The temperature hadn’t dropped much that evening and the wind stirred up little dust tornadoes in the places where vegetation was sparse. As he headed toward the barn in long strides, some of the dirt flew up into his face, reminding him again of the day of that football game. They were thirty-year-old men, young and invincible. They’d cheated death on so many occasions that they figured they’d live forever.
The air inside the barn was cooler and smelled of horses and hay. From the day he first arrived at Piney Wood, the barn had been his haven. When the past closed in on him, talking to Dynamite helped him work through his problems. The horse was a damn fine listener and knew more of his secrets than anyone on earth, including Henry and Mary.
He had that antsy feeling that said he wasn’t alone long before he saw Jayden leaning on the railing of Dynamite’s horse stall. Without a word, he crossed the barn and joined her, keeping a distance between them. He had mixed emotions about finding her there. Part of him wanted to be angry that she’d invaded his space, but when he mentally flipped the coin, the other side wondered why she’d chosen to come to the barn at that particular time.
“So, you couldn’t sleep, either?” she asked.
“Nope,” he answered.
“My girls are all asleep,” she said. “I wouldn’t have left them if they weren’t.”
“You don’t owe me an explanation,” he said. “Counselors don’t get demerits.”
“I’m worried about Tiffany. I’ve dealt with girls like her who think that skinny is beautiful. Hell, I’ve had the same feelings. I was never bulimic, but I can sure relate to what she’s going through,” Jayden said.
“You come off as self-assured and . . .” He couldn’t find the right word. Beautiful was on his mind, but that sounded lame.
“That’s the exterior,” she said. “I can feel Tiffany’s pain.”
“That’s exactly what will make you the perfect person to help her get through her troubles.” He took a drink from the longneck bottle of Coors. “If I’d known you were here, I would have brought an extra beer.”
“Is it against the rules for us to have a beer when the girls can’t even have their cigarettes?” she asked.
“We’re the adults, and we didn’t break the law so often that we have to be here.” He handed her the beer. “I’ll share if you’re not afraid to drink after me.”
“Not one bit.” She took the bottle from his hands, took a drink, and handed it back. “Lord have mercy, but this tastes good.”
“I don’t reckon God cares one way or the other,” Elijah laughed. “But a cold one is pretty good at the end of a day like we just had. I saw Carmella going with Tiffany to the hog lot after supper.”
“One of her teammates or I will be with her no matter where she goes. She can’t even shut the bathroom stall door when she goes in there,” Jayden answered. “Have you had girls with eating disorders here at the camp before?”
“A few times, but by the end of the session, they’re usually over that. They need the food to have enough energy to keep up, and they’re mostly competitive enough that they don’t want some of the other kids to get ahead of them.” He took another drink and then handed the bottle back to her. “You finish it off. I understand these girls, too. Not in the girl way you do, but in an emotional way.”
“Want to talk about it?” she asked.
Jayden was a counselor, but she could and probably would talk back. In his eyes, Dynamite did a better job. “Not tonight,” he answered.
“Skyler says that whatever I’m thinkin’ is written on my face.” Jayden took the last sip of the beer and handed the empty bottle back to him. “Thanks for sharing.”
“Evidently, you like the beer if what Skyler says is true.” He chuckled.
“I’m wondering if the girls, especially Tiffany, can see too much sympathy in my expressions,” she said. “And the beer was wonderful.”
He tucked the empty bottle in his hip pocket. “Think about the smell of the hog lot when you start to feel sorry for one of them.”
“That’s really some pretty good advice.” She smiled.
“Works for me,” he said.
“I should be getting back to the cabin. I just needed a little walk to clear my head. I’m glad that you came out tonight, too.” She turned around and headed back to the cabin.
“I’ll walk with you,” he said.
They walked side by side without saying another word all the way to the Daydream Cabin. He stopped at the bottom of the stairs and said, “Have a good night. See you at five fifteen out in the yard. The siren goes off at five ten. Just sayin’ so it doesn’t scare you and make you fall out of that narrow bed.”
“How do the other counselors sleep through that kind of noise?” she asked.
“They probably didn’t their first year here. Some of them have gotten up and walked or jogged with us through the years, but Novalene and Diana have never chosen to do that. Good night, Jayden.”
“Hey, if I’m going to eat all of Mary’s good food, then I need to do some exercise,” she said, “and to be truthful, I’m up at five thirty most mornings for a workout in the apartment gym before I go to school. I do take the weekends off, but I’ll do the whole seven days while I’m here to be able to eat what I want.”
“Good way to think.” He nodded and headed back to his house.
Jayden crawled into her bed, set her alarm for five o’clock, and fell right to sleep. She dreamed that Skyler was standing before a judge in a courthouse with a red-haired guy beside her. Skyler was wearing a pretty white dress and holding a bouquet of daylilies that looked like they’d been picked right out of their mother’s flower bed. The next morning, when Jayden awoke at a few seconds before her alarm went off, she tried to make sense of the crazy dream. To begin with, Skyler would never go to the courthouse to get married. She’d want the biggest, most flamboyant event in all Texas. Next, she’d never be satisfied with a bouquet that wasn’t professionally made, and to end with, Skyler Bennett went for the trophy boyfriends—tall, dark, and handsome. A pallid redhead would never, ever do.
