Riverbend Reunion(9)

There was no answer, so evidently, Uncle Elijah was finished with his advice. So, she ate her cereal and thought about Wade. What would bring a guy back to Riverbend to work odd jobs? He’d always been considered a nerdy type of person who never participated in sports—or in much of anything else, for that matter. He’d been one of those supersmart kids who made good grades and kept his head down between classes.

He had seemed lonely that night, and glad to be invited to join the circle of friends. Jessica decided that she’d hire him to put the steeple back on the roof. Maybe that would increase the chances of unloading the place as a church.

“I wonder if this area is zoned commercial and if I could get a liquor license,” she mused as she stared out the window at the building, barely visible now. The moon was dark that night, and the stars didn’t do much to light it up for her.





Chapter Two


Wade knelt in front of the three tombstones at the Riverbend Cemetery. One for his mother, one for his father, one for Danny, and an empty plot where he’d be buried someday. Losing his parents within a year of each other had been tough, but he’d still had his brother. Even though they were often on different continents, they had used modern technology to talk to each other every week—and then Danny, his only sibling and his best friend, was taken from him, leaving him totally alone.

He swiped a single tear from his cheek and whispered, “We should be starting a business together like we always talked about. Jessica Callaway has come back to town, and Elijah left her that old church out there on the river. You remember the one that Mama took us to when we were kids? Do you think the building would make a good bar? Do you want me to use your insurance money to do that? I always thought we’d come to some kind of agreement and build a bar in between a beach and the mountains—kind of like a compromise. I never thought of building one right here in Riverbend, until last night. What do you think?”

A south wind rustled the leaves in the old live oak above his head. Wade had never been superstitious, but it seemed like Danny was saying that he agreed with the idea. A bright red cardinal settled on a low branch and began to put on a show for him. Wade’s mother used to say that cardinals sang “pretty boy, pretty boy.” She had always called Wade and Danny her “pretty boys” and even had a set of gold dog tags made for each of them engraved with Mama’s Pretty Boy. They couldn’t wear them every day, but when they were off duty, they used them like a necklace, leaving their regular ones behind.

“I hear you, Brother,” Wade said as he walked back to the truck that had belonged to Danny. He slid in behind the wheel; touched both sets of his brother’s dog tags, which were hanging from the rearview mirror; started the engine; and drove toward the old church. Now, he just had to figure out how to either buy the place outright or else talk Jessica into taking him on as a partner in the business. He weighed the pros and cons on the way across town. On the pro side, if he bought the place outright, he would be his own boss, and all the profits would be his. The biggest thing on the con side would be finding help. Folks who owned the local convenience store said they couldn’t get anyone to work, and he knew from experience that he was the only handyman in the area.

Jessica has friends who might help you out if you go in with her as partners. Danny’s voice popped into his head. Use my insurance money to go in business with her. Then you’ll have some working capital left over in the bank account until the place begins to earn its keep.

That was the first time since he’d lost his brother that Danny had spoken to him. He pulled over on the side of the road and said around a lump in his throat, “Tell me more of your thoughts.”

Evidently, Danny had said all he was going to say that day, because the only thing that Wade heard was the whine of the AC in the truck. “Okay, then, partners, if possible,” he said as he pulled back onto the road and turned on the radio. It was still tuned to the same station that his brother had left it on the last time that he had driven it. A quarter, two dimes, and three pennies were in the cup holder, where his brother had tossed the coins when he had parked it on post the day he left for his last mission.

Wade wasn’t superstitious—at least not until that very day—but he wished that Danny would send him another sign. He felt guilty that Danny had taken his advice and joined the army right after he graduated from high school. He missed him. If only he had encouraged Danny to go to college, he might be alive today. The next song on the radio was “Broken Halos” by Chris Stapleton. Tears hung on Wade’s thick, dark lashes as he listened to the words that told him not to ask Jesus why.

“But I want to know why,” he whispered. “You were a techie who sat behind a desk, so why were you even in that vehicle that day?”

He turned onto Preacher Road, which led back to the church, and nodded in agreement with every word Stapleton sang. Apparently, Danny did have something more to say, and he used the song to relay his message. Wade finally had a smile on his face as he pulled in beside the other vehicles in the parking lot.

Even with all the mosquitoes buzzing around, he had enjoyed sitting out there with friends from his past the night before—especially Jessica. Maybe it was their matching boots or the fact that he had always thought she was the prettiest girl to ever come out of Riverbend that made him feel more of a connection to her than the other women. Whatever it was, she had invited him to come back, and he wasn’t going empty handed. He had driven down to Burnet that afternoon and picked up a couple of six-packs of beer and one of root beer for the twins if they came with Risa. He turned the engine off and sat there for a moment before he opened the truck door. The next song on the radio was an old George Jones tune, “Choices.”