Sisters in Paradise

Chapter 2

Ophelia took a deep breath and enjoyed the fresh spring breeze filtering through the screened-in back porch. Texas still hung on to the last few pleasant days of spring before summer pushed it out and brought months of scalding heat. Her sister Luna had planned an outside wedding in July without remembering how blistering hot it always was during that time—even at sunset, which was when the marriage was to take place. Mary Jane had rented a huge air-conditioned tent for the reception so at least they wouldn’t soak their pretty dresses with sweat before the evening was done.

Ophelia was thinking about how smart her older sister was to sneak off to the courthouse and just have a small reception at the winery, when she leaned her head back on the porch swing and dozed off. She dreamed that she was sitting on the sofa in her therapist’s office. Folks often say that what happens in Las Vegas stays in Las Vegas. In the room where she managed drones, that would be an understatement. Telling anything that went on in that place could get a person thrown so far back into prison that sunshine would take days and days to even reach them. Classifiedmeant that she didn’t talk to anyone—except the military therapist—and that was mandatory. Her appointment was set for the first Monday of every month at eight o’clock in the morning.

“I can’t do this anymore,” she told the therapist. “I hate substitute teaching, and I’ve been offered a job in a winery.”

The woman just smiled and nodded. “How does that make you feel?”

“Wake up.” Tertia’s voice penetrated the dream.

What was her sister doing in the therapist’s office, and how much had she heard?

“Earth to Ophelia,” Tertia singsonged. “If you don’t wake up, I’m going to pour water on your head.”

Ophelia opened her eyes slowly and then rubbed them with her knuckles. She hadn’t been to a therapist since she came home, but she wondered if her dream wasn’t telling her to find one close to Spanish Fort and make an appointment. “Where did you come from? You aren’t supposed to be here until later.”

Tertia sat down beside her on the porch swing. “You were mumbling in your sleep just like you used to do when we were kids.”

“Welcome home.” Ophelia straightened up and rolled her neck to get the kinks out, then gave her sister a sideways hug.

“I only just got here ten minutes ago,” Tertia said. “I was so excited about coming home for good that I couldn’t sleep, so I left Vega before daylight.”

“Mama and Daddy are off buying groceries,” Ophelia said. “Luna and Endora are finishing up the last day of school. They’ll be disappointed that they weren’t here to give you the big huggy-huggy welcome home.”

Tertia set the swing in motion with her foot, pulled her legs up, and wrapped her arms around her knees. “Aunt Bernie gave me the first hug, and Pepper barked at me, so I’m good. She said she will join us in the next few minutes. She had to take Pepper out to the trailer. You’ve been here since Christmas. Are you settled in yet?”

“Not really, but I’m workin’ on it,” Ophelia admitted. “Every now and then something will trigger a nightmare, but that doesn’t happen very often anymore.”

Tertia took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I love the smell of home.”

“Smells good now but wait until we spend a summer here. Remember how hot it gets, and how we say that we can actually smell the heat rising off the ground?”

Tertia tucked a strand of curly light-brown hair up into the messy bun on top of her head. “It won’t be worse than the Texas Panhandle. And I don’t have to think about going back to teaching in the fall. You can’t imagine how free I feel.”

“Oh, yes I can,” Ophelia argued.

Bernie brought out three glasses of iced tea on a tray and set it on a table beside a nearby rocking chair. Once she had given one glass to each girl, she eased down into the white rocker, picked up Pepper, and set him in her lap. “Pepper whined when I started around the house, so I just brought him with me. I think he wanted to hear my news.”

“And what’s that, Aunt Bernie?” Tertia took a long drink of her tea.

“Ophelia has a job and a possible boyfriend, but don’t worry, Tertia. Soon as I get her settled into a relationship, I’ll go to work for you. We’ll find a good man for her, won’t we, Pepper?”

Tertia spewed tea out across the porch, sending it flying only a few feet from Aunt Bernie and Pepper. “What did you just say?” she sputtered.

“I do not have a job or a boyfriend!” Ophelia protested.

“And I do not want a boyfriend right now,” Tertia declared. “I need to figure out what I’m going to do with my life before I even think about relationships. But it does sound like my sister is protesting too much, so tell me more, Aunt Bernie. Who is this man and what kind of job?”

Bernie glanced over at Ophelia. “His name is Jake Brennan, and he owns and operates the Brennan Winery, and he has a really sexy Texas brogue that goes with the way he fills out a pair of tight-fittin’ jeans.”