“That was a stupid dream,” she said as she slung her legs over the side of the narrow bed and jerked on her jeans and shirt. She hurried with her hiking boots so she’d have time to rush through the bathroom, and she met Ashlyn and Tiffany coming back across the yard.
“I hate Tiffany more than Carmella does,” Ashlyn declared.
“Turn that hate upside down and learn to love each other.” Jayden jogged past them, glad to see that one of the stalls was vacated. She was leaving the bathhouse when the siren blew, and the noise really did startle her badly enough that she went from a jog to a full-out run to the yard, where Elijah waited.
“All right, ladies, get in a line and stretch your arms out to the sides. That’s how much distance I want to see between each of you.” He stopped in front of a girl with dark hair and a tattoo. “Where is your cap, young lady? I don’t know what cabin you belong to without it, and that’s an automatic demerit. You’ve got exactly one minute to find it and get it on your head, and I will be putting a note in your file in addition to the demerit that you now have. What is your name?”
“Yes, sir, and my name is Quinley,” she mumbled as she ran back toward her cabin. She had to hustle to get back in a minute, but when she did, she gave her other two team members a look meant to fry them on the spot.
“Miss Jayden, you can stand beside me and you girls can follow her movements. I’ll go easy on you ladies for the rest of this week, but next Monday, I’ll get out the jump ropes and stretching bands, and we will add more strenuous exercises to our regimen,” Elijah said. “We’ll begin with toe touches.”
Jayden bent forward but raised her eyes to see how her girls were doing. They had each followed her lead that morning and put their hair up in ponytails, then pulled them through the holes in the back of their caps. Not only would it keep their hair off their sweaty necks, but it would also keep their hats from fall
ing off like other teams’ hats had already done. Even though Tiffany was the tallest and thinnest of the three, her fingertips only reached her knees. Carmella managed to touch her ankles on the first try. Ashlyn palmed the ground in front of her. Apparently, that girl didn’t only have a daily appointment with the tanning bed, but with the gym as well.
Elijah went through basic stretching exercises with them for the next fifteen minutes and then said, “Now that you’re all awake, I want you to look to your right at that mountain back there. Our goal on the final week you are here is to hike all the way over there. It’s about a five-mile trip there, and then that far back to the camp. We’re going to walk a mile today. By walk, I mean a good steady pace, not a slow walk like you are moseying through a rose garden. I’ll take the lead, and Miz Jayden will bring up the rear. Take a deep breath, let it out slowly, and follow me.”
Ashlyn had no trouble keeping up with Elijah, but some of the stragglers, including Tiffany at the very tail end of the group, were panting before they’d even walked the equivalent of a city block. Jayden lengthened her stride until she was right beside the girl. If her bulimia was advanced, she might faint dead away, and someone needed to be there to catch her when she fell.
“I would have thought that you’d fight for first place rather than being satisfied with the tail end,” Jayden said.
“You don’t know me,” Tiffany panted.
“I know that you’ll poke your finger down your throat just to please your friends, so that tells me you’ll do anything to win. You need to be in control, don’t you?” Jayden would have rather jogged than kept up such a slow pace with Tiffany.
“I don’t care if these people are ever my friends. I just want to get through this stupid camp and out of this hellhole. And if I’m in control, then no one can hurt me.” Tiffany picked up the pace until she was a good twenty yards ahead of Jayden.
The girl was right about one thing. By being in control of her own life, heart, and time, she was less likely to get hurt—emotionally or physically. She didn’t want to think about that, so she shifted her thoughts to the plant life around her. A few sprigs of grass had sprung up here and there, and yucca plants were scattered about.
Elijah stopped and pointed to a green plant at his toes. “The common name for this is sotol. It doesn’t require much water, so it grows well here in this desert scrubland. Most years, we only get seven to twelve inches of rain, so the plants that survive have to be able to hold water in their leaves. This plant is edible, but it takes preparation, and it’s bitter, so you don’t want to put it in your mouth.”
“Yes, sir!” all nine girls sounded off in unison.
“Remember some of the plants we’ve talked about. The different kinds of cacti and the others,” Elijah was saying when Jayden started listening again. “Tomorrow I will ask you about them. We’re about halfway to our turnaround point, so let’s pick up the speed just a little.”
He didn’t stop again until they reached a stake that had been driven into the hard earth. A piece of yellow fabric tacked to the top flapped in the hot morning breeze. “This is it, ladies. Now Miz Jayden will lead the way back to camp, and I’ll bring up the rear. Let’s get some speed now that y’all are warmed up. Mary will have breakfast ready when we get home.”
Home my butt, Jayden thought as she started a fast walk back toward the camp. As if God knew the land was barren and stark, and they needed something bright and pretty in their lives that morning, He gave them a beautiful sunrise. Streaks of pink, blue, and lavender lit up the sky out ahead. An orange ball peeked over the top of the mountain range to the east of them, but it didn’t seem to be in a hurry. When they reached the camp, it still wasn’t full light yet.
