Kitabı oku: «Her Second-Chance Family»

CHAPTER ONE

“JUST A MINUTE,” Sawyer Williams bellowed. He was pretty sure he knew who was at the door, and he was absolutely sure he wasn’t going to be pleased.

He was right. A teenage girl stood on his porch. Her black hair fell softly to her shoulders today instead of standing straight in the harsher spikes she normally wore. Her expression said she wasn’t any more pleased to be here than he was to have her here.

It was the same girl who’d stood on his porch each Saturday for the past month. And for the past three Saturdays, he’d cut her off and told her to leave his property or he was calling the cops. Every visit ended the same way...with him slamming the door in her face.

And here she was again. His first inclination was to actually call the cops this time. But the curiosity that had nibbled at him since that first visit finally got the better of him. He knew who she was, but had no clue why she was here.

Whatever she wanted to say had to be important. At least to her. Still, instead of threatening to call the cops or slamming the door, this time he asked, “Fine. I give up. What do you want?”

The girl jumped back, as if she hadn’t anticipated him asking a question. Her dark blue eyes met his as she took a deep breath and said, “Mr. Williams, I’m Willow Jones.”

“I know exactly who you are and I know exactly what you are.” He’d testified against her, after all. “I repeat, what do you want?”

She glanced at the red SUV in his drive and then turned back to him. She straightened her spine. “I know you’re not happy to see me. Trust me, I am not happy to be here.”

He’d gathered that much from her expression. “So, if you don’t want to be here any more than I want to have you here, why are you on my porch, knocking on my door for the fourth Saturday in a row?”

“I want to ask you if I could mow your lawn this summer.”

The young miscreant—this thief who was surely just getting started on her life of crime—was showing up weekly to ask him for permission to mow his lawn? “What?”

“Listen, she—” she jerked her head in the direction of the car “—she says I need to balance my karma. Right now, I’ve got a lot of negatives going on. She says that being on teeny-bopper probation isn’t enough. She says that the probation actually benefits me and isn’t much of a punishment because if I keep my nose clean, I get my record wiped. It will be almost like it never happened. Only it did happen. And my clean record doesn’t do anything for you. She says that I harmed you and I need to make amends to you. She made me think of something I could do, and I remembered when I ripped off your place that your yard’s huge, so I thought that I could mow it all summer.” She paused and sighed. “And weed it, too.”

Sawyer glanced at the car, but couldn’t make out the driver. He looked back at the girl who wanted to fix her karma. No, not fix it, balance it.

“I have a lawn service,” he said. “They were just here last week and treated for weeds.”

She glanced at the car again, then back at him. “Oh, man, whatever you do, don’t tell her that. She’ll lecture you about chemicals and water tables. Then she’ll show you her nifty little dandelion puller and tell you that if you can’t live with dandelions in your yard, you can yank them out. She’ll tell you that you should just let them be, though, ’cause the bees like ’em and we need bees. She’ll talk about bee collapse as she feeds you something weird that you’ve never heard of. And you can count on the fact it’ll be good for you.”

Sawyer knew he should shut the door on this young hoodlum, but for some reason he found their conversation intriguing. “Like what?”

“Something like quinoa. Yeah, that’s right.” The girl nodded. “You’ve never heard of it. No one in the real world ever has. Anyway, I have to do something for you and balance my karma in her hippie-chick sort of world. I wouldn’t let me in your house if I was you, but I figured your yard was safe. I’ll tell you when I’m coming and you can dead bolt the doors and lock the windows.”

He pointed to the sticker on his window.

“You got a security service? I didn’t notice the sticker, so I’m not sure it’s enough to warn off other future thieves.”

“There are signs, too.”

She shrugged. “I’d have to be stupid to rob your place again. I might be a thief, but I’m not stupid. But maybe it’ll keep other people from trying to break in. So, about the lawn?”

“Like I said, I have a lawn service.” This was another golden opportunity to slam the door on her, but instead he waited to see what her next response would be.

She nodded. “Listen, that’s fine. I get it. Like I said, I don’t blame you. But if you say no, I’m going to have to go back to the car and tell her that after four visits, you finally let me say my piece and still said no. If that happens, either she’ll say that we’ll try again next week—that’s your best option. And I’ll be standing out here again next Saturday. Or she’s going to come out to convince you to let me mow. If she does that, you won’t stand a chance. You might argue. You might put up a good fight. But she won’t listen. And before you know it, I’ll be mowing your yard this summer and you’ll be eating quinoa.”

He glanced at the car again, but still couldn’t make out the driver.

