Jayden sat down and waited.

“And what?” she finally asked.

“Ray Don has been here for me since high school. He’s the one I run to for booty calls, and he’s the one who offers a shoulder to cry on when I break up with a boyfriend. He held me while I cried my eyes out the night before I made the decision to take Mama off life support. The one I was always meant to be with right there before my eyes all this time, and I was too proud to see it,” Skyler admitted. “The rest of the story is that we went to the courthouse yesterday and got married. I’m three months pregnant, and my baby needs her aunt Jayden to keep her feet on the ground when my DNA gets too strong.”

“What does that mean?” Jayden still wasn’t sure she wasn’t dreaming. David would have been shocked at the surprise “preemie” born six months after the wedding. She couldn’t begin to imagine Skyler pregnant or as a mother. Poor Ray Don had a hard row to hoe, as Gramps used to say.

“It means that this narcissism has been part of me my whole life. It won’t go away in a day or even a few months. I pray that my child . . . our child . . . mine and Ray Don’s . . . don’t get our genes, like the spiteful ones or the bad boy ones we had when we were young, and that you’ll be there for her like you’ve been for those girls at the camp,” Skyler stammered through an explanation.

“What makes you think you’re having a girl?” Jayden asked.

“If I don’t, I’ll have a boy, and he’ll need his uncle Elijah and his aunt Jayden, and Ray Don will be in seventh heaven with a son.” Skyler giggled.

Jayden was glad that she was sitting down. “Is the baby Ray Don’s? And what makes you think he’ll have an uncle Elijah?”

“Can’t be anyone else’s,” Skyler answered. “I haven’t been with anyone other than Ray Don in a year. And your eyes light up when Elijah’s name is mentioned. I didn’t realize it at the time, but that’s the way I must look when I think about Ray Don.”

“You said you didn’t love him,” Jayden reminded her.

“I know what I said, but I do, Jayden. I’ve always loved him, ever since high school. I just didn’t want to admit it because he wasn’t rich enough to suit me, but now I’m happy for the first time in my life. I was wondering if maybe we could come visit a little while over Christmas. Ray Don says he can take a few days off, and I’m going to work on my attitude even more,” Skyler said.

“Of course, you can come visit anytime you want,” Jayden answered. “I’d love to see you seven months pregnant.”

“You are a much nicer person than I am, Jayden. I’ve always been jealous of that about you. People liked you for your personality and your sweet attitude. That was one of the things Ray Don brought to my attention. He said I should be more like you and my mother and less like my father,” Skyler said. “Could I call you again next week?”

“Sure. How about we make a FaceTime date for Thursdays at seven?” Jayden would take it a week at a time, but Skyler was not going to threaten the peace and happiness she’d found in Alpine.

“Deal, and thank you, again, for being a bigger person than I am, and I’m not talking about height. See you next Thursday,” Skyler said. “Have a good week.”

“You too.” Jayden ended the call, laid the phone down, and stared at it for a full minute. Had what just happened been real? She blinked a dozen times. She was awake. This was not a dream. Jayden would have believed that a snowstorm was hitting right there in South Texas on the last day of July before she would have ever thought she would hear kind words from her sister. Or an admission of a mistake, for that matter.

“Hey, we’re ready if you are,” Novalene called out from just inside the door. “Need me to help finish up with anything?”

“No, it’s all under control,” Jayden said. “I’ve just got to turn off the lights. Y’all already in the truck?”

“Hell, no!” Novalene laughed. “It’s too hot to sit in that thing. We were kind of hoping you would already have it cooled down for us.”

Jayden pushed her chair back, picked up her phone, and crossed the room. She switched off the lights and then followed Novalene outside to where the other two counselors were waiting beside the truck. “We’ll mind the heat even more at the campsite if we all get cooled down with the truck’s AC on the way out there, you know.”

“Probably, but a little bit of cool might keep us from strangling one of those girls if they start whining about the heat tonight,” Novalene replied. “This is my least favorite part of the whole session. A sixty-plus-year-old woman has no business sleeping on the ground.”

“Or being zipped up in a bag like a burrito, after eating beans for dinner and supper,” Diana added with a giggle.

“Our prissy little girls trying not to pass gas is always a hoot,” Novalene said. “Let’s get on out there and get this over with. I’m ready to go home and retire”—she glanced over toward Jayden—“and enjoy every drop of a bottle of good bourbon to celebrate.”

“Best money I’ll ever spend. I’ll tell you about a phone call I just had from Skyler on the way out to the camp,” Jayden said.

By the time they reached the tents, the women had fallen silent in disbelief. Finally, Novalene said, “Do you think the change will last, or is it a passing thing?”

“I know that Ray Don will probably be the best thing that ever happened to her, because he doesn’t baby her. He tells her the truth, just like I did the last time she was here. Being pregnant, and then a mother, may also change her. Hopefully, we can find some common ground to build a sister relationship on,” Jayden answered. “Here we are. Y’all got any last words of advice for me about this camping business?”

“Endure until the end, and then we’ll all go home,” Novalene said.

“Except for you,” Diana said. “You are home.”

“Yep, I am.” Jayden nodded.

Elijah kept one eye on the path from the camp to the campsite, and his ears open to hear the first sounds of the old work truck rumbling his way. He was more excited to see the last day of a session than he’d ever been before, and that was all because Jayden had said she would be there. He would have time alone with her to explore all these new feelings he had.

“Please, God,” he muttered, “let my bad luck streak be over.”

“Hey, girls, we need sticks to build a fire,” he yelled. “Tiffany, Bailey, Quinley, and Carmella go that way”—he pointed and then swung his finger around—“and the rest of you head out that way. We’ll build a fire when you get back.”

As they all headed off, he heard this distant rumble of a vehicle. He stood up and waited until Jayden parked; then he jogged over to the truck. Just seeing her throw her long legs out of the door set his pulse to racing. Tomorrow evening, he would finally have her all to himself, and he was downright antsy with anticipation.

“I was about to send up smoke signals.” He dropped the tailgate down and hoisted a cooler full of steaks up on his shoulder.

“Skyler called me.” Jayden slid another cooler toward the end of the truck bed and followed him over with it to the other side of the firepit. “I’ll tell you about it later.”