Riverbend Reunion(18)

Stella crossed her arms over her chest. “Kids are blessings from God, and you should have obeyed your husband’s wishes.”

“Bye, Mama. We’ll be gone by the time you get back from Lulu’s place.” In one respect, Risa’s heart felt heavy with even more grief. Twice now, her daughters had been uprooted. In another way, she was relieved to leave her mother’s house, where she and the girls had as many strict rules as they’d had in Kentucky. “You’ve got my phone number if you change your mind about seeing the girls or if you need anything.”

“I don’t need or want anything from you,” Stella said.

“You aren’t proud of me for standing up for my rights?” Risa asked around still another lump in her throat.

Stella shook her head. “A woman’s responsibility is to her husband. I took care of this house and your father for forty years and never wanted more.”

“Good for you.” Angry tears flowed down Risa’s cheeks. She heard the back door slam when her mother left, and then another one at the front of the house echoed that noise.

“Hey, need some help?” Lily asked as she came into the foyer from outside. “My stuff is already in the back of the truck.”

“Yes, I do.” Risa smiled through the tears.

Lily hurried across the room and wrapped her arms around her mother. “It’s okay, Mama. We got through Granny Martha’s hissy fit, and this one isn’t nearly as bad as some of hers have been. I love the idea of living with Haley. She’s cool, and Daisy and I can help her out with whatever she needs to pay our way for letting us live there.”

Daisy came into the room and made it a three-way hug. “I heard what Lily said. I’m really, really happy about not living next door to Granny Martha or right in the house with Granny Stella. My things are in the truck. Let’s get you all packed and ready to go. We didn’t realize it at the time, but not being able to bring so much with us from Kentucky was a blessing.”

Out of the mouths of babes, Risa thought.





Chapter Four


What a way to start off a new month,” Jessica said and wished that Wade would drive faster. No one ever saw a police officer on the back county roads, and Risa needed her support right then. Time and distance had nothing to do with the kind of friendship she and Risa, Haley, and Mary Nell had. It didn’t matter that she hadn’t seen them in years; they were just as close as they’d been when they were high school cheerleaders. And Stella had kicked Risa out of her house that day. What kind of mother did that? That her mother-in-law had gotten her underwear in a twist and told her to leave Kentucky was one thing. That her mama’s-boy husband hadn’t backed her up was another thing, but for a mother to tell her own daughter to leave and never come back—that was totally inexcusable, and Jessica had to go comfort her friend.

“The good always comes with a little taste of the tough going. If it didn’t, we wouldn’t appreciate the easy times nearly as much,” Wade replied. “That’s what my mama always said.”

“So did mine,” Jessica said with a nod. “We knew this would happen when Stella found out about the bar, but I didn’t expect it to be today.”

“Word has it that she really didn’t want Risa to come back to Riverbend when the Jackson family kicked her out, but she couldn’t say no. This is actually a blessing for Stella. She’s got an excuse to be the martyr, and she gets rid of two teenage girls and a daughter that she’d rather have living a thousand miles away,” Wade said.

“How do you know all this?” Jessica asked.

“Oscar.” Wade shrugged. “He’s a fountain of information about anyone in Riverbend. Lived here his whole life, and he hosts a domino game at his house on Sunday afternoons. I attend almost every week, and sometimes I even win. Back to the gossip. Old women don’t have a monopoly on knowing everything that goes on in a small town. Old men talk as much as old women.”

A line of vehicles was already parked outside Haley’s house when Wade made the turn down the short, tree-lined lane. The sight of the old two-story house with its wide front porch brought a flood of memories back to Jessica’s mind—chasing fireflies in the yard when they were little girls, crying over boyfriends lost and sighing over boyfriends wished for as they got older, making plans that last year they were in high school, and shedding tears right there on the porch when Jessica was the first to leave town.

“I spent a lot of time here,” Jessica muttered past the lump in her throat. Where had the time gone? Almost four decades of friendship, and a lot of it was spent right there in that house. They could never go to Risa’s house because Stella didn’t want kids running in and out of her place. Mary Nell’s mama didn’t care if they came over to her house to play, and Jessica’s folks were warm and welcoming.

“I remember that y’all were all friends even when we were just kids.” Wade parked beside Risa’s old truck, which had once been shiny and red but now had faded to somewhere between a dull pink and an ugly shade of orange.

Jessica would bet dollars to doughnuts that Paul didn’t drive a vehicle that old. He would probably have a new one every two years, plus an old one to use for a hunting wagon. She slung open the door and took the porch steps two at a time, expecting to find Risa in tears. But everyone was sitting around a table with a gallon jug of sweet tea and a bowl full of ice in the middle. No one was crying, but they all stopped talking at once when she reached the top step.