The Daydream Cabin

by Brown, Carolyn

  “You think of everything, don’t you?” she asked.

  “I try to,” he answered, “but mostly it just comes from past experiences with the same kind of girls. Have you ever thought about the fact that you can tell a lot about a person by the vehicle that they drive?”

  “So, I’m old and green?” She cocked her head to one side.

  “No, you are a little sentimental and practical,” he answered.

  “You got that out of a truck?” She frowned.

  “Yes, ma’am. You don’t need flashy things to make people like you. You appreciate and take care of Betsy because she reminds you of your gramps and you loved him. Practical, because you could trade it in for something new and more modern, but why should you, when it runs good and takes you from point A to point B?”

  “Did you ever think about being a therapist?” She opened the truck door, stepped in a gopher hole, and was falling backward when his strong arms caught her.

  “Whoa, darlin’,” he said. “I can’t have my cook breaking a leg.”

  For just a few seconds the world narrowed, and they were the only two people in it.

  Elijah’s eyes locked with hers. She licked her lips and her eyes started to flutter shut. Then he blinked and set her down on her feet. “Best look out for those gopher holes. They can be deadly.”

  “Looks like it,” she muttered.

  He kept an arm around her waist to steady her as he helped her into the truck and closed the door behind her. “I’ll gladly let you fall into my arms, and ride in my old work truck, too.”

  “Thank you. If you’re ever up around Dallas, I just might let you ride in my truck, since you saved me from a broken leg.” On one hand, she was mildly embarrassed at her clumsiness. On the other, it felt really good to have Elijah’s arms around her.

  “Don’t tease me, Jayden. I’ve wanted a truck like that ever since I saw one just like it on the television series Longmire. Henry Standing Bear, a character on the show, has a truck just like that.”

  She held up a palm. “You don’t have to explain who Henry is or any of the other characters on that show. I could probably recite the dialogue. I watched every episode, and then I went out and bought all the seasons so I could binge-watch it again, so I know who you are talking about. My truck is a shade darker than his, and I don’t have blankets on the seats, but other than that, it’s pretty much the same.”

  “Will you marry me?” Elijah teased.

  “Are you proposing to me or my truck?” she asked.

  “Busted!” He chuckled. “But what would the answer be?”

  “Betsy says to tell you that you’re way too young for her,” Jayden said.

  Jayden shifted the truck into gear and drove it out to the middle of the field where Tiffany, Quinley, and Keelan waited to load it.

  By the time it was loaded as high as they could get it, all three girls piled into the cab with her to ride back to the barn. “What has this job taught y’all?”

  “That it makes us stink.” Tiffany snarled her nose at Keelan.

  “You all three smell like sweat and hay,” Jayden said. “I’m speaking from experience here—you are never going to enjoy a shower and getting to wash your hair more than you will tonight.”

  “Amen.” Tiffany nodded.

  The storm clouds continued to roll in the rest of the afternoon, but the first jagged streaks of lightning didn’t strike until they had both the trailer and the truck inside the barn to unload. Novalene and Diana had things under control there, so Jayden started back to the dining hall to finish supper. She had only taken a few steps when Carmella jogged over to her and leaned over to whisper in Jayden’s ear.

  “Please take Tiffany with you. Say you need some help in the kitchen,” she said.

  “Why?” Jayden asked.

  Carmella’s eyes rolled up toward the roof. When Jayden followed her gaze, she saw two rats sitting up there on a rafter, their long, hairless tails dropping down almost close enough to touch Tiffany’s head as she caught bales that the other girls were tossing up to her.

  “Please,” Carmella begged. “She killed spiders for me. I owe her, and if she falls or if the others know she’s afraid of mice and rats, they’ll never let her live it down.”

  Jayden cupped her hands over her mouth and yelled, “Hey, Tiffany.”

  The girl leaned forward and looked out from under the brim of her cap. “Yes, ma’am?”

  “Come on down from there. I need someone to help me, and I’m choosing you,” Jayden said.

  “Why does she get out of stacking?” Bailey whined.

