Jessica抯 eyes shifted back toward Wade. He jerked his head around and locked eyes with hers, then shifted his gaze over to Oscar.
揥hy would you suggest that??Jessica asked.
揑 know that Danny and Wade wanted to put in a bar together, and that Wade is using Danny抯 life-insurance money to go into business with you, so it seems like a good idea,?Oscar said.
Jessica stole another look over toward Wade. The glassiness in his eyes told her that he was thinking of his brother.
揟hank you, Oscar, but let抯 think on it for a couple of days before we make a decision this important,?Wade said. 揟he name sounds good to me, and it sounds like more than just a bar. Folks might come from miles around just to get good food.?
揘ot anything against Risa抯 food, but I wouldn抰 bet on that,?Mary Nell said. 揊olks can eat in dozens of places, but finding a bar around here is another story altogether.?
揓ust what are you going to cook??Haley turned to focus on Risa.
揝he抯 real good with roadkill like possum and raccoon,?Lily said, but she couldn抰 keep a straight face as she fell out laughing. 揑抦 just teasing.?
揝he watched those cooking channels all the time when we were in Kentucky,?Daisy piped up from her corner of the porch. 揇addy hated anything fancy, but she can do anything from Cajun to Tex-Mex and all in between.?
揚aul was梚s梐 meat-and-potatoes man. Give him a venison roast or steak, fried potatoes, and gravy, and he was happy.?Risa shrugged. 揥e can go over menus and all that later. Like Jessica said, everything we do needs to be joint decisions.?
Warmth that had nothing to do with the hot breeze blowing through the pecan trees surrounding the porch wrapped itself around Jessica抯 shoulders. She had found where home was after two decades of traveling from one post to another, and she loved the feeling.
How could so much change so fast? Haley wondered as she laced her hands behind her head and stared at the ceiling. The security light her mother had installed years ago at the edge of the backyard filtered through the lace curtains and created an ever-changing pattern of shapes above her head.
She hadn抰 planned to come home until the end of summer and then only for a week or two, and then her mother梐t least, the person she抎 thought was her mother all her life梔ropped dead with a heart attack. She抎 talked with the lawyer about the will, had her mother cremated as was her wish, and someday when she was comfortable with the idea, Haley would take her ashes to the beach in Florida and scatter them. She had good memories of going there for vacations when she was a little girl.
When she抎 tossed and turned for an hour, she finally got out of bed, poured herself a tall glass of milk, and padded barefoot to the screened-in porch just off the kitchen. She eased down in an old rocking chair that had been her mother抯 favorite, set her milk on the table beside her, and gazed out at the stars. Knowing that Risa and the twins were in the house with her made her feel less lonely and upset with the idea of her birth.
Thinking of the beach brought back memories of the times when she was a little girl, and her parents would take her out to Laguna Beach for a week. She remembered one time that her sister, Frannie, had joined them for a couple of days. Frannie had hugged her extra tight when she had left and had even wiped away a few tears.
揥ere you trying to tell me that you were my biological mother? Was it difficult for you to keep the secret??she whispered.
揑s someone with you, or are you talking to me??Risa asked from the other end of the porch.
Haley jerked around, startled to hear someone else in the room. 揑抦 alone. I was thinking about my parents. Remembering a time when Frannie hugged me and cried when she had to leave. We were vacationing on the beach, and she had come down for a couple of days. Why didn抰 Mama tell me when I was grown, or at least before Frannie died so we could have the option of a relationship??
揗ost likely she didn抰 know how to after all the years had passed,?Risa said from the other end of the porch. 揑 hope I didn抰 wake you when I came downstairs. That bottom step on the staircase squeaks.?
揂lways has,?Haley said. 揧ou couldn抰 sleep, either??
Risa moved over closer to Haley and sat down on a settee. 揑抦 trying to process everything. The girls have been through so much lately. Do you think I should take them to a therapist??
揟hey seem to be adjusting very well to me, but I think you could use some help,?Haley said. 揑抦 a counselor, not a therapist, but I抳e got broad shoulders and listening ears if you want to talk. What happened between you and Paul? I thought y抋ll were the model couple, and I used to wish that I抎 find a husband like him.?
揑 can bluff with the best of them.?Risa抯 chuckle was brittle. 揗ama always told me that I had to sleep in the bed I made, and if I married that boy and went to Kentucky with him, then I was on my own. The Paul I married was not the one I left, or maybe I should say who left me. I married a romantic, fun-loving man who picked a bouquet of wildflowers and tied them with a piece of twine so I would have a bouquet when we eloped. He turned into a man I hardly knew after the first three months of marriage. His mother had a double-wide trailer set up on the property for each of her six sons, and they all worked for the family business. She was the queen, and everyone bowed to her wishes.?