“We think you should take the job as cook for this place,” Keelan said.
“Is this some kind of intervention?” Jayden giggled, relieving some of the pent-up stress of the day.
“Yep, it is.” Violet nodded. “You can always find a job teaching in Texas if you don’t like it here after a year. If I could stay and help in any way, I would love to. I could go to high school in Alpine and live right here. I’ve never felt so safe and wanted as I have here in the camp.”
“Why don’t y’all turn this place into a boarding school for nine girls?” Rita asked. “I’m sure my folks would gladly pay whatever it would cost for me to stay here. That way, they wouldn’t have to be bothered with me, and I’d be one freakin’ happy kid.”
“That’s not for me to decide,” Jayden said. “That’s something you need to talk to Elijah about. I can’t imagine any of you wanting to stay here your next two or three years of high school. You all hated this place when you first got here.”
“That was then,” Keelan said. “This is now. We’ve kind of found ourselves since way back then, and you need to do the same thing.”
“Almost every evening when you leave the dining hall, you are humming a tune or whistling under your breath. You’re happy here, whether you know it or not,” Ashlyn said.
Jayden smiled at the bunch of them. “Of course I’m happy here. I’ve seen you girls learn to love yourselves for what’s inside you, not for the fancy clothes or jewelry on your bodies or the hundred-dollar haircuts and expensive makeup. And I’m more than just happy that you all have overcome the issues you came here with. That would make any grown-up happy.”
“Just think about making other girls feel like us for however many times Elijah has a session out here,” Tiffany said. “You don’t have to decide right now, but it would make every one of us happy if we could wave goodbye to you on that last day and know that at least one of us was living here at Piney Wood.”
“If you did stay,” Keelan started, “could we come back and visit you sometimes during the off-seasons? My mama would pay for me to have a vacation here, like over Christmas.”
“I don’t think that would work. This is just part of your journey on the path of life. Y’all need to go home, face off with the same things that sent you here, and overcome them,” Jayden told them. “And now, you should all get going. You’ve only got about five minutes to get into your beds. I’d hate for you to get demerits because you were having an intervention of sorts for me.”
The girls from the other cabins left, and in only a few minutes Novalene and Diana joined her on the Daydream Cabin porch. Novalene handed her a bottle of water and sat down beside her. Diana took one of the other two chairs. Neither was wearing her cap, and their hair looked damp from fresh washing. Novalene’s gray roots shone in the moonlight. Diana’s hair hung in wet strands.
Jayden twisted the top off the bottle and took a long drink from it. “Don’t tell me y’all are here to give me a pep talk about not going back to teaching.”
“Is that why the kids were all gathered up over here?” Novalene asked.
“It’s like they’re on a mission to get me to stay here,” Jayden laughed.
“You can make up your own mind about all that,” Novalene replied. “We came over to see what’s got you all twisted up today. You’ve been distracted, and you forgot to make sweet tea for dinner and then again for supper until the girls were already lined up. So fess up—are you and Elijah fighting?”
“We’re not prying,” Diana said. “We’re just here to help.”
“A few days ago, I found a letter from my mother,” Jayden spat out and went on to tell them how angry she’d been at her mother for the decisions she’d made.
“She kept more than her half of the money?” Diana was aghast. “That’s downright mean and hateful no matter which way you think about it.”
“And she wouldn’t let you buy her out?” Novalene asked. “Even if your mama wanted you to move on, it would have been only right for Skyler to offer the place to you first.”
“Or at least to give you more than your personal belongings. I would be devastated if I didn’t have my grandmother’s rolling pin,” Diana added.
“It is what it is.” Jayden sighed.
“You are so right. All our bitchin’ won’t undo it, so let’s go back to my question,” Novalene said. “Are you and Elijah fighting?”
“No, we are not fighting,” Jayden said.
“Good,” Novalene said. “We’ve had such a pleasant experience this session that . . .”
