And then, side by side, they cross over together.

“Rest in peace, Dynamite. Someday I’ll be with you again,” Ashlyn said as she picked up a shovel and began to fill in the grave.

Jayden slipped her phone from the hip pocket of her jeans and started the song Carmella had asked for. The girl had been right. The words did fit every one of the kids gathered around the grave that hot, sultry afternoon. The lyrics of the song talked about a dream being like a river, trying to learn from what’s in the past, and that they would never reach their destination if they never tried.

They were still shoveling dirt when the song ended, so Jayden hit the “Repeat” button and let it run until there was a long mound of dirt beside the half-mile marker. Then Quinley and Violet pushed the wheelbarrows close to the grave and all the girls piled rocks on top until it was completely covered.

Ashlyn carefully picked a yellow flower from a cactus and laid it in the middle of the rocks. “You were a good friend and you will be missed. Now, we’ve got stalls to clean before supper, and two horses to exercise. I’m sure all y’all from the other cabins have work to catch up on, too, so let’s get it done so we won’t be behind tomorrow. I hope all of y’all listened to the words of that song. When any of us think about getting into trouble when we get home, we should play that song again and remember what we’ve learned here.”

“Wow!” Novalene muttered under her breath.

“Amen,” Diana agreed. “I believe we’re going out on a victory note with this group.”

Jayden didn’t comment. She was too proud of Ashlyn for words, and besides, she couldn’t have gotten them out past the lump in her throat, anyway.

Chapter Twenty

Jayden had just turned off her bedroom light when a soft rap on her door made her sit straight up in bed. “Yes?” she asked.

“Jayden, can we talk?” Ashlyn asked.

“Of course.” Jayden reached out and turned on the lamp on the nightstand beside her bed.

She was surprised when all three girls came into her room and sat down on the floor beside her bed. They’d evidently turned their hats around when they were slinging dirt, because they had half-moon-shaped sunburns on their foreheads.

“Have you ever been to a funeral?” Tiffany asked.

“Three that really affected me,” Jayden answered honestly. “My grandmother died when I was sixteen, and my grandpa came to live with me and Mama. Then he died a little while after that, and I lost my mother a few years later. How about y’all?”

“My nanny died, but Mama said I couldn’t go to the funeral. She said they were depressing, and that I hadn’t seen her since I got too old for a nanny, so . . . ,” Ashlyn answered.

“I haven’t been to a funeral before today,” Tiffany said, “but I got to thinking about how hard it would be to lose my mama or my daddy or my sister. They’re not perfect, and they don’t have much time for me, but to stand there and look at their dead bodies in a casket would break my heart.”

“I went to my grandmother’s memorial when I was about four or five.” Carmella frowned as if she was trying to bring up the memory. “I don’t remember much about it, except that I wondered how they got a big woman like her in that gold urn.”

Jayden’s chest tightened until it was hard for her to breathe. She wished she could shield her girls from the heartaches that lay ahead of them. “Funerals are really more for those of us who are still alive than for the one who has passed away. I’m sorry that you didn’t get to go to your nanny’s service, Ashlyn. Tiffany, it’s good that you are realizing how empty your life would be without your parents. We should use our experiences as guidelines to show us what to do, or maybe to show us what not to do. Carmella, did you ask your parents about your grandmother?” Jayden wasn’t sure if she was preaching to the kids or to herself.

“No, ma’am.” She shook her head. “I learned early on to keep my mouth shut, to sit up like a lady, and speak when spoken to. I like what you just said about using our experiences to show us what not to do. When I have kids, I’m going to let them ask questions, and I’m going to do my best to give them honest answers.”

“Me too,” Tiffany added. “We all felt so sad today about Dynamite. It made me wonder if folks will be sad when I die.”

Carmella ran her fingers through her hair. “I never thought much about death until today, and now I’m kind of scared.”

Jayden wanted to hug all three of them at once. “Don’t be afraid of dying. Be afraid that you don’t make the most of every single day you are alive. I read about an old lady who said she wanted to slide into heaven with nothing left.”

“You mean like money?” Tiffany asked.

Jayden wasn’t at all surprised that Tiffany, or any young girl at the camp, would think of that at first. “No,” she said, “she wanted to have used every bit of her energy, every second of her time, and have given every drop of her love away so that when she got to heaven, what had been her on this earth was all finished and done with. She wouldn’t have anything physical left, and she could be a perfect spiritual being up in heaven.”

For several minutes, they just sat there staring at her, then Tiffany grinned. “Like you, huh? At first, I thought you were mean as a snake, but the more I got to know you, the more I realized you’re a good person.”

“I’m glad you’re here.” Carmella reached up and patted Jayden’s hand. “I’m just sorry that other girls won’t get to eat your cooking and break curfew like we’re doing right now.”

“And that they won’t ever get to talk to you about funerals and having sex with boyfriends, and all that stuff,” Ashlyn told her. “But I’ve got another question. How long does it take to get over it when someone close to you dies?”

Jayden thought about that for a while before she answered. “I’m not sure you ever get over it. As time goes by, the pain gets a little less severe. Maybe I can explain it like this: Healing from a broken bone or a bad cut takes a while, and it hurts really bad at first. But then it begins to heal, and the ache kind of goes away. But there’s always a reminder in the bone or in the scar tissue where the cut was that lets you know that something isn’t quite right.” She stopped and frowned as she tried to collect her thoughts. “I’m making a mess of this.”

“Nope,” Tiffany disagreed. “It makes sense to me. In a year, we’ll just remember our walks with Dynamite, and the hurt in our hearts today won’t be like it is now.”

“I hope so,” Ashlyn yawned. “Thanks for listening to us, Jayden. I couldn’t sleep before, but now I can’t keep my eyes open.”

“Good night.” Jayden smiled at them. “Five o’clock comes early, so y’all really should get some sleep.”

Carmella was the first one to stand up. “See you tomorrow.”

Tiffany closed the door behind them, and Jayden propped the pillows up against the wrought iron headboard of her narrow bed. She picked up a romance novel that she’d brought along in case she got bored. That sure hadn’t happened in the weeks she’d been there. She looked at the back cover and the blurb looked good. A cowboy with a penchant for red-haired women had met a sassy one.