by Lauren Carr
“What’s wrong?” Cameron asked. “Don’t tell me that female skunk is stalking Irving again.”
Donny shook his head.
“I saw her last night again,” Izzy called to Cameron from the living room, where she was reading on the sofa. “Why don’t we catch her, have her deskunked, and let her and Irving get married?”
“No,” Cameron and Donny said in unison.
“You look scared to death, Donny,” Cameron said. “What happened?”
“Dad is going to blow a gasket.” His voice was low. Making a waving motion with both hands, he said, “We’re talking a mushroom cloud right here in Chester, directly over our house.”
“Was it something I did?” she whispered. What would make Josh so angry? Shaking Donny, she demanded that he tell her what had happened.
“J.J.’s gone.”
Covering her mouth with her hand, she gasped. “How? What happened? When?”
“Less than fifteen minutes ago,” Donny said. “He came in, packed up all his stuff, put it in his car, and drove off. He left a note for Dad up on his bed.”
Her stunned horror evaporated into disgust. “You mean he left! You had me thinking he was dead!” As the impact of what Donny had said seeped in, she asked, “Did he say why?”
“He’s moving in with Suellen!”
“Who’s Suellen?”
Izzy sat up on the sofa. “Yeah, who’s Suellen? Was she at his graduation?”
“Suellen Russell,” Joshua said as he stepped through the front door.
“I thought you had a court appearance,” Cameron said.
“It went fast,” he said before turning back to Donny. “J.J.’s car isn’t here.”
“He left a note for you upstairs.”
Silently, like a man walking the last mile to the gallows, Joshua climbed the stairs to go to what had been his son’s bedroom.
Donny, who had been the youngest child before his parents had adopted Izzy, had taken over the third-floor attic bedroom, which included a sitting area and an entertainment center—a privilege each of his siblings had enjoyed before him. With his old bedroom occupied, J.J. had moved into Donny’s old room—until he had opted to live someplace else.
Upon entering the bedroom, Joshua saw that Donny had not been exaggerating. J.J. had taken all of the few belongings that he’d brought home from law school. The room was exactly as J.J. had found it except for a white envelope resting in the middle of the bed with the word “Dad” printed in J.J.’s handwriting across it.
Lowering himself down onto the bed, Joshua braced himself before opening the letter and reading J.J.’s note to him:
Dear Dad,
Thank you for everything that you’ve done for me. I know about all of the sacrifices that you’ve made for each of us kids, and I truly do appreciate them.
Don’t be mad at me. I’m moving in with Suellen. She needs me, and I want to do this.
I’ll keep to our plan and stay on schedule for the bar exam in September. Text you if I have any questions.
I love you.
J.J.
Crumbling up the note into a tight ball, Joshua hurled it into the corner and covered his face with his hands.
The silence of the empty bedroom whirled around him, accentuating J.J.’s absence.
“I take it Suellen isn’t one of those girls you can bring home to your mother.” With her arms folded across her chest, Cameron leaned into the room through the open doorway.
“Suellen isn’t a girl,” Joshua said. “She’s a woman. Twice J.J.’s age.”
With an “ah,” Cameron sat down on the bed next to him and took his hand. “A cougar? That’s surprising. I thought J.J. was too deep to be interested in cougars.”
“Her name is Suellen Russell,” Joshua said. “Of the Russell Ridge Farms Russells.”
“Huge dairy farm and orchards out by Green Valley Road.”
“Over four thousand acres,” Joshua said with a nod of his head. “Land has been in the family for over five generations.”
Leaning toward him, she whispered, “You need to let it go, Josh. Is Suellen that bad of a person?”
“She seduced my seventeen-year-old son,” Joshua said. “That’s statutory rape. It was the summer before J.J.’s senior year of high school. He had his mind set on Penn State, my law-school alma mater. But that’s out of state.”
“And has a huge tuition,” she said.
