Jayden’s eyes stung with unshed tears, and when she tried to say something, her mouth had turned as dry as if she’d been eating a green persimmon. She picked up her water bottle and took a long drink, but the lump in her throat didn’t shrink a bit. No wonder these girls had such problems. Jayden wished she could wave a magic wand and fix them all, but she could only be there for positive support. They had to want to change, or it would never happen.
“Amarillo,” Ashlyn offered without being asked. “My mama inherited a string of hotels that are scattered all over the state of Texas. She and my stepdad travel a lot in connection with that, and I’ve always known my nanny better than I know them. My daddy’s family has a horse ranch in Virginia, and he helps run that. My stepmother trains horses, and I usually have to spend a couple of weeks with them in the summer. They don’t get me this year, and I’m glad. As much as I don’t like this place, I’d rather be here than there. Spending time there is just trading off one mostly empty house for another, because they’re too busy to even pick me up at the airport. My sweet nanny died last year”—she stopped and wiped a tear from her eye—“and”—she sighed—“there’s two wet bars in our house. One downstairs in the den and one in the media room on the third floor. No one even missed the bottles of whiskey that I drank to help me get past all the pain of her death.”
Listening to them tell their stories was cathartic. Jayden hadn’t been the only outcast in the world. She hadn’t been the only one who felt unloved by a parent or had been left behind by one. Kids today had the same problems she’d grown up with. This bunch just had more money and access to booze and cars than she had at their age.
“Do y’all ever look at the kids that don’t have a lot of money and wish you had their life?” Carmella asked. “A mama who makes cookies for an after-school snack and that tells you that you’re pretty and smart, and she’s so proud of you?”
“Only every day, but that kind of mama doesn’t really exist,” Tiffany answered.
“My mama worked the three-to-eleven shifts at the hospital in the emergency admitting office, so she was home during the day,” Jayden told them. “We couldn’t have an after-school snack together, but she left something for me and my grandpa, who lived with us. Course, at home I always took a back seat to my big sister, so I can feel your pain.”
“Are you serious?” Ashlyn frowned.
“Yes, ma’am, very serious.” Jayden smiled. “Even though she got home late, she got up and had a hot breakfast with me every morning, and we visited while we ate. My school was only a couple of blocks away, so I went home for lunch and we spent that half hour together, too.”
“What about your dad?” Tiffany asked.
“He and my mother divorced when I was sixteen. My grandmother died and Gramps was helpless without her, so Mama moved him into our house. Daddy said that Mama put us kids and then her father before him and that was the cause of the divorce, but the truth was that he was having an affair and married the other woman as soon as he could. They made me come spend time with them one summer after the divorce, but I was miserable and they were, too, so they didn’t push the issue anymore,” Jayden answered.
“Did that make you mad?” Carmella asked.
“No, I was just glad that I didn’t have to go,” Jayden replied.
Ashlyn raised her hand. “Testify, sister.”
“The bottom line is this,” Jayden told them, “you have to learn to love you for who you are. Get so comfortable in your own skin that nobody else’s opinion matters. One of my favorite sayings is, ‘To thine own self be true.’ I don’t always do a good job of doing it, but I’m trying to do better lately.” Immediately Jayden wondered if she should have shown such a vulnerable side to the girls.
“One day at a time, sweet Jesus.” Ashlyn giggled.
“Pretty much the truth.” Jayden laughed with her. “Now, the bunch of you best get your things together and go to the bathhouse. It’s your turn to go first tonight. And just one more reminder: leave the scorpions alone or kill them if you can do that safely.”
“Yes, ma’am,” they all chimed together.
Jayden got up and walked across the yard to Moonbeam Cabin, where Novalene was sitting on the porch with a glass of tea. She sat down in one of the hot-pink chairs, and Novalene pushed the tea over toward her. “Looks like you could use a drink of this. I’ve been using the straw, so you can drink out of the side.”
Jayden sucked up a mouthful and almost choked when she swallowed it. “You could have warned me,” she sputtered.
Novalene chuckled. “Have another sip. I always come prepared to make at least a couple of these while I’m here. I buy two each of those little single bottles of rum, vodka, gin, tequila, and triple sec. Without a doubt, I will need it at least twice. Today, we’re celebrating half of the season being gone, and the fact that we lived through the spider episode,” Novalene said. “Did you give your girls the ‘come to Jesus’ talk about scorpions being set loose in anyone’s cabin?”
Jayden nodded and took one more drink of the tea. “If I come back next year, I’ll remember to bring something to celebrate with and share with you.”
Novalene chuckled. “I don’t know if I’ll return, but if I do, I’ll hold you to that.”
“What’s so funny?” Jayden asked.
“The idea you won’t come back next year,” Novalene said.
“What makes you think that?” Jayden asked. “Skyler could be here instead.”
“Who knows what will happen in a year, but you won’t ‘come back’”—Novalene put air quotes around the last two words—“because you won’t ever leave.”
“In your dreams.” Jayden laughed out loud. “Tarantulas, scorpions, and God knows what else is hiding in the corners of this place. Not much to keep me here.”