  “Because Jayden said so,” Elijah answered. “If you want supper to be ready when you get done, then she needs some help, so stop griping and use your energy to get this job finished.”

  “Yes, sir,” Bailey grumbled and wiped sweat from her face with the back of her hand.

  “Thank you,” Carmella whispered and ran back to the trailer to throw bales up to Ashlyn, who’d taken Tiffany’s place.

  “Why’d you choose me?” Tiffany asked as she kept pace with Jayden on the way from the barn to the dining hall.

  “You can thank Carmella for it later this evening,” Jayden answered. “I could have gotten supper ready all by myself, but Carmella remembered that rodents terrify you as much as spiders do her.”

  Tiffany shivered in spite of the heat. “Was there a mouse in the barn?”

  “No, there were two rats right up above your head. Their tails were so close that if you’d have swatted a fly close to your hat, you would have slapped one of them,” Jayden explained. “Carmella didn’t want you to fall off the top of that stack of hay or for the other girls to make fun of you if they found out about your fear. She was being a good friend.”

  One tear made its way from Tiffany’s eye to her chin, leaving a long, clean streak on her otherwise dirty cheek. “I have never had anyone do something like that for me before.”

  “That’s what teamwork is all about,” Jayden told her.

  “I wish all three of us lived closer to each other.” Tiffany smeared the wet streak across her face. “My other so-called friends sure wouldn’t do anything like that for me. They’d be the ones laughing at me.”

  “You’ll have your phones back when you all go back to your homes, so you and the other girls can call each other or FaceTime or even visit once in a while.” Jayden opened the dining room door just as the first raindrops fell from the dark clouds. “If I remember right, y’all were never going to be sisters or even friends when you first got here.”

  “We’ve been through a lot together and we talk about our problems while we work. They have my back, just like today,” Tiffany said. “That don’t mean we won’t argue again, maybe a lot, before we leave here, but no one else would understand this place, not even if we tried to tell them about it, or how much being here is helping us. I wonder if what we feel is something like the military does when they go out on missions and are away from their homes. It’s kind of like a bond that can’t be explained.”

  “Maybe so.” Just thinking about the bond she didn’t have with her sister made Jayden’s chest feel heavy. “Go wash your hands and face in the bathroom, and then you can cut the cake into squares for me. We’re having pulled pork sandwiches, slaw, and baked beans tonight. I thought something like strawberry cake and ice cream would be good for dessert after spending a day out in the fields.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” Tiffany nodded.

  Jayden removed the lid from a huge slow cooker and used two forks to pull apart the pork roasts that had been cooking all day. While she worked, she thought about what Tiffany had said and wished that she and Skyler could form a bond like her three girls had done. She had no doubt that if her sister had seen a rat right above her head, she would have kept her mouth shut until the damned thing jumped down on Jayden. Then Skyler would have laughed, but not hard enough to ruin her makeup. If these girls could overcome the past, maybe there would be hope for the future for Jayden
and Skyler.

  “Everything smells so good.” Tiffany slipped an apron over her dirty uniform. “I’m wearing this so I don’t get bits of hay in the cake. I hate to admit it, but I hate the thought of going home now. I’ve gotten spoiled having good food three times a day.”

  “And you are beginning to have a beautiful, healthy glow about you,” Jayden said.

  “No, because I’ve worked it off.” Tiffany pulled on a pair of latex gloves, picked up a knife, and began cutting the sheet cake into squares. “When I get done, do I get to lick the knife?”

  “Just be careful and don’t cut your tongue. You’re sassy enough without having a split tongue,” Jayden joked.

  “Just think how much I could cuss Keelan out if I had two tongues going at once.” Tiffany giggled. “I really don’t like that girl. I bet this camp hasn’t done her a bit of good, and it wouldn’t surprise me at all if she gets sent home before this month is over. Do you realize that we’re half done now?”

  “Yes, I already thought of that.” Jayden dipped the meat up into a big silver serving pan. “I hear the herd coming. Would you help me serve?”

  “Yes, ma’am.” Tiffany nodded. “They’d better get what they want, because I’m hungry, and when I get done making my tray, there won’t be any leftovers for the hogs.”