“His grades were good enough for a scholarship, and he did graduate summa cum laude and valedictorian,” Joshua said. “But with the out-of-state fees—” He shook his head. “But J.J. was also a music prodigy. Guitar, violin, piano—he could tackle any string instrument like that.” He snapped his fingers. “The music director at Oak Glen had gone to high school with Suellen Russell, and he introduced her to J.J. and asked if she could use her influence as the conductor of the Philadelphia Philharmonic to get him in-state rates to Penn State. A special scholarship.”
With an arched eyebrow, Cameron asked, “But she wanted something from him in return?”
“It wasn’t like that.”
“But she’s a cougar.”
“It wasn’t just sex,” Joshua said. “They did share this love for music that J.J. hadn’t shared with anyone since Valerie’s death.”
“Ah, J.J. has a mommy complex. That’s good to know.”
“It’s not funny, Cameron.”
“You just said they shared more than sex.”
With a heavy sigh, Joshua nodded his head.
“If they had met a matter of months later, after J.J. had become of legal age, would you’ve had a problem with their relationship?” When she received no response, Cameron let out a low laugh. “Really, Josh? Where’s the cutoff date between an appropriate and inappropriate age difference?”
With a shake of his head, Joshua said, “Let’s not go there.”
“We’re already there,” she replied. “Answer this: What if I had been half your age when we met? What if instead of being a stunning forty-year-old, I was a fresh-faced twenty-four-year old. Would you have ignored all the feelings we instantly had for each other instead of asking me out?”
Joshua turned to her. “I never did ask you out.”
“Yes, you did.”
“You ordered me to buy you lunch, and—”
“Later on that night—”
“You showed up here uninvited and unannounced with Irving, and we’ve been together ever since,” he said. “I never asked you out.”
Scratching her head, she said, “I could have sworn—”
“To answer your question,” he said, “there’s no comparison between us and J.J. and Suellen.”
“Are you sure about that?”
“Suellen almost ruined his life,” Joshua said. “She offered him a position in the Philadelphia Philharmonic playing second violin, and he wanted to accept it.”
Cameron gazed at him with wide eyes. “I heard J.J. play piano, and I know he’s good, but I never knew he was a musical prodigy.” Her eyes narrowed. “Did she offer him that because he was that good of a violinist or because he was that good between the sheets?”
Slowly, Joshua shook his head. “Truthfully…I don’t know. I didn’t want to take the chance of that being the case. I had nightmares that J.J. would give up Penn State and the academic scholarships they were offering him and go off to Philadelphia with her, and then she’d get bored with him after a few months, and he’d lose everything. He was determined to go. So…I had to step in. I followed them around like a gumshoer and got pictures of the two of them together. Then I took them to Suellen and threatened to charge her with statutory rape unless she ended things with J.J. and withdrew her offer of a position in the symphony. Even though the relationship was consensual, the scandal from the charges would have been enough to make th
e symphony fire her.” He looked over at Cameron. “She ended it. But she did get J.J. the in-state status on the condition that he play with the Penn State orchestra while he was an undergraduate.”
“Does J.J. know what you did?”
“Of course he does,” Joshua said. “He’s not stupid.”
“So she did what you asked of her,” Cameron said. “You got what you wanted. Now J.J. is no longer a minor. He’s a grown adult. He went to the school you wanted him to go to. He graduated from law school at the top of his class. He fulfilled your desires, and he’s free to do what he wants—have a relationship with the woman he loves. So what’s the problem?”
“She’s a rapist, Cam.” Joshua got up from the bed and whirled around to point his finger at her. “She was a forty-year-old woman, and she seduced a seventeen-year-old boy.”
