“Good God!” Diana gasped. “Are you all right? No wonder you were crying. Doesn’t she have her own savings?”

“She probably went through that within a month,” Jayden answered.

Diana poured two glasses of iced tea. “Come on over here and sit down.”

With his hand on the small of her back, Elijah guided her to the table and pulled out a chair for her to sit in. “See y’all later.”

Novalene and Diana both waved him away.

“Now talk,” Novalene said as she sat down right beside Jayden.

“Hey, Jayden, we got done with the bathrooms and wondered if you need some help in the kitchen,” Tiffany yelled from the door.

All three Daydream Cabin girls headed over to the end of the bar to get bottles of water, and then, as if on cue, noticed Jayden in a collective double take. Tiffany’s eyes went big and she ran across the floor to hug her.

“Did somebody die?” Carmella came right behind her.

“You don’t have to leave, do you?” Ashlyn asked.

“No, I’ll be right here until the last day.” Jayden could feel the love surrounding her even though these people didn’t share a bit of DNA with her. She had to be honest with her girls, but she only told them the bare bones and didn’t mention the cruel things Skyler had said.

“Holy crap on a cracker!” Novalene whispered. “I knew she was a little on the vain side, but that’s downright mean.”

“Is that the blonde that we saw talking to you out by the laundry room?” Carmella asked.

Diana nodded. “She was showing me her engagement ring, and she asked me to walk back to the yard with her to meet her fiancé, David. He didn’t even get out of the car. She sure didn’t tell me about all this, or I would have given her a talkin’-to.”

“I don’t think it would have done a bit of good,” Novalene said. “Skyler is who she is, and until she sees a need to think of other folks more than herself, you’d be wasting your time and breath.”

“You can’t change a leopard’s spots,” Diana added.

“I would take a demerit to get to knock her on her butt,” Tiffany said through clenched teeth. “That’s no way to treat your sister. My older sister and I argue all the time, but I’d never be that ugly to her.”

“Thank you for your support and love,” Jayden said, “but right now we need to get dinner going, so yes, I’ll be glad for your help. Just because I got my feelings hurt doesn’t mean we won’t have a bunch of hungry girls coming in here pretty soon. I’d planned on making meatloaf for supper, and it can be done in an hour, so we’ll get it in the oven.”

“I’ll peel potatoes for loaded mashed potatoes,” Carmella offered.

“And I’m real good at opening a can of green beans and making a salad.” Tiffany grinned. “What’s all those pie shells for?”

“Chocolate pies, but I still need to make the meringue.” Jayden said.

Whoever said you had to share DNA with a person for them to be family had rocks for brains, Jayden thought.

“I hate meringue,” Ashlyn said. “I’ll put the pudding in the shells, set them in the fridge to cool, and just before we serve them, I’ll put whipped cream on the tops. That’s a lot better than calf slobbers and you won’t even have to make meringue.”

“Where did you hear that? I haven’t heard egg whites referred to like that in years.” Novalene took all the dirty glasses to the kitchen and put them in the dishwasher.

“From my daddy,” Ashlyn said. “He doesn’t like meringue, either.”

Jayden finally giggled and looked around at her new little family—folks that wouldn’t ask her to give them her savings, who were there to support her. “My gramps used to say the same thing.”

Compartmentalize, Jayden kept telling herself through the day when her mind would wander back to the revelation her sister had sprung on her. Put it in a box and close the lid.

Finally, everything was finished and she turned the lights out, carried a bottle of orange juice across the yard, and slumped down into a chair. Her girls came out of the cabin, and soon, one by one, all eight of the girls at Piney Wood Academy had gathered around her on the Daydream Cabin porch, and all of them wanted to talk about Skyler. Drama was a teenage girl’s lifeblood, and this was big news.

“With a sister like that I bet you wish you were adopted,” Tiffany said. “I’ve thought I might be sometimes. My parents are such beautiful people, and my sister is, too, and I’m so plain.”

Carmella threw up a palm. “That’s enough of that kind of talk. Every one of us are beautiful.”

“That’s right,” Jayden said. “Beauty is the light within you that shines out, not the jewelry you hang on your body, the fancy clothes you wear, or the makeup you use. A person can be gorgeous on the outside, but the evil inside them ruins every bit of the prettiness.” She wasn’t sure if she was preaching to herself or to the girls—maybe they all needed to hear it.

“Why not be both? Pretty on the outside and inside?” Ashlyn asked.

“Yes, but the inside one is the most important,” Jayden said.

“I’ve wished a bunch of times that I was adopted,” Keelan said, “and that I’d find my real parents, and my mama would be a stay-at-home mother, and my dad would have time to spend with me.”

“I’m so sorry.” Ashlyn got up from the porch step and gave her a hug. “I’ll be your sister if you’ll let me. I always wanted a big sister to talk to. I’m an only child.”

“If you’ll be my big sister, Jayden, I’ll come stay a week with you in the summer and spend Christmas with you,” Tiffany offered.

“Are we puttin’ up a tree at your house?” Carmella asked. “If we are, then don’t decorate it until I get there.”

Violet shook a finger at them. “Hey, just because y’all are Daydream Cabin girls don’t mean you get to be her only little sisters. I vote that we all adopt her as our big sister.”

“Lose one, gain eight.” Jayden smiled. “Seems like I’m like that man Job that we heard about last week in church. I lost everything, but in the end, I’ve got more than I had in the beginning.”

“So have we,” Tiffany whispered. “But you didn’t answer us. Will you be our big sister?”

“Of course I will.” Jayden smiled through the pain.

The girls had been playing a card game while they visited. Jayden realized it was close to their bedtime and raised her voice a little. “Okay, ladies, as the old song says, ‘Turn out the lights, the party’s over.’ Thank you all for coming to cheer me up, and for adopting me. I love all of you.”

“Love you!” they chorused as Bailey gathered up the deck of cards and they all left her porch.

“But we love you the most,” Tiffany said as she and the other two Daydream girls started inside. “Bet you never thought you’d hear me say that after I dumped my food on the floor that first day.”

“I had high hopes.” Jayden smiled.

“Can we really call you when we need help, and come see you?” She held the door open and waited for an answer.