Riverbend Reunion(67)

Wade jerked it down and walked over to the end of the porch where the light was better. Jessica peered over his shoulder, and they read it at the same time. There was a hand-drawn cross at the top of the paper, and a quote from Psalm 58 below it: O God, break their teeth in their mouths; pull the fangs of the young lions, O Lord.

“Is she talking about knocking Risa’s teeth out?” Wade asked.

“Or is she suggesting that the twins have fangs?” Jessica answered with a frown.

“I think she’s calling on God to tear us apart as a team, so that we will give up on our idea of the bar. She’s at least one of those people who are affected with BCCS,” Wade answered. “Let’s go inside, tear this up, and keep it between us. Risa doesn’t need to know that her mother is pulling stunts like this.”

“I agree,” Jessica said with a nod. “They already know that she’s mean, but this goes way beyond that. This is personal. It’s not just against the bar, but against them. What is BCCS?”

“Bat Crap Crazy Syndrome. I’m not sure there’s treatment for it, and I’m pretty sure there’s no cure,” Wade answered.

Jessica got so tickled that she snorted, and Wade thought even that was cute. There she was in a pair of pajama bottoms, an oversize T-shirt with Betty Boop on the front, and laughing hard enough to snort at something he said. The morning had started off just fine in his books.

“Do I smell coffee brewing?”

“Yes, you do.” Wade opened the door and stood to the side. “I had just made it when I heard you crying out. At first, I thought someone had broken in and was torturing you.”

Jessica crossed the foyer and the sanctuary, then right into the kitchen. “Do you ever wake up in a cold sweat and think that if you can just turn on a light, everything will be all right?”

“Yes, I do. Monsters are afraid of the light.” Wade went straight to the counter, poured two mugs of coffee, and carried them to the table. He pulled out a chair for her and then sat down right beside her. “It seems like light dispels the darkness in our souls as well as the natural darkness. Do you want to talk about the nightmare? Is it the same one over and over?”

Jessica nodded and then took a sip of her coffee. “It was our last mission as a team. I was sent home to Maine a week later to get all the paperwork done.” She told him the story in a monotone. “Tonight was the first time the little girl had blonde hair in my dream.”

“Well, darlin’, I’m alive and right here beside you,” he said with a smile. “Ghosts don’t make or drink coffee.”

“Do you think we’ll ever get over the dreams?” she asked.

“I hope so.” Wade laid a hand on her shoulder. “According to therapists and army shrinks, talking about it with someone helps, but until now, I’ve not met anyone who understood.”

“Well, I understand.” Jessica patted his hand. “Thank you, Wade, for being there for me, and for not being dead.”

“You are so welcome.” He removed his hand and picked up his mug. “We can help each other get through this, but why do you think you dreamed that I was dead?”

“I think it’s out of fear that something will happen because I’m so happy,” she answered.

“I’m right here, and it’ll take more than a nightmare to kill me. Evidently, I’ve got a little blonde-haired girl in my future,” he said.

And I hope that she looks exactly like you, he thought.





Chapter Fifteen


Jessica relived the kiss that she had almost shared with Wade every night when she went to bed. Some of the time she blamed it on her fragile state when she came out of that horrible nightmare. Other times she wished that it had happened so she wouldn’t have to wonder how the kiss would have affected her every time she looked at him—and that was often.

There had been no more threatening notes tacked on the porch posts, and when they’d gone to church the past few Sundays, Stella had given them dirty looks but kept her mouth shut. That evening Jessica carried all the condiments for hot dogs out to the table that had been set up behind the church for their big Fourth of July celebration. A big bowl of scooped-out watermelon balls was already there, covered with a towel to keep the flies from helping themselves to it, and Oscar was busy cooking hot dogs in the new firepit he had built for them.

“Independence Day means more to me this year than ever before,” Mary Nell said as she and the twins set up chairs. “We are all free this year, kind of like that song that Martina McBride sang years ago.”

“Amen,” Jessica said, but she thought again of that kiss and wondered if she was really free or if she was yearning for something that could ruin an important friendship.

“Want us to sing that tonight?” Lily asked.

“But not until we have our fireworks.” Daisy popped open the last chair and sat down in it.

“Yes!” Lily pumped her fist in the air. “This will be our first holiday in Texas, and we’re celebrating with a whole sparkly show.”

Jessica sat down beside Mary Nell and asked, “So, did you ever in your wildest dreams think you would be celebrating Independence Day with all of us at this old church? That you’d be leaving Nashville, and Haley would be pregnant and leaving Alabama?”