wasn’t even a bush to squat behind after all those beers were gone. When we finally got to a town with a service station, the line for the ladies’ room was longer than the one to buy gas. The bathroom only had one toilet, and you had to put a quarter in the door to even get inside.”
“Are you kiddin’ us?” Novalene asked.
“Nope,” Jayden answered. “And let me tell you, folks, that was the best quarter I ever spent.”
“Did you drink any more beer on the rest of the trip?” Elijah mentally kicked himself for asking such an awkward question.
“No, sir, we did not,” Jayden answered, “and we sure enough had our quarters ready when we reached that station,” she said.
“That’s a hoot, but I like Henry’s story about Elijah, too,” Diana said. “We should all do that for our service guys. I bet they’d love some green grass from home more than about anything.”
“Probably so.” Elijah wiggled his toes and could almost feel that cool grass on his feet again.
“I see my girls are done eating,” Jayden said. “Soon as Tiffany gets finished with her hog lot duties, Ashlyn has to exercise the horses, so I’d better finish up the last two bites of dessert.”
“I usually read a book while my girls do their individual afternoon jobs, and just check on them a few times,” Novalene said.
“Tiffany is the one struggling with bulimia, so she has to have a chaperone to keep her from throwing up in the restroom. I suspect the therapist will have more tips for us about that when she arrives. Tiffany will be drawing plants, insects, and lizards. Carmella will be making a bug collection. Looks like they’re headed out now to the hog lot, so I’ll see y’all at supper,” Jayden answered.
Elijah couldn’t take his eyes off her as she walked across the room and out the door. He had seen tight jeans and good-looking women before, but Jayden had the whole package. He got up from the table and took his empty tray to the cart, then followed her outside. A stinging hot breeze bringing bits of sand and dead grass with it hit him in the face when he left the building. He suddenly had a yearning for a beer, but there was no way he could have one in the middle of the day—not with nine girls watching his every move.
He rounded the end of the cabin in time to see Tiffany and Carmella coming back from the hog lot. Two girls from the Moonbeam Cabin were busy picking trash or stray sticks up from the yard and putting whatever they found in a paper bag. That was a disciplinary move. No doubt about it, Novalene had taken what was in the trash cans from the bathroom, as well as what was in her cabin, and strewed it on the yard before she told them to clean it up.
“Oh, look, Tiffany, the Moonbeams are on trash duty,” Carmella said.
“That’s better than slop duty.” Lauren giggled and pointed at their caps. “Fly away, fly away, you old daydreaming clouds!” She motioned with both hands and then dropped them to her side and glared at Carmella. “Or us Moonbeams will make you disappear.”
Carmella bowed up to her. “Bring it on, smart-ass.”
Lauren knotted her hands into fists. “I’m not afraid of you.”
Tiffany set the bucket down and cocked her head to one side. “Darlin’, you’d better be afraid of me. I don’t give a tiny rat’s heinie if I go to juvie, and I’ll mop up this whole farm with you and your little sidekick over there. Don’t you ever make fun of our cabin again, or any one of the three of us who live there, or . . .” She shrugged and picked up the bucket.
“Or what?” Lauren taunted.
“Or I will throw your skinny ass over my shoulder and drop it in the hog wallow,” Tiffany told her. “We only get one uniform a day, so think about that while I go wash out this bucket. When I get back, if you still want to do battle, we will. It’s your choice. I’ll take my demerit for putting you in with the hogs.”
Elijah heard a soft giggle behind him and whipped around to see Jayden standing back even farther in the shadows.
“Looks like you got some scrappers in your cabin,” he said in a low voice.
“Looks that way,” she agreed. “Do all of them ever learn to get along?”
“Not always, but it’s