Three Days on Mimosa Lane (A Seasons of the Heart Novel)

by Anna DeStefano

  He kissed her, sweetly, like the love they’d made that morning before their walk, and after, while their boys slept and the world came to life around them and the future opened up for all the new dreams they were fighting together to make come true: Brian’s plans for his new venture with Jefferson, not to mention managing the Kelseys’ remodel; Sam’s goal to get more involved in their sons’ and their community’s worlds. He rested his forehead against hers in silent understanding of how far they’d come. Then with a wink, her husband headed out the door after Joshua, leaving Sam smiling at her eldest son, her fingers pressed to her lips.

  “A little nuts?” Cade asked. “Mom, it’s just a few people at the park.”

  She nodded, and maybe in the past she would have tried to shrug the moment away, without letting him see too much of her fear. But they’d agreed to talk with each other about what was going on from now on, especially if one of them was having a hard time. And Sam’s new therapist, a PTSD specialist who was helping her minimize the severity and frequency of her panic attacks, had said talking before doing things she knew would make her tense would go a long way toward lessening their potential impact.

  “It’s not the people…” she said. “It’s…”

  “The essays,” her son finished.

  In a matter of minutes, they would be reading their Expressions essays to their friends and neighbors.

  “I know,” he said. “I don’t really want to read mine, either. But I do, in a way. Like Dr. Mueller says, talking about it gets it out there, and then it’s not so crowded inside. That’s when you get to think about and feel other things.”

  Cade’s therapist had turned out to be a godsend. So had the couple’s counselor Sam and Brian were talking with every other week. And so had writing their essays—she and Brian doing one together about their 9/11 experience, and Cade and Nate writing one about the Chandler shooting. They’d all worked through so much.

  But one of the things that had done the most good for their family had been sitting outside in the garden the night both essays were finished, and sharing what they’d written with the whole family. That had been scary for everyone, and there’d been a lot of questions and a few tears. But since then, there seemed to have been nothing that they didn’t feel safe talking through together.

  “How did we get roped into doing this?” she asked.

  “I know, right?” Her son shoved one hand into the new khakis they’d had to buy for today, because he’d already outgrown the ones he’d needed for his Chandler graduation ceremony. “My stomach feels kind a like…”

  “You’re going to lose your doughnuts? Yeah, me too.” Sam stepped a little closer to her twelve-year-old and the day ahead of them. “The Turners are probably waiting for us at the park. That’s part of what makes this so nice, how close you and Nate have gotten again.”

  “It’s cool how his parents aren’t mad at you and Dad anymore.”

  A lot more of the uproar from the shooting had died down. Kristen’s contract had been renewed. Roy’s might not be, when it expired at the end of the just-started new school year. And Sam—she was actually considering substitute teaching a little at Chandler.

  “It’s been a crazy summer,” she agreed. “It’s been a good summer.”

  Cade nodded. He was looking more like his father by the day. But he was talking now about maybe wanting to be a teacher when he grew up—like Sam.

  “I can’t believe we’re doing this,” he said.

  “It takes a lot of courage to write about your fears.”

  “It takes more to know other people are going to read about them, too.”

  It had been a shock, the call from Kristen saying that both essays had won national awards and were to be included in a slide show that had been e-published on the Fourth of July. The local news had picked up the story. A few networks had called about special-interest features tying in Bubba’s death and Troy’s upcoming trial. Both their family and the Turners had declined to go on the record talking about the shooting again.

  But when Julia had suggested they share what they’d written in person at the Mimosa Lane Labor Day picnic… it had seemed right to everyone, even Sam.

  “I’m so glad,” she said, “that your dad and I got to share our story with you and Joshua first. You guys will be who your dad and I are thinking about today when we’re reading for everyone else. Having you and your brother has changed our lives. You’ve given us a new dream to make come true, that we could never have dreamed on our own.”

  Cade and Joshua, and all the children who learned how to love and care about one another despite how harsh their world might be, were the heroes Sam and Brian had written about. Sam’s children in New York. Her and Brian’s boys. Nate and Sally, and the other kids from Mrs. Baxter’s class who were thriving now, many of them peer counselors in their new junior high school. And all the children in the world fighting to grow up and make it a better place, instead of tearing things and people down.

  “I’ll be thinking about Bubba and Troy,” Cade said.

  “I know, buddy.”

  Bubba and Troy had been who Cade and Nate had written about. They’d rewritten that entire day at Chandler, only they’d shown Bubba and Troy making different choices, and Cade and Nate making different choices, so that no one was hurt, and Troy got the help he needed, and Bubba realized how much he needed to stop being, as the essay said, such a butthead to everyone.

