Between Us Girls by Sally John Page B

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 hervacation, 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.
    â€œLord, 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.
    â€œLord, 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…
    â€œAll 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?
    â€œChad 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.”
    â€œI bet he got her phone number.”
    â€œYes, 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.”
    â€œWhat did Inez say?”
    â€œShe 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?”
    â€œ Abuela . Grandmother.”
    â€œThat’s it. How