Read Online Familiar Stranger by Sharon Sala - Free Book Online Page A

car, leaving dust and gravel in the air behind him as he drove away.
    Cara came outside and slipped her hand in the crook of David's arm.
    "My hero."
    David looked at her and then shrugged. "He ticked me off."
    She smiled. "I could tell."
    "Are you mad at me?" he asked, suddenly aware that he might have run off someone she actually cared for.
    She laughed. "For getting rid of Hasty Harold? No way!"
    "Hasty Harold?"
    "It's an unfortunate nickname, but one he's certainly earned. He's the first man on the doorstep when a woman gets divorced and the first one to express his sympathy when there's a new widow in town. I've been fighting off his advances for three years now. Thanks to you, I think I've just seen the last of the pest."
    "You're welcome," he said, and then slipped his arm around her shoulders. "Are we still going fishing?"
    "Oh, yes," Cara said. "I wouldn't miss this trip with you for anything. Let's load up before we have any more uninvited visitors."
    They were on their way within the hour, and for David, everything seemed surreal. He had the love of his life at his side, a picnic lunch in a cooler in the back of Cara's SUV, along with a couple of fishing poles and tackle. The sky was a pale blue-white with a few scattered clouds upon the horizon. All they needed to finish the postcard image was a couple of kids screaming in the back seat and a dog poking his head out the window. He glanced over at Cara, who was talking about something that had happened in her past. He was so fascinated by the fact that he was actually here in the moment that he lost track of what she was saying. Suddenly, a shiver of foreboding ran up his spine. The day was almost too perfect. He shrugged it off as a hangover from the life he'd just given up and concentrated on his driving and the directions Cara was giving him to the lake.
    "Look!" Cara cried, as they came around a bend in the road.
    It was a magnificent buck, momentarily spellbound by their oncoming vehicle.
    "Wow, a sixteen pointer," David said, admiring the rack of antlers on the animal's head.
    Cara was scrambling in the glove box when the buck suddenly came to itself and bounded into the surrounding woods.
    "Darn it," she muttered. "I was going to take a picture."
    "You brought a camera?"
    She nodded, holding up a compact 35mm camera with a telescoping lense. Her expression of joy suddenly stilled, as if she was afraid of his reaction.
    "What's wrong?" David asked.
    "Nothing."
    He frowned and then pulled off to the side of the road and turned to face her.
    "That look on your face is not nothing," he said. "Talk to me."
    She looked away, afraid he would read what was in her heart. "It's no big deal. I just wanted to take a few pictures to remember this day."
    It wasn't what she said but what she omitted that hit him like the proverbial rock. God. It was just like before. She didn't trust he would come back and was making memories for the day that he would leave. What hurt him the most was that he couldn't promise to return. He could say he wanted to. But that didn't mean he would live through his confrontation with Frank.
    It was at that moment he made up his mind to quit thinking negatively. He, by God, was going to come back and he was going to spend the rest of his life with her. He brushed the side of her cheek with the back of his hand, then gave the lobe of her ear a gentle tug.
    "That's good. We can look back on them when we're old and gray and remember that I was the one who caught the most fish."
    Cara turned her head, saw the challenge in his eyes, and in spite of her fears made herself smile. Two could play at this game of pretend.
    "The most fish? You're already telling me this is going to be a competition in which you're going to win and you haven't even wet your hook?"
    He grinned as he pulled onto the road. "So I like a little challenge now and then. What's so wrong with that?"
    "Absolutely nothing," she said. "And I'm going to add a little something to the pot,