  Novalene came in first, poured glasses of sweet tea, and carried them to the adult table. “The girls are making a run through the bathhouse to clean up their faces and hands,” she said. “Diana is keeping an eye on them.”

  “The only thing I really like about kitchen duty is that I don’t have to stand with my toes on the edge of the sidewalk,” Tiffany told her. “I always feel like I’m going to either fall forward or get off balance and go sideways and knock someone down. If I ever do, I hope I’m standing next to Keelan.”

  In a few minutes, Elijah came inside. His face had been washed. His shirtsleeves were rolled up above his clean arms. He looked over the top of Tiffany’s head and winked at her. Just that small gesture jacked up her pulse a notch or two.

  Lightning zigzagged through the sky, crackling every now and then when it hit an old scrub oak tree or bounced across the flat land in a ball of fire. Thunder followed right behind it so low overhead that it sounded like drums being beaten right above the cabin roofs. The black clouds brought on darkness earlier than usual. The first raindrops fell, stirring up dust when they hit the ground. Then it got serious, and the wind blew in hard rain that came down in great waves.

  Jayden was doing some prep work for breakfast the next day, and Elijah was waiting for the rain to slack off before he jogged to his own house. He lingered behind, wishing for an excuse to stay, and then realized that he didn’t need a reason. It was raining outside. He liked being with Jayden. That was enough.

  “I’m glad that there’s lightning with the rain.” Elijah watched her line up flour, sugar, and baking powder and then set a big bowl beside all of it. “Need some help?”

  “No, I’ve got it under control, but what’s that about lightning?” Jayden asked. “I doubt the girls are brave enough to dance in their underwear in this kind of rain, anyway, even after all the double-dog daring.”

  “I was thinking that if they did, I’d have to go home in this weather, and I’d rather have my shower indoors,” he chuckled. “But if you wanted to dance with me in this downpour, I will put some Travis Tritt on the loudspeaker, and we can dodge the lightning bolts.”

  “Some example we’d be setting when we told the girls they couldn’t play in the rain if there was lightning,” she told him.

  “If we were the only ones here, would you dance in the rain with me?” he flirted.

  “Yep, I would, but not in my underwear,” she answered.

  Heat crawled from Elijah’s neck to his face. He couldn’t remember the last time he blushed, or even why, but he was damn glad that he was far enough away that Jayden couldn’t see his burning cheeks. He had expected her to get red cheeks when he made that statement, but she’d come right back with a saucy comment.

  “For real?” His voice sounded a little higher than normal even in his own ears.

  “Might be fun.” She smiled. “I’m a dancing-in-the-rain virgin. How about you?”

  “Never done it before,” he answered, “but I’d be willing to give it up for you.”

  “Well, thank you.”

  She was flirting back, and he liked it—a lot. “You are very welcome. What are you getting things ready for?”

  “Chicken and waffles,” she answered. “What else have you never done?” She crossed the room and sat down at the table with him.

  “Show me yours, and I might show you mine.” Damn, but it felt good to flirt again, to even want to for that matter. Could it be that his luck was changing? Man, that was a thought he never figured would pop into his mind.

  “I’ve never gone skinny-dippin’,” she answered.

  “I haven’t, either,” he said. “Would you do that with me if we had a pool, or if we were on a secluded beach?”

  “Maybe.” She nodded. “Now your turn.”

  “I’m thirty-four years old. I’ve been here for two years and was on an extended deployment before that. I haven’t dated in more than three years and would probably need a Dating for Dummies book to even know where to begin,” he answered. “I’d be willing to give up a few hours to read the book, if you’d agree to go out with me.” If she could feel the same sparks between them that he did, he would truly feel like his luck had changed.

  “I’d probably have to borrow it and read it before I’d agree but, just so I’d know, exactly what would a date with you mean?” she asked.

  “You are a special woman, so it would have to be something big.” He cupped his chin in his hand and drew his brows down. “Maybe we’d fuel the plane and fly down to Panama City Beach, Florida, for the afternoon and evening. Walk in the warm sand and have seafood at Jimmy Buffett’s place.”

