Riverbend Reunion(85)

“Are you going to come over and listen to your granddaughters play?” Risa asked her mother.

“I am not,” Stella stated. “If they were playing hymns in church, I might have listened to them. I can’t believe you have let them learn that awful country and bluegrass stuff. I wish Martha would get full custody of them. That way I’d know they were being raised right.”

“Martha has shunned them and made all their cousins do the same. I wouldn’t call that being raised right.” Risa shrugged and turned to walk away.

“I’m not through fighting against the disgrace you are bringing to a house of worship,” Stella said, raising her voice.

Risa whipped back around. “You need to pray to God to help you with your spirit, Mama. It’s as far from being Christian as hell is from heaven. And that old building hasn’t been a house of worship in decades.”

“I can’t believe you would talk to your mother like that,” Stella whined.

Risa just shook her head and joined the rest of her friends as they headed toward the concrete picnic bench. The bunch of them had barely gotten seated and the plastic wrap torn off the plates when the Chamber of Commerce president, Richard Davis, stepped up to the middle of the gazebo and tapped the microphone. “We’ve got a special treat for you today, folks. For the next hour, my daughter and her three friends are going to entertain all y’all with a little music. Let’s give them a big round of applause.”

Several of the folks clapped and whistled, and some of the people brought their lawn chairs up a little closer when they heard the whine of the fiddle begin, and then Lily stepped up the microphone and said, “This one is called ‘The Hunter’s Wife.’ We’re dedicating it to our mama. Y’all might recognize it if you’ve ever listened to the Pistol Annies.”

Risa blew a kiss their way and laughed out loud. “This could be my theme song. I didn’t even know they had been practicing this one.”

“Good kids you got there, Risa.” Oscar fired up the crowd by starting to clap in time with the music. Soon, everyone was doing the same.

Jessica was glad that she and Wade had had a couple more weeks to figure out that the attraction they had for one another was something real. She forgot all about Stella’s hateful words, her glares meant to fry Risa as well as the rest of them into nothing more than a pile of bones, and the ugly way she had treated her own daughter. She put it all away and enjoyed the kids’ music. What she liked even better than the songs they played and sang was having her hand tucked into Wade’s. To her, that subtle sign meant they were a couple, and it felt so right.





Chapter Twenty


According to Jessica’s phone calendar, the mechanical bull and the jukebox were both arriving that day—a week before the twins’ first day of school so they would be there for the excitement. She stood in the middle of the room and soaked in the diverse atmosphere. Western for Wade and Oscar, beach for Danny, and fancy for the twins. To some folks the mixture of all three might seem downright crazy, but to Jessica, it felt perfect.

Oscar and Wade used the last of the oakwood from the pews to close up the opening for the baptismal. When Jessica thought about the baptismal, she still felt like she had been raised up out of a dark past into a bright future that she wouldn’t trade for anything.

When they had been at the craft fair, Oscar had bought a set of mounted steer longhorns that measured six and a half feet across, and just yesterday he and Wade had hung them above a tiki hut that the guys had built around the jukebox. It was hard to believe there had ever been a hole in the wall with a giant bathtub back there. Beneath the horns was a sign that Oscar had commissioned a local guy, Zach, to make: a long piece of rough wood that said “Danny’s Place.” With the tiki-looking lettering, it blended the look of western horns and the tiki hut perfectly.

She turned around to stare at the bar itself and the wide mirror behind it framed in gold gilt etched with the name of the bar in fancy lettering that the twins had picked out. Western. Beachy. Fancy. All in one place.

Now if only she and Wade could find that perfect place in their relationship. Not that she was complaining about where they were after only two and a half months, but she wanted more. They had settled into a relationship that involved good-night kisses after long talks every evening when everyone had gone home. She was more than ready to take it to the next level, but every evening he had gone off to his trailer, and she had spent the rest of the night alone in her bedroom.

Wade came through the front door, crossed the room, and slipped his arms around her waist from behind. She could feel the steady beat of his heart against her back, and as always, the touch of his body pressed so tightly against hers caused visions of leading him back to her bedroom right there in front of whoever was around, and even God if he still visited the building sometimes.

“I think the sanctuary has lost its halo and wings,” he teased.

Jessica covered his hands with hers. “It kind of did that when we started tearing the pews apart to salvage all the oak. I love the mirror, the horns, the tiki hut—all of it. They all go together like an eclectic family.”

“Which isn’t bad as long as our relationship isn’t dysfunctional.” He nuzzled the inside of her neck.

“We may be the least dysfunctional couple in the whole world,” she whispered.