“He offered me a job that I do not know if I even want, and he is not a potential boyfriend, and you are right, I am protesting,” Ophelia declared. “Next thing you know Miz Meddling Britches here will be picking out my wedding dress and ordering a wedding cake.”

“What would Ophelia do in a winery?” Tertia took another long drink of her tea. “Does he use drones to fly over his grape arbors and scare off birds and grasshoppers?”

“No, but he needs someone to run the front office,” Bernie answered. “She would sell wine and take appointments for events, and maybe even help with receptions or tastings if they’re on a Saturday like the reception we’re having tomorrow for Ursula and Remy.”

“Sounds like a good job,” Tertia rubbed her aqua-colored eyes and yawned. “If you don’t take it, I might apply. I’m sick of teaching, and I really need this next year off to figure out what I really want to do. Just being a clerk might be the very thing to give me time to think about the future.”

Ophelia narrowed her eyes at her sister. “If you want the job, then go for it.”

Tertia shook her head. “On second thought, I promised myself a couple of months of doing nothing but helping with Luna’s wedding plans. I need some time to sleep late and be lazy.”

“And you are conspiring with Aunt Bernie to get me married off, aren’t you?” Ophelia accused.

“Hey,” Bernie protested. “I told you before, I’m on a mission, and I don’t need any help. But since y’all mentioned the future, let me ask a question. What would either of you really like to do if you could do anything?” she asked. “What’s on the top of your bucket list when it comes to jobs? Mine was always to own my very own bar, and I did that, so I scratched that off and celebrated with a bottle of Jameson the first day that Bernie’s Place belonged to me. The top item on the list now is to get all seven of you girls settled so that Mary Jane and Joe Clay can enjoy their grandkids. I’ve got two down and y’all are the next ones that I’m going to help.”

Ophelia shrugged. “Put me at the bottom of the list for that settling-down business. To answer your question, I know I don’t want to do anything that’s so classified and secretive that I have mandatory therapy sessions to be sure my job isn’t depressing me. That said, I don’t know what I want to do for the rest of my life.”

“I love to cook, and I should have been a home economics teacher instead of a coach, but I got that softball scholarship, so…” Tertia shrugged and yawned again.

“But hindsight is the only perfect vision in the world,” Bernie said.

“I know beyond any doubt that I do not want to teach,” Ophelia said. “Subbing this past semester taught me that the classroom is not where I belong.”

“Then why don’t you try your hand at the wine place?” Tertia asked. “If you don’t like it, you can always give two weeks’ notice and find something else.”

Ophelia glanced over at Aunt Bernie. Pepper was snuggled down in her tie-dyed skirt of pinks, blues, and purples with a splash of yellow scattered around. Several strands of Mardi Gras beads hung around her scrawny, wrinkled neck. Rings with different-colored stones decorated her fingers as well as her toes and her flip-flops were covered with fake diamonds.

“Are you admiring my jewelry?” Bernie asked. “I’ll be glad to share any of it with you girls if you need it for a date.”

“Thanks, but I was just thinking about how pretty you look today,” Ophelia answered.

“Did you dress up because I was coming home?” Tertia asked.

“Yes, I did,” Bernie answered. “I wore this every year in the bar when we celebrated Redneck Mardi Gras. I dragged it out special today to bring good luck to Tertia on her first day back home where she belongs, and to bring me good luck in my mission with you and Jake.”

Tertia finished off her tea and stood up. “What is Redneck Mardi Gras?”

“Me and my regular customers couldn’t go to New Orleans for Mardi Gras, but that didn’t mean we couldn’t celebrate. We played jazz music that night, and we drank hurricanes, and I even had some beignets in the bar to serve to all the folks who arrived to join in the fun for our Redneck Mardi Gras evening,” Bernie answered.

Tertia took a step toward the door. “Thank you, Aunt Bernie, for dressing up for me today, but if you’ve got any good luck to spread my way, use it for a job, not a boyfriend.”

Bernie twirled a set of purple beads and woke Pepper up. “I wore extra beads today so that I could do both.” The dog growled, hopped down off her lap, and went to the back door.

“Don’t you talk to me in that tone of voice, or you won’t get your afternoon treats,” Bernie scolded him.

“I’m going to unload my vehicle, get unpacked, and then take a twenty-minute power nap. But one more question, Aunt Bernie. What makes you think this Jake feller is the man for my sister?” Tertia asked.