“I’ll bet you a bottle of Knob Creek Smoked Maple bourbon that you’ll find something you don’t want to leave behind in the next few weeks,” Novalene told her.
Jayden stuck out her hand and said, “Deal!”
They shook hands to seal the deal, and then Jayden pushed up out of the chair. “I hear my girls coming back from the bathhouse. See you at breakfast.”
“I’m going to enjoy every drop of that bourbon you’re going to have to buy for me,” Novalene called out as Jayden jogged across the yard.
“You should be in Daydream Cabin,” Jayden hollered, “with that kind of thinking.”
She went to her bedroom and got her journal out, picked up a pen, and began to write:
Dear Mama,
I’m not sure if I made a mistake today. I let my tough girls see a vulnerable side of me. Now I worry that they’ll think I’m a softie and try my authority. Maybe I should have kept things on a professional level and not gotten into my own personal background. I’ve disclosed more of my feelings since I’ve been here—with the counselors, Elijah, and the girls in my cabin. I feel a closeness to all of these people that I haven’t had before. Friends and something like peers with Novalene and Diana. Something that sets my emotions into a tailspin with Elijah. And like a big sister to these girls. I just hope I haven’t made a misstep tonight by letting them into my own personal world.
Time will tell, I suppose . . .
Chapter Sixteen
Jayden wiped her hands on a paper towel, flipped her apron up over her head, and hung it on a nail on the kitchen wall next to several others. She had just finished filling a plastic bag with ice when Elijah arrived at the dining hall. Straw stuck to his chambray shirtsleeves, to his jeans and boots, and even to his cap, which he removed and stuck in his back pocket. Sweat dripped from his square jawline onto his already wet shirt. He yanked a red bandanna from his pocket and wiped his face with it.
Jayden quickly tossed him a bottle of water and poured a glass of tea. “Is the job done?”
He downed the water without coming up for air and then took a long drink of the tea. “Thank you. I was so dry I was spittin’ dust,” he joked.
Jayden couldn’t take her eyes off him. Her chest tightened and her breath came in short gasps. She could spend every day with him if she wanted, and right then she really, really wanted to listen to her heart and say yes. But—there always seemed to be a “but” in her life—she had to be sure that a major move like that was truly best for her.
“Are the girls spittin’ dust, too?” She smiled.
“Oh, yeah,” he answered. “I’ve refilled the coolers, but they’ll love having some ice to go in their cups.”
“I remember hay hauling being hard, sweaty work,” Jayden told him. “I used to help Gramps out before Granny died and he sold the farm. Thought I’d ride out with you and see how the girls are doing.”
“They’re whining, bitching, competing with one another, and sweating.” He grinned. “I’d love to have you go with me.”
“Be all right if we take a dozen bottles of cold sweet tea as well as water?” she asked. “After all that sweating, something other than water might taste real good to them.”
“Hey, until we find another cook, we’re pretty much partners in this business,” he answered. “You don’t even have to ask about little things like that. A bottle of sweet tea might even give them enough energy to get the hay all in before those storm clouds in the southwest blow up some rain.”
Sun poured into the kitchen window that faced the north, so it was hard for Jayden to imagine clouds anywhere, but when she carried a paper bag with a dozen bottles of tea out to the truck, she saw big black ones billowing toward them. “That’s weird,” she said. “If I stand right here and don’t look over my shoulder, it’s kind of scary looking. If I turn around, all is happiness and sunshine.”
“Kind of like life, ain’t it?” Elijah opened the truck door for her. “It all depends on what way you’re lookin’—backward or forward.”
“That’s pretty philosophical,” she muttered as she watched him round the end of the old work truck and slide under the steering wheel.
“I’m a man of many talents.” He put the truck in gear.
“Are Novalene and Diana out in the fields, too?” she asked.
“They’re in the barn to supervise the girls who take in the loads and stack them,” he answered.
“I’ve pretty much got supper ready, and if it’s twenty minutes late, it’s no big deal. I’ll drive a truck and that will free up a set of hands.”
“I would never turn down help,” he agreed. “With you driving, we might get done early and supper won’t even be late.” He parked the truck in the middle of the field and the girls all came running that way for something to drink.
Jayden hurried around to the back of the truck and lowered the tailgate. Elijah opened a new sleeve of disposable cups and filled each one with ice. “We’ve got ice, a bottle of sweet tea for each of you, and water.”
“I’ll take enough ice to cover me up,” Violet said.
“Yes!” Ashlyn cheered. “What she said for me, too.”
Quinley took a cup and a bottle of tea, sat down on the ground, and leaned back against the truck tire. “I’d settle for a lukewarm shower and my own clothes.”
“You can have the shower tonight,” Jayden said, “and if you are really good and finish the eight weeks, you can have your own clothes back.”
“That’s at least something to look forward to. Scoot over and share the tire, Quinley,” Tiffany commented as she sank to the ground.
Once all eight girls had their drinks, Jayden propped a hip on the tailgate and pointed out into the field. “Why are you still making small bales instead of big round ones?”
