The Daydream Cabin

by Brown, Carolyn

  “Hey, Jayden, could I have a word?” Elijah poked his head inside the door and motioned for her.

  “Uh-oh!” Diana nudged her on the shoulder. “If you get a demerit and all us counselors have to do something awful, we may banish you from the camp.”

  “And you’d never see Elijah again,” Novalene teased.

  Jayden pushed back her chair. “I can outrun every one of you, so I’m not worried.”

  She really wasn’t worried about her two friends, but the way her stomach knotted up told a different story when she headed for the door. What had she done that Elijah would single her out in front of all the girls and the other two counselors?

  The rain had slowed down to a nice drizzle, but the yard was muddy. Thank goodness the bench on the porch was set back far enough that it was still dry. Elijah motioned for her to have a seat and then sat down beside her.

  “I thought you were going to take a nap.” The bench was narrow enough that their shoulders touched. She didn’t know how that affected him, but ever since he’d held her during that crying jag after Skyler left, every time he was close by her heart threw in an extra beat.

  Elijah removed his cap and ran his fingers through his hair. “Rain has slowed down. God knows we never complain about rain in this part of the country. I’m just glad we didn’t have the hay cut and drying or we’d be in a mess. According to the weatherman, it’s supposed to be sunny the rest of the week, so we should be able to get it cut, baled, and into the barn by next Saturday.”

  Jayden wondered why Elijah had brought her outside to talk about rain and hay. He could have done that in front of the other three counselors.

  “Do the girls help haul hay?” she asked.

  “Soon as it’s baled, we issue them a pair of gloves, put them in two teams, and have a contest to see who can get it into the barn and stacked first,” he answered. “But I didn’t really want to talk about that.”

  Halle-damn-lujah! she thought. Not that she didn’t like the delicious little shivers chasing down her spine every time he changed positions and pressed even closer to her side, but she did want to know what was on his mind. Then she realized that the news might be bad and gasped. What if something had happened to Henry or to Mary, and he was building up his courage to tell her?

  He cleared his throat to go on, and heaviness filled her chest.

  “I just had a long conversation with Mary and Henry,” he said.

  “Thank God!” she spit out before she even thought.

  “What does that mean?” he asked.

  “The way you were hemming and hawing around, I thought maybe something had happened to them,” she told him.

  He flashed a smile that heated up the porch at least another five degrees. “They are both fine, and I didn’t mean to be evasive.”

  “Then why are we talking about rain and hay?” she asked.

  “Downright blunt, aren’t you?” he chuckled.

  “I can be,” she answered.

  He laid a hand on her shoulder. “I like it, but you’re right. I have a favor to ask, and truth is, I like talking to you.”

  “Ooo . . . kay . . .” Jayden drew the word out. “I miss them, too. I didn’t realize how much Mary and I visited while we worked until she was gone.”

  “I can still call Henry if I’ve got a question about anything, and I’m fine with the work and taking over this place, especially since you’re here to cook for us. But I miss visiting with them. I think I’ve heard all his old war stories, at least the ones he was willing to tell, a dozen times or more.” Elijah sighed. “But back to the favor. I need help in hiring a cook for the next session, and I was hoping you would help me. I don’t know where to start.”

  “To start with, you should call the employment agency and tell them what you’re looking for. Do you want a temp that will only work eight weeks at a time, or someone to stay here year-round? Can you have a man or a woman? Or just a woman? You’ve got a lot to think about.” Jayden had a lot to think about, too. She had worried about Skyler taking over Daydream Cabin, but that had worked itself out. Hiring a new cook would mean she’d have to give up the kitchen, and Jayden wasn’t ready to do that.

  “That’s all good advice,” Elijah said. “Would you help me do some interviews while you are here? I’ll get in touch with some employment agencies, and we can set up a schedule for interested folks to come out here, maybe work a day with you in the kitchen. Are you sure you won’t consider my offer to stay on?”

  “I went to school four years to earn my certification and took night classes to become a counselor. I’ve kept up with ongoing summer classes to keep my position. I’m not so sure I’m ready to throw all that away and make a huge change in my life.”

