Riverbend Reunion(39)



Risa shook her head. “Thanks for the offer, but I’m not running away from my mother. No one is ever going to have that kind of power over me again.”

Lily marched up to the window and looked her grandmother right in the eye. “Hey, Granny Stella, what are you doing here?”

“Are you going to the dance after the rodeo?” Daisy smirked. “Want me to ask Oscar to dance with you so you won’t feel like a wallflower?”

“I’m here because the church is selling the nachos tonight for the missionary fund, and no, I will not be attending the dance,” Stella said through clenched teeth.

“Oh, come on, Stella.” Oscar chuckled. “I really will dance with you. I remember when we were all teenagers and you used to be real good at doing the twist and the jerk down at the fishing docks where we gathered up on the weekends to drink beer.”

“That was before I started going to church,” Stella hissed, “and I would not dance with you, Oscar—not for any amount of money. You are helping these people turn a church into a bar. That is pure sacrilege.”

“And we might get a mechanical bull so I can learn to ride,” Lily said with a cheeky grin.

Stella laid a hand over her heart and rolled her eyes upward. “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”

Jessica bit back a giggle. No way on God’s great green earth could she imagine Stella dancing one of those old dances or drinking a beer. Haley would probably say that Stella had gotten such a case of religion because she felt guilty for her teenage sins.

“You’re not Jesus, Mama”—Risa frowned—“but we need to order so that these folks behind us can get their nachos. We need . . .” She rattled off the order.

Jessica was amazed that Risa could remember everything after the dirty looks Stella shot her way. When Jessica saw Stella in the concession stand, her mind had gone blank, and yet Risa didn’t forget a single thing they had all asked for.

“You’ll have to get the beers on the other end. I don’t sell those vile things,” Stella huffed.

Jessica imagined flames shooting out of Stella’s ears and eyes, but the women simply whipped around and began making baskets of nachos. When she shoved them out the window, Jessica thought they looked a little scant, but she didn’t say a word.

Not so with Lily, though. “Granny Stella, it’s not very Christian of you to short us on nachos just because you’re mad at us.”

Stella glared at her granddaughter. “Don’t you tell me what’s Christian and what’s not, young lady, and you don’t deserve what you’ve got in those baskets. You don’t respect your elders, and—”

“Love you, Granny Stella,” Daisy said, cutting her off. She picked up a couple of the baskets. “Come on, Mama. We’ve got drinks to get, and she’s not going to tell us that she loves us anyway.”

“Jesus says I have to love you, but He didn’t say I have to like any of you,” Stella snapped. “Now, go on, so I can wait on these other people.”

“I’m sorry,” Jessica told Risa.

“Thanks, but I’m not sorry.” Risa got in line to get drinks. “I’ve never been happier in my life, and I mean that. I’m totally at peace living with Haley and working at the bar. I keep finding myself humming while I’m cooking or helping with whatever needs to be done. It’s like a heavy weight has been lifted off me.”

“And we love our new world,” Daisy chimed in.

“I just wish I could tell our cousins about Texas and this rodeo.” Lily sighed. “I know that Rachel, Sarah, and Myra would love to be here with us.”

“Ain’t never goin’ to happen,” Daisy assured her as they all headed back to the bleachers.



Wade hung back with Jessica, bringing up the rear. Another burst of dust flew up in the arena, and the crowd jumped to their feet and roared. The announcer in the press box sounded as excited as the rest of the folks when he announced the name of the young man who’d stayed on the bronc’s back for the full eight seconds.

“We should both count our blessings that we had good parents. You might have to hold me back if Stella makes good on her threat to show up in our parking lot trying to convert our customers,” Jessica said for Wade’s ears only.

“Honey, I’ll be out there with you, not holding you back,” Wade told her. “If I’d known Stella was going to be here, I would have suggested a movie and ice cream afterwards, rather than this rodeo.”

“Like Risa said, she can’t run from her mama,” Jessica told him. “She’s actually taking all of this a lot better than I am.”

Wade glanced over at her for the hundredth time that evening. She wore a pair of tight-fitting jeans and an off-white shirt that hugged her body like a glove. Her blonde hair floated on her shoulders, and she smelled like the beach—coconut suntan lotion, vanilla, and maybe a little piña colada thrown in. At that moment, he wished that he and Jessica weren’t business partners.

When they reached the bleachers, places had shifted, and now Jessica was sitting between Wade and Oscar.

“I was proud of the way the twins and Risa handled things,” Oscar whispered.

Haley leaned around Oscar so she could hear better. “What happened when y’all went to get something to drink?”

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