“Legally, yes.” Slowly, Cameron shook her head. “I didn’t know J.J. then, and I’ll admit that I don’t know him very well now, mainly because of the walls he’s put up between the two of us—and now I’m starting to see why he did that. But I doubt very much that he was an innocent seventeen-year-old when Suellen got her hands on him.” With a shake of her head, she threw up her hand to stop Joshua from objecting. “I’m not talking about sexually innocent. I’m talking about emotionally and mentally innocent. That’s why they have those statutory rape laws in place. To protect those who are emotionally and mentally immature. They’re set by the average rate of maturity for adolescents. But some young people, sometimes because of their environments, mature much faster—which is why some sixteen- or even fifteen-year-olds get tried as adults for murder. Even though they’re technically children, they’re adults in their heads. Now last week, J.J. graduated third in his class. He put himself through law school—not an easy feat—while teaching undergrad prelaw and working an internship.”
“So he’s good at time management,” Joshua said.
“After his mother died, he took care of his younger brothers and sisters,” Cameron said. “What I’m trying to say is that I suspect that emotionally, J.J. is older than his physical years. I don’t think that at seventeen, he was an emotionally fragile, immature little boy who was being sexually manipulated by the big bad cougar. I think you’re hurt because you were looking forward to rebuilding the bond with J.J. that you broke eight years ago, and the woman you blame for breaking it has stepped back into the picture.”
“You’re talking about something you know nothing about.” Joshua pushed past her to escape the room that only served to remind him of his loss.
“Ask yourself this, Josh: Where do you want you and J.J. to be ten years from now?” she said from the doorway after he’d stepped out into the hallway.
Confused by the question, Joshua stopped with his back to her.
“Do you want a relationship with him, or do you want to be strangers?” she asked. “Ball’s in your court, Josh. What you do now will determine where your relationship with your first-born son will end up. He loves her. She clearly loves him—”
“She dumped him as soon as I threatened to ruin her reputation and career.” Joshua whirled around to face her. “If she really loved him, she wouldn’t have broken his heart like that.”
“Maybe she broke his heart because she loved him too much to force him to get up in court and testify to the world about their sexual relationship. Did you ever think about that?” Cameron shouted.
“Guys?” Donny said from the bottom of the stairs.
Joshua and Cameron looked over the stair railing to see that Donny and Izzy were gazing up at them. It was the first time Izzy had seen her adoptive parents fighting, and her eyes were wide.
Cameron looked over at Joshua. Tearing his gaze from them, he turned around and headed down the hallway to their bedroom. As she walked to the railing, she forced a smile onto her face. “We’re just having a passionate discussion. That’s all. We’re okay.”
“Let’s go get some ice cream,” Donny said, urging Izzy to follow him to the kitchen.
“I think I may be emotionally traumatized enough by their fight to need a double helping,” Izzy said.
“Me, too.”
Cameron found Joshua sitting on the bed in their bedroom. She sat down next to him and took his hand in hers. “You love each one of your kids too much to want to be estranged from them,” she said. “Fact is, that’s what’s going to happen with J.J. now if you don’t put the past behind you. Forget about how he and Suellen Russell first got together. That’s all in the past. Ancient history. Fact is, he wants to be with her. Maybe it’ll work out, and they’ll be the poster couple for May-December romances. Or maybe she’ll prove to be the cougar you’re imagining her to be—in which case he’ll need his dad to lean on when the next piece of beefcake enters the picture. But right now— today—the only way J.J. will allow you to be in his life is if you accept Suellen.”
She forced him to look at her. “Like it or not, J.J. now has the upper hand, and he’s smart enough to know it. You can either fold and walk away, or you can stay in the game by putting everything you have into the pot.”
Chapter Two
The Russell Ridge Farm and Orchards
Upon taking the rural country road behind Oak Glen High School, a newcomer to the Northern Panhandle of West Virginia would never realize that he would soon come upon one of the largest dairy farms and some of the largest apple, pear, and peach orchards in the Ohio Valley. The splendid family-owned farm blended into the rolling countryside, which was made up of dense woods, cornfields, hayfields, and horse and cattle farms.
