Homing (3 page)

"If you'd gone up at spring break with Molly and me, you'd know it's not anything like what you @ think it is," she told Julie.

When her daughter tried to continue the argument, Karen put an end to it by reminding her of what had happened at her school only a few months earlier-a student had opened fire on a teacher, killing the teacher and three teenagers before finally turning the weapon on himself. "At least in Pleasant Valley you'll have a pretty good chance of surviving high school," she said. She'd reached out and pulled Julie close. "Come on, honey, it isn't the end of the world. In fact, if you just give it a chance, it could be the beginning of something wonderful for all of us, not just me. That's all I'm asking, sweetheart. Just give it a chance. Okay?"

The argument had ended, but as they'd driven through Pleasant Valley a few minutes ago, and Julie saw the town where she would finish high school, Karen felt her older daughter's smoldering anger flare up, uttered grumblings.

Molly, on the other hand, was bouncing in the backseat, clutching the ragged teddy bear she'd refused to leave behind and chattering in high-pitched excitement about the colt she was going to see as soon as she got to the farm.

Next week, Karen thought, despite Julie's attitude toward Pleasant valley, she was getting married.

Married to a man she'd grown up with, who had spent his entire life farming half a section of prime land in Pleasant Valley.

Her mother, Karen was certain, must be spinning in her grave, even angrier than Julie.

And Julie, from what she could see as she ventured a glance at her daughter out of the corner of her eye, was plenty angry-angry enough for herself and her grandmother, too.

The car left the paved county road and began bumping farther west along a rutted dirt track that followed a straight line between two emerald-green fields. "Does it get any worse than this?" Julie asked. "I've been afraid the car was going to die ever since we came down the grapevine hours ago."

"What's the grapevine?" Molly demanded from the backseat.

"It's what they call that long steep grade we came down near Gorman," Karen explained to her younger daughter.

And if this doesn't work out, I'm going to need a new car just to get back to L.A., she thought to herself, "And no, it doesn't get any worse than this," she told Julie. "In fact, this is Russell's driveway."

Despite her determination not to be impressed by anything in Pleasant Valley, Julie's eyes widened. "You mean all of this is Russell's?" she asked, surveying the expanse of fields all around them, "How much land does he own?"

'@ hundred and twenty acres," Karen replied. "The buildings are right up ahead."

A quarter of a mile away, Julie could make out a large barn, a silo, and a few smaller buildings. Then, separated from the outbuildings by a large yard dotted with immense old walnut trees, she saw two houses.

The smaller one, only a single story high, resembled a rectangular box with a front porch tacked onto it.

The other one, though, was much larger and looked sort of Victorian, with a large covered porch that wrapped around both the sides of the house that she could see.

There was a big picture window, and several gables breaking the line of the steeply pitched roof above the second floor. At one end there was even a corner room that appeared to be in a turret, its windows glazed with curved glass that matched the nearly circular walls.

The house was painted white, and trimmed with black, gray, and a deep burgundy that matched the roof.

"Is that...?" Julie began, but left the question hanging, not daring to let her hopes rise to the point of finishing the thought.

"That's Russell's house," Karen told her, a smile playing at the corners of her mouth. "The little one is his father's, where Russell grew up."

"No fair!" Molly cried from the backseat "You said we were going to tell her the little one was ours!"

"Russell built the big one just after he got Married," Karen told Julie, ignoring Molly's protest. "They were going to have half a dozen kids, but

"What happened?" Julie interrupted, her eyes narrowing. "Did she decide she didn't like it, being stuck way out here in the middle of nowhere?"

"No," Karen said, her voice cool and her eyes staring straight ahead as she carefully slowed the car, still not used to the feel of the trailer. "She died, just like your father." As soon as she uttered the words and heard Julie's shocked gasp, Karen wished she could retract them, but knew it was too late. She reached out and took Julie's hand. "I'm sorry," she said. "I guess I didn't have to put it quite that way." Julie's eyes were glistening, and Karen knew she was thinking about Richard. "If you hadn't managed to change the subject every time I tried to talk to you about Russell, or if you'd been willing to get even a little bit better acquainted with him, you'd have known what happened."

