried it all before and gotten nowhere. “I’m excited to meet him.” Now she was lying? She was almost as bad as her sister. “When do you think you’ll be home to introduce us?”
“Oh. I don’t know.” Tierney had that faraway tone in her voice, like she was going to hang up again.
Miranda cringed. She could have worked the conversation so much better to keep everyone talking and to get better answers. “Please come home soon. We miss you.” That wasn’t a lie at least.
“I miss you, too. I love you.” Tierney’s voice dropped and suddenly the phone went dead.
