“Everything is fine between me and Elijah. We would never start something with the girls here, but I have told him I’d stick around a couple of weeks after this session. We feel that tension or whatever it is between us, too, and we’d like some time to see exactly what it is,” she admitted.

Novalene smiled. “I’ll make sure you have my address so you’ll know where to send that bottle of bourbon.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

Jayden had made her list of pros and cons and studied it the whole fifth week that she was at the camp. The biggest thing against the whole idea of moving to Alpine was that she had tenure and security with her teaching job and a three-month block of time off in the summer. What lifted her heart and put a smile on her face when she looked at her list was the fact that if she stayed at Piney Wood, she wouldn’t have casework or kids and parents to deal with, and she would be doing something that she loved every day. Plus, even though it wasn’t in one solid block, she would have four months off through the year. Other than cooking for Elijah and herself and helping him out some around the place, she would be free to actually write that novel she had thought about for years.

By the end of the sixth week, she still hadn’t made up her mind, and the need to make a decision was weighing heavy on her heart. She shouldn’t wait until the last minute to tender her resignation to her school if she was going to stay in Alpine. Telling them she wasn’t coming back at least a month to six weeks before the new school year started would be the right thing to do. That Saturday afternoon, she was busy making peanut butter cookies when Tiffany came into the kitchen and taped a new picture up on the wall.

Jayden glanced at the drawing of a butterfly sitting on the top of a cupcake with pretty white clouds floating in a blue sky in the background. “Well, that’s sure different from your other work.”

“I’m not the same person that I was when I drew the first pictures, and, besides, we have clouds on our caps to show everyone here that we’re from the Daydream Cabin.” Tiffany got out a second cookie sheet for Jayden. “I need to talk,” she said with bluntness.

“About?” Jayden scooped up cookie dough, rolled it into a ball, and placed it on the cookie sheet.

“I’m afraid to leave.” Tiffany sighed. “We all are. It’s scary going back to our old environment. What if we mess up again? Every one of us is a three-time loser, and the judge told me if I came up before her again, I’d be in juvie until I’m eighteen. At first, I thought I’d never get in trouble again. All I’d have to do is remember having to take the scrap bucket to the hogs, or shovel out the stalls, and I’d put on a halo and angel wings, but now I feel like I’ll be homesick for Piney Wood.”

Using a fork, Jayden began making crisscross lines on the four dozen balls of dough that were lined up on the cookie sheet. “What you’ll be homesick for is the companionship you’ve found here. Real friends that don’t demand that you bully other girls by taking ugly pictures of them or shoplift to stay in their little club or . . . what did you girls call those other ones at the fireworks show?”

“Posse.” Tiffany smiled.

“That’s right. You don’t need a posse. Find true friends or stay in touch with the ones you’ve met here. Call one of us, and that includes me, if you feel like you’re slipping back into your old ways. Find something to do that keeps you out of trouble. Maybe find a part-time job or volunteer at a nursing home or a hospital.”

“Hey, I like that idea about working at a hospital.” Tiffany stuck her hand into an oven mitt and pulled the first batch of cookies from the convection oven. “Mama wouldn’t mind me doing that, but she’d probably throw a hissy fit if I went to work flipping burgers. That would ruin her image. Will you make a copy of all our phone numbers for each of us to take home so we can stay in touch?”

“I can do that if you’ll be in charge of getting them all written down for me,” Jayden agreed.

“Yes, ma’am.” Tiffany picked up a cookie and bit off a piece. “I love these right out of the oven when they’re still warm. Are you ever scared of anything?”

“Wh-what?” Jayden stammered. “Why would you ask that?”

“You took care of that spider under the bed. You weren’t afraid to stand up for us and believe that we could dig a hole for Dynamite. Even when your sister was mean to you, you got up and didn’t whine around for a week about it. I could go on and on,” Tiffany answered.

“I’m terrified of making decisions.” Jayden put the second sheet of cookies into the oversize oven. “I’m always afraid I’ll make the wrong one and then regret it.”

Tiffany flashed a brilliant smile. “Listen to your heart. Seems like those are the words you said once when we were having a talk during group session.”

“Did I?” Jayden couldn’t remember, but then she’d had a lot on her mind the past couple of weeks. To stay at Piney Wood or to go back to teaching? The decision had to be made without thinking of a relationship with Elijah.

“You might not have said it in those exact words, but that’s what’s been going through my mind. What if I can’t trust my heart? What if it tells me wrong?” Tiffany asked.

“The heart never tells you wrong,” Jayden said. “You might not want to do what it says, and you might argue with it, but when you do, that’s when you’re about to mess up. Think back to when you were doing those mean things. Did you feel any remorse?”

Tiffany looked sheepish. “Yes, but I wanted to be in that circle of friends, so I figured it was worth the price. That was my heart talking to me, and my own selfish pride kicked it out of the way, didn’t it?”

“That’s right,” Jayden told her. “So, from now on, listen to your heart and kick the selfish pride out of the way.”

“You are even better than my therapist back home.” Tiffany picked up three cookies and headed for the door.

“Hey, that will ruin your dinner,” Jayden called out.

“One for me, one for Carmella, and one for Ashlyn,” Tiffany threw over her shoulder as she went outside.

What a difference seven weeks had made in all their lives, Jayden thought as she took the second pan of cookies from the oven. Not just the girls, either. Diana was excited about a new job. Novalene was really retiring from the camp, and Jayden had decided in that moment not to be afraid of change or taking a risk. While the cookies cooled, she slipped her phone from her hip pocket and called her school in Dallas.

“Listen to your heart,” she muttered as she listened to the phone ring three times. “If it goes to voice mail, then it’s a sign I shouldn’t stay here.”

She recognized the principal’s voice the minute she said, “Hello, Jayden. What can I do for you today?”

Jayden inhaled deeply, let it all out, and said, “You can accept my resignation. I’ll be sending it by mail tomorrow.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Melanie said. “Did you find another job?”

“Yes, but not in teaching.” Jayden told her about Piney Wood Academy.

“That sounds wonderful, and you’ll still be helping kids,” Melanie told her. “We will sure miss you, but I understand completely and wish you the best. I appreciate you letting me know this far in advance so I can get another teacher lined up. I just got an application today from someone with your last name. Do you know a Skyler Bennett?”