Summer of Second Chances: Skyline Mansion Companion Stories

By Nola Li Barr

This story was originally released as Rose. It can be read as a stand-alone but it is also a retelling of the end of Rose's story in Forbidden Blossom from the perspective of Josephine and Charlie. 
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Where one love ends, another begins.

Josephine has run her family bakery for decades, but is now in debt and can't find proper help until one day Rose shows up and brings new hope.

 

Charlie didn't have a choice when his family immigrated from Taiwan to the United States. He doesn't want to pursue his own desires while his family is trying to find their footing in a new country until one day he sees Rose standing outside a bakery.

 

Rose brings together three hopeless people who can't help but love the people around them, but will they learn to allow others to love them back?

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nola Li Barr
• Release date: Mar 6, 2022
• ISBN: 9781956919042

Book preview

Josephine - Monday, April 7, 1947

Josephine, I need my loaf now. I’m running late, and I’ll get fired if I’m even a minute late.

I’m coming, Harold. There are two people in front of you.

Please, I need to go now. Look, I’ll pay for them if you let me go first. I really have to go. I have a wife and five kids to feed.

Harold, there’s no need for that. The other two nodded as well. Thank goodness for the kindness in others. Look, here’s your loaf. You can pay me later.

Josephine, you’re a saint. Thank you. I’ll be back today to pay you. Mark my words.

Run along, Harold.

I needed more help. I needed it now. Of all days, today was the worst. John, my beloved husband, looked down at me from behind the counter. The loss of him four years ago today still overwhelmed me. I couldn’t concentrate on work. My latest hire left for the canneries in Seattle, and I didn’t seem to be able to keep anyone for more than a few months. Finances were tight so I couldn’t pay them very much, but I did provide room and board as well as all the bread they could eat. What made matters worse was Arthur came by the other day and threatened me. Me, whose husband saved his life twice. But the war changed people and sometimes for the worse. My thoughts went away when I noticed a skinny Chinese girl salivating over all the bread she saw.

Can I help you?

She didn’t answer at first. Just looked at my lines of bread, absorbed in her own world.

What would you like? I have rolls, loaves . . .

No, no, I can’t pay for anything. Thank you, though. As she turned to leave, I pulled a loaf off of the shelf and ran around the counter. The girl was so malnourished, I could have taken my time and still reached her before she got to the door.

Here, have this. It’s on the house.

No, no, I can’t take this, she said while she backed up to the door now, looking like a cornered animal. My heart reached out to her. I put the bread on the table by the door and backed up.

It’s yours if you want. There really isn’t anything you have to worry about. I won’t ask or expect anything in return. She must have been starving because everything in her face and body screamed that she wanted to run and not be indebted to me, but she grabbed the bread and started eating right then and there. I pulled up a chair for her and let her eat in peace. Luckily, all my regulars had come through, so there was a lull in service. I went back to the kitchen to bake some more.

Thank you for the bread, she whispered. I turned to see her standing at the door handing out the remaining part of the loaf she hadn’t eaten.

No, that’s yours. You can have it all.

She brought it close to her chest, and both of us didn’t know what to do for a second. Then, something dawned on me, and I wondered why I hadn’t thought of it before.

Would you like to work here? I can’t pay you much, but I can provide a room for you and you can eat all the bread you want here.

Her eyes got so big that for a second I thought she was going to faint. I ran to her but ended up with a girl crying in my arms.

We got her all set up in her new room, which was on the other side of the bathroom that we would share. A third room across the hall was my office. As I brought out new sheets and started cleaning the room, my thoughts went to how nice it will be to have another woman in the place—or just another person. I hadn’t realized how lonely I had become. It would also help when Arthur came by again. Maybe he would watch what he said with another woman around.

That night, I lay in bed wondering what she was all about. This Chinese girl just wandered in looking like she hadn’t eaten in a week, empty, and about to give up on life. I hadn’t seen such a sad state in a while. She looked like I had given her the world when I offered her some bread and a job. She didn’t even care that I couldn’t pay her much, she was so happy to just have a place to sleep and stay. I felt so sorry for her. What could have happened to put her in a state like this?

Charlie - Tuesday, April 8, 1947

Where are you going? Can I come, too? I’m so bored. Mama has me washing vegetables for dinner tonight, but I told her that you needed help. Can I come? Please, please, please. I really need to get out. Please, please, please.

Can’t you go meet one of your friends? Mary and I used to be close. I was the youngest of four boys and Mary was the baby. Even with the six-year difference, we bonded over the teasing from our three older brothers. But now, Mary was 14 going on 15 and a pain in my side. Two of our three older brothers came back from the war, but both stayed in Taiwan. My parents, Baba and Mama, having lived through