energy coming from all the girls as they made their way up into the bleachers at the football field just as the sun dropped below the horizon. The chamber of commerce president stepped up to a microphone just below the goalpost, introduced himself, and welcomed everyone to the fireworks display. “But first, we’ll stand for the Pledge of Allegiance and, in honor of Independence Day, we will remain standing and everyone will sing the national anthem together.”
Tiffany tapped Elijah on the shoulder. “Can we take our caps off for this?”
“Yes, we all should.” He removed his and motioned for the girls to do the same.
“They look different,” Jayden said.
“Yep, and they’ve got farmer’s tans on their foreheads. When they get home, they are going to whine for days about that,” he whispered.
“That’s where their makeup will come into play.” She smiled.
“I pledge allegiance . . . ,” the man behind the microphone started, and the crowd joined in. Immediately after that, the high school band started to play and everyone in the stands joined in with the singing. When the last note died away, the first burst of fireworks lit up the sky in red, white, and blue.
The girls put their caps back on, and the ones with ponytails pulled them through the back—then they sat down. The night breezes steamed their faces like a sauna, but none of them seemed to mind. Elijah had deliberately lined them up with the Daydream girls right behind him and Jayden, Diana’s three after that, and the Moonbeam ladies on the far end behind Novalene.
If everything went well that evening, he fully planned to do this every year. It saved money, and it came at a good time in the summer program to reward the girls. A buzzing behind him came all the way down the line from one girl to the other.
“Are they playing that old game we used to at parties?” he asked Jayden.
“Which one?”
“The one where one person whispers something, and it goes around the room until the end, and then the first one and the second one . . .”
“Do you mean the telephone game?” Jayden asked.
“Yes, that’s it,” Elijah answered. “I think the girls are playing that. Keelan whispered something to Bailey and now it’s all the way to Tiffany.”
Jayden turned around just in time for Tiffany to lean forward and put one hand on Elijah’s shoulder and the other on Jayden’s. She did not whisper but said right out loud, “See that little posse in short shorts and tank tops behind Keelan? They’re laughing at us and calling us convicts.”
“Ignore them,” Elijah told her.
Tiffany sucked in a lungful of air and let it out in a whoosh. She leaned forward and sent a message down the line to Keelan’s attention to ignore the other girls.
Keelan nodded, and Elijah didn’t give it another thought. He was enjoying watching Jayden’s face as each display lit up the midnight-black sky. She was an extraordinary woman who enjoyed the little things, like lightning bugs and a cold beer after a hard day’s work—the kind of woman that Henry would tell him would be the type to ride the river with.
As was normal with all fireworks shows, the best was saved until last. A loud boom lit up half the sky with the American flag in bright sparkling lights. When the oohs and aahs had died down and the flag had disappeared, folks began to stand up and make their way to the end of the bleachers. The Piney Wood girls got to their feet and started moving in that direction.
Things went just fine until Keelan took the final step out onto the grass. Elijah and Jayden were ahead of them, waiting beside the entry gate, when he heard one of the girls that had been picking on the Piney Wood girls say, “Y’all convicts don’t belong here.”
Ashlyn got right in the girl’s face. “Bless your heart, darlin’. I’m going to save this nasty uniform just for you. With your attitude, you’ll need it. If you want a piece of any of us, just step right up.”
A second girl took the blonde by the arm. “Come on, Justina. We’ve got a party to go to. We can’t stand around listening to these losers all evening.”
“We can give you a little tour of Piney Wood if you’d like and even let you slop the hogs, or shovel crap from the horse stalls,” Keelan said. “You might change your mind about us being losers