pretty common to see the three in each cabin bawl their heads off on the last day because they have to leave their friends,” he answered.
“Hey, Miz Jayden, I’m ready to go walk Dynamite.” Ashlyn came out of the barn with the horse on the lead rope. “Where are Tiffany and Carmella?”
“Wait right there for them,” Jayden told her. “We will be along in just a few minutes. They have to get their supplies.”
“Hey, cloud girl,” Lauren yelled across the yard. “I’ll trade jobs with you. I’ll exercise that horse if you’ll pick up trash.”
“No, thank you. You go on and get your hands dirty,” Ashlyn yelled back at her.
“Fly away, fly away, cloud girls. Or is it chicken girls? Those clouds on your hats look like fat chickens to me.” Bailey made a flapping motion with her arms.
Tiffany and Carmella came out of the dining room about then, and Tiffany wasted no time jogging across the yard. She got right up in Lauren’s face and popped her hands on her hips.
“What did I tell you about making fun of us?” she said through clenched teeth.
“Wasn’t me,” Lauren whispered. “It was Bailey.”
Tiffany shifted her focus to the girl. “That’s one.”
“One what?” Keelan, the third member of the Moonbeams, asked.
“On three, all three of us Daydreamers will roll you in the hog lot. We’ll take our punishment like adults, but you’ll stink like hog crap all day. Think about that before you test me again.” Tiffany turned around and headed toward the cabin, with Carmella right behind her.
“Guess I’d better go smooth some ruffled feathers,” Jayden laughed.
“You really think Carmella and Ashlyn would help Tiffany out?” Elijah asked.
“Mean don’t come in size, and they’re all itching for a vent for their anger right now,” she answered.
“What does mean come in, if not size?” Elijah asked.
“It comes in attitude, and if Tiffany was mad enough, she could roll all three of them in the hog wallow by herself and with one hand tied behind her back.” Jayden took a couple of steps toward the cabin and turned around. “This isn’t a whole lot different than a prison yard, is it?”
“Not at first.” Elijah tipped his cap toward her and went on inside the barn. He turned around after a couple of steps and watched Jayden walk away for the second time.
Chapter Eight
Dynamite simply plodded along beside Ashlyn as if she were his best friend. Jayden had been talking to the horse the night before when she’d heard someone coming into the barn. Now she wondered if that slow-moving old rodeo horse was Elijah’s confidant, too.
“If that bit . . . witch”—Carmella stumbled over the words—“thought she was going to intimidate Tiffany, she can dam . . . dang well think again. Man, it’s hard to talk without using cuss words.”
“Don’t I know it,” Tiffany said. “I’ve almost had to grow a new tongue for the times I bit mine off to keep from saying the f-word.”
“Me too,” Ashlyn admitted. “Would you have really rolled her in the hog lot? Or were you just dissin’ her?”
“I would have sure tried, even if y’all didn’t help me,” Tiffany answered. “Seeing that smart aleck covered in hog sh—” She clamped a hand over her mouth. “Crap and mud would have been something worthy of drawing.”
“Be still,” Carmella whispered.
Ashlyn stopped in her tracks. “Is it a snake?”
Dynamite ran out of rope and came to a halt beside her.
“No, it’s a big old fly right on Dynamite’s butt, and I intend to catch him for my first insect of the day.” Carmella eased up toward the horse and the fly took flight about the same time that the horse lifted his tail and dropped a pile right at her feet.
The fly settled right on the warm crap.
Tiffany dropped to her knees and began to sketch. “Don’t move. Don’t even breathe until I get this roughed out on paper.”
Ashlyn stood perfectly still until Tiffany nodded, giving Carmella the go-ahead to try to trap the fly.
“Well, shi . . . crap!” Carmella swore when it flew away to light on a nearby cactus. She tiptoed across the distance and trapped it in her box on the second try. “Got it!” she shouted.
At first, Jayden thought Carmella’s loud voice had spooked Dynamite. The horse reared up on his hind feet, jerked free of the lead rope, and seemed to turn around midair. Then he took off in a fast run back toward the barn.
Ashlyn pointed toward the half-mile post. “Snake,”