the west end of Birthright, she patted him on the shoulder and said, “Thanks so much for coming to get me, and for taking care of my precious Bonnie and Clyde while I was gone.”
“Didn’t mind a bit,” Sam said.
Kayla slid across the bench seat and grabbed Nellie’s luggage from the truck’s bed. “I’ll take this in for you.”
“Thank you, darlin’,” Nellie said. “Tell Miss Janie I’ll be down to see her once I get settled in. This travelin’ is tough on a ninety-year-old woman. I’m glad you’ve come home. Last time I went to see her, she was cryin’ because her girls were so far away.”
“I will sure tell her.” Kayla had never known anyone to cry about her—not even her own mother. “And I’m glad to be back for a while.”
Nellie laid a wiry hand on Kayla’s arm. “Don’t you leave until she’s gone. Her heart was broken when you girls didn’t come see her, and now her mind is all jumbled up. I think it’s like havin’ four jigsaw puzzles all mixed up together.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Kayla patted Nellie’s hand and then slipped free of it and jogged back to the truck.
Birthright was so small that Kayla often wondered why they didn’t use one welcome sign and paint the goodbye on the other side. In what seemed like the blink of an eye, Sam was parking his rusty old truck in front of Miss Janie’s house.
She’d thought she’d have a few moments to catch her breath from the truck to the porch, but Miss Janie was sitting on the porch swing, and be damned if that wasn’t Teresa right beside her.
Sam hopped out of the car and yelled, “Look who I found at the bus station when I went to get Nellie!”
“She’s here.” Miss Janie squealed like a little girl and held up her arms. Teresa helped her to her feet, and she shuffled across the porch. “My other baby has come home. Sam, you prayed, didn’t you?”
How in the world had that strong woman she’d left behind gotten so feeble? Ten years before, Miss Janie had still had a bit of brown hair left in the gray. Her bright-blue eyes had been full of laughter and witty sayings. Now she had wispy gray hair and she’d aged forty years instead of ten. If a strong wind whipped through Birthright, she’d need rocks in her pockets to keep it from blowing her away. And to top it all off, she was talking like Teresa and Kayla were her real daughters, not just foster children.
“I sure did.” Sam stood to the side and grinned. “And God answered my prayers.”
“Hello, Kayla,” Teresa said.
Kayla wasn’t sure how she’d be received after ten years, but Miss Janie opened her arms wide, and Kayla walked right into them.
“I might believe that God is good now that you’re home,” Miss Janie said. “Come and tell me about the people who adopted you. Were they good to you?”
Kayla glanced over at Teresa.
“Miss Janie, how old were you when you had to give us away?” Teresa asked.
“Sixteen, but that was a few years ago.” Miss Janie sighed. “Now we’re all together again.”
Kayla left her suitcase sitting on the porch and supported Miss Janie back to the swing. She looked over Miss Janie’s head and mouthed toward Teresa, “What’s going on?”
“Play along with whatever she says,” Sam whispered from behind her.
From Noah’s letter, she knew that Miss Janie had Alzheimer’s and also cancer, but Kayla didn’t expect to find her looking like she did. When Kayla ran away with Denver, Miss Janie was still helping out with funeral dinners, taking food to new mothers, and was a force to be reckoned with in Birthright.
“I knew Noah would find my girls.” Miss Janie’s eyes sparkled. “I felt it in my heart. You grew up to be beautiful. What’s your name? You would’ve been Maddy Ruth if I’d gotten to keep you. Tell me about the people who adopted you.”
“I’m Kayla Green. Don’t you remember me, Miss Janie?”
“Now, now!” Miss Janie patted her on the back. “We don’t have to keep secrets any longer. Times have changed. You can call me Mama now. Is that your suitcase? Have you had supper? Teresa made tortilla soup for supper and there’s plenty left over.”
“Yes, that’s my suitcase, and I could eat. Thank you, ma’am.” A vision of a spotless kitchen where three meals a day had been prepared flashed through Kayla’s mind.