One Season of Sunshine

by Julia London

  Helen had manipulated her fair share of situations with Asher and Susanna through the years, but this was way out of line. “I think she could use some family time,” Asher said and looked at Riley.

  “We’re just going to have a little girl time first,” Helen said. “She’ll be home after the movie.”

  “When is that?” Asher asked.

  “Eight,” Riley said, her gaze still on the floor.

  Asher looked at Helen, then at Jane. He didn’t want Riley to go, but neither did he want to force the issue with Jane. His instincts told him that would be worse. “I’d really appreciate it if you would check with me next time,” he said to Helen. “We’ve got a lot of rebuilding to do, and I need your cooperation.”

  “Whatever you want, Ash. But given the circumstances . . .” She smiled.

  Asher looked at Riley. “Eight,” he said.

  “Fine,” she muttered and walked out the door.

  “Good night,” Helen said crisply.

  Asher watched them walk out to Helen’s car, then slowly shut the door. He looked at Jane. “What do you think?”

  “I think it’s going to take some time with Riley.”

  “I think you’re dead right,” he said and put his arm around her shoulders. “I hope you brought your armor. Thirteen-year-old girls have some pretty sharp claws.”

  Jane smiled. “Tell me about it. But I have hope that Riley will get used to the idea. It’s your mother-in-law I’m worried about.”

  Asher looked out the sidelight as Helen’s car drove out the gate.

  “Hey,” Jane said. “Where’s that world-famous pizza?”

  38

  Asher and Jane’s reunion felt magical to Asher. He couldn’t believe she was back in his house, laughing at the things he said, reading books with Levi, tossing out suggestions for desserts that had him doing all the preparation and her all the eating. He was happy, truly happy. They could make this work. Love would conquer all this time. . . .

  But he really wished Riley was with them tonight.

  He was anxious for her to come home and was relieved when eight o’clock rolled around. By 8:30, she still hadn’t come home, and he agreed with Jane that perhaps the movie had run long. He looked it up on the Internet. It had ended at 7:30.

  “Maybe they stopped to get a burger or something,” Jane said. “I am sure Helen wouldn’t be too late.”

  He called Helen. “Oh . . . Linda Gail is bringing them,” Helen said airily. “Didn’t I tell you?”

  “No, you didn’t tell me,” Asher said angrily. “I thought you were taking them to the movie.”

  “Honestly, Asher, I just dropped her off. She was so distraught about your affair—”

  “Helen—”

  “She just wanted out of the house!”

  “Fine. Thanks. Don’t show up here again to take my daughter without clearing it through me first,” he said. He hung up and called Riley’s cell again. No answer.

  “I’m worried,” he said when Jane came down from putting Levi to bed. “I’m calling Linda Gail.”

  “Hello, Asher,” Linda Gail said cheerfully when he got her on the phone. “The girls giving you trouble already?”

  Asher’s heart stopped. “What do you mean? I thought you were bringing them home from the movies.”

  “No,” Linda Gail said slowly. “Tracy said she was spending the night with Riley. Oh, my God,” Linda Gail said angrily. “I am going to kill her! Let me call her—I’ll get right back to you.”

  But Linda Gail couldn’t reach her daughter, either.

  “This is my fault,” Asher said after Linda Gail called back.

  “It’s no one’s fault but Riley’s,” Jane said and squeezed his hand. “Don’t worry. She’s fine.”

  “Yeah, well, she won’t be when I get my hands on her. I may just strangle some sense into her.” That was if his fear didn’t strangle him first. He pulled on a windbreaker. “I have to go look for her.”

  “Where are you going to look?” Jane asked.

  “I don’t know. But I can’t sit here and wait.”

  “Try the Saddle-brew. I’ve seen kids around there at night,” she said and kissed him quickly. “I’ll stay with Levi. Go. Go find her, Asher.”

  Asher tried. He drove the streets of Cedar Springs, panicked and angry and uncertain what to do. He drove past the movie theater, down near the middle school, and up Main Street, to the square. He went into the Saddle-brew. No Riley. Fear was beginning to choke him when Jane called him to tell him the sheriff’s office had Riley in a holding cell.

