Like you never did with your sister, her mother’s voice popped into her head.

That’s not all on me, Jayden argued.

There was something about Jayden’s steely blue eyes that Elijah couldn’t get away from, no matter what. For the first time since he’d left the air force, he had thought about telling her how it felt when he had to fly the helicopter out to get his buddies’ dead bodies after the explosion—how he had felt so guilty because he had to fuel the chopper before he left.

He pulled out his chair and took a seat beside her at the dinner table at noon. “I’ve been checkin’ on all the girls this morning. They’ve all done a good job considering this is their first day. The stalls look good. Think Ashlyn will be able to walk the horses this afternoon without supervision?”

“I intend to go with them today,” Jayden said. “Would you pass the butter? I’m wishing there were days when we had kitchen duty with the girls. I like to cook and have a whole collection of cookbooks, but it’s no fun to make food for just one person.”

Elijah handed her the bowl with the individual containers of butter. “That’s another difference between you and Skyler. I remember her saying that she hated to cook, and the reason the girls don’t have kitchen duty is that Mary is selfish with her kitchen, and she’s afraid they might do something stupid to get even with the other girls.”

“I told you before, Skyler and I are as different as daylight and dark.” Jayden slathered butter on her hot roll and bit into it, and then changed the subject away from her sister. “I love good bread, and this rates right up there at number one in my book, Miz Mary.”

“That’s quite a compliment from someone who likes to cook.” Mary smiled across the table at her. “When we retire, Elijah is going to be hiring someone to man the kitchen. You should put in your résumé.”

Jayden shook her head while she chewed. When she’d swallowed the bite, she said, “Thanks, but no, thanks.”

“This desert way of life ain’t for me, either.” Novalene reached for the butter bowl. “I love coming here for eight weeks, but then I’m ready to go home to Nocona, up in North Texas, where there’s green trees and lots of grass.”

“Those pretty lawns have to be mowed.” Henry chuckled.

“I live in an apartment complex, so I don’t have to mow,” Jayden said.

Her voice was like a good, smooth Kentucky bourbon with just a touch of honey and was so soothing to Elijah’s ears that he could have listened to her read the dictionary.

“Have you always lived in an apartment?” He focused on Jayden’s eyes. He could imagine those thick lashes fluttering shut just before he kissed her. He jerked his head away and stared at his food. The woman was leaving in a few weeks. No use wanting something that wasn’t available.

“Ever since I got out of college,” she finally answered. “How about you? Did you live in the barracks or did you have a place off base?”

“Barracks until I moved in here,” he answered, “but we sure had to do our share of keeping the lawns all groomed and looking nice, at least when we were stateside. When we were out there in the sandbox, we didn’t have the luxury of grass.” He paused and chuckled. “But that’s not entirely true.”

Henry pushed his plate back with a grin. “Elijah had been over there six months. We asked him what he wanted for Christmas. We figured he’d ask for Mary’s fudge or her famous gingerbread, but oh, no, he wanted dirt from home and grass seed.”

Elijah could feel the three women staring at him, but he just smiled and finished off his lemonade.

Henry went on. “So that’s what we sent him. He bought a plastic container long enough and wide enough to put his feet in and then dumped all that dirt we had sent him from out near Mary’s garden into the container, sowed that grass seed, and kept it watered. When it was about three inches tall, he sunk his feet down into that green grass and wiggled his toes in it.”

“As Paul Harvey used to say, ‘And now you know the rest of the story,’” Elijah said. “I didn’t buy a beer for the rest of my tour. Anyone who wanted to feel my grass on their feet paid me with a beer or a candy bar. I had lots and lots of takers.”

“I didn’t know they let y’all have beer over there,” Novalene said.

“Nonalcoholic might taste like crap, but it beats no beer at all,” Elijah told her.

Jayden leaned over and nudged him on the shoulder. “But not by much.”

He cut his eyes around at her. “Honey, that desert over there makes this place seem like a five-star resort, so even an icy-cold, watered-down beer with no alcohol will wash the sand grit out from between your teeth.”

“Sweet tea or lemonade will do the same,” Novalene argued.

“I’ll tell y’all a story about the desert,” Jayden said. “Mama and I drove to California once in the middle of July. Skyler had decided she wanted to be an actress. We couldn’t afford for all of us to fly out there, so Skyler got the plane ticket, and Mama and I drove to Hollywood to help her get set up in a new apartment. By midsummer Skyler had changed her mind when the producers or whatever powers that be didn’t roll out the red carpet for her. But anyway, we knew we couldn’t drink and drive, so we bought a case of beer with no alcohol and put it down in a cooler full of ice. Y’all ever made that drive?”

The other counselors shook their heads.

“Well, it’s miles and miles of desert with no services, so you’d better have a full tank of gas. What I remember most about that trip is that we drank that ice-cold nonalcoholic beer, sang Creedence Clearwater Revival songs because Mama loved them, and told jokes . . . and crossed our legs because there wasn’t even a bush to squat behind after all those beers were gone. When we finally got to a town with a service station, the line for the ladies’ room was longer than the one to buy gas. The bathroom only had one toilet, and you had to put a quarter in the door to even get inside.”

“Are you kiddin’ us?” Novalene asked.

“Nope,” Jayden answered. “And let me tell you, folks, that was the best quarter I ever spent.”

“Did you drink any more beer on the rest of the trip?” Elijah mentally kicked himself for asking such an awkward question.

“No, sir, we did not,” Jayden answered, “and we sure enough had our quarters ready when we reached that station,” she said.

“That’s a hoot, but I like Henry’s story about Elijah, too,” Diana said. “We should all do that for our service guys. I bet they’d love some green grass from home more than about anything.”

“Probably so.” Elijah wiggled his toes and could almost feel that cool grass on his feet again.

“I see my girls are done eating,” Jayden said. “Soon as Tiffany gets finished with her hog lot duties, Ashlyn has to exercise the horses, so I’d better finish up the last two bites of dessert.”

“I usually read a book while my girls do their individual afternoon jobs, and just check on them a few times,” Novalene said.

“Tiffany is the one struggling with bulimia, so she has to have a chaperone to keep her from throwing up in the restroom. I suspect the therapist will have more tips for us about that when she arrives. Tiffany will be drawing plants, insects, and lizards. Carmella will be making a bug collection. Looks like they’re headed out now to the hog lot, so I’ll see y’all at supper,” Jayden answered.