  “I was once a soldier,” he told her. “If you’re really, really happy at your job, then you should stay with it. I wasn’t happy when we lost part of the team, so it was time for me to make a change.”

  “I’ll be glad to help you find a cook,” she said. “Maybe we should sit down this evening and list what you want so the employment agency will know who to send out here.”

  “Thank you. I’d like that,” Elijah said. “That would be great. After supper and your group therapy, could we meet out in the dining room?”

  “I’ll be there.” She nodded.

  Elijah gave her shoulder another nudge and then stood up. “Thanks again.” With his broad shoulders hunched against the drizzle, he jogged out across the yard toward his cabin.

  Jayden mulled over the idea of a new cook again, and it didn’t sit well with her, but maybe they’d find a perfect fit when they did the interviews.

  Not damn likely! Those were the words her grandfather used when nothing was going to work.

  With a sigh, she went back into what had become a beauty parlor. She got herself a bottle of water and sat down with the ladies at the table.

  “Personal or business?” Novalene winked.

  “Business,” Jayden answered.

  “That answer was pretty quick. Think she’s tellin’ the truth?” Diana teased.

  “If she’s not, I wouldn’t play poker with her,” Novalene added. “Can you tell us why you got called out, and if we can expect Elijah to invite each of us to the porch?”

  Jayden took a long drink from her water bottle. “He wants me to help interview prospects for a new cook. He’s already gone back to his cabin, so I think y’all are all safe.”

  “You should take this job, Jayden, and I’m speaking from the heart now. I’m not kidding,” Novalene said.

  “Why do you say that?” Jayden asked.

  “It pays better.” Novalene held up a finger. “You get four months off work, rather than three.” Another finger went up. “And you trade a whole building full of problem kids for nine students at a time. And last, you won’t have rent or board, so you can save more for retirement. You like cooking, plus you are wonderful with kids.” She held up the next two plus her thumb.

  “Five good reasons, and then add”—Diana held up a finger and whispered—“Elijah has a big crush on you.”

  Jayden’s hand popped up. “What if”—her forefinger stood straight and tall—“you are right about there being a little spark of chemistry between us, and we got into some kind of relationship and it didn’t work. It would sure make working with him and for him pretty damned awkward.”

  “Don’t close the door of opportunity until you see what’s behind it.” Diana reached over and put Jayden’s finger down. “I did, and I have regrets.”

  “You can stick around here a year, and if it doesn’t work, you can always go back to teaching, or you can drive race cars in my honor,” Novalene suggested.

  “Or else go down to the army recruiters and see if you can get into sniper school.”

  Jayden crushed her water bottle and tossed it in the recycle bin across the room. “I promise to think about all your advice, but I imagine that I’ll be flying back to North Texas with y’all when this session is over.�
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  Chapter Fourteen

  The rain finally stopped that evening after supper, and Jayden called the girls out of their room to see a beautiful double rainbow in the sky.

  “Isn’t it gorgeous?” she asked.

  Carmella shrugged. “It’s a rainbow.”

  “I’d like it better if there was a real pot of gold at the end, and I could use it to get out of this place.” Tiffany’s tone was ice cold.

  “Stop your bitchin’.” Ashlyn glared at her. “I can’t even get my hair up in a ponytail, so I’ll have to be careful my cap doesn’t fall off.”

  “What’s the problem?” Jayden almost sighed, but then it was Sunday. The whole bunch of them did much better on the days when they had a routine and jobs from daylight to dark.

  Tiffany shot Ashlyn a dirty look and a middle finger. “I’m going to write about this in my journal. Y’all can leave me alone and don’t even try to talk to me.” She stormed off into the house and slammed the screen door behind her.

  “She and Carmella don’t like their haircuts,” Ashlyn explained.

  “This is the worst styling job I’ve had since I got high and cut it myself with my boyfriend’s pocketknife,” Carmella told them. “Mama took me to the salon the next day and got our hairdresser to take care of it. Seems to me like Tiffany has the right idea. I’m going to go bitch about it in my journal.”