“Really,” Willow said, “I know you’ve got no reason to trust me on anything, but trust me on this...you do not have a choice. Heck, I don’t have a choice. We’re both stuck with the fact that I’m going to mow your lawn one way or another. And I might be a burglar, but she’s...” The sentence drifted off, as if the girl wasn’t sure how to describe her.

“She’s what?” he found himself asking.

The kid’s blue eyes met his. “She’s like no one you’ve ever met. She seems to think she can fix me. I tried to tell her that I’m not broken and I don’t need fixing or saving, but she ignores me and just keeps at it. She says everyone should have a second chance. Then Clinton...”

“Clinton?” he asked.

“Clinton Ross. Another one of her rescues. She says everyone should get a second chance and he laughs and says, ‘Sometimes even a third.’ She agrees and then says, ‘Even a fourth.’ They laugh like it’s some kind of joke. They’re weird. They have family game nights and like doin’ stuff together.”

She shook her head. “But there’s no fighting them. They’ve decided I get a second chance, so I’m getting one whether I want it or not. And part of that second chance means mowing your yard, so that means you don’t have a choice, either.”

“All summer?” he found himself asking.

She nodded. “I’ll bring the lawn mower and supply the gas and everything. You just need to leave me a few garbage cans for the yard trimmings...unless you have a compost pile.”

He shook his head. “I don’t.”

She sighed. “Well, don’t tell her that or you’ll get a crash course on how you can save the planet one compost pile at a time. Anyway, other than garbage cans, I don’t need anything from you. Just say yes and tell me when it’s convenient for me to come, then forget about me.”

“Really, you don’t...”

“Quinoa,” she said ominously.

Sawyer grudgingly admired the girl for her tenacity. This might have been the woman in the car’s idea, but Willow seemed to be behind it, no matter how she tried to lay the blame on the mysterious her.

“Fine,” he said. “You can mow.”

Willow let out a long sigh. “Great. Any time that’s best?”

“No. Whatever works for you.”

“Fine. I’ll be over next week.” She started down the stairs.

Sawyer called her back. “Hey, is she your mom?”

Willow turned around and laughed. “I sooo am not going to tell her you asked me that. She’s only twelve years older than me. I doubt they’d let anyone else take in a foster kid so close to their own age, but she decided I was hers and...well, like I said, when she decides something, it happens. She wanted me and now I’m hers, like it or not.”

The girl seemed clearly confused at the thought of anyone wanting her that much.

“And she’s a hippie,” he stated. He was surprised to hear a teenager referencing hippies.

She nodded. “Oh, yeah. Really, keep your distance or you’ll be...”

“Eating quinoa.”

She laughed. “Yes.”

Willow turned and started toward the car again, but Sawyer called out, “Hey, what’s her name?”

“Oh, yeah, I forgot.” She ran back over to him, pulled a piece of paper out of her back pocket. “That’s her name, my name—not that you don’t remember me—our address and both our phone numbers. And there’s my social worker and my juvenile probation officer. She says I’m not supposed to be doing it to impress my probation officer, and that unless he asks, I shouldn’t say anything about making restitution like this. She says that doing things for show is shallow. You do the right thing because it’s right, not for glory or recognition. She says that you can call my probation guy if you want, but I’m not supposed to look for credit for doing what’s right.”

“She says a lot of things,” Sawyer said.

Willow sighed, but he thought he detected a slight smile behind her put-upon expression. “Oh, you don’t know the half of it,” the girl assured him. “I swear, I almost wish she’d smack me when I screw up. It would be fast and over much more quickly.” She obviously spoke from experience and Sawyer found himself angry at the thought of anyone hitting the girl.

“But no, not her,” Willow continued. “She just looks disappointed and then starts talking. Pretty soon I’m doing what she wants just to get her to shut up.”

Sawyer was intrigued by this foster mom who was only twelve years older than the teen at his door.

“I told her that someday I’m going to write a book filled with all the things she says,” Willow continued. “She just laughed and said she’d come to my book signing. She’s always happy and smiling and believing that everyone is better than they really are. Except at night.”

“What happens at night?” he asked, but Willow was gone. She was getting in the car with... He glanced at the paper she’d handed him. Audrey Smith.

It looked as though he was going to have to cancel his lawn service, then he was going to look up quinoa on the net.

* * *

AUDREY SAT IN the car while Willow talked to Sawyer Williams.

Watching the man was a pleasure. Really, it was absolutely pure pleasure.

He was tall, but not too tall. She was sure he checked the box next to brown when asked what color his hair was, but she wasn’t sure that was an adequate description. It was the sort of brown that probably turned lighter in the summer, and darkened to almost black in the winter. It was on its way to lightening up now.

She wondered what he’d look like if he smiled.

She’d driven Willow here weekly and had hurt for the girl every time the man slammed the door in her face.