She hesitated and Diana picked up where she left off. “. . . that we don’t want things to get awkward here at the end.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Jayden asked.
“We’re not blind, darlin’.” Novalene laughed. “We can feel the . . . what do kids call it these days . . . vibes? Whatever it’s called—chemistry, attraction, sparks, electricity—we can see it between y’all, and you know better than to mix business and pleasure. It never works, and things would get strange if y’all started up something and then had a falling out.”
“Everything is fine between me and Elijah. We would never start something with the girls here, but I have told him I’d stick around a couple of weeks after this session. We feel that tension or whatever it is between us, too, and we’d like some time to see exactly what it is,” she admitted.
Novalene smiled. “I’ll make sure you have my address so you’ll know where to send that bottle of bourbon.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Jayden had made her list of pros and cons and studied it the whole fifth week that she was at the camp. The biggest thing against the whole idea of moving to Alpine was that she had tenure and security with her teaching job and a three-month block of time off in the summer. What lifted her heart and put a smile on her face when she looked at her list was the fact that if she stayed at Piney Wood, she wouldn’t have casework or kids and parents to deal with, and she would be doing something that she loved every day. Plus, even though it wasn’t in one solid block, she would have four months off through the year. Other than cooking for Elijah and herself and helping him out some around the place, she would be free to actually write that novel she had thought about for years.
By the end of the sixth week, she still hadn’t made up her mind, and the need to make a decision was weighing heavy on her heart. She shouldn’t wait until the last minute to tender her resignation to her school if she was going to stay in Alpine. Telling them she wasn’t coming back at least a month to six weeks before the new school year started would be the right thing to do. That Saturday afternoon, she was busy making peanut butter cookies when Tiffany came into the kitchen and taped a new picture up on the wall.
Jayden glanced at the drawing of a butterfly sitting on the top of a cupcake with pretty white clouds floating in a blue sky in the background. “Well, that’s sure different from your other work.”
“I’m not the same person that I was when I drew the first pictures, and, besides, we have clouds on our caps to show everyone here that we’re from the Daydream Cabin.” Tiffany got out a second cookie sheet for Jayden. “I need to talk,” she said with bluntness.
“About?” Jayden scooped up cookie dough, rolled it into a ball, and placed it on the cookie sheet.
“I’m afraid to leave.” Tiffany sighed. “We all are. It’s scary going back to our old environment. What if we mess up again? Every one of us is a three-time loser, and the judge told me if I came up before her again, I’d be in juvie until I’m eighteen. At first, I thought I’d never get in trouble again. All I’d have to do is remember having to take the scrap bucket to the hogs, or shovel out the stalls, and I’d put on a halo and angel wings, but now I feel like I’ll be homesick for Piney Wood.”
Using a fork, Jayden began making crisscross lines on the four dozen balls of dough that were lined up on the cookie sheet. “What you’ll be homesick for is the companionship you’ve found here.
Real friends that don’t demand that you bully other girls by taking ugly pictures of them or shoplift to stay in their little club or . . . what did you girls call those other ones at the fireworks show?”
“Posse.” Tiffany smiled.
“That’s right. You don’t need a posse. Find true friends or stay in touch with the ones you’ve met here. Call one of us, and that includes me, if you feel like you’re slipping back into your old ways. Find something to do that keeps you out of trouble. Maybe find a part-time job or volunteer at a nursing home or a hospital.”
“Hey, I like that idea about working at a hospital.” Tiffany stuck her hand into an oven mitt and pulled the first batch of cookies from the convection oven. “Mama wouldn’t mind me doing that, but she’d probably throw a hissy fit if I went to work flipping burgers. That would ruin her image. Will you make a copy of all our phone numbers for each of us to take home so we can stay in touch?”
“I can do that if you’ll be in charge of getting them all written down for me,” Jayden agreed.
“Yes, ma’am.” Tiffany picked up a cookie and bit off a piece. “I love these right out of the oven when they’re still warm. Are you ever scared of anything?”