“I’m an expert on men, and the way he looked at her said that it was more than her pretty red hair that had him interested,” Bernie declared. “But hey, I don’t mind introducing you to him if Ophelia isn’t going to sit up and take notice of this opportunity. I’m thinkin’ about going into the matchmaking business. I did pretty damn good with Ursula and Luna, and running a bar for all those years makes me an expert on which men would be good with what women.”

Ophelia threw up her palms. “All right! All right! I’ll talk to Jake some more about the job, but I’m not making any promises. You’re right, Tertia. If I don’t like working there, I can always quit and find another job or—heaven forbid—go back to doing sub work when school starts again.”

“Yes!” Aunt Bernie did a fist pump. “Tertia, you can teach me that Zoom business so I can interview my clients. Maybe I’ll even start up a wedding-planning business too. All y’all girls can help me get things started.”

“We’ll talk later about all that, Aunt Bernie. Thanks again for the good luck charms and for the tea,” Tertia said.

“I’ll come help you,” Ophelia offered.

“I never turn down help,” Tertia said.

“You’re just running away from me because you know I’m right. I bet I’d make a dang good wedding planner and matchmaker,” Bernie declared as she got up and headed for the back door to let Pepper outside. “I love walking in the fresh green grass in my bare feet. Reminds me of when me and my twin sister were kids. She has always been the good girl, and I have been the ornery one.”

“I’m not running from you,” Ophelia declared with a long sigh. “But I would like to know why you are so excited about me working in a winery, and why didn’t you get all dolled up when I left the air force at Christmas?”

“You and Tertia have both sown your wild oats, and now it’s time for y’all to settle down and…”

Tertia whipped around to face Bernie. “There are no ands, and I haven’t sown wild oats anywhere. Plus, I need to find myself before…”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Bernie butted in. “I’ve heard all that before. Y’all both need to wake up and listen to your biological clocks. Look at what happened to me when I didn’t pay attention,” she scolded. “All of Luna’s brides’ magazines are stacked up on the coffee table in the living room. At least go flip through them and see if you can’t get bit by the wedding bug.”

“Never!” Tertia declared. “You can burn those magazines as soon as Luna and Shane’s wedding is over. That is”—she winked at Ophelia—“unless you want to look at them. I’m doing fine without them.”

“If you want help unpacking, you might consider choosing your words carefully the rest of this morning,” Ophelia said in an icy tone.

Tertia turned to face her and just smiled in that annoying way she had always done when they were all just kids—that all-knowing, aggravating expression that reminded all of her sisters that she was the smartest one of the seven—which was just a figment of her own imagination. Everyone knew that Ophelia was the most intelligent daughter in the family.

“Oh, hush.” Ophelia had meant what she had said. She might work for Jake Brennan, but there was no way she was letting Aunt Bernie run her life, or even take credit for anything romantic that might come along—or encourage her in this new notion about matchmaking and wedding planning either. When Ophelia found someone to fall into a committed relationship with, it would be of her own choosing, and she did not intend to tell any of the family about it until she was sure. Endora’s experience had taught her to tread lightly in that area.

“It’s just a job,” Tertia said as she led the way through the house and out the front door.

“I know, and it seems like a good deal, but…” Ophelia answered.

“But you don’t want Aunt Bernie to be right any more than I do,” Tertia whispered.

“Probably,” Ophelia admitted. “I’ll talk to him a little more this morning. Mama wants me to take the centerpieces over there to put on the tables for the reception tomorrow. But first, let’s get you unloaded and your things put away. What did you do with all your stuff from the apartment?”

“Boxed it up and sent it this way by a mover. It’ll be here the first of the week. Daddy said there was room in the storage barn for my things, but to mark them because your stuff is out there too.” Tertia opened both back doors and the hatch of her red SUV. “What time is the reception for Ursula and Remy?”

“One o’clock,” Ophelia answered. “Can you believe that they eloped? I figured Mama would be furious, but she just took it in stride.”

Tertia picked up two suitcases and rolled them over the gravel parking lot toward the porch. “Ursula would have been a bridezilla, so I’m glad that she and Remy didn’t try to have a huge wedding so soon after Luna’s.”

“You got that right,” Ophelia agreed.

“Hey, Aunt Bernie means well, but don’t let her goad you into doing anything that don’t feel right,” Tertia said when the two sisters were inside and started upstairs. “I sure don’t intend to let her run my life. What we do with our relationships is our business, but my advice—which you can take or throw in the trash—is that you should at least consider the winery job. You don’t like teaching, and there’s not a lot going on in this little town.”

