hug her.
“Did somebody die?” Carmella came right behind her.
“You don’t have to leave, do you?” Ashlyn asked.
“No, I’ll be right here until the last day.” Jayden could feel the love surrounding her even though these people didn’t share a bit of DNA with her. She had to be honest with her girls, but she only told them the bare bones and didn’t mention the cruel things Skyler had said.
“Holy crap on a cracker!” Novalene whispered. “I knew she was a little on the vain side, but that’s downright mean.”
“Is that the blonde that we saw talking to you out by the laundry room?” Carmella asked.
Diana nodded. “She was showing me her engagement ring, and she asked me to walk back to the yard with her to meet her fiancé, David. He didn’t even get out of the car. She sure didn’t tell me about all this, or I would have given her a talkin’-to.”
“I don’t think it would have done a bit of good,” Novalene said. “Skyler is who she is, and until she sees a need to think of other folks more than herself, you’d be wasting your time and breath.”
“You can’t change a leopard’s spots,” Diana added.
“I would take a demerit to get to knock her on her butt,” Tiffany said through clenched teeth. “That’s no way to treat your sister. My older sister and I argue all the time, but I’d never be that ugly to her.”
“Thank you for your support and love,” Jayden said, “but right now we need to get dinner going, so yes, I’ll be glad for your help. Just because I got my feelings hurt doesn’t mean we won’t have a bunch of hungry girls coming in here pretty soon. I’d planned on making meatloaf for supper, and it can be done in an hour, so we’ll get it in the oven.”
“I’ll peel potatoes for loaded mashed potatoes,” Carmella offered.
“And I’m real good at opening a can of green beans and making a salad.” Tiffany grinned. “What’s all those pie shells for?”
“Chocolate pies, but I still need to make the meringue.” Jayden said.
Whoever said you had to share DNA with a person for them to be family had rocks for brains, Jayden thought.
“I hate meringue,” Ashlyn said. “I’ll put the pudding in the shells, set them in the fridge to cool, and just before we serve them, I’ll put whipped cream on the tops. That’s a lot better than calf slobbers and you won’t even have to make meringue.”
“Where did you hear that? I haven’t heard egg whites referred to like that in years.” Novalene took all the dirty glasses to the kitchen and put them in the dishwasher.
“From my daddy,” Ashlyn said. “He doesn’t like meringue, either.”
Jayden finally giggled and looked around at her new little family—folks that wouldn’t ask her to give them her savings, who were there to support her. “My gramps used to say the same thing.”
Compartmentalize, Jayden kept telling herself through the day when her mind would wander back to the revelation her sister had sprung on her. Put it in a box and close the lid.
Finally, everything was finished and she turned the lights out, carried a bottle of orange juice across the yard, and slumped down into a chair. Her girls came out of the cabin, and soon, one by one, all eight of the girls at Piney Wood Academy had gathered around her on the Daydream Cabin porch, and all of them wanted to talk about Skyler. Drama was a teenage girl’s lifeblood, and this was big news.
“With a sister like that I bet you wish you were adopted,” Tiffany said. “I’ve thought I might be sometimes. My parents are such beautiful people, and my sister is, too, and I’m so plain.”
Carmella threw up a palm. “That’s enough of that kind of talk. Every one of us are beautiful.”
“That’s right,” Jayden said. “Beauty is the light within you that shines out, not the jewelry you hang on your body, the fancy clothes you wear, or the makeup you use. A person can be gorgeous on the outside, but the evil inside them ruins every bit of the prettiness.” She wasn’t sure if she was preaching to herself or to the girls—maybe they all needed to hear it.
“Why not be both? Pretty on the outside and inside?” Ashlyn asked.
“Yes, but the inside one is the most important,” Jayden said.
“I’ve wished a bunch of times that I was adopted,” Keelan said, “and that I’d find my real