“Of course, you can come visit anytime you want,” Jayden answered. “I’d love to see you seven months pregnant.”
“You are a much nicer person than I am, Jayden. I’ve always been jealous of that about you. People liked you for your personality and your sweet attitude. That was one of the things Ray Don brought to my attention. He said I should be more like you and my mother and less like my father,” Skyler said. “Could I call you again next week?”
“Sure. How about we make a FaceTime date for Thursdays at seven?” Jayden would take it a week at a time, but Skyler was not going to threaten the peace and happiness she’d found in Alpine.
“Deal, and thank you, again, for being a bigger person than I am, and I’m not talking about height. See you next Thursday,” Skyler said. “Have a good week.”
“You too.” Jayden ended the call, laid the phone down, and stared at it for a full minute. Had what just happened been real? She blinked a dozen times. She was awake. This was not a dream. Jayden would have believed that a snowstorm was hitting right there in South Texas on the last day of July before she would have ever thought she would hear kind words from her sister. Or an admission of a mistake, for that matter.
“Hey, we’re ready if you are,” Novalene called out from just inside the door. “Need me to help finish up with anything?”
“No, it’s all under control,” Jayden said. “I’ve just got to turn off the lights. Y’all already in the truck?”
“Hell, no!” Novalene laughed. “It’s too hot to sit in that thing. We were kind of hoping you would already have it cooled down for us.”
Jayden pushed her chair back, picked up her phone, and crossed the room. She switched off the lights and then followed Novalene outside to where the other two counselors were waiting beside the truck. “We’ll mind the heat even more at the campsite if we all get cooled down with the truck’s AC on the way out there, you know.”
“Probably, but a little bit of cool might keep us from strangling one of those girls if they start whining about the heat tonight,” Novalene replied. “This is my least favorite part of the whole session. A sixty-plus-year-old woman has no business sleeping on the ground.”
“Or being zipped up in a bag like a burrito, after eating beans for dinner and supper,” Diana added with a giggle.
“Our prissy little girls trying not to pass gas is always a hoot,” Novalene said. “Let’s get on out there and get this over with. I’m ready to go home and retire”—she glanced over toward Jayden—“and enjoy every drop of a bottle of good bourbon to celebrate.”
“Best money I’ll ever spend. I’ll tell you about a phone call I just had from Skyler on the way out to the camp,” Jayden said.
By the time they reached the tents, the women had fallen silent in disbelief. Finally, Novalene said, “Do you think the change will last, or is it a passing thing?”
“I know that Ray Don will probably be the best thing that ever happened to her, because he doesn’t baby her. He tells her the truth, just like I did the last time she was here. Being pregnant, and then a mother, may also change her. Hopefully, we can find some common ground to build a sister relationship on,” Jayden answered. “Here we are. Y’all got any last words of advice for me about this camping business?”
“Endure until the end, and then we’ll all go home,” Novalene said.
“Except for you,” Diana said. “You are home.”
“Yep, I am.” Jayden nodded.
Elijah kept one eye on the path from the camp to the campsite, and his ears open to hear the first sounds of the old work truck rumbling his way. He was more excited to see the last day of a session than he’d ever been before, and that was all because Jayden had said she would be there. He would have time alone with her to explore all these new feelings he had.
“Please, God,” he muttered, “let my bad luck streak be over.”
“Hey, girls, we need sticks to build a fire,” he yelled. “Tiffany, Bailey, Quinley, and Carmella go that way”—he pointed and then swung his finger around—“and the rest of you head out that way. We’ll build a fire when you get back.”
As they all headed off, he heard this distant rumble of a vehicle. He stood up and waited until Jayden parked; then he jogged over to the truck. Just seeing her throw her long legs out of the door set his pulse to racing. Tomorrow evening, he would finally have her all to himself, and he was downright antsy with anticipation.
“I was about to send up smoke signals.” He dropped the tailgate down and hoisted a cooler full of steaks up on his shoulder.
