Riverbend Reunion(34)

Jessica flipped on the lights and sat down beside him. “You having trouble sleeping, too?”

“Yep,” he answered. “I sure am.”

“What’s on your mind?” Jessica thought he was trying to figure out something about the placement of the bar.

“I’ve got this favor to ask, and it’s so personal that I don’t know how to begin,” he said.

“Just spit it out,” she said.

“Sparky had lived in the back of his store at one time, but when I rented the building from him, the room was filled with old tires and batteries. It did have a tiny bathroom with a shower.” Wade stared off into space as he talked.

“You are welcome to use my shower anytime you want,” Jessica said. “Is that what you’re trying to ask me?”

“Yep,” Wade said with a nod. “I’ve been washing up in the men’s bathroom off the foyer, but after two days of sweating, I would love a shower.”

“Then go on back there and take one. There should be plenty of hot water left even though I stood under the water for an extra ten minutes,” Jessica told him. “Towels are on the ladder-back chair beside the shower.”

“Thank you, but I can go get my own towel,” he said as he stood up.

“That’s not necessary,” Jessica said. “We’ve got the washer and dryer in the kitchen, so just toss the towels in the basket out there. We’ll be doing laundry nearly every day, so it’s no problem. Feel free to do your washing here at the bar rather than going into town.”

“Thanks,” Wade said with another nod. “I hated to ask, but . . .”

“Hey,” Jessica butted in, “we’re partners in this business and friends, I hope, so don’t ever feel like that.” She couldn’t control her thoughts, though, and they went to the fact that Wade would be using her shower and brushing his teeth at her vanity. But what was even more disturbing was the visual she got of the two of them sharing that shower.

“Thanks for that, too,” he said. “I’ll go out to the trailer and get clean clothes and my shaving kit.”

“I’ll be in the kitchen when you get done,” she told him. “That leftover lemon cake is what brought me out of the bedroom. I’ll save you a slice.”

“I would love one, and maybe a cup of coffee to go with it.” He waved over his shoulder as he left the bar.

Jessica closed her eyes and pictured the bedroom. The bed was rumpled because she’d been stretched out trying to read. Her towels were hung over the shower rod and there was underwear in the clothes basket. She hurried back to the hallway, slung the towels into her basket and carried it to the kitchen, put a week’s white clothing into the washer, and started it. She and Wade were partners and friends, but from now on she would keep her dirty-clothes basket in the closet. There was something way too personal about him seeing her underpants—even in a plastic basket.

The coffeepot was still half-full from what had been made at supper, so she figured they could heat up a mugful each in the microwave. She took the pound cake from the refrigerator and sliced off four pieces; put them on a couple of plates, which she set on the table; and then sat down to wait.

The picture of him in the shower popped into her head again, but she blinked it away and replaced it with that huge baptismal in the sanctuary. She wandered out there to stare at it for a few minutes. Then she opened the side door leading up the stairs to the edge of the thing and would have stepped down into it if it hadn’t been coated with dust and spiderwebs. She remembered when she was baptized back when she was thirteen years old. The preacher had said something about leaving her old self behind when she went under the water and being a new soul when she came up out of it.

“Is that what I’m doing these days? I’m leaving my old life behind and beginning a new one with this bar and my friends?” she wondered out loud.

Yes, you are, Elijah whispered so softly that she expected to see him in the baptismal. You’ve got my blessing, so to hell with Stella and everyone that stands with her.



Wade could tell that Jessica had been in the military by her room. He couldn’t have bounced a quarter on her bed, but then the pillows against the headboard and the book on the nightstand said that she’d been reading. Everything else was inspection-ready—pretty much like he kept things.

He adjusted the water in the shower and left his dirty jeans, socks, and shirt on the floor when he peeled out of them. The scent of vanilla mixed with coconut filled the bathroom and reminded Wade of a beach. He could almost hear the ocean waves slapping against the sandy shore. The last time he’d seen his brother in person had been in Wells, Maine. They’d had a lobster dinner right across from the Atlantic Ocean and had listened to the sounds as they talked about the future and the bar they wanted to build someday. They hadn’t really planned on going into business in Riverbend. Danny had thought more about a tiki bar somewhere on a beach. Wade had envisioned one in somewhere like Wyoming or Montana—an Old West type of saloon.

“Well, Brother, we’re getting the bar, but it’s not on a beach or in the mountains. I guess we’ve kind of met in the middle,” he muttered as he stepped into the shower and pulled the curtain.

He enjoyed every moment of standing under the spray and was grateful for Jessica’s offer. Her bathroom was so much nicer and cleaner than the old makeshift shower in the back of Sparky’s store. By the time he had gotten out and dried off, he was humming the tune to “Knee Deep” by Zac Brown. Part of the lyrics talked about him finding his own kind of paradise, and he nodded as he heard the words in his head. The peppy tune made him think of a tiki bar out on a beach somewhere. “I swear everything makes me think of you, Brother. Is your spirit still with us?” Wade asked his reflection in the mirror. “Like the song says, it doesn’t matter where we are; we can always climb out of being lost and find paradise. The words make it sound easy, but it’s not always.”