Between Us Girls (13 page)

“A tornado never happen before. This bump in the road is most worst for you.”

Inez's words rang true. Yet why hadn't her mother's death been the worst bump for Jasmyn? Or even the years spent nursing her through cancer?

Or what about the lifelong shame heaped on her because she'd been born out of wedlock to a teenager and never knew her father's name?

“
Querida
.” Inez looped her arm through Jasmyn's and leaned against her. “Louis and I grow old. The house, the yard, too much work. It is our most worst bump, but we move to
la Casa
and we are happy. You move into
la Casa
and you be happy too. Everyone take care of you.
Si
?”

An attack of warm fuzzies burst through her. Jasmyn melted inside. For one brief amazing moment the shadowy corners of sad, hard, and scary were ablaze in light.

But…

“I'm on vacation.”

Inez shrugged. “So? Go get your things. Vacation over.”

Go get your things.
Those would be her new car and a jacket. But seriously. Move to California? Away from her hometown, the only place she'd ever known, and her job, and—

“Look at this.” Inez pointed at the crowd and sighed. “My boys come. Chad, I see nowhere. Am I surprised?” She looked at Jasmyn. “This is why
I put van keys in my pocketbook. If he no show, you drive but first you call Keagan because we don't know the way home.”

They didn't?
Uh-oh.

“When we women need rescue, he always there for us. He is our knight.”

A knight. That was a new one. Her first impression of Keagan had been all about sheriff vibes. Sam's nickname for him was Mr. Kung Fu Dude because he had some sort of belt and apparently could break a stack of two-by-fours with his bare hands. Now Inez added shining armor and a white horse to the guy's intimidating reputation.

Between a knight, a mama, a grandmother, kind people, and unbelievable peace and beauty, the place had everything.

Still, though, no matter how attractive it was, no matter how much it had given her, Casa de Vida was not her home. The thought of permanently leaving Valley Oaks was off-the-chart ridiculous and certainly not the solution to getting herself over the worst bump in the road.

No, she would return home as planned on Saturday, where she belonged, and just live her life, bumps and all.

Nineteen

If Liv had married what's-his-name decades ago, before he shipped out to Vietnam, she might have a daughter now around Jasmyn's age.

“Foolish thoughts, Olivia.” She spoke aloud to herself. “Foolish thoughts that do you no good whatsoever.”

She and the cute Marine had been wild about each other. If she were the impetuous sort or even a romantic, she would have accepted his proposal. But she was not and she did not. He never contacted her again.

And she never loved anyone as wildly again until Syd.

She sighed and petted Tobi on her lap. They sat in the recliner, both just awake from catnaps. Dusk had fallen and the living room lay in shadows. Outside the bay window the jacaranda tree shone with vertical strands of twinkle lights. An automatic timer lit them and brightened a corner of the courtyard where the source of her foolish thoughts stood with Samantha.

Liv tried not to feel like a beady-eyed private investigator. Snooping simply came with the managerial territory. It was a necessity, right? She managed better if she remained abreast of what was going on.

A small wheeled suitcase was propped beside Samantha. She was probably arriving home after her work week in the desert. Jasmyn, thankfully, had no suitcase in sight.

Not yet anyway.

Liv's eyes burned and she blinked rapidly so the tears would not fall.

Jasmyn was scheduled to fly back to the Midwest tomorrow. Liv had suggested she stay longer, that the theft experience had interfered with her
vacation, that it had subtracted days from her emotional time of R and R, that she owed herself at least another week. Jasmyn only said she needed to get on with her life.

“Lord, she wants to stay. When we ate at Betsy's Café, she said she could see herself working there. She was dreaming about life here. I know she was. She should give it more time.”

Outside now, Jasmyn and Samantha appeared to be laughing.

Odd. Liv had thought Riley would be the one to tug Jasmyn's heartstrings. They were closer in age, more alike than different. Jasmyn was small-town sweet and—Liv imagined—a crackerjack of a waitress because she easily put regular people at ease.

Samantha was anything but regular. Mum about her background, overeducated—why the summer postgrad studies?—and consumed with work, she walked around in a Plexiglas bubble.

Hmm.

“Lord, Jasmyn could be a good influence on Samantha. And Samantha could be, well, she might very well be the friend Jasmyn needs. What do You think?”

Liv did not have to sit long with the question. She immediately recognized her dishonesty.

The truth was, ever since Jasmyn's arrival, a deep loneliness had taken hold of her unlike any she'd known since Syd's death.

The truth was, she had begun to hope that the something wondrous she assumed was in store for Jasmyn might actually be in store for herself. Was that too foolish? Too selfish?

Yes, but…

“All right. The truth is, Lord, I want a daughter. Jasmyn's the best candidate. It's my last season of life and the biological clock seems to be ticking. Better late than never? I don't know. You're the one who dropped Jasmyn Albright on my doorstep. So now what?”

There, she'd quit hemming and hawing.

Tears stung again, and this time she let them fall.

Twenty

Sam stood in the dusky courtyard with Jasmyn. With her suitcase beside her and a casserole from her boss's wife heavy in her arms, she laughed and laughed.

Laughed. For real. Out loud. It felt like when an antibiotic kicked in and her body sensed the absence of illness and an energy zinged every nerve ending with new life.

Jasmyn was describing her trip to Disneyland. Mostly she talked about goofy Chad at Disneyland. Her sweet voice still bugged Sam, but it also pulled her in, the call of honey to a bear.

