Unlikely Allies Read Online Free Page A

been growing up.
    “Mama, all gone.” Cece patted her stomach and an innocent good-angel smile appeared, displaying a gap from the missing top two front teeth.
    “What did I tell you about eating gum?” she prompted while trading the napkin for a crepe filled with jelly and setting it on Cece’s plate.
    Instead of answering and before Maggie could cut the roll into pieces, Cece scooped it off the dish and shoved the entire thing in her mouth. Knowing her daughter, she prepared for the possibility, making several of them a little over bite-sized. Cece had an appetite that rivaled Kat’s, and in no way did she take after Maggie, except in hair color and freckles. Cece’s push-the-limits attitude mirrored her aunt’s and unfortunately her father’s too.
    Maggie met Jake in high school. He’d been in and out of juvenile detention several times as a teenager, and growing up in Brady’s Prairie, Texas with less than eight hundred people, many knew about his bad reputation. Even though they went to school together since kindergarten, she had nothing to do with him until her senior year, when she’d been assigned to tutor him as a condition of his probation.
    It wasn’t love at first sight or anything like that. In fact, Jake barely spoke to her during their after-school sessions. He’d grunt and stare her down with his arms crossed, resisting any effort she made to help him pass his classes. His indifference and willful attitude didn’t change until her car broke down on her way to volleyball practice. When her Honda lost power, she pulled to the side of the road. Her dad, police officer Sean O’Brian, always worried about his daughters’ welfare, and taught them the basics of car maintenance. He said his girls needed to be prepared and shouldn’t have to depend on a man for simple things like checking fluid levels and air pressure or changing a tire. Even so she figured pretty quickly the problem was more than the basics when she tried to turn the ignition over multiple times, and the power flickered and died. In case something had come loose, she popped the hood to check the cable connections. At that moment, a tow truck swerved in front of her and out hopped Jake from the driver’s side. He didn’t acknowledge her at all. Instead, he jumped behind the wheel, tried to start it, and then after a check under the hood, hooked it up to the tow truck. All the while she stood on the curb and watched his every move in complete astonishment. The next thing she knew, he opened the passenger door of his truck and returned to his seat. When she didn’t move, he honked the horn a few times, jolting her out of her trance.
    After she got inside, the silence continued, and instead of taking her to the only garage in town, he swung by the school and dropped her off for practice. She got out and stood at the door. Jake had turned toward her and said, “It’ll be ready tomorrow.” She nodded, and after she closed the door, he took off. That was the totality of their interactions that day, and it also marked a time of change.
    The next week during tutoring, Jake put forth a little more effort in completing the assignments. It wasn’t a remarkable difference but a slight one that improved after a while. Their conversations also got better, beginning with her asking about his job as a mechanic and engaging him in “shop talk.” If she learned a little about him, then it might help her reach him. She took her tutoring job seriously and hated seeing students struggle. Everyone had strengths, and it was a matter of finding out what they already knew, and using that knowledge to make connections to the content. The technique worked before, ever since she volunteered in the tutoring center in tenth grade.
    “Mama, I want down.” Cece’s demand pulled Maggie back to the present. Kat had already finished eating and started clearing the table. At the sight of Cece’s empty plate and the last remnants of breakfast, she felt awful