“You’re a good nurse,” Miss Janie told her. “I wonder what Kayla turned out to be.”
“Probably someone who can boss everyone around,” Teresa said.
Miss Janie frowned. “Don’t judge her, honey. That’s the way she copes. She had a hard life.”
Like I said to Noah, we both did, Teresa thought as she helped Miss Janie out to the porch swing and got her settled.
“Could I get you something to drink or a little snack?” Teresa asked.
“Don’t need a thing right now except to see my other baby girl,” she answered. “Were y’all identical twins, or could they tell you apart?”
“We were different. Her hair is curlier than mine, and she has green eyes,” Teresa answered. But those weren’t the only differences between us, Teresa thought as she sat down beside Miss Janie. Kayla had already built a hard shell around herself when she arrived at Miss Janie’s house. The only time that Teresa ever saw her soften was when she talked to Miss Janie, Sam, or Delia. In the years that they were foster sisters, Teresa had never been able to chip a bit of the hard shell away, so after a while she’d given up trying. The day that Teresa left for college, Kayla didn’t even come down to the porch to wave goodbye.
“I can’t wait to see her.” Miss Janie sighed. “Every car or truck that goes by, I keep prayin’ it will turn into our driveway.”
For her foster mother’s sake, Teresa hoped the same, but for her own sake, Teresa dreaded the day.
Chapter Four
Teresa awoke on Thursday morning in a cold sweat. She had dreamed that Luis showed up in Birthright with a sad story about how his second wife had left him, and he wanted another chance with Teresa. When she told him that wouldn’t happen until the devil sold snow cones in hell, he shot her right between the eyes. Everything went dark, and she felt as if she were falling into a black abyss. When she came to herself, she was sitting up in bed with a death grip on the pillow.
She pushed back the cover and shivered as the cold breeze from the vent above her bed rushed over her sweaty skin. Her legs were still shaky from the dream, but she made her way to the bathroom at the end of the hall. She drew the curtain around the tub, adjusted the water, and took a warm shower.
The evil look in Luis’s eye when he pulled the trigger kept coming back to her as she fixed breakfast that morning. Like most days, she kept the food warm on the top of the stove, and everyone ate when they were ready. That morning was different, though. For the first time, Miss Janie used a walker instead of a cane, and she arrived just as Teresa was flipping the last pancake out of the cast-iron skillet.
“Look at you with new wheels.” Teresa tried to keep her tone light and encouraging, but her heart sank. From cane to walker, then to a wheelchair, and last, bedfast. She’d seen the progression in her line of work too many times to think that this new thing was just for a day.
Miss Janie inhaled deeply as she sat down in the chair that Teresa pulled out for her. “I love the smell of coffee and bacon all mixed up together when I wake up in the morning. I’m glad you still like to cook. I loved it when you spent time in the kitchen with me.”
Noah came inside from the screened back porch and went straight for the coffeepot. “Did you have a good night’s rest?”
“Yes, I did, but it’s getting harder for me to get in and out of my bed. Seems like the floor is ten feet away from my feet,” she said, then lowered her voice to a whisper. “Who is that woman cookin’ breakfast?”
“That’s your daughter Teresa,” Noah told her.
“My daughters are Maddy Ruth and Mary Jane. I would never name one of them Teresa,” she said.
“Why not?” Noah asked.
“Because Teresa was a girl in our church that was mean to me,” Miss Janie answered.
Why did you even take me in? Teresa wondered as she put a pancake and two strips of bacon on a plate.
“How old are you today?” Noah asked.
“I’m seventeen.” Miss Janie tipped her chin up defiantly. “I’m not old enough to keep my babies, but I can have coffee.” She picked up her cup and took a sip. “Mama and