Riverbend Reunion(29)

She recognized the tune he whistled as being the one that she and her mother had heard every evening when he came home from work.

“That’s the kind of man I want, not one who comes in whining about how he’s the best country singer in Nashville and no one will give him a break,” she muttered as she went back to work.



Jessica sat on the raised platform at the front of the church and waited for the two guys to finish taking apart a few more pews. She’d only been there a minute when the twins came out of the kitchen and plopped down on either side of her. The morning had been a whirlwind of signing papers, both at the lawyer’s office and the bank. Wade had been right there beside her the whole time, sometimes close enough that she could catch a whiff of his shaving lotion—something woodsy with a hint of vanilla—that sent her senses reeling. Now, she was watching the muscles in his upper arms stretch the fabric of his T-shirt as he and Oscar tore apart the oak pews. When they finished with two, she and Haley carried the lumber from the backs and seats over to an empty Sunday school room where they were storing the wood until Oscar and Wade were ready to start building the bar.

“Jessica!” Lily touched her on the shoulder.

With a jerk, Jessica focused back on anything but those upper arms. “I’m sorry. Did you say something?”

“No, but there’s a spider on your other shoulder, and I’m afraid of them,” Lily said.

Wade came by, brushed the spider away, and stomped on it with his boot. “It was just a little one, nothing like we had in the sandbox.”

“He’s your knight in shining T-shirt,” Daisy said with a giggle.

“I’m not afraid of spiders,” Jessica said. “Maybe he’s not my knight, but yours?”

Daisy shook her head. “He’s way too old for me. He’s as old as my daddy. You’ll have to take him, since he saved you from getting a spider bite.”

“Ouch!” Wade threw a hand over his heart. “That hurt.”

“What?” Jessica asked. “That you’re old or that someone has to take you?”

“A little of both,” Wade said as he headed toward the kitchen. “I’m going for a bottle of cold water. Anyone else want one? You better speak up now while I’m still strong enough to carry more than one. I can feel the feebleness sneaking up on me.”

“Yeah, right!” Daisy giggled. “And yes, on the water.”

“Don’t worry,” Lily piped up. “You can still outrun it for a little while yet. I’ll take a water, too.”

Wade raised an eyebrow at Jessica. “Water, tea, beer?”

“Whoa!” Lily put up a palm. “I didn’t know beer was a choice here.”

“Water.” Jessica smiled and turned to Lily. “And you two don’t have a choice.”

“I was just joking with you,” Lily said. “I don’t even like beer.”

“I’m the beer girl,” Daisy chimed in. “She likes whiskey.”

“Water for both of them,” Jessica said with a slight giggle. “They’re just trying to get a rise out of us.”

“Truth.” Daisy crossed her heart. “One of our cousins, a daughter of Uncle Matthew’s, who was our preacher, invited us for a sleepover a few months ago. She had stolen a can of beer from one of our other uncles and one of those little bottles of whiskey. We all tasted them.”

“It was for spiritual reasons,” Lily declared with an impish grin, “so that we would know what it tasted like so we would know the enemy of our souls.”

“Teenagers!” Wade headed on into the fellowship hall to get the water.

“Does your mama know that you tasted liquor?” Jessica asked.

“We tell Mama everything, but Granny Martha didn’t know. She would have kicked us out of Kentucky before she did if she found out. Boys could drink beer and have a shot now and then, but girls couldn’t,” Lily said. “Granny Martha ran the town where we lived, and nobody, not even God, crossed her.”

“Granny Stella didn’t know, either, or she wouldn’t have let us move in with her,” Daisy added.

How on earth did these girls get to be so well adjusted? Jessica wondered.

Wade returned with bottles of water and passed them around, then went on over to the other side of the sanctuary, where Oscar stopped working long enough to take a bottle from him.

Lily took a long drink and then twisted the lid back on the bottle. “I’m going to help Mama finish up with supper.”

“I’ll go set the table.” Daisy stood up and dusted the seat of her cutoff denim shorts. “We love our mama, Jessica. Granny Martha tried to turn us against her when she found out about the pills, but we’re glad we don’t have a bunch of brothers and sisters.”

“Yeah,” Lily agreed, nodding several times. “Our cousins are always bitchin’ about the boys and girls having different standards. Boys do one thing and get away with more in the Jackson family. They say, ‘Boys will be boys.’”

“But girls are supposed to be angels who want to be married and have babies. They aren’t supposed to have dreams of careers unless Granny Martha wants them to help her out with bookkeeping or in the lumberyard itself, and then it wasn’t for pay,” Daisy said.