Riverbend Reunion(5)

Lily set up all the chairs in a semicircle. “Stop whining, Daisy. God gave you big boobs. You don’t get to have both height and a figure to die for.”

“Glad to finally meet you girls in person,” Jessica said to hide her grin. “This being tall is a curse and a blessing all rolled up into one enchilada, isn’t it, Lily?”

“Yep, it is. On one hand, I can reach everything on the top cabinet shelf for Granny Stella and Mama. On the other one”—she sighed and shot a look over toward Risa—“if Mama ever lets me date, I can probably never wear high heels.”

“Wear them, darlin’,” Jessica said, and began to pass bottles of cold beer around to everyone. “Be who you are, and to hell with any boy who don’t want to date you because you’re taller than he is.”

“Amen!” Mary Nell raised her bottle in a toast.

“Y’all sure you don’t mind if I stay awhile?” Wade asked. “I feel like I’m butting in on a private party since you haven’t seen each other in so long.”

“We’ve FaceTimed every month or two, and always got in touch on Christmas. Sometimes Jessica was in a place where she could join us on a conference call,” Mary Nell told him. “We understood her situation when she couldn’t, though. You two were off saving the world. Since you are one of the heroes, Wade, you should stay. Besides, we never told anyone to go home when we came out here as teenagers and thought we were ready to set the world on fire.”

“Saving the world and inheriting a church. Story of my life.” Jessica passed a beer over to Wade, then motioned toward the church. “Y’all want to tell me what I’m going to do with that thing?”

“You could always start preaching.” Haley sighed and wiped a tear from her cheeks. “Maybe you could even do your first sermon on that commandment about not lying to your kid.”

“No thanks, but why would I preach on that?” Jessica asked. “I don’t have kids, and other than a few little white lies about the tooth fairy and Santa Claus, I don’t think my parents ever lied to me.”

“You mean there’s no Santa?” Lily gasped and then giggled.

“Or tooth fairy?” Daisy slapped a hand over her mouth. “Mama, you lied to us.”

“Yes, I did.” Risa sat down in a chair beside Lily.

“I found a letter in Mama’s things today.” Haley’s voice quivered as she sat down in one of the chairs. She put her head in her hands, and sobs shook her body. “I don’t . . . ,” she stammered, “want to . . .”—more sobs—“throw cold water on our reunion.”

Jessica handed her beer to Wade and went over to drop down on her knees in front of Haley and wrap her friend up in her arms. “We’re here for you. I wish my mama would have left a letter for me,” she said as she patted Haley on the back.

“No, you don’t.” Haley hugged her back and whimpered, “Not this kind of letter.”

Haley had always been the most level of all the cheerleaders. She’d listened to their problems with parents, boyfriends, even issues that arose with each other, and given them great advice when they were teenagers. Jessica hadn’t been a bit surprised when she had gone into the teaching field and from that on to counseling. Something about that letter had to be pretty bad to affect her this way.

Haley broke down again and, between sobs, said, “Mama left a letter, along with my original birth certificate and adoption papers. I’m ruining our evening that we’ve all looked forward to, and I’m so sorry.”

Wade stood up, whipped a red bandanna from the hip pocket of his jeans, and handed it to Jessica. What a sweet gesture, she thought as she wiped Haley’s tears away with it. “Talk to us. We’re all here for you. I didn’t know you were adopted.”

“I am, but then I’m still family, and I never knew.” Haley took the bandanna from Jessica and blew her nose on it. She seemed to steel herself as she straightened up and wrung her hands. “Remember me talking about my sister who went to California when I was just a little girl and seldom ever came back home to see my folks?” Her voice quivered, and tears continued to flow down her cheeks.

“I remember her.” Wade sat back down. “I was five or six when y’all moved here, and I got to admit, I kind of had a crush on her. She was fifteen or sixteen that year, and I thought she was the most beautiful girl in the world with all that blonde hair and those big blue eyes.”

“Blonde hair and blue eyed is right, and I have black hair and brown eyes. You’d think I’d look in the mirror and ask questions, wouldn’t you?” Haley finally got control.

“What happened?” Jessica asked.

“I found the letter in Mama’s Bible telling me that Frannie isn’t my sister. She’s my mother, and that my father was half-Latino, and they were both just fifteen, so they were too young to even think about marriage, and . . .” Haley stopped and took a breath. “I always wondered why I was an oddball in the family. Now I know, and both my biological mother and my grandmother, who I thought was my mother, are gone, and I don’t have anyone to be mad at. This hit me like a ton of bricks.”

“Good Lord!” Mary Nell gasped. “Why didn’t you call us for a FaceTime conference?”