Kiss Her Goodbye by Wendy Corsi Staub Read Free Book Online Page B

a trick of the light, or a low branch hanging down from that tree by the bushes. But I’ll stay here with you until the Gattinskis get home.”
    Oh, April. That’s right. The girl who ran away from the apartment complex down the road late last summer. Kathleen vaguely remembers hearing she turned up in California with her father.
    Or did she?
    Things are different here than they were back in Indiana. There, the neighborhood was so tightly knit that they knew everybody, and everybody knew them. Families, including Matt’s, went back generations.
    Here in Orchard Hollow, you can live a stone’s throw from somebody and still be strangers.
    She opens her mouth to ask whether April did turn up in California, but Jen cuts her off, addressing Matt.
    â€œYou don’t have to stay until the Gattinskis get home, Dad. They should be here in like, fifteen minutes. I’ll be okay with the girls until then.”
    â€œFifteen minutes?” Kathleen asks. “I thought they were out for the night.”
    â€œThey were. I called Mrs. Gattinski on her cell phone. I was pretty freaked out, and she said to call in an emergency. I figured it was an emergency if somebody was creeping around the house. I didn’t know what else to do.” Jen looks increasingly embarrassed. “I just kept thinking—”
    â€œAbout the girl who ran away? Do you know something I don’t about that, Jen?” Kathleen asks.
    Jen shrugs. “Erin thinks she got murdered.”
    â€œI thought they found her in California.”
    â€œDid they?”
    â€œI don’t know.” Again, Kathleen considers how different the neighborhood is. Here her daughter is babysitting for virtual strangers and scared out of her mind. “You did the right thing calling the Gattinskis and Dad, Jen. What did Mrs. Gattinski say?”
    â€œWe had a bad connection the first time I called and I got cut off, but she called me right back. She was really worried. She said they’ll be home right away. You don’t think they won’t want me to babysit again, do you, Mom? What if they think I’m some wimp?”
    â€œYou’re not a wimp,” Kathleen firmly tells her daughter. She looks at Matt, wishing he were taking this more seriously, wishing she had told him about the soccer field.
    But what did you see, really? Just a bystander watching the game.
    Did April really turn up safe in California?
    Or did something horrible happen to her?
    Darn Kathleen’s imagination for conjuring a sinister stranger preying on young girls. But in this scary world, that’s probably the fate of every mother of a teenaged daughter: feeling as though somebody is going to come along and snatch your precious child away.
    Yes, surely other mothers feel that way.
    Surely, when other mothers kiss their daughters goodbye, they secretly wonder if it might be for the last time.
    But it’s different for me , Kathleen tells herself grimly, looking at her beloved Jen. I’ve been living with that fear for too, too long—and it’s been growing with every day that passes.
    We never should have moved back here. I should have talked Matt out of taking the job. I should’ve . . .
    What?
    Told him the truth?
    She looks from her daughter to her husband. Both are unsuspecting. Both would be shattered if they knew . . .
    No.
    No, they’ll never know. She’s come this far without telling, and she’ll carry her secret to her grave, just as she vowed on the day that began as the most tragic—and wound up the most blessed—day of her life.

THREE
    Jen has never liked Mondays.
    There’s the whole thing about being extra tired Monday mornings because you slept in on Sunday morning and couldn’t get to sleep Sunday night.
    Plus the cafeteria always serves spaghetti on Mondays. Jen can’t get the sandwich choice because it’s always pre-made with mayonnaise, which is off limits due to her egg