But for whatever reason, today was different. Sawyer Williams was talking to Willow. Not just threatening to call the cops, but talking.

Willow was heading toward the car when she suddenly turned around and handed Sawyer a card before she walked toward Audrey.

“How’d it go?” Audrey asked as Willow slid in beside her.

“Well, I had to threaten him...”

“Willow.”

Willow laughed. “With quinoa. Well, quinoa and you. Anyway, he finally agreed. Reluctantly.”

Audrey couldn’t help but grin. She knew that Willow probably wouldn’t see Sawyer agreeing to let her work for free all summer as a victory, but it was. The girl had set her mind to a goal and she’d achieved it. As far as Audrey could tell, there hadn’t been very many victories in Willow’s life.

“That’s great, Willow.”

“Says the woman who’s not going to spend her summer mowing a huge lawn for nothing.”

Audrey’s smile faded. “Not for nothing.”

She knew how guilt could eat at someone. Even if it was guilt over circumstances that weren’t entirely your fault. She didn’t want that for Willow. And the juvenile court system’s slap on the wrist wasn’t enough to assuage Willow’s guilt. But a summer of sweating under the hot sun, doing something tangible for Sawyer...that might.

“No, not for nothing,” Willow admitted.

Audrey’s smile was firmly back in place as she announced, “Well, this calls for a celebration. School’s officially over. You’ve accomplished your goal.”

“Your goal,” Willow sniped.

Audrey glanced at her. The merest hint of a smile was playing at the edges of Willow’s scowl.

Audrey took that as a good sign. “Hey, no matter who set the goal, it’s been met, so we’re celebrating.”

“You all look for reasons to celebrate,” Willow groused. After a pause, she added, “What do you have in mind?”

“I know just the thing,” Audrey assured her.

“Quinoa salad?” Willow teased.

Again, Audrey felt encouraged. Maybe she was finally reaching Willow. She wanted to. She’d been doing everything she could think of since the day the teenager walked into her house.

“Something even better,” she assured Willow. “Yeah, I know it’s hard to believe there’s anything better, but this might qualify. We’ll do dinner at home, then head out.”

They drove the five minutes back to her house and found Maggie May waiting at the front door when they pulled in.

“So how did it go?” she called as Audrey and Willow got out of the car.

When Audrey had bought her house in Wesleyville—a borough between the city of Erie and the Harborcreek home they’d just come from—she’d thought the small house with the big yard had everything she needed. She’d slowly renovated and rehabbed the house until it had everything she wanted, as well.

But it turned out the small house had one huge bonus that no real estate agent could have known about. It had come with Maggie Mayberry as a next-door neighbor.

Maggie May, as the kids called her, was somewhere south of sixty and widowed. She had watched the kids during summer vacations since they’d moved in. Over the past few years Maggie had become more than a neighbor; she’d become family.

“He said yes,” Willow said. “I had to threaten him, though,” she added with a grin.

“With?” Maggie asked.

“Quinoa.” Willow said it as if it were a curse word.

“Hey, you said quinoa was better than you thought,” Audrey protested.

Willow and Maggie both laughed. “It is good,” Audrey protested even as she joined in.

“Congratulations, Willow,” Maggie said.

“We’re going to go to the peninsula tonight,” Audrey told her. “You’re invited for dinner and a sunset.”

“Ask me next time,” Maggie May said. “We both know there will be a next time sooner rather than later. I’ve got a date tonight.”

“Do tell?” Audrey said.

Maggie offered her a small, mysterious smile. “It’s only our second one. If he makes it past date five, I’ll tell.”

“I’ll be waiting,” Audrey assured her.

As Maggie disappeared into her own home, Willow said, “A sunset? We’re going to celebrate with a sunset?”

“Have you ever gone out to the peninsula for sunset?” Audrey countered.

“No.” Willow’s tone made it obvious that she didn’t think a sunset could qualify as much of a celebration.

“Then give it a try and tell me later what you think.”

The sunsets on Erie’s Presque Isle peninsula were one of her favorite parts of summer. When she sat on the rocky beach staring out at the western horizon, all she could see was water and sky. The world seemed limitless.

“A sunset...” Willow muttered as she stalked into the house.

Audrey sighed. Willow had only lived with her since February—not quite half a year. One day soon she’d really reach her.

She just had to keep trying and be patient.

Unfortunately, patience wasn’t one of Audrey’s greatest gifts.

It wasn’t even a minor gift, if she was being honest with herself.

She picked up the mail, placed the bills in one pile and dropped the junk mail in another. There was one envelope that was obviously neither. She opened it and felt sick. It was an invitation to her ten-year high school reunion, the last Saturday in August at the Bayfront Convention Center.

