One Mountain Away (52 page)

“A Goddesses Anonymous house,” Georgia said.

Analiese smiled. “I like that.”

“What was she really hoping for?” Taylor asked. “Because how many women can we reach that way?”

“Maybe just one at a time. But remember, there are five of us. That’s ten hands reaching out. Lives might change. Our own lives, and the women we reach out to. Imagine how many of those women will reach out in turn when they’re able to. We’ll just be doing what women have done through the centuries, only focused. And we’ll have the farm and one another as resources.”

“Why did she choose us?” Harmony asked.

“Because we each have different talents and abilities. But mostly? Because she trusted us.”

For Taylor, the truth was clear. Her mother had wanted something more important than a memorial. She had wanted something more than just a way to reach out to women in need, although that was certainly a large part of it.

“She wanted something for
us,
” she said. “She trusts us, yes, but more than that? She wants us to be here for one another. The women she most loved or admired. She wanted this for
us,
because she can’t be here herself.”

“We have time to think and plan,” Analiese said. “Let’s each go home and decide if we want to make this kind of commitment.”

For a moment they sat quietly, then Harmony got to her feet. “Maybe this sounds impulsive, but I don’t have to think about it. I know I want to be part of it.”

“I love it,” Samantha said, standing, too. “I’m in.”

“I think it’s an interesting idea,” Georgia said, rising.

“I’m already in,” Analiese said.

Taylor realized none of them were looking at her, but they were waiting for her to speak. As she got to her feet she cleared her throat, but her voice was husky, anyway. “I am so proud of Mom.”

She wasn’t sure who began the hug that followed, but as the mountain shadows deepened, they stood together listening to the song of birds and comforted one another.

Five women, and the sixth, who would always be with them.

* * *

Ethan placed the final shovelful of soil over the urn that held Charlotte’s ashes and patted down the soil. Later he and Taylor would erect a headstone, but for now he placed a bouquet of roses over the spot.

When he spoke, his words were as hushed as a prayer.

“This is the hard part, Lulu. The part where I walk away for the last time. But we found each other twice, so maybe we’ll find each other a third time. With a little luck, that could be the last time we’ll need to.”

He stood with his head bowed for a minute, then he turned, and walked downhill toward the laughter of Maddie and Edna in the field below.

* * * * *

Acknowledgments

MANY THANKS TO my brainstorming group, Casey Daniels, Karen Young, Jasmine Cresswell and Diane Mott Davidson, for all their feedback and suggestions along the way.

Even more thanks than usual to my agent Steve Axelrod and my editor Leslie Wainger for their enthusiasm, careful reading and recommendations from the beginning of this project.

Special thanks to Amy Challgren, who read the sections on Maddie’s epilepsy to make certain terminology and details were correct, and to friend and fellow novelist Diane Chamberlain, who introduced us. Thanks also to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society forums, where patients and family can and do share their difficult journeys. Of course, as always, if errors slipped through, they’re mine and mine alone.

Finally I owe a debt of gratitude to Michael McGee, who listened patiently when I needed to vent, brainstormed with me on long beagle walks, and laughed and cried in exactly the right places.

Asheville, North Carolina, is a city I visit often. With its broad diversity and scenic beauty, it seems the perfect place to set the Goddesses Anonymous series. But fiction is not fact, and not every place I’ve used exists or exists in the form it does in this novel. Zambra is real and the food is delicious. Cuppa is not real, but I still wish I could try their eggplant provolone pizza. If you live in Asheville or know it well, sit back and enjoy the ride, and occasionally, the unfamiliar or slightly altered scenery.

