Rain Forest Rose Read Online Free PDF

a seedy side street that smelled not of salt air, but of Dumpsters and fish bones.
    Tutu soaked up the information, then said, “And the best thing is that Ellen sent you home.”
    â€œI don’t know how she ever left,” Darby confessed.
    â€œShe’d say she was driven away. Jonah would say she ran.” Tutu shrugged, but she put everything so simply and clearly, Darby wished she’d had Tutu to come home to every day after school.
    â€œWhy haven’t I ever met you?” Darby asked.
    â€œI knew you’d come out in your own good time,” Tutu said.
    â€œI mean, ever,” Darby insisted. “Kids with great-grandmothers usually know about them.”
    â€œWhat did your mother say about that?”
    Darby didn’t feel mad about her mother’s secrecy anymore. In fact, she gave a breathy laugh as she explained, “Mom said she knew if she told me that the rest of my family lived on a horse ranch in Hawaii, I’d never shut up about it until I got to go there.”
    Tutu chuckled. “And was she right? Do you like ‘Iolani Ranch?”
    â€œI love it!” Darby couldn’t keep her arms from opening wide as if she’d embrace everything around her. Finally she put her hands back on the table and folded them.
    â€œI love it, too.” Tutu patted Darby’s hand. “But tell me about yourself, Darby. What else do you love?”
    Darby drew a deep breath. The tea had beatenher asthma, but her list was still short. “Books, horses, and my family.”
    It had been easier to talk about her flamboyant mother.
    â€œFriends?” Tutu urged her to go on.
    â€œSure,” Darby said. “My best friend at home is Heather. We’re both nerds.”
    Tutu smiled in a way that made it clear she understood, then asked, “And here?”
    â€œI like Megan and Cade.”
    â€œWonderful children, both of them,” Tutu said.
    â€œYes, but—” Darby stopped, shaking her head.
    Tutu waited. Darby could see this warm conversation would stall out if she didn’t say what she’d been about to.
    â€œWell, it’s none of my business, and no one seems worried about it except for me, but why does Megan hate Cade?”
    â€œHate?”
    â€œWell, she told me I wouldn’t like him—not like , like, but you know, as a friend—if I knew what he was capable of.” Darby saw Tutu’s eyebrows lift, but she said nothing. “And then there’s something going on with the death of Megan’s father. I don’t want to be nosy, but why would she just let her horse go?
    â€œIt doesn’t make sense,” Darby went on, “but it’s not a good way to start a friendship, to go prying into someone’s private life….” Darby’s voice trailed off.She stared at the greenish tea leaves in the bottom of her cup.
    â€œEvery family has its secrets,” Tutu said. “And even if the Katos aren’t of the same blood as us, they are family. Ben would have taken over the ranch from Jonah—”
    â€œThat’s another thing—I mean, excuse me,” Darby said, covering her mouth.
    â€œPlease, go ahead.”
    â€œWhy is Jonah so worried about someone taking over the ranch from him? He’s not that old, but I’ve heard about”—Darby looked up at the cottage rafters and counted off Kimo, Pani, Ben, and Cade on her fingers—“ four men who were supposed to take over the ranch from him.”
    Tutu made a dismissing gesture, then asked, “Has no one told you about Ben’s death?”
    â€œNot really,” Darby said.
    â€œOn the day Ben died, he and Cade were moving cattle from the forest to the ranch, and Megan had tagged along,” Tutu began.
    Darby felt as if she’d been socked in the stomach. “She was there when her father died?”
    â€œOh, yes,” Tutu said.
    â€œAnd what happened?”
    â€œWild