Read Online That Runaway Summer by Darlene Gardner - Free Book Online Page A

accepted the inevitable. She might be able to avoid Dan, but she couldn’t keep her brother away from him.
    “Do you think Dan will really let me help tomorrow?” Chris asked, chattering the way he often did when it was only the two of them. “He didn’t seem mad when I dropped the flashlight.”
    “Of course he wasn’t mad.” Jill tamped down a surge of dismay that her brother was still wrestling with insecurities. “Everybody makes mistakes, honey. I’ve told you that a hundred times.”
    “I’d try real hard not to do anything else wrong,” he said.
    “Mistakes are normal,” she repeated. “Nobody tries to make one, but we all do.”
    “Then you think he’ll let me help?” Chris actually skipped a few steps, something he hadn’t done even when she’d driven forty miles last weekend to a go-kart track. “That would be so cool.”
    “You like Dan, don’t you?” she asked while she thought about how to introduce the next subject without dampening her brother’s excitement.
    “Yes,” he said without hesitation.
    “I like him, too.” She took a deep breath, then glanced around even though the street was quiet and they were the only two people on the sidewalk. “But we need to be even more careful around the people we like. It’s important nobody knows we’re from Atlanta.”
    Chris gasped and covered his mouth with his hand. “I said we were from Georgia! I’m sorry, Jill. I’m so stupid. I forgot.”
    “You are not stupid.” She put her arm around him in a half hug. “You’re a smart, brave boy. Don’t you ever forget that.”
    They walked a few more steps before he asked in a small, scared voice, “Are the police going to come get me and take me back?”
    “No, of course not.” Her chest ached at his childish conclusion, which wasn’t as far-fetched as it should have been. “The police don’t have reason to suspect anything. It’s our job to keep it that way.”
    “How?” he asked in a voice so quiet she hardly heard him.
    “By being careful,” she said. “Remember what you’re supposed to say if anyone asks why you’re living with me?”
    “I’m supposed to say it’s the best place for me.”
    The answer was vague enough to dissuade further questions. “That’s right. But it’s best not to say anything at all about Georgia. Or South Carolina.”
    Asking him not to talk about homeschooling would be piling it on too thick. She hadn’t enrolled Chris in public school in case the P.I. had a way of searching enrollment.
    “Can you do that, Chris?” she asked.
    He nodded silently, the enthusiasm he’d been brimming with a moment ago gone, his steps slower.
    She hated having to remind her brother to be careful, even more than she regretted being the antithesis of the kind of woman Dan should date.
    It couldn’t be helped, however. Their father was looking for Chris, and she would continue to do her damnedest to make sure he didn’t find him.

    M ARK J ACOBI KEPT the edger in his hands steady on Wednesday morning. He ignored the sweat that trickled down his back and gathered around his work goggles as well as the dull pain in his heart that never completely went away.
    He concentrated instead on trimming the grass around the circular driveway that was constructed from concrete pavers set in a fussy pattern. The pretentious driveway was one of the many reasons he shouldn’t have bought the property.
    It led to a sprawling modern house with an elaborate entranceway, oversize bay windows and a backyard pool that came complete with a miniature waterfall. Everything about the house was too big, too ornate and too far away from his old neighborhood.
    On the plus side, and this was a very big plus, living here made Arianne happy.
    He was facing the general direction of the house, so he saw the garage door slide open, revealing his three-year-old Lexus and the new model Mercedes that Arianne drove.
    She came into view, and for an instant he couldn’t breathe. She was