Riverbend Reunion(28)

“That’s right,” he said with half a smile. “Sometimes they answer, but it’s not in the way you think.” He went on to tell her about his visit with Danny. “When those trees rustled above my head, I felt like he agreed with me.”

“Uncle Elijah popped into my head and gave me a thumbs-up when I got serious about making this building into a bar, like he used to do when I was a kid and he agreed with me,” she admitted.

“Seems like a pretty good omen when we have both of their blessings.” Wade reached across the table and laid a hand on Jessica’s. “I believe with all my heart that this is going to work for us, Jessica. I’ve got Danny’s insurance money to keep us afloat until we’re showing a profit, and that shouldn’t be long, since the only overhead we’ll have is utility bills and the stocking of liquor and food.”

“I’ve got Uncle Elijah’s money as well as what my folks left me, so I’m really not worried about that, either. We can each put an equal amount into the working account that Mary Nell will set up for us,” she said and hoped her voice wasn’t as high and squeaky as it sounded in her ears. Evidently Wade didn’t feel the sparks dancing around them when he touched her hand, or he wouldn’t be talking about money.

Never work. Her father was in her head now. You can’t date a partner. If you break up, there’s bad feelings that will bleed over into your business.

I know that, she thought with a little sigh, and besides, I’ve got to help my friends get through all their problems. I don’t have time to fall in love with Wade Granger.





Chapter Six


The room that Mary Nell chose for an office had originally been the pastor’s office. A desk sat at an angle so she could see out the window into the parking lot. Empty bookcases that might have once held extra Bibles or maybe volumes of sermons lined the back wall, and two burgundy wingback chairs had been placed in front of the desk. She had dusted, swept, and even cleaned the window. Now sunlight flowed into the room and warmed her face. She’d set up spreadsheets for payroll, for expenses, and for debits that morning, and liked the room better than the tiny cubicle she had at her job in Nashville. Later, she would put some pictures on the bookcases, and maybe add a couple of green plants over by the window.

She couldn’t imagine Jessica’s uncle, Elijah Callaway, sitting in the office chair any more than she could imagine him standing behind the lectern. Elijah had spent a lot of time out around the barn where her dad made his moonshine and beer, so she’d seen him almost every year when she came home for a visit. Visualizing the old guy on a barstool with a beer in his hand was a whole lot easier than picturing him with a Bible.

Oscar rapped on the door and poked his head inside. “Does this mean you’re staying in Texas and not going back to Tennessee?”

Mary Nell motioned him inside. “I didn’t leave anything in Nashville that I need to go back for.”

“Not even your job and the friends you made?” Oscar asked.

“I’ve got friends here, an office of my own,” she said with a smile. She pointed toward the window. “And a view. It might just be of the parking lot, but it beats a cubicle with a fluorescent bulb on the ceiling.”

“And you’ve got me,” Oscar said.

“That’s right.” Mary Nell’s smile got even bigger. “I’ve got you, Daddy, to always tell me that you told me so. I wonder where I’d be today if I had listened to you all those years ago.”

“We can’t go back and undo what we’ve done, sugar,” Oscar said, “but we can learn from it and go forward with determination not to make the same mistake twice.”

“Amen!” Mary Nell got up and walked around the desk to give her father a hug. “I love you.”

“Love you, too, sweetheart. Always have. Always will. It’s good to have you home, and to hear you say that you’re here to stay. I want you to find a good man like Wade. One that will worship the ground you walk on,” Oscar told her. “And then I want you to have a whole yard full of grandbabies for me to spoil.”

“Wade is a friend.” Mary Nell caught a movement out of her peripheral vision and turned to look at a bright red cardinal on the other side of the window. “And I need to find myself before I get into another relationship.”

“You’ll be letting a good man slip right through your fingers, and let me tell you . . . ,” Oscar started.

Mary Nell didn’t like the “let me tell you” speech any more than she did the “I told you so” statements, but her father was usually right, so she turned back to focus on him rather than the pretty cardinal. Hopefully, the cold glare she shot toward him would shut him up.

It didn’t.

He went right on. “Your mother and I were good friends before we fell in love. That makes the best kind of relationships, the kind that stands up through the tough times,” Oscar finished. “And on that note, I’m going to leave you to your work. If you get finished, we can use all hands on deck to help stack wood after Wade and I take the pews apart.”

“I’m almost done here. I just have to back up my work,” Mary Nell said with a smile. “And, Daddy, thanks for loving me.”

“Always.” Oscar smiled back at her and then disappeared out into the hallway.