  “You and Nate did a wonderful job,” she said. “But I know how hard it will be for you to read it out loud. It will probably be hard for some people to hear.”

  There was no telling how many of their neighbors from the lane would be there. Julia and Walter were coming for certain. They were pouring their free time these days into making Walter’s dream of a community bowling center a reality. Meanwhile Walter was doing freelance work for a local accounting firm, and he hadn’t taken a drink since that day at McCradey’s. Mallory and Pete and Polly would be there. Mallory and Pete had married in June, with Polly as their flower girl and Sam as Mallory’s matron of honor. And at the picnic, Polly would be announcing that she’d be getting a new baby brother or sister come next April.

  As for the rest of their audience…

  “You know,” Sam said. “I heard that Chuck and Charlotte Dickerson might be coming. Are you going to be okay if they’re there?”

  Cade shrugged.

  The Dickersons had stopped by one night a few weeks ago, and they’d asked to talk to Cade. Chuck and Charlotte had wanted to say they didn’t blame him for what happened to Bubba. They didn’t even blame Troy anymore. They’d dropped their lawsuit against the Wilmingtons and were moving soon. If they came today, this would be their last Mimosa Lane event. They were starting over somewhere else, the way Sam and Brian once had. They hadn’t wanted to leave any bad feelings behind, though. They’d visited with the Turners, too.

  “I guess it would be okay,” her son said. “I mean, we give Bubba a chance to do the right thing in what we wrote. We’re giving him a chance to teach other kids how to do the right thing, Mrs. Baxter said when she read our essay. And I guess we must have done something right if it won the Courage Award in the competition. But…” Cade shrugged again. “It still makes me afraid sometimes, to talk about it.”

  “I know it does.” Sam checked her watch.

  It was getting close to the time Julia had set for Kristen to present their award certificates in front of the neighborhood. But Sam didn’t want to rush this moment. It was too important.

  “You might always feel that way a little,” she said. “But you and Nate are already doing such inspirational things because of what you’ve learned. Don’t stop now. Keep feeling and making that count, even if it’s scary. You’ll never be alone as long as you keep sharing what’s going on inside you.”

  As a writer.

  Or a teacher.

  Or whatever else this amazing kid decided he wanted to be.

  Her son and his friends had
started antibullying support groups at their junior high school. Cade was talking about running for student council his eighth-grade year, on a platform of tolerance and acceptance. Who knew? Maybe he’d decide to be a counselor himself, or a politician.

  “I’m proud of you.”

  Sam blinked at her son’s words. She’d been about to say the same thing to him. And suddenly she lost her battle to stay cool. She closed the distance between them, smothering Cade in a hug.

  “I’m so proud of you, too,” she said, chuckling as he hugged her back, tight, and then shoved her away with the kind of enthusiasm possessed only by almost-teenage boys being hugged by their mothers. “I owe your father five dollars. He bet me I wouldn’t make it out of the house without doing that.”

  “Well, Joshie owes me doing dishes tonight when we get home. He bet me you wouldn’t embarrass yourself until we got to the picnic.”

  Sam looped an arm around Cade’s shoulder and steered him toward the open door to the garden.

  “How about we go embarrass ourselves together?” she challenged.

  Her son grinned, half hugging her back. And then they walked out into Mimosa Lane’s beautiful sunlight together.

  Acknowledgments

  Thank you to my mother-in-law, Jo DeStefano, for first telling me the story of the brave teachers working in the schools surrounding Ground Zero.

  Though this novel is in all ways a work of fiction, it is my genuine attempt to imagine a heroic and happy ending for the untold sacrifices made that traumatic day twelve years ago.

  About the Author

  ANNA DESTEFANO

  Anna DeStefano is the award-winning, nationally best-selling author of twenty novels, including Christmas on Mimosa Lane, Secret Legacy, Dark Legacy, and the Atlanta Heroes series. Born in Charleston, South Carolina, she has lived in the South her entire life. Her background as a care provider and adult educator in the world of crisis and grief recovery lends itself to the deeper psychological themes of every story she writes.

  With a rich blend of realism and fantasy, DeStefano invites readers to see each of life’s moments with emotional honesty and clarity. Her writing has been recognized with numerous awards, including twice winning the Romantic Times Reviewer’s Choice Award, the Holt Medallion, the Golden Heart, and the Maggie Award for excellence. She has also been a finalist in the National Reader’s Choice and Book Seller’s Best awards.

  Join Anna each week on her blog: www.annawrites.com/blog.