“Water!” Carmella groaned.
“I need my morning latte,” Ashlyn, the most fit one in the group, said.
“Sorry, but we don’t do fancy coffee here,” Elijah said just a split second before the siren sounded. “We do have some creamer and sugar if you can’t take it black. Line up, girls. Toes on the sidewalk and six inches between your shoulders.”
Jayden went on inside, headed straight for the coffeepot, and poured a mugful. “Smells good in here. What can I do to help?”
“You can take my place,” Henry said. “My old hip is giving me fits. I’m glad that we’re leaving this in Elijah’s hands pretty soon. Another year, and I wouldn’t be able to enjoy traveling with my pretty bride.”
“You’ve always been a charmer.” A brilliant smile covered Mary’s face. “Thanks for the offer, Jayden. You can help the girls with their trays. I’ll pour orange juice and coffee or milk for those who want it. I have help from the girls from each cabin for dinner and supper, but since the exercise regimen is important, I choose to do breakfast by myself.”
Carmella was the first one through the line that morning. She held her tray out for Jayden to put scrambled eggs onto it and kept it there for a double portion. “I’m starving. Give me two of those hash browns, and two biscuits with gravy. Do we get midmorning snacks?”
“No, ma’am. You get three meals a day,” Jayden answered as she finished dipping up gravy.
“This isn’t a country club.” Tiffany came up right behind Carmella. “You should know that by now.”
“Amen,” Quinley said. “I’m here to tell you that I would’ve sold my soul for a bag of potato chips and a good cold root beer last night.”
“Amen!” Violet said.
“Not me,” Rita said. “If my soul was up for sale, I’d have wanted a chocolate cake.”
“I could have said no to the chips, but not a double shot of Jameson,” Ashlyn muttered as she went through the line.
Jayden remembered the beer that Elijah had shared and felt a little guilty, but not enough that she wouldn’t gladly take another one if he offered it again in a few days. A pang of sadness struck her—she hoped that the girls would all be more secure within themselves when they left the camp.
When the girls were seated, Elijah held out his tray. “Just eggs, bacon, and a couple of those biscuits.”
“Yes, sir.” Jayden’s hand brushed against his as she put the food onto his tray. There was that little spark again. She chalked it up to the fact that she hadn’t had a date in a year, hadn’t been in a relationship in two years—and Elijah was a sexy guy who would stir any woman’s hormones. When she got home, she really should think about going out more.
Chapter Seven
Jayden thought about her grandparents that morning as she crossed the distance to the barn with her girls. When she was a little girl, her mother would let her spend weeks with them during the summer. That could have well been when she fell into the habit of getting up early so she could go help Gramps do the morning chores while Granny cooked breakfast. She remembered thinking that the morning dew was what made the air smell so fresh and clean. Gramps would tell her stories or else teach her some small lesson about farm life in those precious times she spent with him.
Will I be able to pass on anything that these three girls will remember? she wondered as she followed behind them. They weren’t talking, but she wanted them to bond together and become friends. There was a far better chance of them doing just that if she let them have time together without her being right there.
They stopped at the barn door and waited for her to catch up to them. “Go on inside. You can’t do your job this morning standing out here,” she said.
“I’m afraid of horses,” Carmella whispered.
Jayden could feel her pain. One of her earliest memories was going out to the farm with Skyler for Sunday dinner at their grandparents’. Skyler wanted Gramps to let her ride the old mule that he sometimes used to plow up the garden. Jayden had been terrified of that huge animal and had cried when Gramps wanted to sit her up on Molly’s back.
“You’re a big sissy,” Skyler told her. “You’re bigger than me, and I’m not afraid.”
At four years old Jayden had grown taller and weighed more than Sk
yler did at seven, so it was the truth. But from that day forth, Jayden was constantly measuring herself by Skyler.
Ashlyn slipped through the door first. “Back in the real world, I had riding lessons twice a week when I was a kid, and when I go to my dad’s in the summer, I ride every day. Horses are fantastic animals.”
Jayden wondered how the girl had time between the tanning bed, the trips to the beauty shop to keep her dark roots from showing through that platinum hair, the gym, and school to chalk up three DUIs when she had had her driver’s license for only six months.
Henry met them just inside the barn door and nodded at the girls. “Come right in, and I’ll introduce you to the three horses and two mules. We don’t ride them, but we do give them a good place to live out the rest of their lives. You will take them out to the corral, clean their stables, and put down fresh hay this morning. I understand that Ashlyn will be responsible for walking each one of them every afternoon. They should be taken out to the half-mile post and brought back. It takes about thirty minutes to take each animal out there, and that long to bring him back. Do you know anything about putting a halter on and dealing with horses?”
“I know how to ride a horse, but my trainer gets the saddle on him for me,” Ashlyn told him. “Thirty minutes each way means nearly all afternoon every day.”
“That’s right. You’ll be ready for supper by the time you get done. You should be able to walk each one out and back and then spend some time brushing the critter when you get back,” Henry told her.
Ashlyn whipped around to stare at Jayden. Her green eyes bulged, and her palms went up in a defensive gesture. “Are you serious?”
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