Read Online One Mountain Away by Emilie Richards - Free Book Online

whim, she added her business card and circled her cell phone number, although she doubted the young woman would call.
    With nothing else to do she left the note and trudged to her car. The air was cool, and while the street wasn’t deserted, she felt utterly alone. On the street, in the city, on good old Mother Earth. She thought of the memorial service where she had not been welcome. She thought of the wary expression in her own minister’s eyes.
    She thought of her granddaughter climbing to the top of a jungle gym, unaware that her grandmother was sitting just yards away watching her.
    She slowed her pace. She had nowhere to go except home, and nothing to do there but think.
    If she hadn’t slowed she wouldn’t have glanced into the car parked in front of her. Under the light of a streetlamp the sedan looked like something General Motors had long since discontinued. Rust etched wheel hubs. The rear door had been badly dented and someone—clearly not a professional—had tried to hammer it back into shape. Most important, as Charlotte drew even with the car, what she saw inside made her stop and stare.
    The woman in the backseat, head pillowed on a blanket and another blanket drawn up around her, was all too familiar.
    Charlotte debated what to do. She’d come to find Harmony Stoddard, but not like this. Before she could make herself continue along the sidewalk, Harmony’s eyes opened, and the two women stared at each other.
    “I’m sorry,” Charlotte said, since only a pane of glass separated them. She started forward, then she stopped and went back. “Are you okay?”
    Harmony was sitting up now, and she wiped her eyes before she moved over to the door and opened it, swinging her long legs over the side to face Charlotte.
    “What are you doing here?” She didn’t sound angry.
    “Well, right now I’m on my way to my car, but I was just at Cuppa to find you. I wanted to apologize. That man behaved so badly, and I wanted to be sure you weren’t in trouble for anything he did or said.”
    Tears glistened on Harmony’s cheeks, and she rubbed them away with her fist before she spoke. Charlotte was reminded of her daughter as a toddler. Taylor had always done exactly that. Taylor, the daughter she hadn’t spoken to for almost eleven years.
    “You didn’t have to come back. It was okay.” Harmony got out of the car and stood with her back to it.
    “It wasn’t okay.” Charlotte debated what to do or say next. Part of her thought she ought to continue to her car. But suddenly the conversation wasn’t about a stranger’s bad manners anymore. It was about so many other things.
    “You’re not okay,” she said. “Are you sleeping in your car tonight?”
    “No…” Harmony bit her lip. “Not for the whole night, anyway.”
    “Just part of it?”
    “I’m…I’m staying with a friend.”
    “You can’t get in? You don’t have a key?”
    “That’s not it.” The young woman seemed to debate with herself. “She’s got a date. I don’t want to be there when…”
    Charlotte understood. “Oh, right, I see.” She hesitated. “It’s a small place, I guess?”
    “Like a closet, and I’m crashing on her sofa until I can find something better. I—” She shook her head.
    “You’ve been there awhile?”
    “You don’t want to hear all this.” Harmony smiled a watery smile. “This isn’t your problem, right?”
    “Absolutely not. Not one bit.” Charlotte smiled, too. “So tell me, anyway.”
    Harmony started to cry. Charlotte wasn’t sure what to do, but before she could decide, she’d put her arms around the girl and pulled her close.
    “When was the last time you ate?” she asked, as Harmony, bending at the waist, sobbed against her neck. She felt the girl’s shoulders hunch in answer.
    “Will your car be okay here tonight?” Charlotte asked, making a decision.
    “I…I guess. But I don’t—”
    “You’re coming home with me, and don’t worry, you can call your friend and tell