Her heart sank. She didn’t want to go. She doubted that Merrill or Ava would be there, and other than the two of them, there was no one she really wanted to see. Actually, she wasn’t even sure she wanted to see Merrill and Ava. They’d kept in touch, but only just barely since high school.

She didn’t want to look back. There was nothing to be gained by it.

“Aud,” Clinton and Bea shouted in unison.

Audrey crumpled the invitation and put it in the recycle pile. She turned her attention to the kids.

“It’s official,” Clinton announced. “We’re on summer vacation.”

“And Willow finally convinced Mr. Williams to let her mow his lawn,” Audrey said.

“Good for you, Willow,” Clinton called up the stairs. Audrey guessed the girl had made a beeline for her bedroom, confirmed moments later by the sound of a door slamming.

Clinton was only a year younger than Willow, but in so many ways he was much older. He’d grown up too soon and she knew that part of that was her fault. She felt a familiar stab of pain. She’d done her best to give him a childhood, but she wasn’t always sure that her best had been good enough. At least she had given him security and a family.

“I thought we’d go to the beach to celebrate the official start to our summer and Willow’s successful campaign.”

“Sunset,” Bea squealed. “Our first one of the year. It’s still too cold to swim, right?”

It had been a brutal winter that hadn’t given way to spring until almost April. Two months hadn’t been enough to warm the Great Lake up enough for Audrey to swim, or even dunk her toes. “Well, too cold for me,” she told the ten-year-old.

Bea’s long brown braid bounced against her back. Bianca Cruz was built of sturdier stuff than Audrey. Over the winter, while Audrey had dressed in layers, Bea had walked around barefoot. “I’ll put my suit on just in case.”

“A sunset?” Willow said as she came back into the room and stared at her foster siblings. “Really, that’s your idea of a celebration?” She walked up to the counter, grabbed an apple and then went up the stairs again. Moments later, her bedroom door slammed.

“I don’t think she’s impressed,” Clinton said with typical dry humor.

“That’s because she hasn’t experienced one yet,” Audrey said with more optimism than she felt.

“You might not win her over, Aud,” he said softly. “You might have to concede to that someday.”

“It doesn’t matter. She needs us, even if she doesn’t want to admit it. Everyone needs someone. I was lucky that I had you to work for, to fight for. And now Willow’s got us, even if she doesn’t want us.”

Clinton was too old to hug much anymore, but he made an exception this once and squeezed her tight. He was taller than she was now.

“All we can do is try,” Clinton said with his old-man wisdom.

Audrey nodded. “Let’s make short work of dinner so we can get out to the beach in time for that sunset.”

* * *

A COUPLE HOURS LATER, she sat on a blanket, one arm wrapped around the very damp Bea, watching as the sun neared the edge of the horizon.

It had been a lovely evening. She’d even coaxed Willow into joining the family selfie. Now, if only she could get the girl to enjoy herself.

“Really, you guys, this isn’t a celebration, it’s a...” Willow started to complain again.

“Shh,” Bea said. “We’ll miss it.” Her teeth chattered as she pulled the towel more tightly around her.

Audrey still couldn’t believe that Bea had braved the lake. No one else would join her. Not even Clinton, and Bea could normally persuade him to do almost anything.

“Miss what?” Willow asked.

Bea’s teeth chattered as she said, “Audrey knows a lady who owns a chocolate shop in town. The lady says if you listen hard enough, sometimes you can hear the sun hiss when it hits the water.”

Willow scoffed. “Oh, come on...”

Audrey caught Clinton glaring at Willow, as if warning her against hurting Bea’s feelings. His look was enough to shut down Willow’s rant before it really started.

They all knew that logically they’d never hear the sun hit the water, but that didn’t stop them from trying every summer.

Slowly, the sun drew closer and closer to the distant horizon where Lake Erie met the sky. The clouds overhead parted just enough to allow a small band of color to show through. Tonight it was a brilliant pinkish orange.

Seconds later the sun sank below the horizon and disappeared, the color of the sky fading to a lavender blue.

Audrey let out the breath she hadn’t realized she was holding.

“Did anyone hear it?” Bea asked.

“Not this time,” Audrey said.

“Me, neither.” Clinton shrugged. “Guess we’ll have to try again next week.”

“How about you?” Audrey asked Willow.

The teenager shook her head. “Of course I didn’t. That’s really stupid.”

“Aud’s friend says when her son was little, they always listened,” Clinton admonished. “They thought they heard it once.”

Willow looked as if she was going to argue, but Audrey headed her off. “We all know it’s just a charming story, Willow. But like a favorite fairy tale, we enjoy it. We come out weekly during the summer to try and hear that hiss.”