Riverbend Reunion(14)

“What do you think Uncle Elijah would say?” Jessica asked.

“He’d think it was a royal hoot,” the lawyer chuckled. “He was a salty old dog. He and I played golf together, and we both enjoyed a double shot of Jameson too often to talk about.”

“Then I’m ready to get on with it.” Jessica figured that she hadn’t had the church or the inheritance before her uncle died, so if her bar didn’t work out, she really wasn’t losing anything. And all her friends would have jobs, which was a big selling point to her.

“All right then.” Mr. Yandell looked up at Wade. “Since you’re going to be a partner, you’ll need to bring everything that I’ve already mentioned, plus you’ll both need bank statements showing that you are each putting up half the money to start up the business.”

“I’ll get it all together for you, sir,” Wade said with a nod.

“Okay then,” Mr. Yandell said. “I’ll get the paperwork started. Make an appointment with my office manager on your way out to come in on Wednesday and sign everything. Go ahead and bring all the folks you told me about at that time, too, so we can get their signatures on the permits to sell liquor.”

“Do you know offhand if there will be a conflict about my friends living in the back of the place?” she asked as she got to her feet.

“I don’t think there would be, but I’ll check into it. Just to be on the safe side, when you remodel, you might want to consider closing any doors leading from the sanctuary into the hallway where the Sunday school rooms are. That would be for privacy’s sake. You wouldn’t want folks who had too much to drink wandering into your living quarters looking for a bathroom. But I will see what the law says about that,” he answered.

She stuck out her hand to shake with him. “Thank you, Mr. Yandell.”

“Isaac,” he said as he shook her hand. “If we’re going to be working together, just call me Isaac.”

Wade took a couple of steps forward and shook his hand also. “I’m just Wade, then.”

“Thank you, and I’m Jessica.” She smiled.

“Then Jessica and Wade it is,” he said. “I’ll see you on Wednesday.”

“We’ll be here.” Jessica slung her purse over her shoulder, and she and Wade stopped by the desk out in the lobby to make an appointment for three o’clock on Wednesday.

A blast of hot wind hit her in the face when she stepped out of the air-conditioned office. She figured the heat was what made her a little dizzy, but then it could have been the fact that she’d made such a huge life-changing decision after such a short time. She certainly had not considered living in Riverbend permanently before the idea of a bar came about.

“Are you okay?” Wade asked. “You look like you just saw a ghost. You aren’t already regretting this, I hope.”

“Little shocked at how hot it is,” Jessica answered, but she held on to the porch post a few more seconds. “The deal is all in motion now, so I guess we’re going to brave the elements—meaning Stella and the people in Riverbend—to put a bar in what used to be a church.”

He tucked his arm into hers. “Let’s get you out to the truck where it’s cool. And, Jessica, I’ve never been surer of anything,” Wade said. “How about you?”

“It’s all been pretty fast, and when Isaac reminded me that the folks in Riverbend are not going to be happy about this, I thought of Risa and what she’ll have to endure.” She let him guide her out to his vehicle. “Thank you so much for driving me up here today. It would have been tough to find a parking spot in that RV.”

“No problem,” he said as he opened the passenger door for her.

This is the kind of guy you want for a partner and a friend, the voice in her head whispered.

Wade slid in behind the wheel. “We should go by the Dairy Queen and get an ice cream to celebrate. Maybe a little something cold will bring some color back in your face. I thought you were going to faint when you came out of the building.”

“That sounds great,” she said, “but, Wade, what if we spend all this money, and then the bar doesn’t do well? We’ll have payroll to meet and overhead to pay, and if it all bombs, my best friends will have lost their reputation in town, plus their jobs. What if—”

He butted in before she could say another word. “Don’t think like that. Just remember that it could take a year before we start making a profit, but that’s all right. As long as we pay Haley, Risa, and Mary Nell, you and I can live on our retirement from the military. At least I can. How are you set?”

“I’ve got a pretty good savings on top of my pension and inheritance,” she answered. “How do we even go about figuring out how much it will take for our renovations? You’ve done odd carpentry jobs, so maybe you can figure a rough estimate?”

He nodded the whole time she talked. “With all the wood in the pews, there will be very little money involved with that. The main outlay will be to buy the liquor license and do all the legal stuff for inspections to run a kitchen.” He started the engine and backed out of the parking lot.

Jessica giggled. “Stella will sure have a fit when she finds out we tore up the pews to build the actual bar. To her that would be as much a sacrilege as having beer and liquor in what used to be a church house.”