The Truth About Tara by Darlene Gardner Read Free Book Online Page A

okay with your mom first,” Jack said.
    “I’m his foster sister,” she said shortly. She barely met his eyes, but relief hit him hard at her pronouncement. He checked her ring finger again. Still bare.
    Tara stooped in front of the boy. “You shouldn’t have run from me, Danny. And you’re not supposed to talk to strangers.”
    So that was how she thought of him. He shouldn’t have been surprised after he’d practically accosted her in the street. In retrospect, that probably hadn’t been the best way to approach her.
    “He took off his thumb!” Danny said. “Do it again!”
    “Is it okay with you?” Jack asked.
    She didn’t answer immediately. Even unsmiling, she was pretty. About the only thing he didn’t like about her was the unfriendly gleam in her eyes. There had been nothing frosty about her when she was in the parking lot with her foster brother. She’d been laughing as she leaned over and gave him a warm hug, affection pouring off her. That women, he thought, was the real Tara.
    “Use your manners, Danny,” she said. “You’re supposed to say please.”
    “Please take off your thumb,” he cried.
    “Everything okay, Tara?” One of her neighbors, a heavyset man in his sixties, called from the end of the aisle.
    “Thanks for checking up on us, Mr. Ganz,” Tara called back, geniality radiating from her. “We’re fine now.”
    Jack repeated the trick. It had been one of his younger brother’s favorites when they were kids. A wave of sadness hit Jack, as it always did when he thought of Mike. He thrust the melancholy feeling aside, concentrating instead on snapping his fingers to make it sound as though his thumb were breaking off. He winced and grimaced his way through the reattachment sequence until he was supposedly whole again.
    Danny clapped his hands.
    “Thanks,” Jack said. “How ’bout I introduce myself so we’re not strangers. I know your name is Danny. Mine’s Jack.”
    “Will you be my friend, Jack?” Danny asked.
    “Sure,” Jack said. “If that’s okay with Tara.”
    She didn’t look as if she wanted to give her permission. “That depends on what you’re doing here.”
    “Grocery shopping.” He held up his handbasket. Unfortunately, it was empty. Their aisle smelled of the ground coffee on the shelf behind him. He turned, picked one out at random and dropped it into the basket. Maybe not his smoothest move judging from the way her lips thinned.
    “Here in Wawpaney?” she asked.
    The skepticism that ran through her question was so heavy she could just as well have accused him of following her. It didn’t seem like a good idea to admit he’d decided to come into the store only after seeing her hug Danny in the parking lot.
    “Shell Beach doesn’t have a grocery store,” he said, naming the Chesapeake Bay community about six or seven miles away where he was renting a house. “I’m pretty sure Wawpaney’s the closest town.”
    Her mouth dropped open.
    “C-can you take your thumb off again?” Danny interjected.
    “Maybe later, buddy,” Jack said.
    “My name’s not buddy,” the boy said. “It’s Danny.”
    Jack smiled. “Sorry, Danny. I can’t take off my thumb right now. I need to talk to Tara.”
    “How do you know my name?” she asked sharply.
    “You told me,” he said. Hadn’t she? Suddenly he wasn’t so sure.
    She shook her head. “I didn’t.”
    That was right. The waitress at the diner had provided Tara’s name when she’d spotted the age progression of Hayley Cooper.
    “I thought you were passing through town,” she said.
    “I liked it here, so decided to stay awhile. What better place to hang out than the beach?” When she didn’t agree, he looked down at Danny. “You like the beach, right?”
    “I like fish,” he said.
    “Me, too,” Jack said. “I was thinking about getting a couple poles so I can fish off one of the piers.”
    “Danny means he likes the schools of tiny fish you sometimes see in the tidal pools,”