know everything. Did you go to church? Were you a cheerleader like Teresa was?” Miss Janie pushed up out of the swing.
Sweet angels in heaven. What had she agreed to? Miss Janie had had a mind like a steel trap, and now she thought Kayla was her real daughter and that she’d been popular in high school. Noah hadn’t mentioned anything like that in his note when he’d sent the police to find her.
Miss Janie stopped inside the door and frowned. “Sam, thank you for finding my baby. These other two wasn’t havin’ any luck with it. I knew you could do it, though. You should come on in and have a bowl of soup, too.”
“I happened to be at the bus stop when she came in.” Sam followed them inside. “Noah must’ve been the one who really found her, right, Kayla?”
“Yes.” Kayla picked up her suitcase and carried it inside. “He sent a letter by the police this morning. I caught the first bus out of Abilene.”
Kayla took a deep breath as she took the first step inside the house. She’d always loved the smell—a faint aroma of roses and food mixed with something lemony that Miss Janie brewed up for cleaning. Kayla associated the combination with safety.
She was standing in a long hallway that ran from the front porch to a door leading out to the back porch. Miss Janie had told her that the house was built that way so the breezes could flow into the place. A hall tree stood against the wall to Kayla’s right. Hats hung on the four hooks, and boots were lined up on each side of the antique piece of furniture. She recognized a pair of the boots as her own. Not one thing had changed in the past decade. The living room was to her left and stairs leading up to the second floor, to her right. She headed toward the next door to the left, into the kitchen. The one right across the wide hallway went into Miss Janie’s bedroom. She peeked inside before she entered the kitchen. The same cute little lamps were on each end of the dresser. The four-poster bed bore the same quilt, and the rocking chair, its pink-and-white-checked cushions.
Miss Janie was already sitting in a kitchen chair when Kayla stepped through the door. A confused look passed over her face. “Where’s Aunt Ruthie? She always sits right here.” She pointed at a chair beside her. “I wanted her to meet you. We used to talk about my girls so much. I know she’d love to finally see you for herself.”
“Well, hello, again. Look who finally made it home.” Noah came into the kitchen from the back porch. “I got a phone call this morning from the private investigator I had workin’ on findin’ you. He said the police had delivered my letter, but I didn’t know if it paid off.”
“I’m here.” Kayla waited for someone to tell her to help herself to the soup or to tell her to sit down.
Miss Janie pounded on the table with her fist. “I asked y’all about Aunt Ruthie. Someone needs to tell her to come in here and meet Maddy Ruth. She should see the little baby I named after her.”
“Aunt Ruthie has been gone for thirty years,” Noah told her.
“Why didn’t someone tell me?” Miss Janie began to weep.
Kayla rushed to her side before Teresa could and bent to hug her. “I’m so sorry that we didn’t tell you, but we didn’t want to upset you.”
Miss Janie blinked several times before her expression changed. “I remember now. We had her funeral at the church. I get things all jumbled up. But now that my girls are home, I’ll get all better. We can be a family at last.”
“That’s right,” Teresa agreed. “Soup’s on the stove. Jalapeño corn bread is under the cake dome. Chocolate cake is over on the bar. Y’all help yourselves.”
“You aren’t goin’ to play the perfect hostess and serve me?” Kayla raised a dark eyebrow at Teresa.
“You’re a big girl.” Teresa’s tone dripped icicles. “Help yourself or starve.”
“Well, I ain’t about to go hungry,” Sam said as he walked in from the porch. He opened a cabinet door and got down a bowl. “I love soup and corn bread.”
Kayla ignored Teresa like she’d tried to do when they lived in the house together those four years. She followed Sam’s lead and ladled up a bowlful of soup, plopped a square of corn bread