  Fortunately, Cedar Springs didn’t have a lot of crime, and when Asher strode through the small entrance of the sheriff’s office, he saw Riley on the other side of a glass wall, sitting on a bench. She seemed so small and so young. She was dirty and disheveled, her hair had leaves or something in it, and she was missing a shoe.

  Asher almost broke the glass trying to get to her. When they at last let him through, Riley burst into tears. His anger bled out of him, and relief washed over him. He gathered her up and held her tight. “Jesus, Riley, you scared the life out of me,” he said. He cupped her face with his hands and looked at her. “Are you all right?”

  “Sort of,” she said shakily, but another torrent of tears had begun to flow. “I’m so sorry, Dad. I’m so sorry.”

  “It’s okay,” he said, hugging her tightly to him again. “It’s okay. I’m here, baby girl. It’s okay.”

  He didn’t ask her much on the way home; he was so grateful that she was unhurt for the most part. The deputy told him what had happened: she and Tracy and a couple of boys had used the movies as an excuse to go down to the lake. Things had apparently gotten out of hand between Riley and the boy she’d been with, and she’d tried to walk out of the woods and walk home. They’d picked her up walking along the side of the road.

  Asher’s heart sank to his toes when he heard that. He could only imagine what might have happened to his daughter if a patrol car hadn’t happened by. He wanted to shake her for being so foolish, to rant at her for being so reckless, but he couldn’t. He could only hold her hand. Tightly.

  Jane was waiting when they walked into the house. “Oh, Riley,” she said, touching her fingers to the leaves in Riley’s hair. “Are you all right?”

  Riley burst into tears again and threw her arms around Jane.

  Jane hugged her tightly for a moment. “Come here,” she said, leading Riley into the living room. The two of them sat on the couch. Asher remained standing, too worked up to sit. “Can you tell us what happened?” Jane asked softly.

  Riley sniffed. She rubbed her fingers under her nose. “It was Tracy’s idea,” she said. “She really likes Jason, but she can’t date yet, and so . . . so she had this idea.”

  She told them how Mike Howser’s big brother Wade picked up the four young teens from the theater and drove them down to the public access ramp on the lake and set them free.

  “It was really dark,” she said. “So Mike and Jason built a fire. They had a bottle of schnapps, and Mike and Jason and Tracy were drinking it, but I didn’t, because I remembered all those times Mom would get drunk and pass out, and I hate the smell of it.”

  Asher clenched his fist to keep from hitting something. “Didn’t you know I was calling you?” he demanded. “Why didn’t you answer the phone?”

  “Because,” she said tearfully, “I didn’t want to talk to you. I wanted to be bad. I wanted to hurt you for everything you’ve done, for Mom dying and taking Jane—”

  “Oh, sweetie,” Jane said, putting her arm around Riley and hugging her. “He didn’t take me from you.”

  “Riley, honey,” Asher said as he crouched down before her. “Jane is here now. She’s here for all of us. We want to be a family.”

  “We can’t be a family!” Riley said. “What about Mom?”

  “I’m not your mom, Riley, and I will never try to be your mom. But I’d at least like to be someone you can talk to. You don’t have to
do anything bad to get our attention.”

  Riley looked at her lap. “I just wanted to do something really bad, and then . . . then Mike wanted me to do something, and I didn’t want to do it. I didn’t want to be like them.”

  Asher could feel the blood drain from his face. He would kill that punk. “What happened?” he asked tightly. “What did he do to you?”

  Riley seemed to shrink into Jane’s side.

  “Asher,” Jane said quietly and put her hand on his arm. Asher looked down at her hand. “Do you mind if Riley and I go upstairs to her room and talk?” Jane asked.

  He didn’t want to leave Riley.

  “I think she might be more comfortable up there,” Jane said pointedly, and Riley nodded.

  He was afraid to let her out of his sight, but he clenched his jaw and put his hand on his daughter’s head. “Are you going to be okay, Ri?”