“Skyler called me.” Jayden slid another cooler toward the end of the truck bed and followed him over with it to the other side of the firepit. “I’ll tell you about it later.”
“Good or bad?” He hoped that woman hadn’t upset Jayden.
“All is good,” she told him.
“That’s great.” He stopped long enough to give her a chaste kiss on the cheek.
“PDA.” Novalene pointed at them.
“Yep, and after y’all all get gone, there’s going to be more of it.” He grinned.
Diana brought over a paper bag filled with food. “I’m very happy for both of you.”
“Thank you,” Jayden said. “It’s crazy how eight weeks have turned so many lives around.”
“That’s the gospel truth,” Diana agreed. “I can’t wait to get home and get on my new job. I’m so excited about it. If it hadn’t been for all y’all and the long talks we’ve had, I would have never decided to do this.”
“Wish you the best of luck, but I wouldn’t mind it a bit if you sent along some suggestions for ladies to take your place for the summer session next year,” Elijah told her.
“I’m already putting out feelers.” Novalene set down a plastic bag of bananas. “A couple of my friends are retiring at the end of the year, and they’re old dinosaurs like me who believe in discipline. They might be a good fit for this place.”
“Thank you!” Elijah said. “Here come the girls with the sticks we need to build a fire.”
“I thought that tow sack in the back of the truck was filled with firewood,” Novalene said.
“It is,” Elijah replied, “but they need to feel like they helped. Get ready to taste the best campfire beans in the whole world.”
Diana pointed to a huge can of pinto beans sitting on top of one of the coolers. “You can fool all those hungry girls that walked three miles to get out here, but I see where they’re coming from.”
“But you don’t know my extra ingredients,” Elijah told her. “A little salsa, some barbecue sauce, and a touch of brown sugar and bacon. They’ll be good with cowboy steak and potatoes rolled up in foil and tossed around the fire. It don’t get no better than this.” He slid a sly wink over toward Jayden. “Either food or company or girlfriend-wise.”
“Is that right? What about when we get home tomorrow?” Jayden whispered just for his ears.
“That, darlin’, is something altogether different than food,” he murmured.
“What’s different than food?” Tiffany asked as she dropped an armload of sticks into the firepit. “All right if I have one of those bananas? After that walk, I’m starving. Hey, Jayden, we picked wildflowers along the way and put them on Dynamite’s grave. They’ll be wilted in the morning, but we plan to put fresh ones on when we walk back. When we come at Christmas, we’re going to bring some artificial ones. They’ll last longer.”
“That’s great,” Jayden said. “And yes, all of you can have a banana or an apple or both if you’re really hungry. Dinner won’t be for a couple of hours.”
“You were pretty slick at avoiding that question,” Elijah chuckled. He still had trouble believing that Jayden would be there with him after everyone had gone home.
They would have to make a trip up there later to move her things to Alpine, but they had a whole month to do that. He had cleared out his cabin and moved over into the house Henry and Mary had left behind, but he hoped tha
t Jayden would just move in with him.
“Guidance counselors do have their little tricks.” Jayden flashed a grin his way.
“Do tell,” he flirted. “Is there more I’m going to find out after everyone is gone?”
“Patience, my darlin’,” she told him with a wink. “Patience.”
Elijah got a glimpse of the future in that moment. Forty years down the road, he saw himself and Jayden turning the place over to their children and retiring like Henry and Mary had done. No matter how much technology came and went, there would always be children who needed to spend eight weeks in a place like Piney Wood Academy, and the Thomas family would fill the need for them.
What makes you think any of your children will want to do this kind of work? Henry’s voice was in his head so solid that he could see his uncle crossing his arms over his chest as he spoke.
We’ll have enough that one of them will, Elijah answered.
I’d say that you’d better do some proposing to Jayden before you start planning forty years down the road.
Elijah smiled and muttered, “All in due time.”
