Page 56 of Harmless Secrets

Alicia found herself at loose ends. With Bridget gone, she didn’t know what to do with herself. She had been honest with Devon. Since bringing Bridget home from the hospital, Alicia had never spent a night apart from her. She had been gone for less than half a day and she had talked to her daughter four times, and Dee had sent her at least a dozen pictures of the girls playing.

She walked down the stairs. Her life had changed so much over the years, but now she realized how much her own identity was wrapped up in her child. It wasn’t something that bothered her, and she didn’t regret it one bit.

Still, she was going to have to learn how to deal with being alone at some point. She heard the tapping of keys and realized that Devon was at work. She didn’t really want to bother him.

Now, that’s a lie, Ali girl.

She sighed as her father’s voice filtered through her brain. If there was one person who knew her, it had been her father. And sadly, there things that she hid from him. Alicia wanted something. She wanted to ask Devon questions, but she was afraid of the answers. Right now she seemed to be missing the courage to face them.

I trained you better than that.

“Oh, bugger off.”

The tapping stopped and she realized she had said the words out loud. She truly was losing her head.

“Ali?” Devon said from his office.

She stepped away from the direction of the office, but the floor creaked beneath her feet.

She heard his chair move, so she decided to face the music. When she stepped into the office, she was stunned at the size of it.

“This house keeps surprising me.”

“What do you mean?”

“I didn’t expect it to be so huge.”

“Hawaii isn’t known for them, but the builder had a lot of money. Then, the recession hit so I got this at a steal. Granted, most Hawaii real estate is going up, but this guy was at the end of his financial rope.”

He watched her as she walked around the room. “Is there something you needed?”

She shook her head looking at the pictures. Nothing too old, but lots of them with Dee and her family, then some with Evan and other people.

“You have a nice network of friends.”

He said nothing and she turned around. “Friends?” he asked.

She shrugged. “I never had that many because we lived all over the world. Well, until my cousin moved in with us.”

“Why did he do that?”

“She. Her parents died. We were her only family, so father and mum took her in. She’s a couple years older than I am.”

He said nothing, just kept watching her. Guarded. He guarded all his thoughts around her. It irritated her even though she did the same thing.

“What about college?” he asked.

She shrugged. “I didn’t go.”

“Well, I didn’t either.”

“Father said I would be bored and he was probably right.” Although, she had wanted to go. She had wanted the fun that Millicent was having. Parties, boys, learning for the first time outside of her father’s instruction.

“I guess I should let you get back to work.”

He shook his head. “I’m done for now. I was taking care of some emails. I also put your name in a database search engine I have. I want to see if anyone has been looking for you.”

“There’s someone, that’s for sure.”