"It's great to see you again!" Jamie exclaimed as she embraced first Julia, then Lydia, Renko. "This is my best friend, Taylor."

"Hello." Julia and Lydia shook hands with Taylor. The sisters had flown in from California to spend spring break with Jamie.

"It's nice to meet you," said Taylor. "Are you really from Russia? I don't think I've ever met anyone from there before."

"We were born here in the United States, but our parents are from Russia," Julia told her.

The four girls and Jo left the airport and walked back to Jo's van.

"How are your parents?" Jo asked Julia and Lydia.

"They're fine!" Julia replied. "They went to Las Vegas over Christmas break."

"How's college?" asked Jamie.

"Great!" said Julia. "It's so different from high school. You have so much more freedom - you don't have to get passes to go everywhere."

"I was planning to go to college and study law enforcement, but now I'm not so sure," Jamie replied.

"What are you thinking of studying instead?" asked Lydia.

"I'm thinking of becoming a missionary in the Amazon," said Jamie. "Remember Andy, the guy I told you about that I met at a wedding a couple of summers ago? That's what he does, and I might join him."

Julia laughed. "Sounds like true love to me!"

"I think it is." Jamie's voice was dead serious.

When they reached the house, the sisters took their suitcases into Clay's old bedroom, where they'd be staying for the week. As soon as they were settled, Jo drove Julia to the car rental place while Lydia and Jamie chatted and got caught up on one another's news while they played with Bethany.

The rental car turned out to be a turquoise 2010 Honda Accord.

"Cool!" Jamie exclaimed when she saw it. "Taylor's gonna love it!"

By then it was time for Jo to start preparing dinner, and about thirty minutes later, Doug came home.

"You remember Julia and Lydia from Los Angeles, don't you, Dad?" Jamie asked him.

"Of course! How are your folks?" Doug asked as he shook his guests' hands.

"They're doing just fine," Lydia told him.

After dinner, all three girls went into Clay's bedroom and spent hours chattering and giggling until Jamie yawned.

"We'd better all go to bed now," said Julia. "We have an early start tomorrow morning, you know."

Around midnight, Jamie reluctantly returned to her own room and crawled beneath the covers. At five thirty the next morning, the girls were up again, drinking coffee, munching on pop tarts, and giggling. By six fifteen, they were in the rental car and on the way to pick Taylor up. When they reached her house, they were relieved to see her standing on her front porch, waiting for them. Julia pulled into the driveway and parked, and Taylor got into the back seat with Jamie.

"Frontier City, here we come!" the girls said together as they high fived one another.

A few raindrops hit the windshield, and before the girls realized it, the rain was coming down in torrents. Julia panicked. "I can't see!"

"Here's a diner," said Lydia. "Maybe you could pull into the parking lot and wait for it to stop or at least slow down."

Julia pulled into the parking lot and parked. After a few minutes, the rain eased, and Julia started to crank the car.

"Hey, wait! I gotta pee!" whined Taylor.

Julia sighed and took the key out of the ignition.

"I might as well go too, since we're here anyway," said Jamie.

The four girls got out of the car and went into the diner where, to their surprise, who should they see but Clay and his partner, Benjamin, sitting in a booth, drinking coffee. Clay's eyes widened in surprise as he stood to greet them.

"Hey! Where you girls headed?"

"We were on our way to Frontier City, and it started raining really hard, so we pulled in here to wait it out," Jamie told him. "These are my friends from California, Julia and Lydia Renko."

"Pleased ta meet ya." Clay shook hands with both girls. "Hey there, Taylor! Haven't seen you in awhile!"

"I know."

"Listen, I have to go back on the beat in a minute, but would you like to go to dinner with me some time?"

"Sure!" Taken aback, Taylor wondered why she'd never before noticed how nice looking Jami's stepbrother was.

"Great! I'll call you soon."

When the girls were back in the car, Jamie burst out laughing, and even Julia and Lydia smiled. "Are you, like, seriously going to go out with my brother?" Jamie asked Taylor.

"Why not? He's nice, and I've always thought he was kind of cute."

Jamie rolled her eyes. "Talk about weird city!"

"What's so weird about it?" asked Taylor.