Riverbend Reunion(13)

So that’s why he made that suggestion last night, Jessica thought.

“Did you already look into the legal stuff?” she asked.

He shook his head. “No, but I did find out that Elijah had it zoned commercial before he built the church. Y’all can think about it if you need to, but I am very serious about my offer.”

“What if you used your money to buy into the place, and then you hated working with us?” Jessica asked.

Wade flashed half a smile. “I’ve worked with easy people, and I’ve worked with total butts. You do your job, and I do mine. Why wouldn’t we get along? We’ll be together quite a bit during the remodel, but after we open, our hours will probably be from six in the evening until two in the morning, like most bars. I’ll live in my trailer, and you probably won’t even see me during the day.”

Lily and Daisy returned with soda pop and beers in their hands, brushed away a few cobwebs from the corner of the back pew, and sat down side by side.

“We’ll be in school, so we won’t be around during the day, either,” Lily said.

“And if we get to be cheerleaders, we’ll be gone some at night, too,” Daisy added.

“If we don’t get chosen, we can help Mama in the kitchen. I’m pretty good at dishwashing, and I do a mean job of cutting up tomatoes for hamburgers,” Lily said.

Jessica sat down on the end of the pew, and peace fell around her shoulders like a nice warm blanket on a winter night. This was where she was supposed to be, and what she was supposed to do. The bar would provide a job for Risa and her girls, as well as a place for Mary Nell—and Haley, if she decided to stay in Riverbend.

“If we’re serious”—Jessica let out a long breath of air that she hadn’t even realized she was holding in—“I’ll talk to my lawyer as soon as I can get a hold of him.”

“I better be looking for three beds because Mama is going to throw us out, but I’m dead serious,” Risa said. “I need a job. I have no skills or experience, but I can cook, and I can clean. At least I won’t have to dust mounted deer heads, stuffed squirrels, and antlers that are hanging in every spare corner of Paul’s trailer house.”

“I’ll supply beds,” Haley said, “and the living room stuff, too. Wade, can you help move them in your truck?”

“No problem,” Wade answered, “but, Risa, you might want to wait until we know for sure this is a reality before you break the news to Stella. If she says that you’ve got to leave, I’ll bring the flatbed trailer that I use to haul all my tools around in over to Stella’s place and move whatever needs to come this way.”

“And I won’t tell Daddy until we know for sure,” Mary Nell added. “It would disappoint him to think he might have a local outlet for his moonshine and wine and then find out that the whole thing fell through because of some legal problem. I vote that if that happens, we go back to the drawing board and figure out something that will let us all work together.”

“We’ve got a secret.” Lily giggled.

“And wild hogs couldn’t drag it out of us.” Daisy draped her arm around her sister’s shoulders. “But it would be tempting when Granny Stella starts preachin’ at us about our souls.”

“Not a word,” Risa warned with a shake of her finger.

“Let’s toast to a partnership and, if this doesn’t work out, to whatever does.” Jessica held up her bottle of beer, as did Wade.

“To friendship.” Mary Nell raised her bottle.

“To friendship,” Haley and Risa chimed in at the same time.

“To moving away from Granny Stella.” Lily held up her root beer.

“Amen!” Daisy agreed.





Chapter Three


Isaac Yandell, Jessica’s lawyer, pushed his wire-rimmed glasses up on his nose and ran a hand over his bald head. “You do realize that Riverbend is a small, conservative town, don’t you? Are you absolutely sure you want to turn a church building into a bar? You’re going to get a lot of arguments from the local folks.”

“Yes, sir, I do know that Riverbend is a small town, and I also realize that the church is a prime spot for a bar because it’s sitting right at the corner of three dry counties and is only a few miles from another one to the south and a fifth one to the north,” Jessica told him.

“Plus, Fort Hood is right over the county line,” Wade said from the corner where he’d chosen to stand rather than sit in one of the chairs in front of the lawyer’s desk.

“Well, there’s no reason the building couldn’t be used for anything commercial. Elijah said you could use it for anything, or you could burn it down if you wanted to. I also can’t see a valid reason why you couldn’t get a beer and liquor license, but that will take about three months. If everything goes smoothly, you might be able to have a grand opening the middle of September. To do that we need a name for your bar, and we’ll need to submit forms for everyone who will be serving liquor. That means a valid birth certificate and social security card for each person,” Mr. Yandell said. “Should I start proceedings today, or do you need to think about this a little longer? It’s a really big decision. You are saying that you are going to live in Riverbend under the shadow of contention for a long time.”