Riverbend Reunion(3)

Her father had told her that money was just dirty paper with dead presidents’ pictures on it, and that pennies didn’t buy happiness. A song she’d heard that day got stuck in her mind as she continued to stare at the building in front of her. The lyrics said that money couldn’t buy happiness, but it could buy the singer a boat. She smiled as she hummed the snappy little tune. Was the church trying to tell her that it could bring her happiness?

The damn thing didn’t make me happy. Elijah’s voice popped into her head. I don’t care what you do with it, but be happy no matter what you choose to do.

With a sigh, she fished her phone from the hip pocket of her pants and sent a message to her three friends: I’m here. Beer is cold, but in this heat, it won’t be very long.

In just seconds she had three dings on her phone. They were all on the way and would be there in a few minutes. She’d barely sent a smiley face to the group when she heard the rumble of a truck coming down Preacher Road. Which one would it be? Risa, Mary Nell, or Haley? Jessica would put her money on Risa, since she’d do about anything to get away from her mother, Stella, who held the crown for being the biggest gossip in all of Burnet County, and who had been about to drive Risa crazy since she’d come back home from Kentucky with her sixteen-year-old twin daughters.

Jessica’s eyes widened when the truck came to a stop not far from her RV and a tall guy wearing faded camouflage pants and a black T-shirt crawled out of the vehicle. His boots matched hers. A dead giveaway that he’d spent some time deployed overseas. His squared-off shoulders and posture were further proof that he was a product of the military. The sun behind him put him in silhouette so she couldn’t see his features, but he looked familiar.

“You lost?” she called out.

“No, are you?” His slow Texas drawl sounded like someone she’d known in the past.

“Nope.” She squinted, trying to make out his facial features. “I’m the proud owner of this place, and I came home to do something with it. Who are you, and what are you doing on my property?”

The man took a few steps toward her and frowned as she paused while trying to put a name with his face. His dark hair was a little longer than it would have been in the military and curled below the back of a camouflage cap bearing an army insignia. His square jaw and high cheekbones reminded her of someone she’d gone to school with.

“I come here to think,” he finally answered. “And to remember the good ol’ days, Jessica. I don’t expect you to—”

“Wade Granger!” she butted in and finished his introduction. “I remember you now. Your brother, Danny, graduated with me at good old Riverbend High School.” She stopped herself from saying that she’d had a major crush on Wade back in high school. But as a lanky, brainy guy, he’d always hung back in the shadows, and there was no way she’d ever admitted liking him to her friends.

Danny had been very proud of his older brother when he had joined the army right after he graduated, but Jessica hadn’t heard anything about him for the past twenty years. Danny had been more outgoing, had played football for the Riverbend Gators, and had gone to college somewhere in Arkansas . . . or was it in Alabama?

“Yes, he did.” Wade nodded. “Welcome back to Riverbend, Jessica. You home to stay?”

“Who knows?” She shrugged. “I don’t know where I belong after being shifted around from one place to the other for twenty years. How about you?”

“I’m here to stay,” he answered.

“Where’s Danny these days?” she asked.

“My brother was killed a year ago in a freak accident, just a few months before he was to finish his last enlistment.” Wade’s voice cracked.

“I’m so sorry. He enlisted, too?” Jessica could sympathize and could tell him that he’d still have that catch in his voice five years down the road. Folks told her that it took time to get over the loss of a close relative, but time sure hadn’t done much in the way of helping her find closure for her parents.

“Thank you and yes. I was his only living relative, so I buried him here in Riverbend by our parents,” Wade said.

“Your folks passed?” She understood his pain. She’d been an only child, but losing her parents had been tough enough. She couldn’t imagine adding the loss of a sibling to that.

“Mama went five years ago. Daddy only lasted six months after that. Cancer got them both,” Wade said. “I’m sorry for your loss, too. Do you remember Oscar Wilson, Mary Nell’s dad?”

“Haven’t seen Oscar in years, but thanks, Wade,” Jessica answered. “I appreciate the thought.”

“He told me that your folks were both killed in a plane crash the same year that my folks died.”

“It’s tough being alone in the world, isn’t it?” Jessica said.

Wade nodded. “Are you really going to sell the old church?”

“I’d like to sell it tomorrow, but I doubt that I’ll have that kind of luck,” she answered. “It’s been on the market for more than ten years, and no one has even asked about it. Maybe I should turn it into something else, but then it’s too far out of town to be used for much of anything.”

She didn’t tell him that the building itself seemed to be trying to tell her something.