“Thanks, Sister,” Ophelia answered.

Ophelia rolled the truck windows down and sucked in a lungful of fresh spring air that blew through the cab. Tomorrow was the reception, and then Mother’s Day—this year on May twelfth—and then if things were normal, it would start to get hotter and hotter.

Back when she had worked night shifts, which was more than half the time, she had slept during the day, and worked at night. She was at work before sunset, and at home asleep before sunrise most of the time. Until she came back to Spanish Fort, she had not even realized how much she had missed the simple things like watching all the colors of a Texas sunset or taking a walk in the brisk morning air.

She started her playlist and kept time with her thumbs on the steering wheel as Blake Shelton sang “Goodbye Time.” That had been playing when she left California in her rearview mirror and began the long drive home to Texas. Even though it was a song about a woman leaving a man who loved her, and not a job that still gave her the occasional nightmare, the lyrics seemed appropriate for Ophelia’s situation—especially the title.

She had turned onto the dirt road leading back to the winery when Kane Brown’s song “What Ifs” began to play. The words talked about what if he was made for her, but like she had done with Shelton’s song, she thought about the job she had been offered. What if she did not take it, and the love of her life walked into the shop to buy wine? Or what if she was helping clean up after a wedding reception and the one was sitting at a table all alone? Or what if Aunt Bernie was right, and those vibes she felt when Jake was nearby turned into something permanent?

“The chemistry I felt wasn’t anything but the moment. Jake could very well be married or engaged,” she muttered, pulled off to the side of the road, and turned off the engine. When she had been trying to decide whether to reenlist or not, Gina, her therapist, had told her to close her eyes and imagine how she would feel if she stayed in the service another eight years. After examining her feelings for a few minutes, she was supposed to remember what she had thought about, open her eyes, and then close them again and think about how she would feel if she went back to Texas to live.

Texas won that day.

She tried to use the same method to decide whether she wanted to take the job or to put in applications in Nocona or Saint Jo for summer work. She tried to think about how it would feel to work with someone like Jake, who made her more than a little breathless just thinking about his eyes and those muscles that strained the sleeves of his knit shirt emblazed with the Brennan Winery logo right above his heart.

His heart!

Was he a player? What did his past relationships look like? Joe Clay said that he was a good man, but maybe Jake had only shown his good side to the people around Spanish Fort.

Everyone has a good side and a bad one, according to Gina. No one is totally good or all evil. Ophelia tried to believe her when she pressed the button to send a drone payload on a target, but it seldom worked.

“Do I need a therapist again?” she whispered.

She had asked her mother that question when she had had the first nightmare after coming home, and Mary Jane had told her that she just needed time.

Her eyes opened wide, and everything was a blur until they adjusted to the bright sunlight. “It’s just a job. He only asked for a dance to entice me to work for him. He’s charming, but he was not necessarily flirting,” she whispered as she started the engine. She drove the rest of the way to the winery and parked in the same place she had the day before. Before she could get her seat belt unfastened, her truck door swung open. Jake stood there with one of his signature brilliant smiles and motioned for her to get out.

“This is great timing. I was just coming out for a breath of fresh air,” he said. “I’ll help you get all these boxes into the reception room.”

Her heart skipped a beat and then plowed ahead with full steam. Could she really work for a boss that affected her like that?

“Thanks,” she muttered and slid out of the seat. “I never turn down help.”

“Smart lady.” He stacked a box on top of another and headed out across the yard.

Ophelia thought about trying to take two at once but nixed that idea when a visual popped into her head of stumbling on the porch steps and breaking what was inside. Mary Jane would never let her live it down if she broke all those wineglasses.

“What’s in the boxes?” Jake asked.

“Stemmed wineglasses,” she answered.

“You didn’t need to bring your own,” Jake said. “The catering service Mary Jane is using provides all that kind of thing.”

“These are for the centerpieces.” She carried the single box in her hands into the reception room. She set it down on the first table she came to and removed the lid. Mary Jane had shown her exactly how to place everything in the middle of each of the ten tables, so she got busy—three wineglasses with different stem heights turned upside down on the round mirror. A daisy under each glass, and a flameless candle set on the flat part of the wineglass.

“This looks so much like Ursula,” she muttered.