  It was a blessing that they weren’t threatening to go over to Moonbeam Cabin and start a fight or, worse yet, shave Keelan’s and Bailey’s heads for not giving them high-dollar haircuts.

  “I hate mine, too,” Ashlyn admitted, “but it looks like crap anyway with my dark roots growing out and my pink streak gone, so I really don’t care. No one except a few people in church are going to see it anyway, and we go to a different place every Sunday. Speaking of that, I didn’t like the service this morning. The sermon was so dry that I fell asleep. I think Tiffany and Carmella just need something to gripe about today. They’re homesick, and both of them are wishing for school to start so they can see their friends. Me, I don’t give a good hot”—she paused and sucked in air—“darn if I ever see any of mine again. I’ve decided to never drink again, not even a beer, and I may ask my folks to put me in a private boarding school. They’ve wanted to for a while, but I thought I’d die without my friends.”

  “Afraid you’ll get drunk and dye your hair pink again?” Jayden asked.

  “Nope.” Ashlyn shook her head. “I’m afraid I’ll get behind the wheel and hurt someone. I’m going to go inside and write about this in my journal. I really, really hate this place tonight, just as much as Tiffany. I want to see green grass and rosebushes. Not even those flowers right there”—she pointed at the petunias and the lantana growing in front of the cabin—“can come close to the gardens at our estate. I want to sleep in a bed that’s big enough I can sprawl out and not fall off onto the floor where spiders and bugs crawl around, and I want my clothes back. I will never take my bikini underpants for granted again.”

  “That’s the whole idea of this place. To teach you teamwork and to build your self-esteem so you can be a leader instead of following the wrong influences.” Jayden sat down in one of the chairs.

  “Well, it’s damn . . . I mean dang sure working. They should have named this place Nightmare Cabin instead of Daydream,” she said. “The only thing I daydream about is going home.”

  “Maybe that’s a good thing,” Jayden said.

  Ashlyn didn’t flip her off, but her expression said that she sure wanted to. She whipped around and went into the cabin, but she didn’t slam the door. Evidently, she was serious about wanting to keep her nose clean so she could go home.

  Jayden caught a movement out of her peripheral vision, and, thinking it might be Elijah, her heart did one of those crazy flip-flops that it did when he was around. She was more than a little disappointed when Novalene eased down into a chair.

  “I thought the beauty shop went well until I got home.” She sighed. “I overheard my two girls talking in the bathroom at shower time about deliberately making a mess of your girls’ hair. They said it was payback for Tiffany threatening to roll Bailey in the hog wallow when Lauren was still here. I’m going back and forth between giving them each a demerit or giving them a good talking-to. What do you think?”

  “That’s your call, but because this is their first offence since Lauren left, maybe a talking-to would do,” Jayden said. “They were all doing so well a couple of days ago. Is this normal behavior for the halfway mark?”

  “Oh, yeah,” Novalene sighed. “It happens, but then they’re teenage girls, not angels. They have to have a little drama and hatefulness. Have you given any thought to what we talked about?”

  “You mean staying here?” Jayden wished that she could go over to Moonbeam Cabin herself and give those two girls a piece of her mind, but that wasn’t her place. “The possibility has got a lot of pros, but I’m weighing the cons as well.”

  “I think you’d be perfect for the job, but you’ve got to figure this out for yourself.” Novalene sucked in a lungful of air and let it out slowly. “I’ve got a confession. When we learned that Skyler wasn’t going to be with us this summer, I almost backed out. I didn’t like the idea of working with someone new, maybe even having to train you, but I like you, and I’m glad I came. You’ve got more spunk and sass than your sister, and you really do have good ideas. I’m just sorry that my two have been little turds today.”

  “My mother would quote scripture and say the Lord says that vengeance is His, or something like that,” Jayden told her just as she saw a flash of what looked like platinum hair behind the screen door. “It’s a bit of an oxymoron to me. Looks like He could stop the problem rather than bringing down brimstone and fire on the ones who were evil or just downright mean.”

