Madge tucked a strand of bleached blonde hair behind her ear. “You mean you ain’t hirin’ me today? I drove out here for nothing, and even made Bruiser wait in the car.”

“Like Jayden said, we’ve got several more applicants to interview over the next two weeks.” Elijah stood up.

Jayden followed his lead, hoping that they would take the hint and leave so she could fumigate the kitchen.

Ferry got up so fast that her chair fell over backward. A clap of thunder hit about the same time, doubling the noise. “I can’t believe you’ll get anybody to come out here in this godforsaken place that will be more qualified than I am. Didn’t you understand that I’m a fry cook, and what does a bunch of outlaw girls want to eat anyway but french fries and burgers with some onion rings every so often, maybe?”

Jayden ushered them to the door. “If we don’t call you, then feel free to call us after three weeks. Y’all drive safe now on the way back to town.”

The minute they were out of the dining hall and she could hear the rattle of their vehicles starting up and driving away, she turned around and pointed a finger at Elijah. “What in the hell were you thinking? You can’t have people like that around the girls.”

“Résumés looked pretty good.” He shrugged. “They both had experience in cooking.”

“From now on, maybe we’d better ask for mug shots.” Jayden marched across the kitchen and poured herself a glass of milk. She would have loved a double shot of Jack Daniel’s right about then to calm her nerves, but milk would, at least, keep her stomach acid from burning holes through her insides.

“That would be discrimination,” Elijah reminded her. “An applicant could come back on us and declare that we were discriminating on the basis of age or race.”

She turned up her glass and drank a third of the milk before coming up for air. “You’ve got to find a big sister or mother figure to work around the girls.” She paced all the way around the buffet bar and across the kitchen. “You can’t have women who want to move their pot-smoking boyfriend in with them, or one who only has two grown kids and a dog the size of an elephant living in your old cabin with her. What if that big monster bit one of our girls, or what if one of those only two grown kids is a pervert of some kind? You need to get health records and criminal records right up front before they come out, not after. And maybe a drug test the minute they arrive. They’re going to be around young girls, for God’s sake.” She made a lap around the whole kitchen. “If that’s the best in the area, hiring a cook is going to be a nightmare.”

“I agree.” He nodded. “It sure ain’t going to be a daydream, and if you think you can pick better ones to call in for an interview, the résumés are right there.”

“Well, I damn sure can’t do worse.” She picked up the first stack and flipped through half a dozen short job applications. “I don’t see a single one that looks acceptable. We need someone that can do something more than fry burgers and make hot dogs.”

“I agree, so what’s our next step?” he asked.

“We go pick up the paper that Ferry left on the yard, and then we get some disinfectant and wash the dog pee off our porch post,” she answered as she tossed the résumés back on the table. “Tomorrow morning, you should call the employment place and tell them none of these will work.”

“Yes, ma’am.” He grinned. “Did I hear you say our porch post and our girls?”

“Yes, you did,” she huffed as she went to the cabinet and got a bottle of spray cleaner, a roll of paper towels, and two sets of latex gloves. “Here, put these on. You never know what germs are on the porch post, and that litter Ferry left for us could have botulism or salmonella on it.”

“There’s one good thing about those interviews,” he said as he stretched on the gloves. “They didn’t take very long. You might even have time to catch a nap before you start supper.”

“I’m way too wound up to sleep,” she said.

“Do you need a hug and maybe a kiss?” he asked.

“After being around those two women, I’d need a shower before I even thought about something like that,” she fumed.

“It’s raining, so a shower shouldn’t be a problem.” He grinned.

“With eight girls and two counselors watching?” she asked. “No, thank you!”

Chapter Nineteen

As Jayden made her way across the yard to the dining hall that Monday morning, she remembered her grandfather saying that “what will be, will be, and what won’t be just might be anyway.” It had seemed like a riddle to her when she was young, but after interviewing those two women the day before and realizing how much she had come to love Piney Wood—well, that latter part of what Gramps said was beginning to make sense all these years later.

“Is it my calling to stay here?” she asked herself that morning as she turned on the lights in the dining hall and went to work. Was that why she’d gotten so angry at the idea of anyone taking over her kitchen? Or was she angry because that hussy Ferry had flirted with Elijah?

“What are you all spun up about?” Novalene asked as she came in, poured two cups of coffee, carried one back to Jayden, and then took her regular chair.

“Thank you,” Jayden said, accepting the coffee, “but what makes you think I’m worried about anything?”

“It’s written all over your face,” Novalene answered. “You’d make a lousy poker player. Does it have to do with those women who came by yesterday? We haven’t had a chance to talk about the interviews.”

Jayden cracked eggs into a bowl and whipped them with a whisk. “Well, rest assured that we didn’t hire either one of those women, and I don’t intend to bring them back for a second interview, either.”

Diana, like always, went straight to the coffeepot.

“What’d those eggs do to you?” Diana asked. “Looks to me like you’re taking out your frustrations on them.”

“Maybe I am,” Jayden answered. “If the two prospects we talked to yesterday are the best this area has to offer, then, as my Gramps used to say, the pickin’s are going to be mighty slim. I just can’t imagine turning Mary’s kitchen over to someone . . .” She shivered and kept stirring scrambled eggs.

“That bad, huh?” Novalene asked.

“One had a pot-smoking boyfriend who would be moving in with her, but he has a ‘medical card.’” She air quoted the last two words. “The other one had two grown kids and a dog the size of a gorilla that would be living with her. She brought the dog along and let it hike its leg on the porch post. They both left mad at us because we didn’t offer either of them the job.”

Diana blew on the top of her mug and giggled at the same time. “Mary wouldn’t rest easy a single day knowing someone like that was in her kitchen. If they hadn’t had so much baggage, would they have worked out?”

“Nope. Not the right kind of experience, either,” Jayden answered.

The girls came filing in before anyone could ask another question. Elijah usually followed them and picked up a tray, but that morning he joined her behind the buffet line.