  Don’t miss the next Seasons of the Heart novel!

  Kristen Hemmings finds her own happily ever after…

  Love on Mimosa Lane

  Coming early 2014

  For a man who’d sworn off women, Law Beaumont was fixated. He was mesmerized. He was staring at the assistant principal who’d requested a meeting with him at his daughter’s elementary school, the way he hadn’t taken in the sight of a woman since he’d divorced.

  But Kristen Hemmings was what songs were made of. She was poetry. She was tall and curvy and so clearly confident in her own skin. And her smile as she knelt in front of his anxious child was pure sunshine—her gentle intensity soaking into Chloe.

  “Am I in trouble?” the third-grader asked, gutting Law with her worry and the scared look she shot him while he finished crossing the playground.

  “Of course not,” the assistant principal said. Kristen had called his daughter over when she’d noticed Law.

  “But my dad is here.” Chloe stared at the ground as he stopped beside them. “My mom won’t like it if—”

  “You’re not in trouble, sweetie.” Kristen stood. Her gaze slid over Law, challenging the indifference he was determined to maintain, no matter what new hassle his ex had stirred up.

  “Then why am I here?” he asked. He was over being questioned every damn time he turned around about how he lived his life.

  Bright green eyes narrowed, a second before the assistant principal reached out her hand. Chloe’s attention zinged back and forth between them.

  “Dad?” Chloe asked.

  “It’s okay, darlin’.” Instead of shaking Kristen’s hand, he gently cupped the back of his daughter’s head.

  “I need your help, Mr. Beaumont.” The assistant principal dropped her arm to her side. “You and your daughter’s.”

  Her dad being at school meant something bad, no matter what Ms. Hemmings said. Chloe knew it.

  The one school day a week she stayed with her dad, he always went back to sleep after she left on the bus. When she got home in the afternoon, he was usually still tired. But he’d be up by then, making her laugh and taking her out for hamburgers and milkshakes for dinner—even on days like today when he’d come home late last night, and he’d stayed up even later arguing with her mom over the phone.

  Mom had probably been mad that he’d worked the closing shift at the bar again. What’s the point of him asking the judge for more time with my daughter, she kept saying to everyone, if he isn’t ever home when Chloe’s there? And people would nod and agree with her. Except Chloe knew her mom didn’t really want her all the time—Mom just didn’t want Chloe with her dad.

  Now her dad was at school instead of sleeping the way he should be today. And he looked a little sick, only he didn’t smell like he was drinking again—not like Mom told people he was. He looked… weird, so Chloe hadn’t run to him when she’d first seen him.

  It had been stupid, how she’d thought right off that maybe he’d come to check her out early, so they could do something together all day, before he had to drop her off at her mom’s after dinner. Maybe they’d go to the zoo in Atlanta, she’d thought. He took her there a lot, even though she’d been going since she was a little girl. She loved it, and he loved her, and the Atlanta Zoo had the best milkshakes, so he always took her when she asked. They’d go every week if she wanted, he’d promised—until the animals got sick of them and the zoo threw them out.

  Her dad was the best, no matter what anyone said.

  But when he’d stepped outside the school just now, she’d gotten scared for some reason, like she did when her parents fought. He’d been looking at Ms. Hemmings weird, and Chloe had suddenly been afraid of what he might do, or what Ms. Hemmings would say.

  “How can I possibly help you?” he asked the assistant principal. He dug his hands into his jeans pockets. He did that when he was upset, and he wanted to look like he wasn’t feeling anything at all.

  “Can I go now?” Hanging with her dad and the assistant principal in front of her whole class was so not cool.

  He’d never come to school before, and Ms. Hemmings didn’t want help. She probably wanted to talk about the divorce. Again. And who cared? Like half the kids in Chloe’s grade had parents who’d split.

  No one thought it was a big deal that hers had too—except for Ms. Hemmings and Chloe’s dad and her mom. All that mattered to the kids at Chandler was who they hung out with at school and on weekends, and who they talked to at night about what had happened that day. And the most popular girls in third grade talked to Chloe all the time. Which made everything okay still, no matter what had changed.

  But Brooke and Summer had been watching from the swings since Ms. Hemmings called Chloe away. They were talking to each other now and laughing and kept looking over at Chloe like she was the joke.

  “Can I go?” She put more pleeaaaase into the way she smiled up at her dad. That usually worked with him.

  Without checking with Ms. Hemmings, he nodded, giving in like he always did these days, because he felt so guilty most of the time. Chloe ran before he could change his mind…

 

 

 
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