Free The Truth About Tara by Darlene Gardner Page B

Despite the overcast sky, it was in the mid-eighties. Goose bumps still broke out on her skin.
    Her modest one-piece bathing suit was more suitable for swimming laps than sunbathing, yet she felt naked. She fought the urge to cross her arms over her chest. She would not let him guess how much he unnerved her.
    “You know what I meant,” she said crisply. “Wherever I go, there you are.”
    “I can explain that,” he began.
    She braced herself to hear the reasons he didn’t buy her denial that she wasn’t Hayley Cooper, wondering if she could counteract them and convince him to go.
    Would it be enough to tell him that if she had been Hayley in another life, she didn’t want to know?
    “Jack! You came!” Danny’s excited voice rang out. Moving with unusual speed, Tara’s foster brother led a contingent of children and camp counselors to the pool. He was clad in a floral-print bathing suit and so much sunscreen it left streaks of white on his skin.
    “Hey, Danny.” Jack moved toward the gate and opened it for Danny. “Good to see you again.”
    He stuck out a hand. Danny ignored it and launched himself into Jack’s arms, giving him a huge hug. Jack grinned and hugged him back.
    “Will you take off your thumb again?” Danny asked, then added almost as an afterthought, “Please.”
    “Sure thing.” Jack grabbed his thumb and repeated the trick Tara had watched him perform at the grocery store. It really did seem as though he could yank off the digit. This time he made it look as if the detached end of his thumb was wiggling before he brought his hands together and became whole again.
    “Yay!” Danny clapped his hands. He turned toward the other campers, who were proceeding more slowly to the pool area. “Come watch Jack take off his thumb!”
    Nine-year-old Kim, who was dressed in a pink bathing suit decorated with butterflies, stopped walking and covered her eyes. So did Samantha, the youngest camper at age seven. Neither of the girls had Down syndrome, but their mothers had used the same two words to describe them— mentally challenged.
    “Yuck,” Kim said.
    “Yuck,” Samantha repeated.
    “I wanna see!” A teenager named Brandon who’d suffered a brain injury as a boy spoke for the first time. He used a loping, uneven stride to reach the pool area.
    “Me, too!” Susie Miller shouted.
    “Again, please!” Danny told Jack. “When I say please, you have to do it.”
    Jack chuckled. “Please is a good enough incentive for me. But let’s wait until everybody who wants to see the magic trick gets here.”
    A teenager named Brandy, who was volunteering as a counselor to get community service hours, joined the campers gathered around Jack. Tara’s mother guided the two youngest girls to the pool area, where they stood back from the group and covered their eyes.
    Her mom walked toward Tara, half her attention on Jack and the giggling group of children around him. Tara felt her pulse race.
    “How did that man know Danny’s name, honey?” Her mother sounded more curious than concerned. “Do you know him?”
    Here was another opportunity for Tara to tell her mother about the age-progression photo. If her mom regarded her blankly, Tara could put the matter out of her mind once and for all. But what if her mother looked
displeased before answering, the way she had when Tara inquired about the baby photo? What then?
    She wouldn’t confront her mother, Tara decided. She liked her life precisely the way it was. She wasn’t about to do anything to jeopardize that.
    “Not exactly.” Tara drew out the words to buy herself time while she figured out how to answer. “Remember me telling you about Danny’s meltdown at the grocery store? Jack was there. He distracted Danny with a magic trick.”
    “Oooh,” Carrie said, admiration practically oozing from the exclamation. “You’ve got to like a man who’s quick thinking as well as good-looking.”
    “Can you do any other tricks?” The excited voice