Reader’s Guide

1. Charlotte uses her First Day Journal as a way to get in touch with her past and feelings. The author uses Charlotte’s journal as a way to connect the reader to both. Did the journal give you valuable insight that enriched your understanding of Charlotte’s life?
2. Charlotte’s reaction to Taylor’s pregnancy creates such a huge rift that Ethan and Taylor walk out of the home the family shared. Imagine that your sixteen-year-old daughter has just told you she’s pregnant and plans to keep the baby. Could you understand Charlotte’s desire to force Taylor to make a different decision? Could you understand Ethan’s desire to support Taylor at the cost of his marriage?
3. Early childhood research tells us that lifelong problems between parents and children can begin in infancy. Taylor is a difficult baby and Charlotte an insecure mother. Did you believe that particular dynamic continued and influenced the events that occurred many years later?
4. Taylor insists on making all decisions about her daughter Maddie’s health care. Did you admire her stubbornness and the way she put Maddie’s needs first? If not, when and why did you begin to think she had shortcomings as a mother?
5. Taylor and Jeremy dated for only a short time in high school, so they really don’t know each other well. Can two near-strangers find ways to successfully parent a child they accidentally created and share? Did you believe that by the end they were on firmer ground?
6.
One Mountain Away
dramatizes three “accidental” pregnancies—Charlotte’s, Taylor’s and Harmony’s. Charlotte sees herself in Harmony, because she, too, was alone and afraid as a young woman. She also wants to help Harmony because she refused to help her own daughter. Do you believe we can make up for a wrong we’ve committed in the past by reaching out to others? Do you think Charlotte tried to do enough?
7. Analiese Wagner, Charlotte’s minister, has had one too many run-ins with Charlotte in the past, so when the book opens it’s difficult for her to assume the role of loving pastor and reach out to Charlotte. Do you think Analiese goes above and beyond the call of duty? Do you think in the end their new relationship enriches both their lives? Could you reconcile the Charlotte Analiese knew with the Charlotte we know by the end of the novel?
8. Do you believe that childhood experiences can be so powerful that they continue to affect even the most intelligent, motivated adults? Do you know people who are still trying to make up for childhood deficits?
9. Despite all the problems in their past, at the end of Charlotte’s life she and Ethan are able to find their way back to each other. Can love be so true and strong it overcomes years of separation and anger?
10. While
One Mountain Away
is the story of a woman’s final months, did Charlotte’s transformation and her final reconciliation with loved ones provide a hoped-for happy ending? Are there worse things than dying?
11. Do you believe the women who knew and loved Charlotte will come together in the future at the Goddesses Anonymous house and finds ways to reach out to other women in a meaningful, personal way, as Charlotte intended? Of the “goddesses” in the final chapter, whose story do you hope to read about next?

Keep reading for an excerpt of Happiness Key by Emilie Richards!

If you loved
One Mountain Away,
don’t miss the Happiness Key series by
USA TODAY
bestselling author Emilie Richards. Available now wherever ebooks are sold!

Happiness Key

Fortunate Harbor

Sunset Bridge

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Chapter One

The old man still wasn’t answering.

Tracy Deloche made a fist and banged the border of Herb Krause’s screen door, wincing when a splinter won the round.

Flipping her fist, she dug out the offending sliver with nails that were seriously in need of the attentions of her favorite manicurist. Unfortunately, sweet-natured Hong Hanh was more than two thousand miles away, filing and polishing for outrageous tips at the Beverly Wilshire hotel, while Tracy banged and shouted and tried to collect Herbert Krause’s measly rent payment so she could put something in her refrigerator and gas tank.

“Mr. Krause, are you
there?
” she shouted.

“Well, what’s up with that?” she muttered when nobody answered. She could see his ancient Dodge sedan parked behind the house. She’d been sure her timing was perfect. Apparently she was as good at collecting money as she was at everything else these days.

Tracy flopped down on a wooden bench beside three carefully arranged orchids in clay pots. Something green and slimy flashed past her and vanished in the Spanish moss mulch. Florida was like that, teeming with things that darted at you day and night, some with more scrawny legs than a bucket of fast-food chicken.

Happiness Key. She almost laughed.

CJ, her ex-husband, was responsible for the name of the “development” where Herb’s cottage and four others stood. In a rare stab at poetry, CJ had called this hole the yin and yang of Florida. On one side, white sand beaches with tall palms swaying in a gentle tropical breeze; on the other, Florida’s wildest natural beauty. Mangroves and alligators, exotic migratory birds, and marshes alive with Mother Nature’s sweetest music. Who couldn’t find happiness here? Particularly CJ, who had expected to expand his considerable fortune wiping out most of that music when he developed the land into a marina and upscale condo complex for Florida’s snowbirds.