“I heard that.” Elijah appeared out of the darkness at the end of her porch steps. “You having trouble sleeping tonight, too?”

She motioned toward the empty chair next to hers. “Come on up and have a seat, and to answer your question, yes, I’ve got insomnia and guilt all rolled up into one big ball.”

“Guilt?” He set a bottle of water on the table between them. “What on earth would you have to be guilty about? I told you a week ago that Dynamite was beginning to feel his age.”

“This has nothing to do with a horse and everything to do with another funeral that I’ve blamed my sister for all these years.” She told him about the letter she’d found. “If only I’d opened my Bible years ago . . . but I was so mad at God for not saving my mother or for not giving the doctors the know-how to do it for Him. I should have given Mama more credit than to think she didn’t trust me. She was trying to save me from pain, like I wanted to do with my girls today.”

Elijah reached across the table separating them and took her hand in his. “Honey, I believe that everything happens for a reason. You might not know what it is right now, but in a few more years, you’ll look back and realize that whatever happened was for the best and led you to this very day. Every decision a body makes has an impact on the future.

“This has been the most emotional session I’ve ever had here at Piney Wood. I like you, Jayden, and if we didn’t have all these girls and this camp to take care of, I would love to begin a relationship with you.”

He brought her hand to his lips and kissed each knuckle. “When this session is over, would you consider sticking around for a week or two? That would give us some time to . . .”

“Yes,” she said. “I would love to do that.”

Chapter Twenty-One

Since that call after she had found the letter, Jayden hadn’t heard from Skyler. But then, since their mother had passed away, they seldom talked, so it wasn’t something that she missed. That evening the girls joined her in the red chairs, and then one by one the kids from the other two cabins showed up. Some of them sat on the steps, and others parked their butts on the porch, most of them sitting cross-legged.

“We think you should take the job as cook for this place,” Keelan said.

“Is this some kind of intervention?” Jayden giggled, relieving some of the pent-up stress of the day.

“Yep, it is.” Violet nodded. “You can always find a job teaching in Texas if you don’t like it here after a year. If I could stay and help in any way, I would love to. I could go to high school in Alpine and live right here. I’ve never felt so safe and wanted as I have here in the camp.”

“Why don’t y’all turn this place into a boarding school for nine girls?” Rita asked. “I’m sure my folks would gladly pay whatever it would cost for me to stay here. That way, they wouldn’t have to be bothered with me, and I’d be one freakin’ happy kid.”

“That’s not for me to decide,” Jayden said. “That’s something you need to talk to Elijah about. I can’t imagine any of you wanting to stay here your next two or three years of high school. You all hated this place when you first got here.”

“That was then,” Keelan said. “This is now. We’ve kind of found ourselves since way back then, and you need to do the same thing.”

“Almost every evening when you leave the dining hall, you are humming a tune or whistling under your breath. You’re happy here, whether you know it or not,” Ashlyn said.

Jayden smiled at the bunch of them. “Of course I’m happy here. I’ve seen you girls learn to love yourselves for what’s inside you, not for the fancy clothes or jewelry on your bodies or the hundred-dollar haircuts and expensive makeup. And I’m more than just happy that you all have overcome the issues you came here with. That would make any grown-up happy.”

“Just think about making other girls feel like us for however many times Elijah has a session out here,” Tiffany said. “You don’t have to decide right now, but it would make every one of us happy if we could wave goodbye to you on that last day and know that at least one of us was living here at Piney Wood.”

“If you did stay,” Keelan started, “could we come back and visit you sometimes during the off-seasons? My mama would pay for me to have a vacation here, like over Christmas.”

“I don’t think that would work. This is just part of your journey on the path of life. Y’all need to go home, face off with the same things that sent you here, and overcome them,” Jayden told them. “And now, you should all get going. You’ve only got about five minutes to get into your beds. I’d hate for you to get demerits because you were having an intervention of sorts for me.”

The girls from the other cabins left, and in only a few minutes Novalene and Diana joined her on the Daydream Cabin porch. Novalene handed her a bottle of water and sat down beside her. Diana took one of the other two chairs. Neither was wearing her cap, and their hair looked damp from fresh washing. Novalene’s gray roots shone in the moonlight. Diana’s hair hung in wet strands.

Jayden twisted the top off the bottle and took a long drink from it. “Don’t tell me y’all are here to give me a pep talk about not going back to teaching.”

“Is that why the kids were all gathered up over here?” Novalene asked.

“It’s like they’re on a mission to get me to stay here,” Jayden laughed.

“You can make up your own mind about all that,” Novalene replied. “We came over to see what’s got you all twisted up today. You’ve been distracted, and you forgot to make sweet tea for dinner and then again for supper until the girls were already lined up. So fess up—are you and Elijah fighting?”

“We’re not prying,” Diana said. “We’re just here to help.”

“A few days ago, I found a letter from my mother,” Jayden spat out and went on to tell them how angry she’d been at her mother for the decisions she’d made.

“She kept more than her half of the money?” Diana was aghast. “That’s downright mean and hateful no matter which way you think about it.”

“And she wouldn’t let you buy her out?” Novalene asked. “Even if your mama wanted you to move on, it would have been only right for Skyler to offer the place to you first.”

“Or at least to give you more than your personal belongings. I would be devastated if I didn’t have my grandmother’s rolling pin,” Diana added.

“It is what it is.” Jayden sighed.

“You are so right. All our bitchin’ won’t undo it, so let’s go back to my question,” Novalene said. “Are you and Elijah fighting?”

“No, we are not fighting,” Jayden said.

“Good,” Novalene said. “We’ve had such a pleasant experience this session that . . .”

She hesitated and Diana picked up where she left off. “. . . that we don’t want things to get awkward here at the end.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Jayden asked.

“We’re not blind, darlin’.” Novalene laughed. “We can feel the . . . what do kids call it these days . . . vibes? Whatever it’s called—chemistry, attraction, sparks, electricity—we can see it between y’all, and you know better than to mix business and pleasure. It never works, and things would get strange if y’all started up something and then had a falling out.”