Honesty Read Online Free PDF Page B

Taylor tried to squeeze in responses. She got the impression that Glenn was Lark’s only friend and that it had been a while since Lark had had another female to talk to, so she didn’t mind the one-sided conversations.
    “Tomorrow I’ll ask Glenn if he can build us a fence,” Lark said, yanking a dandelion from the earth. “That way we can keep the deer out.”
    “You think deer would come this close to the den?” Taylor asked, leaning back on one arm. The summer heat didn’t let up at night, and the humidity made it even more unbearable. She swiped at her forehead, wiping the sweat on her damp dress.
    “Oh, yes. Deer are very stupid animals,” said Lark.
    “I always thought they were, I don’t know, graceful and—”
    Lark cut her off with a loud snort. “Deer are terrible! Just you wait and see. Hey, what’s it like where you’re from?”
    “I’m from a lot of places, but mostly Boston. I never liked living in the city. Too much traffic , and everyone’s always in a hurry.”
    “What did you do there?”
    Taylor scratched the back of her head. She actually missed when Lark was talking about herself, because her own past wasn’t something she wanted to think about.
    “I was in college and I also worked as an intern. It was a pretty boring job that my stepdad sort of guilted me into taking.”
    Lark’s head tilted. “Stepdad?”
    Taylor realized that stepparents were probably another one of those concepts that shifters were unfamiliar with. Lucky them.
    “He’s the man my mother married a few years after I was born,” Taylor explained.
    “Did your father die?”
    Taylor shrugged. “I don’t think so, no. I’ve never met him. Heck, I didn’t even meet my mom until I was fourteen.”
    Lark stopped digging. Sitting with her legs crossed, she gave Taylor her full attention. “How come?
    The fog had begun to roll in from the lake, sweeping through the forest and obscuring it from view. With the fog came cool air, the first reprieve from the sweltering heat of the day before.
    “She was really young when she had me,” Taylor said. “I guess she wanted me to have a better life, so when I was born she gave me up for adoption—that is, she gave me to a more stable family, one that could raise me better.”
    “That must have been so hard for her,” Lark said.
    “I’d like to think so.” She paused, picking at a blade of grass. “When I was a kid, I used to dream about her finding me, taking me home with her. And then one day, she did.”
    Her head tilting, Lark asked, “But what about your other family? The one she gave you to?”
    “The Cavanaughs?” Taylor said thoughtfully. “I’m not sure what happened to them. I had a lot of medical problems when I was a baby. They put me up for adoption when I was a year old. I don’t even remember them.”
    “Well , what happened to you after that?”
    Taylor could see genuine concern in Lark’s eyes and she didn’t feel like it was necessary to be fully honest. That was the point of starting a new life, right? You could put the past behind you.
    “There’s not much to tell. I lived with a few families here and there. Got to see a lot of interesting places. Then my mom showed up and adopted me.”
    Smiling broadly, Lark said, “I can’t imagine how happy you must have been.”
    Taylor made an effort to smile. “Yeah. It was something else, all right. Apparently, while I was growing up, my mom went to college, got married, and even had a daughter with her husband.”
    “Wow, so you got a mother, a father , and a sister?”
    “Yup,” Taylor said, craning her neck back to feel the cool breeze on her forehead. “Every foster kid’s wet dream.”
    “Taylor?”
    “ Hm?”
    “What’s a wet dream?”
    Taylor laughed and shook her head. “Forget I said that. Hey, want to go wash up?”
    They bathed together in the shallows of the lake. The early morning was overcast, but the faint blue light helped to ease some of Taylor’s trepidation