Sunshine and Shadows by Pamela Browning Page A

to pay his medical expenses, so I invited her to live with me. At first it was a temporary arrangement, but as time passed, we realized that it was impractical for either of us to consider anything else. Fortunately I remember Adele from the days when her disposition was unfailingly sweet. Everyone loved her then. Now maybe I'm the only one in the world who does," Lisa said wistfully.
    "Both your parents are dead?"
    She nodded. "That's how I ended up with this house. It was supposed to be a retirement home for him and Mother, but shortly after they moved in, he had a heart attack and was dead on arrival at the hospital. Mother died a few months later. My sister and I will always believe that she died of a broken heart."
    "I didn't know you had a sister," he said.
    "She's six years my senior. Her name is Heather, and she lives with her husband and three children in New York. I don't see her often."
    "That makes it even sadder that your parents died. I'm sorry," he said.
    Lisa gazed off into the distance. She'd thought about this a lot. "When Dad had his heart attack, he was in his boat, fishing with a group of his friends, when he felt a pain in his chest. The last thing he saw was the sunlight on the rippling water and the blue sky above the mangrove trees. That's not so bad when you think about it." She glanced at Jay, sharing a sad smile.
    "You must miss them terribly," he said. At least he still had his mother and stepfather, though they lived on the other side of the country.
    "I do, but I like living in the house. The problem was that I didn't feel comfortable living there alone. My arrangement with Adele works out well in many ways. I don't mean to give the impression that she's impossible. In fact, I think if she had interests that took her out of the house, that drew her out of herself, she'd be okay."
    "Maybe she needs a job," he suggested.
    "Adele works three days a week at a gift shop only a couple of miles from the house. She hardly ever goes anywhere else. I've tried to get her to see a counselor, but she won't hear of it."
    "That's too bad. It might help her," he said. He'd had a lot of counseling himself a long time ago. It had helped him to become a different person, a better person.
    "Adele says anyone would be depressed if they were in her place, and perhaps she's right. At least she's got me. That's what she always says, anyway."
    "She's lucky," he said, and he meant it.
    Lisa was sitting with her legs crossed, leaning back slightly; she was a small-breasted but well-proportioned woman, with a tiny waist and ankles. Her legs were tanned honey-gold and were slim and shapely. He noticed for the first time that her eyes were a changeable hazel, the outer rims of the irises dark, almost black, and the inner part pale and shaded soft brown like the bark of the tree trunk behind her. Tendrils of yellow hair trailing around her face wafted slightly in the breeze from the river, and again he thought how beautiful she was. He sensed that she had the potential to become someone important to him, someone whose eyes would glow when he walked into a room, whose hand would seek his at quiet times.
    The idea, cropping up unexpectedly as it did, pleased him. He focused on her lips, which were full and expressive. Her teeth were small and white. Suddenly everything, absolutely everything, about her seemed important, and he was seized with a desire to know the deep recesses of her mind, the depths of her emotion, and the geography of her body.
    At that moment Connie bounded up, and he was forced to abandon his thoughts. Lisa reluctantly cast an eye toward the sun, which was falling lower in the western sky. "We'd better go," she said. "The trip back always seems longer than the trip out."
    The three of them loaded the canoe and pushed off from the clearing. As they were paddling home, Connie said suddenly, "Lisa, do you think I could ever learn to paddle?"
    Lisa looked over one shoulder at Jay. He nodded almost