Read Online Catch by Michelle D. Argyle - Free Book Online Page A

on, Manda? Do you know this guy?”
    “I do now. Just trust me, okay? Everything is
fine.”
    She knew they would drop it, and they
did.
    They spent the day as a whole family, since
her dad had the day off from the convention. As they ate lunch and
went on some rides, Miranda considered staying home and forgetting
about college altogether. Her mom seemed so stressed sometimes when
it came to Grammy, as if losing all those pictures in the flood was
more about losing a part of herself and needing to find it again
some other way. Miranda wondered if staying home might be for the
best. Moving away was just another thing that would make her mom
feel like she’d lost someone important. Would staying help, though?
Julia wasn’t going to stick around forever, either. For today,
Miranda decided, she would savor being with her family, even if
Julia kept complaining that she missed Gavin so much she was going
to die.
    “I think I’m starting to understand,” Miranda
said as they took their seats for an afternoon magic show at one of
the hotels.
    Julia leaned closer. “Understand what?”
    “Missing someone.”
    Julia grinned. “Ah-ha. You have things to
tell me. I saw your note on your pillow last night, by the way.
’Fess up, sista.”
    Miranda laughed as the lights dimmed and the
show began. “Well, not now, but later I will.”
    She tried not to think about Ollie and how
much she was starting to like him. She wanted him to touch her
again so she could feel that shock of excitement run through her.
She wanted to show him not everybody in the world was out to use
him or exert power over him. He didn’t have to steal in order to
triumph over his father, and he didn’t have to give in to his
father’s little game in order to survive. There had to be another
way.
     
*
     
    “Let’s go see the Bellagio fountains,”
Miranda’s dad said as they were walking to a monorail station so
they could ride back to the hotel. Miranda kept staring at her
phone, wondering why Ollie hadn’t messaged her at all today. She
had texted a few messages to him, but there had been no response.
There was a dim spark of hope that she might run into him at the
fountains in front of the Bellagio, but it was a very dim spark.
She sent him another text anyway.
    Dancing water.
    That had to be easy enough. She wasn’t sure
if he’d show up in front of her family, though. Maybe tonight they
could meet for coffee again.
    “So, Miranda,” Gabriela said as they walked
down the sidewalk toward the Bellagio. “I forgot to tell you that
I’ve decided to write a memoir.”
    That was random. Miranda looked at Julia, who
shrugged.
    “About your whole life so far?”
    “About my mother—every memory I have of her.
There was that time she took me to the orange orchard and we found
a stray tabby. We kept that cat for fifteen years before it died.
My mother loved cats more than anything in the world.”
    “Oh, I didn’t know that,” Miranda said,
curious. “You hate cats.”
    “I know! Isn’t that funny? We used to fight
over that tabby all the time, how its fur would get on everything and I constantly had itchy eyes.”
    “Well, Mom,” Miranda said as they neared the
fountain, “I think that’s really great—about the memoir. I want to
read it when you’re done. I want to know what she was like. You’ve
never really talked about her.”
    “I’m sorry about that,” she replied, putting
an arm around Miranda’s shoulders. “I hope you’ll talk about me one
day to your own children more than I have about my mother. I feel
bad about that now. She and I might not have had the best
relationship, but that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t talk about it.
Since those pictures were stolen, I’ve realized there are other
ways I can preserve her.”
    Miranda slipped her arm around her mother and
squeezed as they reached the fountain. “I’ll get them back,
Mom.”
    “Hah, nice!” Julia laughed as Michael
Jackson’s “Billy Jean” started