Riverbend Reunion(6)

“I found the letter about five minutes before I got the text that Jessica was home,” Haley answered. “I wasn’t going to tell y’all until later, but I had to talk about it. I’ve barely got past the denial stage in the grief process for the woman I thought was my mama and now this.”

“I can sympathize with you.” Mary Nell scooted her chair over closer to Haley’s and draped an arm around her shoulders. “I’m going through some of the same things, only mine is about a failed relationship. And, honey, your mama was your mama. She didn’t birth you, but she raised you from the time you were born, so she was your mother.”

“Mary Nell is right,” Jessica said, “but that’s a big chunk of news to get handed to you before you can even find closure for your mama’s passing.”

“I’m a high school counselor, and I’ve had a little training in therapy. But right now, I realize what it feels like to be on the other side. Why don’t we talk about something other than our problems tonight?” Haley raised her beer bottle high and said, “To being back home together again and riding on the float as representatives of our class this fall.”

They all raised their bottles. “To homecoming!”

When they’d all taken a sip, Daisy raised her disposable cup of root beer from the local convenience store. “To me and Lily being cheerleaders in the new school this fall. We couldn’t do that in Kentucky.”

“Why?” Jessica asked.

“Granny Martha said no, and nobody ever crosses Granny Martha, especially not Daddy. The whole family does what she says,” Lily answered.

“That would be talking about problems, so let’s put that story on the back burner,” Risa said.

Mary Nell glanced over at Wade. “So, what’s your story? Why did you come back to Riverbend when you got out of the service?”

He shrugged. “It’s home. How about you, Jessica?”

She raised one shoulder. “Same as you. It was home for eighteen years, and the only place I remember having roots. When I enlisted, my folks moved west. They wanted me to join them on Orcas Island when I finished my twenty years in the service. I’d planned to do that, to be near them, but I don’t know where I want to land since they’re both gone now. Where are you living, Wade?”

“I bought a small travel trailer that hitches up to my truck. Right now, it’s parked out behind Sparky’s old convenience store that closed up when COVID hit. He lets me keep my tools in the store building.” Wade nodded toward her RV. “It’s not as fancy as that, but it’s bigger than the tiny area I could call my own in the military.”

“Yep, that one is really small compared to some that I looked at, but it seemed pretty big after living out of a duffel bag for twenty years. And the owners were being sent to Germany for two years, so they had it up for sale.”

“I know Risa is living with her mama right now, since I hung a new screen door for Stella last week. What about you other two?” he asked.

“I’m at Mama’s place,” Haley answered, “trying to go through all the stuff. I never realized what a hoarder she was. It’ll take all summer, but that’s all right. It will give me something to do to keep my mind off this adoption thing. I don’t have to be back at school in Alabama until August.”

“I’m at home until I find a job,” Mary Nell said. “Daddy has said ‘I told you so’ a dozen times since I got here last week, but it’s the truth, and I deserve it. He told me that if Kevin ever got a contract in Nashville, he would toss me to the curb, and that’s exactly what Kevin did. But that’s another of those stories that we’ll talk about later.”

Jessica patted Mary Nell’s shoulder on the way back to her chair. “Kevin is a jackass for not appreciating the fact that you’ve supported him for twenty years so he could follow his dream.”

“Amen!” Risa and Haley both chimed in at the same time.

“Now, changing the subject.” Jessica pointed toward the church building. “What can I do with that thing? Y’all got any ideas?”

“You could always turn it into a bar,” Wade suggested. “Riverbend hasn’t got one of those, and the church is sitting right in the northeast corner of Burnet County, which is a wet county in the middle of a whole bunch of dry ones. Fort Hood is just over the county line, and you’d get all kinds of business from the soldiers stationed there. They have to go quite a way to find a place to dance some leather off their boots and get a drink.”

“Sounds like you’ve given this some thought.” Mary Nell cocked her head to one side. “Have you mentioned the idea to my daddy? He would love the idea of a bar close by so he could sell his moonshine and wine to the owners.”

“Nope, I haven’t talked to Oscar about it, but the thought has crossed my mind,” Wade said. “Danny and I used to joke about starting a bar, but he wanted to build a tiki bar on a beach somewhere, and I was thinking about an old western honky-tonk, maybe in Wyoming or Montana.”

“In a town with a population of eight hundred ninety-three people, a bar would never support itself. And all the churchgoing people would fight you tooth and nail at even suggesting such sacrilege as turning a church into a beer joint,” Risa said.

“And Granny Stella would lead the protest march,” Daisy said.