Which made Sam the bear?

“Chad finally showed up, in the dark, on Main Street after the parade as if that had been our original plan all along. Inez had Keagan on the phone because Chad wasn't answering his. He told me he'd made a new friend.”

“I bet he got her phone number.”

“Yes, he did. You know, he's so adorable. None of us could stay mad at him. Tasha was exhausted, and he carried her to the car. But first we stopped at a store because she wanted Minnie Mouse ears and Riley was out of money, so he bought them. Then the whole way home he and the twins chattered on and on about rides they hadn't taken together.”

“What did Inez say?”

“She shook her finger at him and said, ‘You must grow up someday.' He hugged her and said, ‘But not today. Peter Pan cannot grow up at Disneyland,
a-a—
' What does he call her?”

“
Abuela
. Grandmother.”

“That's it. How does he get away with being Peter Pan?”

Sam heard concern in Jasmyn's tone. Despite the differences of age, body type, and voice pitch, she and Liv could pass for clones. Which was downright spooky.

“Big safety net. He'll inherit millions and just keep on keeping on.”

“Seriously?” Jasmyn looked appalled.

“Yeah. His family is filthy rich.”

“No, I mean you think he'll just keep on being completely aimless?”

“Who knows? We can't fix him.”

“Inez said Liv gave him an ultimatum. If he messes up again, he has to move out. I think Liv's on to something. He needs boundaries. He needs a job. I need a job.”

“Oh?” A woman after her own heart.

“Definitely. You can't go to Disneyland every day. Or be on vacation forever. This aimlessness is getting old.”

“What would you like to do?”

“What I've always done. It's not exactly rocket science, but then I'm not a rocket scientist. I love working at the Flying Pig. I'll go back to it, easy-peasy.”

“Did you ever dream of doing other things?”

“Not really. In Valley Oaks, it's not like I had a lot of options. That must sound really boring to you.”

“No. It sounds insanely difficult because I'm not a people person like you.”

“For a while I wanted to be a nurse.”

“Ew. Now you've gone too far. You really have to be a people person for that one.”

Jasmyn smiled. “I loved taking care of my grandparents and my mother. Of course, I had to waitress the whole time they were sick and that went on for so many years…” She shrugged. “It's a little late in life to start over.”

“Liv says thirtysomethings are baby chicks. You know, there's always a news story about some woman getting her college degree when she's like eighty-zillion years old. It's never too late to reinvent yourself.”

“Reinvent?”

“Imagine yourself in a different role and then take the first step toward living it.”

“I hadn't thought of it like that.”

Sam had always thought of it like that. If she hadn't created a life for herself beyond the role some labeled half-breed—No reason to go there.

Jasmyn said, “You really think I could reinvent myself?”

“Sure. You're in a sweet space, Jasmyn. Single. No family or house to tie you down. A job you could probably do anywhere.”

“Put that way, it sounds just plain sad.”

“Just plain sad can be a catalyst. Off the top of your head, what's the wildest thing you can think of? If nothing could hold you back, what would you do?”

Jasmyn frowned.

Spontaneity and the waitress from Illinois probably did not meet on a regular basis.

“Um.” Jasmyn smiled shyly. “Seriously?”

No. Impulsively!
“Go for it.”

“I'd like to manage an apartment complex.”

Spoken like a true Liv clone. “Okay.” She couldn't let it go. “Um, you're sure? You don't want to join the Peace Corps? Climb Machu Picchu?”

“No.”

“Write the Great American Novel?”

“No.”

“Be a movie star?”

“Nope.”

“You want to be Olivia McAlister.' ”

“No. I want to be Jasmyn Albright.” She smiled. “Anyway, I'm going home tomorrow.”

Sam let the words sink in, and then she said with conviction, “I'm sorry.”

“Me too. But vacation is over.”

“I suppose it has to end.”

Jasmyn wrinkled her nose. “There's a little corner of me that would rather do the Peter Pan–Chad thing.”

Sam chuckled and shifted the weight of the heavy dish in her arms. “Hey, I have this mystery casserole from my boss's wife. It's probably full of chicken and a creamy soup and could feed an army. Do you want to come over and eat?”

Jasmyn's jaw dropped. “Really?”

Sam understood the surprised response and, if it weren't so pathetically
true, she would have laughed again. The detached businesswoman who disliked everyone was inviting a guest for dinner?

She was. The thought of having an uninterrupted conversation with a like-minded woman felt…nice.

Sam said, “No, not really. I'd rather have pizza.”

Jasmyn laughed with her.

Twenty-One

At airport security, Jasmyn gathered her things from the gray bins on the conveyor belt. Shoes, sweater, handbag, belt, bracelet, bag of liquids, and the beach bag she was using as a catchall.

Sheesh. What a lot of fuss. Practically undress while standing next to a bunch of strangers who were also undressing. Wait. Get scanned. Wait. Carry everything to a bench. Put it back on or back into a bag or a pocket. Search for the boarding pass shoved into her purse. And what had she done with her ID?

At least she hadn't been detained and wanded or had to stand by while a guard dug through her bag the way she saw happening to others.

At least everyone was nice about it all.

Nice. Something she was not feeling or exhibiting. She should be ashamed of herself.

She slipped on the outrageously priced sandals Piper had talked her into because they were, in all honesty, the most comfy things she'd ever had on her feet. She hugged the purse and beach bag to herself, and stared at the escalator. It moved people upward, but it somehow appeared insurmountable.

She really, truly did not want to go home.