  “So, I’m special”—she smiled—“or is that just a pickup line?”

  Might as well go for broke and tell her exactly how he felt. “You, Jayden Bennett, are more special than any woman I’ve ever dated,” he answered. “And on that note, the rain has almost stopped, so I’m going to jog to my house and get a shower. See you at breakfast.”

  He brought her hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles. “Until then, good night, lovely lady. Sleep tight. I’ll see you at breakfast.”

  “I’ll be the one behind the buffet line in a white apron.”

  She sounded as breathless as he was, and he liked it a lot.

  He released her hand and stood up. “You rock that apron,” he said as he walked away.

  He sucked in lungsful of the night air. Nothing smelled as fresh and clean as the earth after a hard rain, unless it was the scent of whatever lotion Jayden had rubbed into her hands that evening after her shower. He hummed an old Travis Tritt tune, “Love of a Woman,” but he couldn’t remember all the lyrics, so when he got back to his room, he found it on YouTube and listened to it while he took a shower.

  He dreamed about dancing in the rain with Jayden to that very song. He woke himself up at midnight singing the lyrics with Travis about a man being his woman’s hero.

  “I want to be Jayden’s hero,” he muttered as he rolled over and went back to sleep.

  Chapter Seventeen

  July Fourth arrived in a blaze of heat and glory, but not much changed at Piney Wood Academy that Saturday. The sirens sounded before daylight. The girls lined up and did their new routine, which included jumping rope and using stretching bands to strengthen their muscles, and then they were off to walk a mile out to the second marking post and back before breakfast.

  As usual, Novalene was the first one in the dining hall that morning. “You do know that since Mary isn’t coming back, you can schedule the girls from each cabin to have kitchen duty instead of just whenever you ask them,” she told Jayden.

  “I kind of like doing it myself.” Jayden
pulled a pan of blueberry muffins out of the oven. “I’ve always been selfish with my kitchen. Even as a teenager, when I cooked, I wanted the room to myself.”

  “Well, anytime you need cleanup or serving help, I’m volunteering myself or my two girls,” Novalene told her. “What are we having this morning?”

  “Oven omelets, hash browns, biscuits, and these muffins for dessert,” Jayden answered.

  “Sounds wonderful. You’re doing a fine job of taking over for Mary. I’m glad you came instead of Skyler. I can’t imagine her stepping in and doing the cooking, but then I damn sure wouldn’t want the job, either,” Novalene said.

  Diana entered the room, poured herself a cup of coffee, and topped off Novalene’s before she sat down. “I’ll add my thanks to Novalene’s. I called about a job that I applied for on the internet. I didn’t want to tell y’all before I heard back for fear I’d jinx it. They’re sending someone up from Del Rio to interview me next week. Keep your fingers crossed. If I get the job, this will definitely be my last year to come to Piney Wood, but before we all split seven ways to Sunday and leave, I want y’all’s contact numbers so we can stay in touch.”

  “What kind of job is it?” Jayden asked.

  “I’d be working at a security firm that hires ex-military to do contract work like protecting famous folks or dignitaries. It pays three times what teaching does. I get to carry a gun, and the benefits are amazing, plus I’ll have no paperwork or smart-ass students to deal with. I’ll have to undergo a six-week fitness program, but I’m willing to do that to get the job. At my age and with my years of experience, I can freeze my Texas retirement.”

  “Sounds to me like you’ve made up your mind,” Jayden said.

  “I have if they hire me. I’ll give my notice as soon as I know, and if everything works out, I’ll go to work for the firm on Monday after we leave here on Saturday. I’m really excited.” Diana blew on the top of her coffee and then took a sip. “That leaves you and Novalene to teach the newbies the ropes next year, Jayden.”

  “Oh, no!” Novalene threw up both hands. “Y’all leave me out of this. I’m not teaching anyone jack squat. This is my last year here, too. Everything runs its course, and I’m tired. It’s time for me to hang up my Moonbeam Cabin cap and go home, drive fast, and listen to Elvis.”