Julie stared down into her lap, feeling suddenly ashamed of herself. Why had she said that about Russell's first wife? -"i'm sorry, Mom," she mumbled. "I guess-I don't know, 1-well, sometimes I guess I say stupid things."

"You say stupid things all the time," Molly announced from the backseat, getting a nasty glare from her sister.

Again Karen chose not to respond to Molly's words.

"Just give it a chance, Julie," she said. "Please? For me?"

Julie hesitated, then nodded. 'I guess," she whispered.

"But Mom, it's all so different here. I don't know anyone, and-wh, What if no one likes me?" instantly, Karen's eyes went to the rearview mirror, and she saw Molly gleefully preparing to seize this perfect opportunity to needle her sister. "Not a word, Molly," she said, "I'm warning you." As Molly subsided back onto the seat, Karen turned to Julie. "Everybody's going to like you, honey," she said softly. She reached out to brush a strand of Julie's long dark hair away from her face. Even with no makeup, Julie's eyes were large and heavily lashed, and her features, inherited from her father, were far finer than Karen's own. "You're pretty, and most of the time you're very, very, nice,,, she said.

Julie looked UP, and for the first time since they'd left Los Angeles, a smile broke through her gloom. "But when I'm bad, I'm really, really, rotten, right?" she asked.

Karen pulled Julie close and gave her a quick hug. "You said it, not me. Now come on-it's time for you to meet your stepbrother. In fact," she added, nodding toward the house, "there he is now."

Julie followed her mother's gaze to see Russell Owen standing on the wide veranda that fronted his house . Next to him was a boy about Julie's own age. His hair was dark blond, and even from the car she was pretty sure he had blue eyes.

But he also looked to Julie like he had the kind of good looks that usually made boys so conceited that they never even spoke to her. He also looked like he might be a couple of inches taller than her, and maybe a year older.

But so what? She wasn't looking for a boyfriend, and even if she were, it sure wasn't going to be her hick stepbrother!

The car shuddered to a stop. Molly threw the back door open and raced up the porch steps to hurl herself on Kevin Owen, to whom she had attached herself like a small limpet the moment she'd met him the previous spring. At the same time, a large dog of indeterminate breed pushed the screen door open and leaped onto Molly. "Hi, Bailey," Molly cried, letting go of Kevin to throw her arms around the dog's neck. But as she petted the dog, her eyes fixed once more on Kevin. "Will you show me the colt?" she asked. "Is he okay? How big is he?"

Kevin hoisted Molly off her feet and held her high in the air, then lowered her just enough so they were eye to eye. "How 'bout I meet your sister and say hello to your mother, first?" he asked.

Molly giggled happily. "Okay." Kevin swung the little girl around in a circle while Bailey barked wildly, chasing after them. When Kevin set the little girl back on the ground, the dog happily lunged at her, toppling her over and licking at her face.

Julie, watching her sister play with Kevin and the dog, wondered if maybe she should've come up here for spring vacation after all.

It was as if somehow everyone had already formed a family.

A family to which she didn't belong.

Ten minutes later Kevin finally let Molly drag him off toward the barn where she'd witnessed the birth of the colt only ten weeks earlier. "Can I ride him yet?" she begged as she tugged at his arm, trying to get him to walk faster.

"No, you can't ride him yet," Kevin patiently told her.

"But you can pet him, and feed him, and wash him and groom him."

"Really?" Molly asked, her eyes shining with excitement. "I can groom him? Will you teach me how?"

As they disappeared into the barn, Karen slipped her arm around Russell's waist. "I'm sorry, but I think the colt means more to her than anything else right now. It's all she talked about on the way up-in fact, it's all she's talked about since we were up here."

Then I guess she'll like her wedding present." Russell said as he pulled her close and inhaled the scent of her hair.

"Her wedding present?" Karen echoed blankly.

"Mmm-hmm," Russell replied. "I think we ought to give Molly the colt."

"Give it to her?" Karen asked, her eyes widening.

"But?"

