“That means you’ll come to the house about seven thirty, then?” Brook asked.

“Of course we will.” Harper patted her shoulder. “We’ll always be there to support you, but also know that we won’t fight for you with your mama if we think you are wrong.”

“Thanks. Now you can go on to the café. I think Uncle Zed is fixin’ a burger for Payton, and it won’t be long until the fishermen start comin’ in for supper,” she said.

“Yes, boss.” Harper grinned.

“I wish I was smart enough to really be a boss.” Brook let out a long whoosh of pent-up air.

“You are well on the way,” Tawny said. “Let’s go work over in cabins one and two. The folks in there had Do Not Disturb signs on their doors until half an hour ago.”

“Yes, ma’am. I love y’all,” Brook said.

“Love you more,” both Harper and Tawny said at the same time.

“Y’all sounded just like Granny Annie. She used to say that all the time.”

“Best compliment I’ve ever had.” Tawny pushed the cart out the door behind Harper.

Harper and Zed got finished in the café a little early that evening, so she had thirty minutes before she had to be at Dana’s place to support Brook. The girl had spunk and she hadn’t started the fight, even if she had thrown the first punch, so Dana should go easy on her when it came to her punishment for getting in trouble at school.

She’d rushed to her cabin and took a hot bath to ease some of the aches and pains out of her legs and back. Keeping an eye on the clock she’d hung beside the vanity mirror, she reluctantly crawled out after fifteen minutes and wrapped a towel around her body. She was halfway across the floor when she heard the familiar sound of a truck parking in front of her cabin. She hurriedly threw on underwear, jeans, and a clean T-shirt and slung open the door as Wyatt raised his hand to knock.

Grabbing his hand, she pulled him inside and wrapped her arms around his neck. “I’m so glad to see you, but we’ve only got five minutes. I’ve got to be at Dana’s in ten.”

His lips found hers in a long, passionate kiss that sent sparks bouncing off the cabin walls. Teasing her mouth open with the tip of his tongue, he deepened the next one, leaving them both panting when it ended.

“Why?” He led her to the bed and pulled her down in his lap. “Do you.” Another scorching-hot kiss. “Have to go to Dana’s?”

“Because Brook got in trouble and she wants me and Tawny there when she tells her mother. I’ll tell you the story later, but I really have to go right now.” She planted one more kiss on his lips and then hurried out the door.

Tawny was already there when she arrived, equally out of breath because she’d jogged the distance in a pair of flip-flops. Brook was curled up on the end of the sofa. Dana was in the rocking chair and, from the way she raised an eyebrow, all of what was about to go down was not a total surprise. Had Uncle Zed told her?

“Okay,” Brook said. “Mama, I’ve got something to tell you.” And she went on with the story. “I started the actual fight and I have to go to in-school suspension for a week for it. That boy’s a jerk, but I shouldn’t have hit him first or as many times as I did before the teacher pulled me off him.”

“And what did you do when the teacher got you away from him?” Dana asked.

“I kicked him two more times and Mr. Green came runnin’ out of his room and grabbed my legs and they hauled me into the office,” she said. “Mr. Green was as big a jerk as Ryson when he was here at the lake, but he did stand up for me and tell the truth about what happened.”

“I’m glad you told me, but I’ve got to admit that Marcus Green called me right after school and told me the whole story, pretty much the same way you just did. And he apologized for being such a jackass when he was here,” Dana said. “You let your temper get away from you again, didn’t you?”

“I sure did, but he made me so mad when he said that about Cassidy. She thinks she’s in love with him, and he just used her. We might not be the friends that we were in the first week I was here, but it just isn’t right for a boy to be that disrespectful. He should take lessons from Payton on how to treat a lady,” Brook said.

Harper wished she’d had the wisdom that Brook had when she was that age. Suddenly, it dawned on her that they were all three sitting there together and that a child had brought them together. The morning that she’d baptized herself seemed to have been a turning point for them, and yet, something said they weren’t nearly ready to take that big step from sometimes sisters to real ones.

“So if you were the mother, what would you do?” Dana asked.

Brook’s brown eyebrows drew down into a solid line, and her full mouth disappeared as she gave it serious thought. “I would take away my cell phone for the week I have to go to suspension, but it doesn’t work here anyway, so that wouldn’t be a very good punishment for this.”

“It sounds like a fantastic punishment to me,” Harper said. “It’s not your fault there’s no service.”

“But that’s not right,” Brook said. “Me and Mama, we got this thing about fairness and honesty.”

Dana bit back tears, but one lonely little drop escaped and ran down her cheek. “I’ve got something to say, and I don’t want any one of you to ask a question or utter a word until I’m finished. It’s difficult and I’m afraid I won’t be able to get it all out if you do.”