Until Dark - Mariah Stewart [92]
“Milk shakes?” Kendra raised a curious brow. “Wouldn’t you rather have wine? Or a beer?”
“Yes, I would. But I’m packing.”
“Excuse me?”
Miranda patted herself in the area over her right kidney. Beneath the bulky red cardigan, there was a bulge.
“I don’t drink when I have it on.” Miranda tried to appear matter of fact, but her gaiety of just moments before was gone, reminding Kendra that Miranda was no ordinary house guest.
It seemed to Kendra that Miranda was deliberately avoiding the use of the word gun. Which was okay, Kendra supposed as she took the frozen pizza out of the freezer.
“Milk shakes it is,” Kendra said. “The blender is in the cabinet right behind you.”
The evening had turned chilly—record cold, the television weatherman had announced—so Kendra lit a fire in the living room fireplace and pulled out two afghans that her mother had crocheted when she was first married. The women curled up at either end of the sofa, watched an “I Love Lucy” marathon, and polished off two small pizzas, a blenderful of milk shakes, and a bag of cookies.
When the eleven o’clock news came on, Kendra asked, “You want a bedtime snack?”
“Sure,” Miranda said.
“How ’bout the strawberries? They look pretty good.”
“Good idea. After everything else we ate tonight, a little fruit should help balance out all the calories.”
“I’ll get them,” Kendra said when Miranda started to get up. “You throw another log on the fire.”
Kendra returned in minutes with a plate loaded with berries.
“Oh, my God,” Miranda exclaimed. “You dipped them in chocolate! When did you do that?”
“When the marathon went on break.” Kendra passed the plate to Miranda. “I melted some of the Hershey kisses in the microwave. You know, of course, that if you eat chocolate with fruit, the vitamin C cancels out the calories?”
“I’d heard that. Oh, yum, I haven’t had these in ages.” Miranda took a bite and groaned with pleasure. “Oh, man, that is good.”
She reached for another and nibbled it more slowly than she had the first.
“You know, Kendra, you really are quite all right,” Miranda nodded. “I wasn’t sure when I first met you, that you’d be, you know, quite right for him, but . . .”
“What are you talking about?” Kendra frowned.
“Adam. You know he’s nuts about you.”
“He is?”
“Oh, come on. Don’t even try to deny that there’s nothing going on with you two.”
“Well, at first I wasn’t sure he wasn’t just, you know, flirting.”
“Adam doesn’t flirt.” Miranda wiped a bit of chocolate from the corners of her mouth. “He even took you home to meet his family, for crying out loud.”
“I thought that was because he didn’t want to leave me alone because he thought I was at risk.”
“Ummm, Kendra, forgive me for stating the obvious, but you’re at risk now, too. He didn’t take you to Quantico today. He took you home with him because he wanted to try you out on his family. You met his grandma, didn’t you?”
“Well, yes, but . . .”
“That’s really key with him.” Miranda inspected the plate of berries, hesitated for a second, then said, “Oh, what the hell. After all I ate tonight, one more won’t hurt.”
“How do you know all this?”
“I’ve known him for seven years now. I’ve never seen him really fall for anyone.” She grinned. “Not even me, and God knows I tried.”
“You did? I thought Portia said she had dated him.”
“She did. Well, we both did, only he didn’t realize it for a while. He had asked her out, but I was the one who was interested.”
“He asked your sister out, she said yes, but you went in her place?”
“After the first couple of dates, when she realized that I was more interested in him than she was, yes.”
“And he’s still speaking to you?”
“He was actually quite a good sport about it. I finally told him the truth when it occurred to me that he and I could be great best friends but terrible lovers. And we are best friends. He’s the best friend I’ve ever had, after Portia.” Miranda sipped at her water. “And for the record, we never went that other route.”
“I wasn’t going to ask. It’s none of my business.”
“But you were wondering.