to be so suspicious of him.
She broke eye contact and in moments she and Danny turned the corner and disappeared from sight.
The big bag of potato chips lay forgotten on the floor.
* * *
WAS JACK DIMARCO following her?
The question ate at Tara for the rest of the afternoon and night. She briefly forgot about Jack while helping out at a friend’s pub in Cape Charles on Saturday night, but not until she’d visually scoured the vicinity for any sign of him.
Her paranoia was still on full alert Sunday night on the short drive to Cape Charles where she taught spinning classes. The town, founded along the bay as a planned community to serve the railroad and ferry trades, boasted late-Victorian architecture and a sandy beachfront park. It had become home in recent years to a resort retirement community with waterfront homes and championship golf courses, making it feel like a tourist town, albeit a sleepy one.
Tara expected to see Jack’s pickup rolling along behind her. It was little consolation that she didn’t. If he wanted to find her, he could.
She parked and started up the sidewalk to the fitness club, mentally reviewing the reasons Jack could still be in the Eastern Shore. She supposed it was possible that the beauty of the area had tugged at him, as it had many others. Or maybe he was interested in getting to know Tara better. He certainly acted as though he were attracted to her.
She dismissed the notion, dismayed that it held some appeal. It was far more likely he still thought she might be Hayley Cooper.
“Hey, Tara! Wait up!”
Kiki Sommers, one of the youngest members of her class, rushed to catch up with her. The nineteen-year-old was wearing another of the colorful outfits that were her trademark. This one featured bright pink yoga pants and a sleeveless black-and-white sports top. Kiki’s long blond hair was tied back in a high ponytail that swung as she moved.
“Hey, Kiki.” Tara opened the door to let the other woman precede her into the brick building that had once housed a YMCA. The fitness club that had taken over the space was prospering, but summers were slow despite the regulars who used the weight room and the diehards in Tara’s classes. “Love the outfit.”
“Thanks,” Kiki said. “I knew it was cute, no matter what JoJo said.”
“JoJo?”
“My brother. He moved back home from Virginia Beach a couple weeks ago after he lost his job.” Kiki snapped her fingers and turned to regard Tara as she walked through the door. “Hey, I heard you want to get fixed up with him.”
“Who does Tara want to get fixed up with?” Dustin Jeffries, an employee not much older than Kiki, asked from behind the front desk. The place was so small, nothing anybody said was sacred. A lounge area consisting of a TV and single sofa was on one side of the desk. Across an aisle on the other side was the all-purpose room where Tara taught her exercise class.
“My brother JoJo,” Kiki answered.
“Give me a break,” Tara said. “I didn’t know your brother existed until a few moments ago. Who told you I wanted to date him?”
“Mary Dee,” Kiki said. “She saw JoJo picking me up last week. I thought you did, too.”
Tara was going to let Mary Dee have it when she next saw her. Unfortunately that wouldn’t be today. Mary Dee was missing class to take her husband out to dinner for his birthday.
“No, I didn’t see him.” Something occurred to Tara. “How old is he, anyway?”
“Twenty-three,” Kiki said.
“Too young for me,” Tara said.
“JoJo looks older,” Kiki said. Tara thought it was telling that she didn’t say anything about her brother’s maturity level. So far about the only details she’d provided were that he was unemployed and lived at home.
“Kiki’s right,” Dustin said. “I’ve seen her brother. All that facial hair does make him look older. You should go out with him, Tara.”
She shook her head. “Is everyone around here trying to fix me up?”
“Yeah,” Kiki said. “Pretty much.”
“I can find my own man, thank you very much,” Tara said, a mental image of Jack DiMarco flashing in her brain.
Kiki clapped. “You’ve got a man?”
Tara thrust Jack from her mind. “Maybe,” she said, which was the quickest way to get Kiki to stop suggesting a date with her brother.
“Ooooh,” Kiki said. “Tell me more.”
“Can’t,” Tara said. “Class is starting in a few minutes. I need to stretch.”
She ducked into the all-purpose room, where nine women awaited her, about two-thirds the number that usually showed up. Summer didn’t officially start for another week or so but vacation season had begun.
She changed the CD in the sound system to a mix she’d made the night before of songs with fast tempos. She climbed on the bike at the front of the room and started to pedal.
“Okay, class,” Tara called above the noise of the gears turning. “Who’s ready to work hard?”
“I am!” Kiki, unsurprisingly, was the first to raise her hand.
Forty-five minutes later, Tara was damp with perspiration. She always pedaled with enthusiasm to set a good example for her students. Today, however, she’d put in extra effort, the better to stop thinking about Jack DiMarco and Hayley Cooper—although here at the health club, where she felt so comfortable, she could almost convince herself that Jack’s presence in Wawpaney was innocent. He even seemed like a nice guy. He’d helped her out with that situation with Danny and the potato chips, hadn’t he? And she hadn’t even thanked him.
With the class dismissed, Tara finished off the water in her bottle and bent to remove a towel from her bag. She noticed a flash of bright pink out of the corner of her eye and realized Kiki was approaching.
“Now I understand why you don’t want to go out with my brother,” Kiki said.
“Excuse me?”
“I mean, JoJo’s kind of cute, I guess. But he’s got nothing on your guy.”
“My guy?” Tara asked.
“About six-two with a body to die for and that gorgeous thick brown hair. Early thirties, I’d say. Really hot. But then, I just love a guy with a widow’s peak.”
She’d just described Jack DiMarco.
Tara’s heart slammed against her chest. “Where did you see him?”
“He was watching the class for a little while,” Kiki said. “You had your back to him, so you must not have known he was there.”
Tara wiped off her face with her towel to hide her shock.