“Wh-what?” Jayden stammered. “Why would you ask that?”
“You took care of that spider under the bed. You weren’t afraid to stand up for us and believe that we could dig a hole for Dynamite. Even when your sister was mean to you, you got up and didn’t whine around for a week about it. I could go on and on,” Tiffany answered.
“I’m terrified of making decisions.” Jayden put the second sheet of cookies into the oversize oven. “I’m always afraid I’ll make the wrong one and then regret it.”
Tiffany flashed a brilliant smile. “Listen to your heart. Seems like those are the words you said once when we were having a talk during group session.”
“Did I?” Jayden couldn’t remember, but then she’d had a lot on her mind the past couple of weeks. To stay at Piney Wood or to go back to teaching? The decision had to be made without thinking of a relationship with Elijah.
“You might not have said it in those exact words, but that’s what’s been going through my mind. What if I can’t trust my heart? What if it tells me wrong?” Tiffany asked.
“The heart never tells you wrong,” Jayden said. “You might not want to do what it says, and you might argue with it, but when you do, that’s when you’re about to mess up. Think back to when you were doing those mean things. Did you feel any remorse?”
Tiffany looked sheepish. “Yes, but I wanted to be in that circle of friends, so I figured it was worth the price. That was my heart talking to me, and my own selfish pride kicked it out of the way, didn’t it?”
“That’s right,” Jayden told her. “So, from now on, listen to your heart and kick the selfish pride out of the way.”
“You are even better than my therapist back home.” Tiffany picked up three cookies and headed for the door.
“Hey, that will ruin your dinner,” Jayden called out.
“One for me, one for Carmella, and one for Ashlyn,” Tiffany threw over her shoulder as she went outside.
What a difference seven weeks had made in all their lives, Jayden thought as she took the second pan of cookies from the oven. Not just the girls, either. Diana was excited about a new job. Novalene was really retiring from the camp, and Jayden had decided in that moment not to be afraid of change or taking a risk. While the cookies cooled, she slipped her phone from her hip pocket and called her school in Dallas.
“Listen to your heart,” she muttered as she listened to the phone ring three times. “If it goes to voice mail, then it’s a sign I shouldn’t stay here.”
She recognized the principal’s voice the minute she said, “Hello, Jayden. What can I do for you today?”
Jayden inhaled deeply, let it all out, and said, “You can accept my resignation. I’ll be sending it by mail tomorrow.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Melanie said. “Did you find another job?”
“Yes, but not in teaching.” Jayden told her about Piney Wood Academy.
“That sounds wonderful, and you’ll still be helping kids,” Melanie told her. “We will sure miss you, but I understand completely and wish you the best. I appreciate you letting me know this far in advance so I can get another teacher lined up. I just got an application today from someone with your last name. Do you know a Skyler Bennett?”
“That . . . would be my sister.” Jayden’s thoughts went spinning out of control. Had Skyler lied to her about going to Mexico to start a fancy school with her fiancé? “When’s the woman’s birthday? Dallas is a huge city. There’s probably a dozen or more Skyler Bennetts living in or near the place.”
“April third, nineteen eighty-six,” Melanie answered.
What in the world? “That’s probably her, then. I can’t imagine another person having the same birthday as she does.” Questions still ran around Jayden’s head like words on a merry-go-round.
“I told her that we only had an opening in middle school math, but I may call her back and see if she’d be more interested in high school English. Since she’s your sister, what do you think she’s best qualified to teach?” Melanie asked.
“I’m really not sure how to answer that question. I would think that she could do a good job in whatever she sets her mind to do, and she’s been working as a counselor for the past several years,” Jayden answered, even though she couldn’t imagine Skyler teaching in a rundown public school instead of a prestigious private one.
“Thanks for being honest. Stop by and see me if you have time when you come back up here to move your things.”