  “Yes,” she said meekly. She stood when Jane stood, leaning limply into Jane’s side, allowing Jane to lead her upstairs.

  Asher realized he was shaking, he was so angry. He walked outside to get control of himself.

  Upstairs, Jane put Riley’s clothes in the laundry while Riley showered. She emerged a few minutes later looking like her old self in girly pajamas, then crawled on top of her bed and lay on her side.

  “Feeling better?” Jane asked.

  Riley nodded.

  “Do you want to talk?” Jane asked.

  “No.”

  Jane turned to go, but Riley said, “Mike wanted me to put my mouth on him,” she said. “You know . . . on his thing. Because I told him I’d done it loads of times.”

  “Oh,” Jane said, feeling a little sick. “Did you?” Say no. No, no . . .

  “No,” Riley said to Jane’s great relief. “That’s when I left. I didn’t know what I was supposed to do with it, and it felt really weird.”

  Thank God for that, Jane thought silently. “You know you never have to do that, right? Boys who respect you won’t ask you to do that if you’re not comfortable.”

  Riley frowned. “I don’t know. Everyone talks about it, and I think everyone does it. Tracy and Jason were making out, and I just had to get out of there. But that made Mike really mad and I thought he was going to hurt me,” she said, tearing up again.

  Jane drew a steadying breath and sat on the edge of the bed. “Did he?”

  Riley shook her head. “He tried, but I ran away, and I lost my shoe and my iPhone, and it was so dark and wet and I didn’t know where I was, and then I heard a car and I thought I was going to be murdered and Dad and Levi would see my face on an episode of America’s Most Wanted.” Tears were cascading down her face now. “And Dad would be so sad, because he would have lost his wife and his daughter, and I just wanted to go home, but red and blue lights were everywhere and I was going to jail!”

  Jane’s heart ached for Riley. She loved her. She loved both of these motherless children, and it was painful to see Riley hurt and scared and so vulnerable. She wanted to wrap her arms around Riley and keep her safe. Yes, she belonged here with these kids. She belonged with Riley now, and she moved, stretching out next to Riley on the bed. “Wow. That was a pretty bad night.”

  “I feel like Janis Joplin,” Riley said. “I did all night. I kept thinking about what you said, how she didn’t fit in with the other kids.”

  “I know. I feel that way sometimes, too. Like no one gets me, you know?”

  “Yes,” Riley said tearfully. “I don’t know how guys and girls get together,” Riley said. “It doesn’t make sense.”

  “It’s weird,” Jane agreed. “Sometimes it seems like there is no reason for it. But sometimes, it feels like you’ve known that person all your life and it feels really natural.”

  Riley didn’t say anything.

  “Are you okay?” Jane whispered.

  “Yes. I’m just mad. Tracy is a liar. And Mike Howser is just . . . gross.”

  Jane agreed.

  “I want to move from here,” Riley said. “I can’t go back to school now. Do you think we can move?”

  Riley said “we,” Jane couldn’t help noticing. “I don’t know,” she said honestly. “Maybe. Where would you want to move?”

  Riley shrugged. “Maybe Houston. We could all work in your restaurant. I mean, except Levi.”

  Jane smiled at the ceiling. “Maybe.”

  “But I’m not washing dishes. I’ll be the girl out front who gives you the menus.”

  “Okay,” Jane said. “I’ll wash dishes. I’m pretty good at that.”

  “Just don’t cook. Let Dad cook.”

  Jane grinned and laced her fingers with Riley’s. “Deal,” she said.

  It was, Jane thought, a start. A fragile start, but a start nonetheless.

  Jane stayed with Riley until she fell asleep. She made her way downstairs then.

  The back door was open; Asher was on the patio, a beer bottle dangling from his fingers, his head tilted back as he looked up at the night sky.

  It was a brilliant night sky Jane noticed as she walked out; the clouds had finally broken and there was nothing but the majesty of billions of stars twinkling above them. She slipped her arm around Asher’s waist and rested her cheek against his shoulder. She could feel the tension in his body.

