Excerpt of A Winning Season by Rochelle Alers

Zoey Allen stared at the framed watercolor on the wall in the conference room at McAvoy & McAvoy, Attorneys-At-Law. It had been six weeks since she’d stood at the graveside of her father and stepmother with her two younger brothers, and the shock of losing them still hadn’t worn off.

 Life as she’d known it had drastically changed the month before she was scheduled to graduate high school; she’d been summoned to the principal’s office where the sheriff informed her that her parents had died of carbon monoxide poisoning from a faulty gas heater. Zoey and her brothers had been spared because they were in school at the time. Her plans to attend nursing school and her future were on hold, once she’d petitioned the court to allow her to become her brothers’ legal guardian so they would not go into foster care.

“Zoey, are you listening?” Preston asked.

Her gaze swung from the painting to the lawyer. “I’m sorry. I was thinking about something else.” Zoey knew she wasn’t being truthful. There were times when she deliberately forced herself to think of anything but her current situation. Shopping for groceries, cooking, putting up loads of laundry and seeing to the needs of Kyle and Harper threatened to overwhelm her, and there were times she’d second-guessed her decision to assume full responsibility of a six- and eight-year-old who night after night cried themselves to sleep because they missed their mother and father. There were nights when she also cried because she’d felt so helpless, but Zoey made certain to always put on a brave face for her brothers. They needed to see her strong and in control.

Preston handed her a folder. “The family court judge has signed off on your guardianship of Kyle and Harper. The title and deed to the house is now in your name, along with the title to the minivan.”

Zoey forced a smile. “Thank you for everything.”

The law firm had taken care of all of her legal concerns pro bono. Her father had drawn up a will after marrying Charmaine Jenkins. His second wife had become his beneficiary, and if she did not survive his children, then everything of worth would be divided equally between their children upon their maturity.

Preston gave her a long look. “Are you all right?”

“I’m just a little tired. Lately I haven’t been sleeping too well, but this too shall pass.”

Preston ran a hand over his neatly barbered dirtyblond hair.

“I can’t imagine what you’ve been going through, but I’d like to give you some advice. Put your brothers in counseling to deal with losing their parents, and you should also do the same for yourself. There are a lot of women who become mothers at eighteen, but to infants and not six- and eight year-olds. It’s not easy now and it’s not going to get any easier the older they become, so try to get them some help.”

“I promise I will.”

Zoey knew she had to get professional counseling for her brothers and for herself if only to help her cope with the tragedy and prove to the social worker that she was more than capable of raising her younger siblings. The woman who’d come to the house sought to convince her to put Harper and Kyle in foster care, but she was adamant when she told the social worker that her father, James Allen, had always wanted his children to grow up together.

Zoey did not remember her biological mother, who’d divorced her father and signed over full custody of her two-year-old daughter and then drove away from Wickham Falls, West Virginia, without a backward glance. For years it had been Zoey and her father, until he came home with a new wife when she was nine. Less than a year later she became a big sister to Kyle and two years later to Harper. Her brothers adored her as much as she adored them, and she’d sworn a vow nothing or no one would separate them.

She thanked Preston and left the office. It was the first time she realized that she would be the sole support emotionally and financially for her family. The court had determined she would be legal guardian for her brothers, and they were eligible for their deceased father’s survivor’s benefits. Fortunately, the house did not have a mortgage, so Zoey was responsible only for repairs and real estate taxes. The entire town had come together to help her cope with the tragedy that had left the younger Allen children orphans.

The rain that had been steadily falling for three days had tapered off as pinpoints of sunlight appeared through watery clouds. She smiled when seeing a rainbow in the distance, and for Zoey it was a sign that everything was going to be all right.