Elijah waited with his back against the stucco and arms folded over his chest. Did the man not realize that was a true sign that he was blocking everyone out of his life?
“No mirrors?” She raised an eyebrow. “And I didn’t see any in the cabin, either.”
“They each have what they need, including a hand mirror in their footlockers,” he answered. “We’ll walk this way so you can see the stables.”
“Horses?” She asked another one-word question.
“Not for riding. We don’t even own a saddle. Henry adopted three horses and two donkeys that were going to be sent to the slaughterhouse. Grooming and walking them make for excellent therapy for the girls, plus someone has to muck out the stables daily, so that’s another good job.” His stride was long, and he walked fast.
She lengthened her step only a little to keep up with him. “My DUI girl can do that. How often does it need done?”
“Every day the horses need exercise. I usually have whoever has that job walk them on the trail out to the half-mile marker and back. Why do you think your DUI girl should take over that job?”
“Seems like a good thing since she’s been driving recklessly while drinking. She can see what she’d have to depend on if she lost her license,” Jayden replied.
“Sounds reasonable to me.” Elijah grinned again. “You’re tougher than your sister.”
“I do my best.” Jayden had worked hard over the years to develop a tough skin and took pride in her resilience. That Elijah noticed put a smile on her face. “Now let’s go see these rescued animals.”
“We’re a working farm. Not only do we have horses and donkeys, we have hogs and chickens, and those ugly critters you see wandering around out there are guineas. They keep the tick population down to a minimum. Mary also has a garden out back of the dining room that provides us with fresh vegetables, and Henry keeps two milk cows and about twenty head of cattle. The girls will learn how to milk, haul hay, and maybe, if we’re lucky, we’ll even have a calf born out of season so they can experience that,” he explained as they walked side by side.
“Oh, I can tell you right now that they’re going to love all that,” she said. “I haven’t had teenagers in my school who think they’re entitled. What do I need to expect?”
“Kids are kids whether they have money or not,” he answered. “Like we said before, this is a private boot camp, not a state-run one. We do have an agreement with the state through the judges that lets the parents send their girls here. If the girls get three demerits, we can take them to the jail in Alpine and they will go to juvie or back home to visit with the judge who sent them here. Most of the time they hate everything about the camp at first, but by the end of their stay, they hate to leave.”
Chapter Four
Thank God I listened to Henry when he showed up at my motel room,” Elijah said to his reflection in the bathroom mirror after he’d shaved and splashed lotion on his face.
He’d thought Henry was downright crazy that summer day two years ago when he’d shown up in San Antonio and told him—didn’t ask him or give him a choice—that Elijah was going to work with him at the camp.
He’d been to the camp when he had leave, but never when it was in session, and working with nine smart-ass rich girls wasn’t his idea of something to do with the rest of his life, but he didn’t argue. Henry and Mary were his only living relatives, and he loved them dearly. He could give them a couple of months, since he didn’t have anything else to do.
“Family,” he muttered as he turned away from the mirror. “I’ve learned that they can be taken away in the blink of an eye.”
The air force had given him a family with a bond that most people would have difficulty understanding. He had purpose in his life, a reason to feel good about the job he did, and then three of his team members were gone—killed. He and the other three kept in touch, but it wasn’t the same as working with them.
Just like that. He snapped his fingers and left the bathroom to get dressed.
Even after more than two years, the memory of helping carry those flag-draped caskets off the plane brought tears to Elijah’s eyes. He’d lost three members of his family, and he mourned for them even yet.
He wiped his eyes and reminded himself that today began a new session. He’d settled into the routine fairly quickly from the beginning, when Henry had brought him to the camp the day before the summer session began, sobered him up with coffee and good food, and told him exactly what his job was. For the first couple of days, Henry helped him get acclimated to the regimen, and then he stepped back and turned it over to him.
By the end of July, he could see progress in the nine girls who had been sent to the camp, and he’d felt a sense of pride in what he had accomplished. He decided to give himself a year before reenlisting. More than seven sessions later, he couldn’t imagine being anywhere else.
A glance at the clock brought him back to the present. He pulled on a pair of camouflage pants, tucked his shirt in, and buckled his belt. Then he sat down in a straight-backed chair and put on his combat boots. They were the only thing that he still had from his air force days. He’d long since worn out those camo pants, but they’d been so comfortable that he had decided to order more. Besides, dressing that way gave Piney Wood a little bit more of a boot camp feel to it.
He walked out onto his porch and sucked in a lungful of fresh morning air, and then started for the dining hall. The first day of camp was really his favorite time. The girls arrived with their problems all wound up tight around them like chains. It reminded him of those first days of air force boot camp in San Antonio.
He and the other recruits had to learn a whole new world just like these girls did. A couple of guys who started boot camp with him had washed out. During the two years he had been at Piney Wood, he had had to take three girls to the jail in Alpine. They were either shipped on to juvie, or else their parents pulled some strings to get them in private rehab centers, but he wondered about them, just like he did about those guys who didn’t make it to the end of boot camp.
Elijah had felt a sense of failure every time he had to drive one of the girls to the jail—just like he did when he couldn’t save those three buddies who had died. “Matty, Tommy, and Derrick.” He whispered their names. Sometimes he had trouble seeing their faces and had to look at the picture of the seven members of his team to get everything back into focus. When that happened, he felt guilty and oftentimes apologized to the picture even though it seemed silly to talk to a photograph.
“Hey! Wait up,” Henry called out from behind him.
Elijah stopped. When Henry caught up, Elijah shortened his stride so his uncle wouldn’t have to rush. “You ready for this?”
“Oh, yeah,” Henry said. “I can’t wait to see how Jayden does. She seems a lot tougher than her sister. Skyler got the job done all right, but just between me and you, I think Jayden might do better.”
“Why’s that?” Elijah had felt something stirring down deep when he shook hands with her, and every time she was close by, the same thing happened all over again. Nothing could come of it, not when they worked together. Still, it was the first time he had had any type of feelings for a woman in the past two years. Could his bad luck be changing?