揇o we get uniforms??Lily抯 eyes twinkled.
揑 hope to hell not!?Oscar came into the room and headed straight for the coffeepot. 揑 like working in overalls and oversized T-shirts.?
Before he reached the section of counter where the coffeepot sat, Jessica poured another mug full and asked, 揅ream and sugar??
揃lack as sin and strong as Hercules. That抯 the way I like my coffee,?Oscar said. 揘ow, what抯 this about uniforms??
Wade quickly explained what they抎 been discussing. 揑 liked being able to depend on others, but I wouldn抰 want to have to wear a uniform every day again, either.?
揈xcept for the boots??Jessica asked.
揌ey, these are broken in and comfortable.?Wade held up a foot.
揅an we all have boots like that??Daisy asked.
揑f you join the military after you finish high school,?Jessica answered.
Risa whipped around and popped her hands on her hips. 揑抦 not so sure I want them to do that.?
Oscar shot a look over toward Mary Nell. 揝ometimes we don抰 get what we want.?
揂men to that,?Jessica agreed.
揇on抰 look at me.?Mary Nell threw up both her palms in a defensive gesture. 揧ou know I didn抰 get what I wanted, and neither did Risa or Haley. How about you, Jessica? Have you gotten what you wanted out of life??
Jessica thought about the question before she answered. 揇epends on what time of my life we抮e talking about, but for right now, I抦 very content with this team.?
揑 was thinking about the business supplying T-shirts with our logo on the back with a catchy phrase for all of us to wear this fall when we are working at the bar,?Jessica said.
揑 love it,?Lily said. 揇aisy and I抣l put our heads together and come up with a slogan idea.?
揜emember it抯 got to go on a shirt, so keep it short,?Jessica said.
揃eer, Burgers, and . . . ,?Risa started, then stopped.
揃ack Home Moonshine,?Oscar finished for her.
揟hat sounds more like the hills of Kentucky.?Risa laughed.
揥rite your ideas down, and we抣l talk about them before we have the shirts made,?Jessica suggested.
By evening, Jessica had filled two pages with quips and ideas for the bar抯 name, but she was too dog-tired to even look at them as she crawled up into her loft bed. She had helped move and stack pews against the far wall of the sanctuary all day so that Wade and Oscar could measure for the bar. They had a plumber in mind who could come and do whatever was needed to bring water up through the floor and a local electrician who could wire the area for what they抎 need to put in the machinery for draft beer and a small hot-water tank to run the dishwasher.
揗aking the decision to turn the building into a bar was easy,?she muttered. 揗aking it all work梟ot so much.?
She closed her eyes and dozed to the humming noise of the air conditioner on top of her RV. Then suddenly everything in the RV went so quiet that her eyes popped wide open. She tried to figure out why she could hear tree frogs and crickets, then groaned when she realized that she was sweating and sticking to the sheets. The couple she抎 bought the RV from had said the air conditioner had been repaired and would probably last another year or two. They had seldom used it in Maine because they almost never needed it.
揃ut this is Texas,?she groaned, 揳nd this thing is just a glorified tin can.?
She sat up and bumped her head for the second time that day, cussed loud enough that all her superior officers would have been proud of her, and finally got out of the bed to open the windows. The first one she tried was stuck, which brought on another round of cussing, and then when she had it open and turned around, the damn thing fell back down. She found a wooden spoon in a drawer, propped the window up, and as luck would have it, the only breeze that flowed through it felt like it had come from an oven. That抯 when she remembered the evangelist room in the church. The bed was still there. Granted, it didn抰 have sheets on the mattress, but the church was cool.
揑抳e got sheets.?She opened a drawer and pulled out what she needed to remake the bed, tugged the comforter from the loft bed, slipped on her flip-flops, and headed back out across the parking lot. She was still muttering about the heat when she realized that someone was sitting at the end of the porch in the shadows. The shadow of a full-grown man startled her, but she wasn抰 running away from her own building. Whoever was over there in the dark could gather himself up and get off her property.
揥ho are you, and what do you want??she asked in a testy tone.
揑t抯 me, Wade, and I was thinking about going inside for a midnight snack, but the door is locked.?Wade got to his feet. 揂re you having trouble sleeping, too??
揑 wasn抰 until the AC went out in my RV, and it got hot as hell in there pretty fast. I opened a window, but evidently tonight you can抰 beg, borrow, or buy a breeze. I抦 taking over the evangelist room in the church. It抯 bigger than my RV, and it抯 cool.?