"Every kid who lives on a farm should have a horse," Russell broke in, silencing her objections with a gentle finger on her lips. "So I thought we should give Molly the colt, and Julie its mother." He turned to Julie. "Do you know how to ride?"

Ride? Julie echoed silently. When would she ever have had a chance to learn to ride? And who cared about riding, anyway? Back home, only the snobby girls with rich parents rode horses.

But even so ... a horse of her very own?

Despite her conviction that Pleasant Valley was going to be the worst experience of her life, she felt a twinge of excitement run through her.

A thrill she was determined not to reveal even to her mother, let alone to Russell Owen. "I-I don't like horses very much," she said.

They just take some getting used to," Russell replied, choosing to ignore Julie's sulky tone. "Why don't you go have Kevin show her to you? Then you can make up your mind whether you want her or not."

Julie hesitated, still torn between her determination to hate everything about the town and the farm, and her growing interest in the animal Russell had just offered -her.

in the end, her curiosity won Out. "I-I guess I could go see it," she finally conceded. She set off toward the barn, walking slowly, determined that it appear she couldn't care less about the horse.

Russell and Karen watched her walk away and exchanged a glance, both positive they could detect a certain eagerness in her gait that Julie couldn't quite conceal.

"I think we just found the first chink in her armor," Russell observed, pulling Karen close.

Karen smiled up at him gratefully. "I don't know what to say," she began, then realized she'd brought nothing at all for his son. "But I-well, I'm afraid I didn't bring anything for Kevin. . . ." Her voice trailed off as she saw Russell eyeing her barely functional levy.

"I wouldn't be so sure of that," he said. "He's sixteen, and he got his driver's license two weeks ago."

Karen's jaw dropped as she realized what he was saying. "My car?" she gasped. "You want me to give him my car?"

"Well, why not?" Russell asked. "What else are we going to do with it? We've already got two almost-new cars and a truck on the farm, and I don't think we should just turn one of them over to Kevin."

Karen's brows arched. "But I should turn mine over to him?" Then, as she replayed his words in her mind, she began to understand what he was saying. "It's in really terrible shape," she said, her voice speculative. "It tends to overheat, and the brakes are almost shot. And it's eating oil like crazy."

"Which means he'll have to do a lot of work on it," Russell went on, nurturing her logic. "And that means he'll be a lot more careful Of it than if we just give him a car that's already in good condition."

Karen pressed herself close to him, wondering how she had ever been lucky enough to find this wise and loving man.

It was going to be all right.

It was going to work.

They were going to be married, and live happily ever after.

She and Russell and Kevin and Molly, and even maybe Julie.

Except there was one other person on the farm.

Otto Owen-Russell's father-who had barely even been Polite to her when she'd been up here at spring break.

And now he was nowhere to be seen.

She looked once more up into Russell's strong, handsome face-an Older, more weathered version of his son's.

"Where's Otto?" she asked, her voice apprehensive.

Russell hesitated, but finally tilted his head toward his own house, the bigger one. "Up there," he said.

There was something in Russell's voice that -sounded a warning bell in Karen's mind. "He doesn't want us to get married, does he?" she asked.

"It's not his decision to make," Russell said, but there had been just enough hesitation before he spoke the words-and just enough anger in his voice as he uttered them-to tell Karen that something unpleasant had happened between the two men. But before she could say anything, Russell spoke again: "I'm afraid he's being a little old-fashioned about all this." His face reddened with obvious embarrassment, "Aside from not wanting me to marry what he keeps calling a 'city girl,' he's also decided that you shouldn't stay in my house before the wedding."

"You're kidding," Karen said, barely able to believe what she was hearing. Then, as she saw the abashed expression on Russell's face, her mouth dropped open. "And you're going along with him?" she asked.

Russell's feet shuffled nervously. "It's only for a few days," he said. As Karen started to interrupt him, he plunged on. "Come on, honey-he's lived out here all his life, and he's too old to get with the modern world. Can't we just humor him on this one? At spring break, you stayed at the motel-2'

"And at spring break we hadn't decided to get married, either," she reminded him. "Russell, it's ridiculous!"