That Runaway Summer by Darlene Gardner Read Free Book Online

own.
    “I should get going,” she said, shattering the silence.
    She balanced one foot on the ground and stepped on a pedal with the other, propelling the bike forward. She shot past him faster than a competitor in the Tour de France.
    Now that he’d decided to change her mind about dating him, he needed to figure out how to get her to give him a chance.
    Unfortunately that didn’t look as if it would happen any time soon.

    “J ILL ! J ILL ! W HERE ARE YOU ?” Chris barreled into a kitchen that smelled of the pot roast and mashed potatoes Felicia had served for dinner that evening.
    He skidded to a stop beside the table, interrupting Jill’s latest stab at convincing Felicia Feldman she had no intention of seeing Dan Maguire again, kiss or no kiss.
    Both Jill and Felicia set down their coffee mugs.
    “Come quick!” Her brother’s thin chest heaved up and down. His breathing was ragged, his face red.
    “Tell me what’s wrong, Chris.” Jill’s heartbeat accelerated, her mind conjuring up all sorts of reasons for his behavior.
    Foremost among them was the fear that the private eye had found them.
    “Just come.” He grabbed her hand and gave a tug that was surprisingly effective given he was only three or four inches over four feet tall and weighed about sixty pounds. He headed for the back door, practically dragging her with him.
    Felicia followed, the landlady’s complexion almost as gray as her hair.
    “Are you okay, Chris?” Felicia’s voice trailed them down the back porch’s wooden steps and past the row of azaleas to the patch of woods behind the house. Dusk had fallen, muting the colors of the flowers and lending the early evening a murky quality.
    “I’m okay,” Chris answered, then said in a voice only loud enough for Jill to hear. “He’s not.”
    “Who’s not okay?” Jill demanded.
    “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” Chris muttered, then broke into a run before Jill could refute him. Not that she didn’t realize Chris had a habit of stretching the truth. She just didn’t believe he lied about important things.
    His desperation told her this was something important.
    Imagining someone in distress, Jill kept up with him even as the muscles in her legs protested. She felt every inch of the twenty-mile mountain-bike trek she’d taken that morning, but she kept going. At least she’d had the presence of mind to grab her cell phone. She could dial 911.
    Chris took a shortcut through some tall pines to reach one of the walking trails a local hiking group maintained. She allowed Chris to venture into the woods as long as it was light out and he stayed close to home.
    The past few nights he’d been eager to go outside after dinner, hoping to catch a glimpse of the family of deer that sometimes appeared at dusk. He’d vowed to find out where they lived.
    Had he stumbled across something while following the deer?
    “There!” He broke into a run down the narrow trail, his thin arms and legs moving faster than she’d ever seen them.
    Jill squinted, and her breath clogged her throat. Something small that she couldn’t quite make out was lying just off the path. Oh please, she prayed, don’t let it be a child.
    She increased her pace, getting a clearer view as she came nearer. No. It definitely wasn’t human. Chris crouched next to an animal of some sort. Light caramel in color, it had four legs, yet its body was too thick to be a fawn.
    Was it a stray dog? She immediately thought rabies and had opened her mouth to shout a warning when she heard a…bleat?
    The sound came again. Yes, it was definitely a bleat.
    “Why, that’s not a dog.” Jill reached her brother’s side and examined the animal’s long droopy ears and short, wide face. “It’s a goat.”
    “A baby goat.” Chris smoothed his hand over the animal’s coat in a rhythmic, calming motion. “That’s why I said you wouldn’t believe me. Something’s wrong with him.”
    The goat was injured, not sick. Blood