“I sure will, and you’ll have my formal letter of resignation in the next few days.” Jayden ended the call and plopped down in a chair. Should she call Skyler, or leave things alone? What could have happened that she would leave Glory Bound? It might be petty, but she hoped that Skyler was getting a little bit of her own medicine.
“Thought I’d run by for a pick-me-up glass of tea,” Elijah said as he came through the door, hot air whooshing in behind him.
“I’m hoping that offer to stay on here as the cook still stands. I just quit my teaching job,” Jayden spit out all at once before she lost her nerve.
Elijah rushed across the room, picked her up out of the chair, and twirled her around with her feet off the floor until they both started to wobble. Then he set her down and cupped her face in his hands. “Please tell me you’re serious.”
“Very much so. I can’t stand to leave future girls in the hands of someone like those two we interviewed,” she teased. “Seriously, I want to be here at the camp with you.”
His lips met hers in a fiery kiss that caused the whole world to disappear, leaving only herself and Elijah in a vacuum where no one existed but the two of them. If she had a single thought that she’d made the wrong decision, that kiss and his body pressed so close to hers erased it completely.
Storm clouds brought thunder, lightning, and rain that afternoon. Any outside work came to a halt and the girls spent time in their cabins. Jayden did all the prep work for supper and then made a run for the Daydream Cabin to check on her girls.
She’d just cleared the porch when Novalene yelled over from the Moonbeam Cabin porch. “Hey, your kids are over here. I’ll keep them until suppertime. Right now, they’re giggling about their first days here.”
“Thank you,” Jayden hollered above the noise of the rain pounding the rooftops. She caught her breath, wiped the water from her face, and was about to go into the cabin when her sister’s little red sports car parked so close that it almost took out the edge of the flower bed.
If the chairs hadn’t been wet, Jayden would have fallen backward into one of them out of pure shock. The last person in the world that she thought she’d see that day was Skyler. A loud clap of thunder brought with it a brand-new downpour. Skyler got soaked when she got out of the car. When she tried to run around the ve
hicle and get in out of the rain, she slipped and fell into a mud puddle.
A giggle bubbled up from inside Jayden that she had no control over. Skyler gave her a dirty look as she fought her way to her feet and made it up the steps and onto the porch. She looked like a drowned rat that had just barely survived a hurricane. Her blonde hair hung down her back in limp strands, and her mascara made long black streaks down her face. Her cute little white shorts and tank top looked like they’d been dragged through the hog wallow.
“I need help,” Skyler whined.
“I think you need to take a trip through the bathhouse,” Jayden told her.
“Give me one of your old shirts. It’ll be miles too big, but it will do until I can get back out to my car and get my suitcase,” Skyler said.
“Why would I do that?” Jayden led the way inside and sat down on one of the sofas.
“Because . . . ,” Skyler started and then stopped. “Because you’d do it for a stranger. You’re that kind of person, and I need more of your help than just a shirt. I need to talk to someone, and I don’t have anyone else but you.”
Jayden got up, went to her bedroom, and brought back an old T-shirt and a package of wet wipes. Where was Skyler’s rich fiancé? Had he figured out that he didn’t want to be strapped to a self-centered woman?
“You’ll need to go to the bathhouse to clean up, but I have a bottle of water right here. We keep those here in the cabin so we can keep the girls hydrated.” She tossed the shirt and wipes on the sofa.
“I know that, you realize. These will work fine.” Skyler stripped out of her shorts and shirt, kicked off her shoes, and used ten wipes to clean the mud off her arms and legs. “I’ve applied at your old school, but I simply cannot teach in a place like that,” Skyler said.
No surprise there, Jayden thought. “I don’t see an engagement ring. Are you and David having problems?”
“He broke up with me, and the school took him back because his grandmother is a big, big supporter, but they wouldn’t give me back my job. Now my perfect wedding is ruined, and the thousand-dollar deposit I paid the wedding planner is nonrefundable.”
The Daydream Cabin Page 28