“Girls can’t wrestle one of those big ones, and Henry didn’t want to invest in the machinery to make them,” he answered. “We don’t have a huge cattle operation, so the little ones work just fine for us. If you’ve hauled hay before, then your grandfather must have felt the same way.”
“He did.” She smiled at the memory of having this same conversation with him. “He said basically the same thing you just did. He only ran about twenty head of cattle on the farm. Just enough to bring in a little calf crop each year. Most of his income came from growing and selling soybeans.”
The clouds moving toward them from the southwest produced a semicool breeze that whipped the ponytails of the girls who still had one around like frayed flags as they finished their tea and then gulped down cups of water.
“I’ve never been this sweaty in my whole life, and we’re last in the showers tonight. If it really starts raining, I may go out in the yard and use the rainwater on me like I’m going through a car wash,” Tiffany declared as she finished her second cup of water and then tossed her cup into the plastic garbage bag beside the cooler.
“I dare you,” Quinley said.
Tiffany narrowed her eyes at her rival. “I will if you will.”
“You’re on,” Quinley declared.
“Elijah, you might want to stay in your cabin if it rains tonight,” Tiffany told him, “because I’m daring all these girls from Moonbeam and Sunshine to dance in the rain in their underwear.”
Keelan finished off her bottle of sweet tea, put the empty back into the bag, and gave Tiffany a brief nod. “I double-dog dare the Daydream girls right back at y’all.”
“Y’all ain’t got the nerve to do that,” Tiffany taunted them. “Us Daydream girls are so tough, we would do that and enjoy it.”
“Bullcrap,” Diana said.
“Just watch us. We’ll even sing while we dance,” Ashlyn said.
Elijah leaned over and whispered for Jayden’s ears only, “If I double-dog dare you, will you do the same?”
A slow burn traveled from her neck to her cheeks, turning them bright red. “Not even if we got an ice storm and a foot of snow right behind the rain right here in July.”
“All right, girls.” Elijah raised his voice. “It looks like the storm is getting serious down south of us. I can see a few streaks of lightning, so let’s do some double-dog hay hauling instead of daring each other to get out in the rain. We can probably get all this into the barn in one more trailer load if you hustle. And one more thing: if any of the counselors catch you out playing in the rain when it’s lightning, you will be racking up demerits. I don’t care if you go out when it’s only pouring down rain, but it’s dangerous to be out when it’s lightning.”
“Yes, sir,” Tiffany said and then dashed off toward the few bales of hay still on the ground.
The other girls followed her lead. Some of them hopped up on the trailer to stack the bales that the rest of the girls threw up to them.
“They’re going to be sore in the morning,” Jayden said. “I remember whining with aching muscles after my first day of hauling hay.”
Elijah leaned back on the fender of the old truck and crossed his arms over his broad chest. His biceps stretched the knit of his sweaty shirt, and his dark hair hung in wet ringlets at the back of his cap. Jayden’s pulse jacked up a notch or two just looking at him—she’d never dated or been in a relationship with a hardworking man before. Most of the men she’d known wore dress slacks to their jobs, not snug-fitting blue jeans, and she couldn’t imagine a single one of them hauling hay or doing the kind of manual labor that Elijah did.
“Since we never see the girls after they leave, and only a few of them even stayed in touch with Mary, I often wonder what they feel when they think back on these days,” he said.
“Probably relief to be gone, and hopefully a little bit of pride that they accomplished something like this.” She headed toward the driver’s side of the truck. “I like this old truck. Want to sell it? I could drive it back up to Dallas at the end of the month.”
“It’s not for sale.” Elijah followed her. “If you want to drive it, you have to stay and cook for me, and be my partner in this business.”
“Very funny. You realize I’ve got a truck similar to this, only older, at home,” she told him.
“Are you serious?” he asked. “I figured you’d drive something li
ke a fancy sports car.”
“Then you don’t know me at all.” She laughed. “That’s Skyler’s choice of vehicle. My grandfather gave me his truck when I was sixteen and he came to live with us. It’s the only thing I’ve ever had or wanted.”
“What year and make?” Elijah asked.
“Nineteen fifty-eight GMC, painted green with black leather interior that’s worn so soft it’s like sitting in butter.” She sighed. “I miss her a lot.”
“Her? Does it have a name?” Elijah asked.
“Gramps named her Betsy the day he brought her home from the dealership.” Jayden pushed a strand of hair back up under her cap.
“I’m jealous,” he said. “If you were to stay here at Piney Wood, could I drive Betsy?”
“I’ve never let another soul drive her,” Jayden told him.
“Then I’d be real special if you let me get behind the wheel,” he teased.
“Anyone who even gets to ride in the passenger seat is special.” A picture popped into her head of him driving and her in the passenger seat. She shook the visual out of her mind and pointed out at the field. “Looks like they’ve got it all loaded and are ready to fill up the back of this one. Who drives the truck up to the barn?”
“Ashlyn.” He grinned. “I thought it would be good for her. If she ever decides to drink and drive again, maybe she’ll remember how hot and sweaty driving a hay truck is.”
The Daydream Cabin Page 21