A four-person tent sounded pretty good until Jayden crawled inside it that night. She expected her girls to be snoring or at least sound asleep, but they were still whispering even though it was well past midnight.
“Now we can go to sleep.” Ashlyn sighed.
Had they peeked through the window flap and seen Elijah give her that good-night kiss? Jayden wondered as she stretched out on top of her bedding. Even as cool as the night air was, after that long, hot kiss, there was no way she could zip herself into a down-filled sleeping bag.
“Are you going to marry Elijah?” Ashlyn asked.
“Can we come to the wedding?” Carmella asked.
Tiffany raised her hand. “Can I be a bridesmaid?”
“I have no idea if I’m going to marry Elijah,” Jayden answered. “He hasn’t asked me.”
“When he does, can I be a bridesmaid?” Tiffany repeated her question.
“What makes you think he will?” Jayden answered her question with one of her own.
“Because he loves you, and y’all are so cute together, and he’s so dreamy when he looks at you.” Ashlyn sighed.
The drama of teenage girls had often irritated Jayden, but that night, it amused her. “Well, what do y’all think I should say if he ever does propose?”
“Yes!” they all said at the same time.
Jayden checked her phone. “It is now almost one o’clock. We get up at five, and y’all have to walk three miles back to camp, take a shower, and get dressed to go home. I think what we’d better all do is get some sleep.”
“Going home is still scary,” Tiffany said.
“Staying here is a little scary for me, too,” Jayden told them. “But we are four strong women. We are the Daydream Cabin girls. Don’t ever forget that.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Tiffany yawned.
Jayden stretched out on her back. Through the window flap she watched the clouds drift across the moon. She closed her eyes and gave thanks that she’d found Piney Wood and Elijah.
Chapter Twenty-Four
The two vans bringing the girls back to the airport parked next to the hangar. To Jayden, it seemed like they got out even slower than they had gotten into the vans eight weeks before. She looked out over the vehicles at three stretch limos, three Cadillacs, and two extra airplanes on Saturday morning, the first of August. Eight weeks before, the same vehicles had delivered the girls to Piney Wood, and now they were taking them home. The girls wore basically the same clothes that they’d arrived in, but somehow they all looked different in them that morning. They’d been given all their personal things back, but very few had put on makeup. Now they were all smiling and calm and far more interested in making sure they had the paper with everyone’s phone numbers on it than anything else. Right up until their adult drivers began to stow the luggage.
Then the waterworks began.
Tiffany wrapped Jayden up in her arms and wept on her shoulder. “Thank you for not killing me that first day,” she said between sobs.
“I want in on this.” Ashlyn dropped her suitcase and purse on the ground and joined them.
“Me too.” Carmella teared up. “I can’t let y’all cry without me.”
Expressions of shock spread across the faces of all the drivers and parents that morning as they waited beside whatever means of transportation they’d brought to Alpine. Jayden could understand the surprise. The counselors had witnessed the gradual growth in these kids. All these people had observed was the beginning and the end of the story. Those folks in their fancy clothes and expensive vehicles, knew nothing of the obstacles the girls had overcome during their stay at Piney Wood.
“It’s time for you to go.” Jayden took a step back and then gave each of her Daydream girls one last individual hug. “I can’t tell you all how proud I am of you. You’ve got my phone number. Call me if you need anything and remember the words to ‘The River.’”
“I have to try to reach my destination.” Ashlyn didn’t repeat the words verbatim, but Jayden got the message.
“I’m determined to sail my vessel through the rough waters,” Carmella said.
“I’ll choose to chance the rapids, and be my own self,” Tiffany declared.
Jayden figured the girls would go straight to their own vehicles, but instead all eight of them gathered up in a huddle, not unlike a football group, whispered a few words, and then took a step back and yelled, “We love you all.” Then they crawled into cars, slid into limos, or, in Ashlyn’s and Tiffany’s cases, went up the steps to small private planes.
