Jekyll Island: A Paranormal Mystery (Taryn's Camera Book 5) Read Free

very proud of them. They’re not to be worried over,” Ellen assured her. “They’re more afraid of you than you are of them.”
    Ha , Taryn shuddered. Wanna bet?
    A few minutes later Taryn watched Steve and her new boss dart away in Ellen’s little golf cart, her immaculate hair not even moving in the breeze.
    “Lucky wench,” Taryn muttered, shaking her head in mock jealousy.
    Hands on her hips, she stood in front of the small house and smiled, nodding her head.
    “Well,” she whispered. “Here goes. Home sweet home.”
     

Chapter 2

     
    Jekyll Island, as a hotel and club, might have been developed as a playground and retreat for the very wealthy but the island’s history was much older.
    While the island was technically a tourist destination for anyone these days, and nobody had to arrive by boat anymore, it still wasn’t cheap. Taryn discovered this upon trying to find something for dinner.
    Although all the restaurants sounded good and she planned on trying each and every one at some point because eating was kind of her hobby, most of the menus boasted prices she’d consider a good night out back in Nashville.
    Then again, Taryn was cheap.
    She was starting to fear she’d need to stick to the gas station Dairy Queen if she wanted to dine out until she found the pizza place across from the beach. Sure, it was tucked in behind a mini-golf course and doubled as a golf cart rental center but the inside was old-world charming.
    And it smelled heavenly.
    “You waiting for someone?” the server, a skinny woman with bifocals, asked once Taryn climbed up on a barstool.
    “Nope, just me,” Taryn grinned. “I’m all alone.”
    “Getting a break from the family?” the server smiled sympathetically and handed her a menu. “I don’t blame you.”
    Taryn started to explain that she didn’t have a family but that sounded depressing. Instead, she returned the smile and scanned the menu. It didn’t seem likely that she would eat an entire pizza by herself but it had been known to happen on occasion.
    Matt started buzzing and setting her phone ablaze with text messages almost the minute her drink arrived. Taryn sighed and chewed on her lip. She needed to give him the contact information for where she was staying and let him know she’d arrived safely but she was also tired and didn’t really feel like talking to anyone yet. Conversations with Matt were never short ones. She’d call him back when she returned to the house. 
    “Sorry dude,” she said to the phone, setting it to “silent.” “I’ll call you back, I promise.”
    Her server raised an eyebrow as she walked by with a pitcher of water.
    “It’s the husband,” Taryn explained wryly.
    “Ha,” the server called over her shoulder. “Leave a man alone with the kids for an hour and he doesn’t know what to do. Ignore him and let him figure it out!”
    Matt, of course, was not Taryn’s husband. Sometimes “dating” even felt like too strong of a term for what they had going on. Their relationship was complicated.
    Taryn had known Matt since they were children, for more than twenty years. As her best friend, and sometimes only friend, through the years he was the most constant thing she’d ever had in her life. Taryn’s parents were both dead. Her grandmother, who she considered responsible for raising her, was gone as well. Her only other living relative, her Aunt Sarah, had died a year ago. Taryn hadn’t seen her aunt in years and the guilt of not knowing she was even sick before her passing still ate at her.
    Matt was all she had left.
    For the majority of the time they’d known each other they’d simply been friends. Close friends, but just friends. That had changed in the past year and both were still trying to find their footing. Some days Taryn wasn’t always sure the change was for the better. Their physical attraction to one another was astounding; Taryn had had no idea they’d be so wildly attracted to each other once they