  Novalene frowned. “How’s that an oxymoron?”

  “Seems like if we’re going to have trouble, it will happen on Sunday, so that kind of loosely fits, doesn’t it?” Jayden answered. “Want a bottle of water or lemonade?”

  “No, I’m good,” Novalene said. “I get what you’re saying. Church seems to bring out the worst in them rather than the best.”

  “We’ve got a little more than a month to prove my theory.” She suddenly got that antsy feeling that only came about when Elijah was nearby.

  “Hello, ladies,” Elijah greeted them with a smile. “Mind if I join you?”

  “Not a bit,” Jayden said.

  Novalene stood up with a groan. “I was just leaving. These old bones love to sit in those chairs, but they don’t like getting up out of them so well.”

  “You don’t have to rush off,” Jayden said.

  Novalene shot one of her sly winks toward Jayden. “I’d better get on back and make sure my Moonbeams haven’t figured out something eviler to get into. We’ll talk later.”

  Elijah stood to the side and let her pass, then joined Jayden on the porch. He’d shaved and changed from his usual company T-shirt into a snap-front plaid western shirt. The soft evening breeze brought the woodsy, musky scent of his shaving lotion right to Jayden. She inhaled deeply, taking in as much as she could before the wind shifted.

  “What evil is going on over in Moonbeam?” Elijah handed her a bottle of root beer and took a drink from the one he had in his other hand.

  Jayden lowered her voice and told him about the haircuts that Keelan and Bailey had given her girls. Just as she finished, she could have sworn she saw another flash of platinum hair peeking around the corner of the screen door. Then the air-conditioning unit in the girls’ room started rattling and the lights went out, so she couldn’t be sure what she’d seen.

  “They should’ve kept their mouths shut.” Elijah grinned. “After hearing them talk about it, now Novalene knows to watch them closer. Too bad they’ve destroyed the trust they had built up with her. Now they’ll have to start all over. Have you got that uniform order ready?”

  “I’ve got the order all made out a
nd tucked into the catalog, but it’s out in the dining hall. Do you need it tonight or will tomorrow morning do?” she asked.

  “Tomorrow’s fine. Now about this cooking job? Have you thought about anything else we should list as requirements when I get in touch with the employment office?” He sat down on the top porch step and took a notepad and pen from his shirt pocket.

  She couldn’t very well say that the last thing she was thinking about was interviewing cooks when he was this close to her. He caught her eye but quickly looked back down at his notepad. Did he get the same feelings when he was close to her as she did when he was nearby?

  “I put down that they have to have some experience cooking for a group.” He flipped the notebook open. “And next is that they will be provided room and board.”

  “Pets?” she asked.

  “I don’t mind if they have outside pets as in dogs or cats, but nothing in the cabin.” He wrote that down and locked gazes with her again.

  “How about children? Both living here permanently or visiting?” Her voice was an octave higher than normal.

  He blinked a couple of times, cleared his throat, and focused on the notepad. “Good questions. No children here all the time, but visiting during the off-seasons would be fine.”

  “You don’t like kids?” Jayden asked.

  “Love them,” he answered. “Wouldn’t mind having a yard full of my own right here in this desert country, but I wouldn’t want the headache of other people’s children being here permanently. Can’t you just see a cook with two or three little school-age kids quitting on the spot because one of our girls cut their hair wrong or upset one of them somehow? Or what if you get a girl in here who has abused her younger siblings?”

  “It is going to be a challenge to find the right fit.” The tension between them was thick enough that Elijah had to feel it as much as she did. “Male or female?”

  “Can’t make a preference there or they’ll call us out for it, so we’ll leave that alone and just refuse to hire someone if, like you say, the fit isn’t right.” His hand trembled a little when he tucked the pen back into his pocket. “This is way more trouble than I thought it would be. What I’d really like to have is a semiretired couple, kind of like Henry and Mary, only ten or fifteen years younger.”