The limousines were the first two vehicles to leave, and then the Cadillacs pulled out behind them to form a long parade. She closed her eyes and said a silent prayer that all the girls got home safely.
Tiffany’s airplane taxied down the tarmac and was airborne just before Ashlyn’s did the same. Jayden couldn’t see that far, but she knew in her heart that they were waving goodbye from the skies.
Novalene pulled a small package of tissues from her purse and passed them around. “That’s the best send-off we’ve ever had.”
“It’s been an extraordinary session,” Elijah said as he led the way to his small plane. “You ladies sure you don’t want to come back next summer?”
“Hey, we just ended on a fantastic note. We can’t take a chance on ruining that.” Novalene went up the stairs first.
“I can’t believe they’re gone. I wonder if this is the way a mother feels when her kids go off to college,” Jayden said as she followed Novalene up the steps.
“This group will come back to see you,” Novalene said. “The whole bunch of them really bonded with you. Someday, they might even offer to be counselors.”
“Now wouldn’t that be something?” Diana came in ahead of Elijah.
“Sit back and enjoy the ride. Skies are blue. No storms in sight,” Elijah said as he took his seat. He taxied the plane down the runway, and only the two PWA vans were left sitting over by the hangar. If she hadn’t needed to go back to Dallas and clean out her office, she wouldn’t even be on the plane, but before dark, she and Elijah would be back home. She would drive one of those vans back to Piney Wood, and her new life would continue. It had actually begun eight weeks ago—she just hadn’t known it at the time.
Elijah had checked the weather report twice that morning, and nothing had come up on the flight path north to Fort Worth. Once they landed, Diana called an Uber to share with Novalene. After a few more hugs and lots of promises to keep in touch, they left, leaving Elijah and Jayden alone.
“Well, what’s next?” Elijah slipped an arm around her shoulders.
“I’ve ordered a car to take us to the school. I need to sign some papers, clean out my desk, and be sure everything is in order for the new teacher coming in to take my place. Shouldn’t take more than an hour,” she said. “Unless you want to see the sights of Dallas?”
“I
like the view of them much better from up there in the air than on the ground.” He smiled. “When you get finished with what you need to do at the school, maybe we could have our first official date, and I could take you out to dinner?”
“I’d like that,” she told him. “We are talking about the noon meal, aren’t we? I’d starve if we had to wait until evening.”
“The noon meal is always dinner in my world. Supper is the evening meal. Think you can learn to live with that permanently?” he asked.
“Without a doubt,” she answered.
Their car arrived, Jayden told the driver where to take them, and they settled into the wide back seat. Elijah put his arm around her and pulled her close to his side. “It’s been years since anyone has driven me anywhere.”
“Sit back and enjoy it,” she said. “It’ll take about forty-five minutes in this weekend traffic to get to my school.”
Her phone rang, and her first thought was that one of her girls already needed her, but when she checked the ID, it was her principal.
“Hello.” She put the phone on speaker.
“Hi, Jayden. This is Melanie, and I hope I haven’t overstepped my boundaries, but I went ahead and packed up your room. The new guidance counselor arrived this morning, all gung ho to decorate it her way, so I just got three cardboard boxes and started shoving your things into them,” she said.
“Thank you!” Jayden said. “Now all I’ll have to do is pick them up. Are you going to be there the next half hour?”
“Nope,” Melanie answered. “I’m on my way out. Got a last-minute meeting with a prospective science teacher, but the front door is open. The janitors are in here giving the place a good cleaning. Your boxes will be sitting beside your door.”
“I’m glad you found someone so quickly,” Jayden said, “and thank you again for packing up for me.” She ended the call, shoved the phone into her purse, and turned to Elijah. “Think we might get our driver to go through a fast-food window for dinner? We can pick up my stuff, grab some takeout, go back to the plane, and have our first date in the hangar or on the plane. That way, we won’t have to call another car.”
The Daydream Cabin Page 30
