Page 10 of Every Which Way

Kenna sidestepped a lady pushing a stroller. “I actually found out that my mother might be alive.”

Laney gasped. “Are you serious?”

“It’s crazy, right? Because if she really is alive, then where has she been for thirty years? You’d think she’d have contacted me and let me know she wasn’t dead.” Kenna shrugged. “Don’t get me wrong, I understand having to fake your own death. But the book made it seem like my dad knew.”

“What do you mean?”

Kenna slowed at a vendor for matching luggage, which was pretty safe as far as this whole convention went. Did they need Mr. and Mrs. monogrammed suitcases? Right, probably not. She looked anyway, and Laney stuck beside her. “He never published the book, which is probably because it’s about the hero investigator and how his true love faked her death. And how they met up a few times over the years or sent letters to each other, then later, emails.”

Laney frowned. “Can you find the email account and trace it somehow? Isn’t that what Maizie does?”

“We’ve got a lot of things going on.” Kenna continued walking. “Maybe when she has some downtime, but right now, she’s working on data we got from a finance company yesterday. There’s a lot of that to go through.”

They’d caught up to Adrielle and Maizie, who glanced over. The teen seemed hesitant, maybe even nervous.

“Everything okay?” Kenna didn’t usually find herself in the middle of such a thick crowd of people. She had an itchy feeling on the back of her neck.

When she glanced around, the reason for her nerves became clear. They were live on someone’s social media channel. The “influencer” took up the whole aisle, gesturing with one hand and holding a tiny microphone to her lips with the other. Evidently “so excited” to be here. She kept talking, but Kenna barely understood half of what she said.

She glanced at Maizie, tugging her elbows around so the girl’s face was away from the camera coming toward them. “Is she even speaking English?”

Maizie smiled.

“I feel old just listening to her.”

Adrielle said, “How do you think I feel?”

Kenna winced inwardly, but when she glanced at her future mother-in-law, she spotted humor on the woman’s face. “We definitely need cake.”

“And champagne with our lunch. This is a celebration!” Adrielle whirled around and continued on.

Maizie didn’t move right away, so Kenna wound her arm through Maizie’s, and they walked together. “You okay?”

Maizie said, “Weird memories. But you should know I looked up that woman you ran into yesterday.”

“At the company?”

“Sheryl Nolan.” Maizie bit her lip. “I just got a couple of pings on my phone. She’s posting on how she lost her job this morning and ranting about how it’s all your fault.”

“Does she know my name or where to find me?”

“She has your picture from their security system. Don’t ask me how she got it.” Maizie ducked her head and whispered, “She’s calling you out on socials.”

“Thanks.” She wasn’t too worried—at least, not until something happened.

“Having fun yet?”

Kenna eyed her suspiciously. “Maybe it’s not so bad.”

Maizie chuckled, and it was good to see her laugh. She’d ventured out of the Airstream more and more over the past few months, since the trip to the UK. But it couldn’t be denied that this was a huge step for the young woman.

“We should throw you a big birthday party when you turn eighteen.”

“What if I’m already eighteen and we missed it?” She shrugged.

“We could start planning for your next birthday.”

“Do you care aboutyourbirthday?”

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