Riverbend Reunion(32)

“Thanks.” Oscar turned off the dirt road onto the paved highway and pointed the truck toward town. “That makes me feel better. Maybe if you four girls would have stayed together right out of high school, you wouldn’t have had all these troubles.” He looked puzzled. “I can see that Risa and Mary Nell have men problems, and Haley has got grief from her mama’s passing to get past, but what have you brought home, anyway?”

She removed her hand and pasted on a fake smile. “Mine are job related, maybe with a little PTSD tossed into the mix.”

“If you ever need to talk, I’m a good listener.” Oscar turned into the parking lot at the lumberyard, sending up a cloud of gray dust behind his truck. “If you need to cry, I don’t do well with weeping women, but Wade has big shoulders.”

“Oscar Wilson, are you trying to find a girlfriend for Wade?” Jessica asked.

Oscar shrugged. “He’s lonely and needs someone in his life. You girls have each other now, and you kind of took him in. But he ain’t getting no younger, and if he ever wants to have a family, he needs to get started.”

Jessica could hardly wait to get back home and tell the girls that Oscar was trying to fix Wade up with any woman, not just his daughter. Mary Nell didn’t have so much to worry about. But then she realized that she’d called the bar home, and a smile tickled the corners of her mouth. She had mulled over where she would land when she left the base in Maine, and now she had found a home right there in the same little town she’d left two decades ago.

“He’ll find someone when the time is right,” Jessica assured Oscar.

“It can’t be you,” Oscar said. “That could ruin a partnership in a split second. Maybe we should steer him toward Haley?”

Jessica wasn’t shoving Wade toward anyone, not until she figured out what all those sparks were that his touch generated. Besides, Wade was probably not finished grieving for his brother. He was driving Danny’s truck, and she’d noticed that Danny’s dog tags—two sets of them—were hanging from the rearview mirror.

“Let’s just get through the summer, and maybe by then, everything will work out the way it’s supposed to,” Jessica suggested as she got out of the truck.

“I’m not a patient man.” Oscar removed his cap and then repositioned it on his head. “But you’re probably right.” He held the door to the lumberyard open for her.

A cool blast of air hit her when she walked out of the Texas heat into the building. Her eyes took a moment to adjust, but when they did, she was staring right into Stella Sullivan’s angry eyes. The woman’s hand shot up, and for just a split second, Jessica thought she had a pistol. Jessica blinked a couple of times and figured out that it was her forefinger pointing straight at her. Stella’s expression looked like she was shooting fire at her and left no doubt that she was upset beyond words.

“Mrs. Sullivan!” Jessica pasted on her best fake smile and tried to be cheerful. “How are you today? A bit hot out there, isn’t it?”

“You are an abomination unto our Lord and Savior.” Stella was practically humming with anger. “I wish you would have never come back to Riverbend. I wouldn’t have even cared if you’d gotten killed like Danny Granger did.” The finger began to shake so fast that it became a blur. “If you think you’re going to be asked to ride on the cheerleader float, you are dead wrong. I’m on that committee, and I’ll see to it that neither you or any one of your friends, including my daughter, ever ride on a homecoming float again.”

A smart remark about how Risa would rather have a job in a bar than ride in a parade was right on the end of Jessica’s tongue. Yet before she could open her mouth to say a word, Oscar was right there beside her. His eyes narrowed until they were little more than slits, and he set his jaw tightly for a moment before he spoke.

“Who gives a rat’s rump about riding on any stupid float?” Oscar said through clenched teeth. “It’s a good thing these girls are doing. They’re supporting each other and trying to make a business out of a building that in a few years would go to rot, which is more than you can say you did for Risa and your granddaughters. You should be ashamed for treating your own kin like you have, Stella Sullivan.”

“You would agree with them”—Stella raised her voice until she was almost yelling—“since you spend time out there in your barn making moonshine and wine. I’m telling you the town is going to shun all of you.”

Jessica had known drill sergeants who scared her less than Stella did. The woman looked like she was ready, willing, and able to slice Oscar’s throat with nothing but words. Then she whipped around to say something more to Jessica, but before she could, Oscar slipped right in between them.

Oscar’s nose was just inches from Stella’s. “Jesus made wine from water at that wedding in the Bible, didn’t he?”

Stella popped her hands on her hips. “Don’t you throw that up to me. Of course he drank wine, but he didn’t sit out and brew it in his backyard.”

Oscar’s face relaxed and he chuckled. “Just think of it this way. We’re doing all the church folks a great service. Folks will need a place to go on Sunday morning to repent for the sins they commit at the bar on Saturday night.”

Stella’s face turned scarlet. “I’m going to get a petition going to shut down that bar before you even get it ready to open. I’ll take it to the city council and—”