“My daddy might have pity on me, but Mama wouldn’t. She says I’m an embarrassment to her. Last time she wouldn’t even let me talk to the judge. I’d go straight to jail if she had her way.” Tiffany stood up and headed toward the cabin. “Do we get a siren when it’s time to go to church? And what place do we go to? At home, Mama takes me to mass on Christmas and Easter.”

“And do me and Carmella get a demerit for not staying in our seats this morning?” Ashlyn asked.

“No to your question, Ashlyn. You were trying to help, not hinder, the situation. And to answer your question, Tiffany, we go to a different one every single week,” Elijah said. “You’ve each got a list of the churches. This is the first Sunday you are here, so we start with the one at the top. It’s a small church, not far from here.”

“I looked at the list this morning. That’s the kind of church where Mama’s housekeeper goes,” Ashlyn said. “I went with her a couple of times. I like their singing. Can we please at least have our own jeans and shirts for Sunday services?”

“Sorry, girls,” Jayden said. “Rules are rules, like you just heard. You will attend services in what you are wearing. You can brush your hair and your teeth, but don’t forget to put your caps back on.”

Carmella wiped sweat from her brow. “Thank God we go to a different place every week.”

“Why?” Jayden asked.

“Because if there’s any sexy boys there, they’ll only see us lookin’ like this one time,” Carmella answered and then went inside the Daydream Cabin.

“All of the girls expected you to bring Lauren back and give her another chance, and that concerned me,” Jayden said. “I’m glad you didn’t. She seemed way too violent to have around the other kids. What if she really did decide to go on a rampage?”

“Part of why she didn’t come back. She’s got problems way beyond what we can do to help her. Had Henry settled down when he and Mary left? His blood pressure was probably out of sight,” Elijah asked.

“He seemed to be fine,” Jayden answered. “How’s Novalene?”

“Feeling like a failure. You and the other ladies might want to visit with her this afternoon. I’m going to get a softball game going with the girls so they’ll keep busy.” Elijah turned to walk away and then stopped and looked over his shoulder.

“Thanks for all you’re doing in the kitchen, and for having the foresight to use an apron for handcuffs. Henry appreciates it and so do I.”

“I enjoy working with Mary, and I love to cook, so it’s a win-win there. And working in an underfunded school district has taught me to use whatever is at hand,” she said. “But you might invest in some real restraints for next season.”

“You sure I can’t take you away from your job at the school? I’ll pay you better and you’ll get more time off. Since you’d be a full-time cook, you wouldn’t even have to take care of a cabin. I’ll give you my house, and I’ll move over into Henry and Mary’s place when they retire,” he offered.

“I’m not staying here, Elijah, but again, thanks for the offer.”

Jayden sat down on her porch and wished she had a good cold beer in her hands. She’d lied about her first black eye. That had come at the hands of Skyler when she was twelve and her sister caught her using her lipstick. Skyler had picked up a silver-plated hand mirror and smacked her in the eye with it. She’d cried after she’d done the deed, but not because she was sorry for hitting Jayden. Her little hissy fit was because she’d broken her mirror, and she said that Jayden had caused her to have seven years of bad luck.

Jayden put that memory out of her mind and was trying to figure out if she could have helped Lauren in some way when “I Saw the Light” came over the loudspeaker that usually sent out the sound of a siren.

“Nice touch,” she muttered. Then she opened the door and yelled, “Church time!”

She hadn’t set foot in a church since her mother’s funeral. God was supposed to be merciful and kind, right? Well, He had failed Jayden when He didn’t answer her prayers, so she had turned her back on Him. He could have woken her mother up from the coma that she’d fallen into after the aneurism.

Jayden’s three girls came out of the cabin and got into the van with Diana and a couple of her girls. The rest of the camp members rode with Elijah and Jayden. Turned out that it was on the north side of town, and it was a very small place, with only five or six rows of chairs on two sides of a center aisle. As luck would have it, when they all walked in the door, the back rows were filled. Apparently, the back two rows on the right-hand side were where the cute boys sat, and all eight girls put a little extra swing in their walk when they passed by them to sit on the front pew.

Elijah was the last one in the door, and since the only chair left was right beside Jayden, his broad shoulder touched hers all during the service. Cool air flowed down from a vent right above her, but her hands were still sweaty, and her pulse jacked up another notch or two every time he leaned a little more her way.

If he was getting the same vibes she was, there was no way they could ever work together every day like Mary and Henry did. No, sir. No way. With the chemistry she felt, she’d be dragging him off to her cabin instead of cooking meals.

A lady wearing a purple dress took her place behind the lectern and said, “Special welcome today to the girls and their sponsors from out at Piney Wood. We’re always glad to see y’all when it’s our turn for you to visit us. If everyone will turn to page three eighty in the hymnals that are under your chairs, we’ll begin our services with congregational singing,” she announced, and then continued to the sound of pages flipping. “Everyone likes to sing, so we just let the whole church be our choir.”

You can’t sing in the choir. They wouldn’t have a robe long enough for you, and besides, your voice sounds like you’re a boy. Maybe you should have been a guy. God knows you’re tall enough to be one. Skyler’s voice came back to Jayden’s mind.

Jayden must have been about fourteen at the time, and that was the last time she ever asked her mother if she might start going to choir practice with Skyler on Friday nights.

The pianist played a short prelude and then the lady led them in “Abide with Me,” with an upbeat version of the song that bore little resemblance to the music notes in the hymnal. The boys on the back rows kept time by clapping their hands. Jayden mumbled through the first verse, but by the second one, she had it down.

Skyler had chosen this very hymn to be played at their mother’s graveside service, but Jayden had been too angry that she and her sister were the only ones there that day to even pay attention to the lyrics. Now as she sang the words, it seemed fitting. The last verse talked about pointing me to the skies, and heaven’s morning breaking. It asked that, in life or death, the Lord abide with me—whoever me happened to be.

When they had finished the hymn, the song leader and pianist took a seat over on the wall behind the piano, and the preacher stepped up behind the lectern. “I’ll add my welcome to the ladies and to Elijah from out at Piney Wood. This morning’s reading is from John 15. ‘Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.’ Now, I ask you all, each and every one of you, what does it mean to abide in Him? Well, that’s what I’m going to tell you this morning.”