Running Scared. Shirlee McCoy
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with one of the worst.
No good deed ever goes unpunished.
She could almost hear her grandmother’s raspy, smoker’s voice, could almost see her wrinkled face and time-ravaged body sitting in the dark corner of the room, watching through still-sharp eyes.
“That’s a wonderful image to have in the middle of a storm, in the middle of one of the worst nights of your life,” she muttered, shivering a little as a gust of wind rattled the window and shot through its old frame. It was one of the windows she planned to replace. Maybe she shouldn’t bother.
Maybe she should have a Realtor come and re-hang the “for sale” sign that had caught Maggie’s eye nearly four months ago. Then Maggie could get in her car and drive back through the mountains, back down into the open land that she’d passed through when she’d run from Miami three years ago.
When she’d run from Derrick, the man she’d once believed herself madly in love with.
She was older now, hopefully wiser, and she knew the truth about love. It was fickle, blind and dumb. Pursuing it was a waste of time and energy, and when Maggie left Miami, she’d decided to put her efforts into something more concrete. Education, financial security, creating the kind of life she could be proud of.
And she had.
She was.
With God’s help she’d pulled out of the downward spiral that had nearly killed her. She’d given up the party-hard lifestyle, and she’d finally found a measure of the peace she’d wanted so desperately when she was a young kid.
And now it was slipping through her fingers like mist on a summer morning.
One little boy with sad eyes and a wary demeanor, and Maggie had gotten herself embroiled in the biggest feel-good story of the year.
Feel-good for everyone but her.
If it weren’t so awful, she’d laugh.
She sighed, rubbing the back of her neck, trying to ease the tension there. God had reasons for everything. Maggie believed that. Just as she believed that going to Sheriff O’Malley with her suspicions about Eli had been the right thing to do.
No good deed goes unpunished.
Maybe Grandma Jane had been right, but Maggie wouldn’t change what she’d done. Seeing Eli with his father had been one of the best gifts she’d ever received. Sure, it had been difficult to observe the tension between the two, but Maggie had no doubt that Kane would eventually win his son over. The man had determination and patience to spare. She’d seen that in the way he’d stood back and let his son just be. No pressure. No expectations. He was going easy, not demanding anything from his confused little boy.
Maggie couldn’t help but admire that.
Her cell phone rang, its shrill tone making her jump. She grabbed it, her heart beating rapidly as she glanced at the caller ID. It was after midnight, and Edith was calling. That couldn’t be good.
She braced herself as she lifted the phone to her ear. “Hello?”
“Did I wake you, Maggie? I wasn’t going to call, but it’s just so exciting, I couldn’t help myself.”
“Exciting? What’s exciting?”
“Well, first of all, the fact that Kane Dougherty showed up on my doorstep a few hours ago. You know who he is, right?”
Maggie considered playing dumb but knew Edith wouldn’t fall for it. “He’s the father of the little boy who was missing for five years.”
“Exactly. And he was here looking for you. He said it was imperative that he speak to you. Did he make it out to the house?”
“Yes, he did.” And Maggie had no intention of saying more than that.
“I’m not nosey enough to ask why he wanted to find you, but I’d be tempted to hint broadly that after three years of renting an apartment from me, you could trust me with any tidbit of information you wanted to throw my way.”
Maggie laughed, some of her tension easing away. “Fine. I’ll throw a tidbit your way. Kane’s son is one of the students in my classroom.”
“And?”
Maggie hesitated. She didn’t want to lie, but she wasn’t ready to tell Edith everything. “Eli was feeling unsettled, and Kane thought it would be good for him to see someone familiar.”
“Makes sense. That poor child has been through a lot. Too much.”
“Hopefully, things will be better for him now that he’s back with his father.”
“No doubt they will. I still can’t believe that woman was right under our noses, and we didn’t know it. A kidnapper in our midst.”
“She hasn’t been here long, and I don’t think anyone got to know her. That made it easy for her to hide who she was and what she’d done.”
“I suppose you’re right. They showed a photo of her on the evening news, and I don’t recall ever seeing her in town. Showed a photo of the little boy, too. Guess who was in the picture with him?”
Maggie’s heart stuttered, then started up again. “Who?”
Please, don’t say “you.” Please don’t.
“You!”
She said it, and Maggie’s heart sank, her stomach tying in a knot so tight she could barely breathe let alone speak.
“Maggie? Did you hear me? You’re famous!”
“I heard.”
“Well, you don’t sound very happy about it.”
“I just don’t understand where they got a photo of me, or why they’d put it on the news.”
“It was taken at the harvest party at school. You were supervising some sort of game, and Eli was standing right next to you. I guess the parents of one of his classmates took the photo and sold it for a good price.”
“I guess so.”
“Don’t sound so glum. This is great.”
“It is?”
“I’ve had at least a dozen people call me to ask if it was really you in that picture. You’re headline news here in Deer Park, and that means every eligible guy in the area will want to find out more about you.”
Maggie laughed again, but this time the sound was hollow and empty. “Edith, you never give up, do you?”
“On finding Mr. Right for a good friend? I’m afraid not.”
“For me, there is no Mr. Right.”
“You’re too young to be so cynical. Sometimes a girl has to kiss a lot of frogs before she finds her prince.”
“And sometimes every frog she kisses is a toad,” Maggie responded, only half listening to Edith.
She’d spent the better part of the day planning ways of staying out of the news, had driven out to the farmhouse in the first storm of the season to avoid cameras and reporters, and she’d been undone by a photo snapped at the class harvest party nearly a month ago.
“Okay, so maybe there are a lot of toads, but what if the next one is a prince? What if he’s just waiting for his true love to appear? For all you know, he could sweep you off your feet tomorrow because he saw you in the news today.”
“Edith, you read way too many romance novels.”
“Romance novels? I’ll have you know I lived the greatest romance of all. Can I help it if I want the same for the people I care about?”
“No. And I love you for it, but I’m not looking for Mr. Right, and I never will be.”
“That doesn’t mean you won’t