  “How is she?”

  There was anxiety in his voice. “Tired,” she said. “Scared. Bewildered, disappointed, you name it.”

  “Is she hurt? Did that kid—”

  “No, no,” Jane said. “She’s okay, Asher. She was smart—she got out of that situation before it got out of hand.” She smiled. “Your little girl is a survivor. She’s going to be okay. She’s going to be great. She actually talked about all of us moving to Houston to work in the restaurant.”

  “Do what?” he asked incredulously.

  Jane laughed softly. “At least she was talking about the four of us. I thought it was a small step in the right direction.” She looked up at the stars.

  “She’s grounded,” Asher said. “And there will be no new cell phone, at least not for a while. And I’ll be paying a visit to the sheriff tomorrow to talk about this Mike Howser kid.”

  “I knew you would,” Jane said.

  Asher looked up and released a long breath. “Are the stars making you hungry tonight?” he asked, harking back to the night he’d found her floating in the pool.

  “No, tonight I feel very glittery,” Jane said. “Like a constellation.” She used to know the constellations and where to find them, but the details had faded from her mind. “Andromeda,” she said, recalling one. “Yeah, I feel like Andromeda. I’m not alone in that big vast sky, because I have my stars around me.” She looked up at him. “We’re a cluster, the four of us.”

  “We’re a cluster, huh?” Asher said thoughtfully. He smiled down at her and caught a wisp of her hair, tucking it behind her ear. “We’re going to make it, aren’t we?”

  “We’re going to make it,” Jane affirmed, and looked up at what she thought, perhaps, was Andromeda—a small but glittery cluster of stars, standing out in a sea of billions.

  INTRODUCTION

  Determined to find a missing piece of her past and her own identity, elementary school teacher Jane Aaron cancels her summer vacation plans and goes to Cedar Springs, Texas, to find her birth mother. Asher Price, a wealthy advertising executive whose wife was killed in a car accident two years ago, hires Jane to look after his thirteen-year-old daughter, Riley, and five-year-old son, Levi. Around town, Jane learns that Asher’s late wife had a drinking problem and suffered from bipolar disorder, making life for those around her difficult.

  As June turns into July, Jane finds herself growing attached to Riley and Levi and discovers how a woman can come to love children she didn’t give birth to, just as her adoptive mother must have done. She and Asher are falling in love with each other, but he refuses to talk about his late wife, whose presence still fills the house. At summer’s end, Jane goes back home to her teaching job in Houston broke
n-hearted. But when her mother remembers a clue that takes her back to Cedar Springs, Jane learns more about her birth mother and why she gave Jane up.

  DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

  The book opens with Susanna’s wild ride and her devastating car crash. Discuss the author’s choice of this scene for the prologue. How does Susanna’s rather glorious death inform the rest of the book?

  Jane is intent on finding her birth mother. Do you agree with her cousin Vicki, that some things are best left unknown?

  Why does Jane feel the need to uproot her whole life and move to Cedar Springs? What does she feel she needs that can’t be accomplished in phone calls and weekend trips?

  Jane’s decisions impact those around her, but she doesn’t consider anyone else when she makes her abrupt departures and returns. She also refuses to consider that her birth mother might want to retain her privacy and not be found. Is Jane selfish or just driven?

  Jane has a fantastic, supportive family, a job, friends, and a great boyfriend. Why does she still feel incomplete? How would you feel in her situation—would you be content with the life you’d built, or would you need to know more about your past to inform your future?

  Jane puts her life on hold to move to Cedar Springs, but once there, she is very slow to get started on researching her birth mother, and puts off her thesis entirely. Why is she stalling?

  Do you see anything symbolic about the name of Asher’s house, “Summer’s End”?

  One Season of Sunshine has a great cast of supporting characters, such as Laru, the small-town busybody who knows everyone; Vicki, Jane’s outspoken cousin; Riley, Asher’s difficult but sweet preteen daughter; and Levi, Asher’s precocious five-year-old son. Who was your favorite, and why?