Two miles before a simple Welcome to Pennsylvania sign nailed to the top of a fence post, there was a long paved driveway to the right. The white four-rail fencing appeared to be out of place on the worn country road. A white sign with black block letters told drivers that they’d arrived at Russell Ridge Farm and Orchards. Lined with tall evergreens on both sides, the long driveway crossed a creek that fed a pleasant pond, snaked up a tall hill between two horse pastures, and ended at a long white equestrian barn with black trim and a matching two-story farmhouse resting among an array of floral gardens.
“Wow,” Izzy said from the backseat of Joshua’s SUV when he turned into the driveway.
As she sat in the backseat of the SUV next to Donny, Izzy, who was petite for her age and had a mass of long dark-blond curls, looked like Mutt to Donny’s Jeff.
A die-hard animal lover, she was not as impressed with the big white house as she was with the small herd of horses escorting Joshua’s SUV up the long lane. The herd consisted of three mares and two colts, who stuck close to their mothers. All of the horses were covered in dirt from the pasture. On the passenger’s side of the car, a single black stallion whinnied and bucked as it galloped the length of the fence until the SUV entered the barnyard. Cut off by the fence, the herd passed on the duty of escorting the car to a pack of six dogs of various shapes and sizes.
Joshua pulled up behind Tad’s dark-red SUV, which was parked in front of the six-car garage at the end of the elaborately landscaped yard and garden.
“Are they friendly?” Cameron asked, referencing the dogs. She clutched a freshly purchased apple pie in her lap. She saw by how the dogs were jumping and wagging their tails but not snarling that they did appear to be welcoming them rather than chasing them away.
“Of course they’re friendly.” Without even an ounce of fear, Izzy threw open the door and jumped out of the car. Because she was so tiny, the two largest dogs could have overwhelmed her, but she held her own when they jumped up to lick her face.
“Okay, guys, that’s enough,” she said while pushing their feet down to the ground. She gave each one a pat on the head and offered each one an individual greeting before telling them to introduce her to the horses. Instantly accepting her into the pack, the dogs trotted down to the pasture.
“I guess that means we’re good.”
Donny jumped out of the SUV, at which point he spotted a building next to the home that appeared to be an indoor pool. “Is that a swimming pool?”
“After Suellen’s parents died, she had this house built here because the property where the original house had been built was too rocky for an in-ground pool,” Joshua said. “Suellen’s late husband was a swimmer on the Olympic team. He swam every day.”
Donny went off to inspect the swimming pool.
“So this isn’t the original house?” Careful not to jostle the pie, Cameron climbed out of the SUV while Joshua held the door for her.
“The old farmhouse is on the other side of the orchard, where the dairy barn is,” Joshua said.
“Dad?” J.J. had come out onto the front porch to investigate the dogs’ barking.
Clinging to his arm with both hands, Suellen stood one step behind him. Joshua saw Tad slip out of the open door and move to the porch railing on the other side of the front steps.
“The future of your whole relationship with J.J. depends on how you handle the next few minutes,” Cameron whispered.
“That’s what I like. No pressure,” Joshua said with heavy sarcasm.
J.J. broke away from Suellen to meet Joshua at the bottom of the steps. Unsure of his father’s motives, he had a questioning expression on his face. Like a white flag, a symbol of peace, Cameron held the pie out to him.
Taking in a deep breath, Joshua looked from J.J. to Suellen, who appeared to be holding her breath, and then to Tad, who had his arms folded across his chest. His eyes landed on J.J., who was looking beyond him to Cameron. Upon seeing the pie, surprise crossed J.J.’s face. It was not something he’d expected.
“I’m sorry” was all Joshua was able to get out. It came out as a whisper that only J.J. could hear. “I was rude—”
J.J. cut off his apology with a hug. Holding him close, J.J. whispered, “I love you, Dad. You know that, don’t you?” He patted his father on the back.
Unable to speak, Joshua nodded his head and wrapped his arms around his son.
Not wanting to intrude on the father-son moment, Cameron scurried past them with the peace offering in her outstretched hands. “I have pie.”