Chapter 29

29

Chantal was with her own mother visiting with Genny’s mother when Greer called. Chantal had been closest to the landline at the Hiller house and had grabbed it out of habit. She’d answered the phone at the Hillers’ place countless times before.

Greer was practically beside herself. Her best friend Hala’s brother, Hala’s only family since the loss of her father, mother, and sister in a tragic car accident when Hala was eighteen, had been in an accident.

Along with his almost five-year-old son.

Greer was on her way to the hospital now. She was going to be there for Hala. She just needed someone from the ranch to swing by Aubrey’s house and get Ayla. Ayla needed to be there for Hala, too. Greer was insistent on it.

Ayla, who had suffered a spinal injury when she’d been eleven, didn’t drive. Chantal had picked her up to help Aubrey out before.

Aubrey and Genny and Giavonna were her closest friends in the world. But Ayla, Greer, and Hala were her friends, too.

“I’m going to get Ayla and get her to Greer,” she told her own mother. “I don’t know how long I’ll be. I’m going to stay as long as they need me.”

“Then you can drive me,” Gene’s mother Gayle said. “Hala is going to need us all. Poor thing. This is going to be bringing back memories for her. And I’m going to be there.”

After Hala had lost her parents and sister, Genny’s mother had stepped up. Helped Hudson plan the funerals for more than half of his family. She mothered Hala whenever it was needed, Chantal thought.

That was the way the Hillers were.

They stepped in when they were needed.

Well, so did the Fieldses . “We’ll pick up Ayla on the way.”