揑 don抰 see horns and a forked tail on Risa,?Jessica said, 揵ut I also don抰 see wings and a halo on you.?
揓ust go,?Stella said.
揕ulu, I抎 like that plate right there with the dozen snickerdoodles, and the one with the key lime cupcakes, and then that one with the cinnamon rolls. How much do I owe you? We can tell when we抮e not welcome, so we抣l take it to go instead of staying around here to visit with y抋ll,?Haley said.
揑抣l be your pack mule and help you carry this if you抣l share with me.?Oscar had already reached for two plates. 揗ary Nell, get that last one, and I抣l make a mad dash for that picnic bench over by the gazebo. It抣l be like we抮e at a dessert theater.?
揂re you going to come over and listen to your granddaughters play??Risa asked her mother.
揑 am not,?Stella stated. 揑f they were playing hymns in church, I might have listened to them. I can抰 believe you have let them learn that awful country and bluegrass stuff. I wish Martha would get full custody of them. That way I抎 know they were being raised right.?
揗artha has shunned them and made all their cousins do the same. I wouldn抰 call that being raised right.?Risa shrugged and turned to walk away.
揑抦 not through fighting against the disgrace you are bringing to a house of worship,?Stella said, raising her voice.
Risa whipped back around. 揧ou need to pray to God to help you with your spirit, Mama. It抯 as far from being Christian as hell is from heaven. And that old building hasn抰 been a house of worship in decades.?
揑 can抰 believe you would talk to your mother like that,?Stella whined.
Risa just shook her head and joined the rest of her friends as they headed toward the concrete picnic bench. The bunch of them had barely gotten seated and the plastic wrap torn off the plates when the Chamber of Commerce president, Richard Davis, stepped up to the middle of the gazebo and tapped the microphone. 揥e抳e got a special treat for you today, folks. For the next hour, my daughter and her three friends are going to entertain all y抋ll with a little music. Let抯 give them a big round of applause.?
Several of the folks clapped and whistled, and some of the people brought their lawn chairs up a little closer when they heard the whine of the fiddle begin, and then Lily stepped up the microphone and said, 揟his one is called 慣he Hunter抯 Wife.?We抮e dedicating it to our mama. Y抋ll might recognize it if you抳e ever listened to the Pistol Annies.?
Risa blew a kiss their way and laughed out loud. 揟his could be my theme song. I didn抰 even know they had been practicing this one.?
揋ood kids you got there, Risa.?Oscar fired up the crowd by starting to clap in time with the music. Soon, everyone was doing the same.
Jessica was glad that she and Wade had had a couple more weeks to figure out that the attraction they had for one another was something real. She forgot all about Stella抯 hateful words, her glares meant to fry Risa as well as the rest of them into nothing more than a pile of bones, and the ugly way she had treated her own daughter. She put it all away and enjoyed the kids?music. What she liked even better than the songs they played and sang was having her hand tucked into Wade抯。 To her, that subtle sign meant they were a couple, and it felt so right.
Chapter Twenty
According to Jessica抯 phone calendar, the mechanical bull and the jukebox were both arriving that day梐 week before the twins?first day of school so they would be there for the excitement. She stood in the middle of the room and soaked in the diverse atmosphere. Western for Wade and Oscar, beach for Danny, and fancy for the twins. To some folks the mixture of all three might seem downright crazy, but to Jessica, it felt perfect.
Oscar and Wade used the last of the oakwood from the pews to close up the opening for the baptismal. When Jessica thought about the baptismal, she still felt like she had been raised up out of a dark past into a bright future that she wouldn抰 trade for anything.
When they had been at the craft fair, Oscar had bought a set of mounted steer longhorns that measured six and a half feet across, and just yesterday he and Wade had hung them above a tiki hut that the guys had built around the jukebox. It was hard to believe there had ever been a hole in the wall with a giant bathtub back there. Beneath the horns was a sign that Oscar had commissioned a local guy, Zach, to make: a long piece of rough wood that said 揇anny抯 Place.?With the tiki-looking lettering, it blended the look of western horns and the tiki hut perfectly.
She turned around to stare at the bar itself and the wide mirror behind it framed in gold gilt etched with the name of the bar in fancy lettering that the twins had picked out. Western. Beachy. Fancy. All in one place.