“What was that?” Jake asked as he brought in the last box. “That looks really elegant. I’d like to take pictures to go in the book that I show folks, if you don’t mind.”

“I don’t mind at all,” she answered, “and I was just saying that this looks so much like Ursula.”

“I don’t know her so well, but I was thinking about a Saint Patrick’s Day wedding that’s on the books for next year. We could use the same idea, only put shamrocks under glasses and use green candles. Would you like for me to flip the switches on the candles about half an hour before the reception starts?”

Ophelia moved over to the second table. “That would be great.”

He opened a box and followed her example of how to arrange the centerpiece on another table. “Do you need a long table set up for the bride and groom and their parents?”

“No, they just want to mix and mingle among the family and friends,” Ophelia answered.

“What about the table for the cake?” Jake asked.

“A round one will do fine. We’ll have cake and punch on it. Mini peach cobblers have been ordered instead of a groom’s cake.” She talked as she worked. “A simple luncheon of chicken Parmesan, breadsticks, and salads will be served. Then we’ll have wedding cake, cobbler, and an assortment of bite-sized cheesecakes for dessert.”

“That doesn’t sound so simple to me,” Jake said.

“What would you consider to be simple?” Ophelia asked.

“Finger sandwiches and chips and dips. A keg of beer and cookies,” Jake replied.

“So, when you get married, will you have that?” Ophelia asked.

“Depends on what the bride wants. The wedding is her bailiwick. Keeping her happy and feeling cherished the rest of her life is my job,” Jake said.

“That sounds pretty romantic for a guy,” Ophelia said.

“Just speakin’ the truth, ma’am,” Jake told her.

Ophelia finished the centerpiece she was working on and moved to the next table. “You must have had some good parents to teach you that.”

“I have got good parents. They’ve been together for up close to fifty years now and are still ranching,” Jake answered. “I have two older sisters who live close to them, and I get plenty of sass from them not living within ten miles of where I was raised like they are.”

“How did you wind up here?” she asked.

“Cheap land that would raise good grapes,” he answered. “What brought you back to this area?”

“Family and good memories.” She smiled at how easily that answer slipped off her tongue. “Before I forget”—she pulled a note from her hip pocket—“Mama said to remind you that the cake lady will be here at noon tomorrow and to ask if we need to be here.”

“I will be glad to take care of that for you,” he replied as he finished the last centerpiece. “You’ve been home since Christmas, right? I can’t believe I haven’t met you before now.”

“Yes, and you’ve been here how long?” She pulled out a chair and sat down. Her sisters and Aunt Bernie wouldn’t know how long the decorating job would take, and she was in no hurry to get home and answer all their questions.

He took a seat at the next table over from her. “Four years, but I’m just now to the point where I can sit down and relax for five minutes without feeling guilty. The first year, I was so busy with planting and building this place that I lay awake at night worrying about what all needed to be done. Then we got the grape arbors up, and there was some praying for a good crop. I made wine from strawberries, blackberries, and even watermelon during that time, but my main purpose was to develop a good red wine. This is the first year I’ve managed to produce one, and it’s a small batch. I saved the first bottle for a special occasion on down the road.”

“Such as?” Ophelia asked.

“Maybe for my wedding night, or when my first child is born,” he answered. “What would you consider something extra special?”

“Probably the same thing,” she told him. “So, you’re not married or have children?”

“Not yet,” he answered. “I was in love once, but I dragged my feet too long. Sally Jo and Tommy and I all grew up together down there close to the Louisiana border, on the same street. I loved Sally Jo from the time I was in the fifth grade, but I was afraid to speak my mind. Then she and Tommy fell in love when we were in high school. I was the best man at their wedding ten years ago. They have three little blond-haired daughters now, and I’ve learned to speak up rather than being shy.”

“Regrets?” Ophelia asked.

“I got over it.” He chuckled. “Fifth-grade relationships don’t always last anyway. And my friends are happy, so I can’t begrudge them that.”

“I think I’ll take that job you offered me,” she blurted out.

“What made you decide right now?”

“It feels like the right thing to do,” she replied.

He stood up, took a couple of steps, and held out a hand. “Shall we shake on it?”

He held her hand just a second longer before letting go. “Thank you, Ophelia. I’ll tear up that help wanted sign.”

“Thank you for giving me time to think about it,” she said. “I should be getting back to the Paradise.” Her voice sounded a bit breathless in her own ears.

The bell rang, letting them know that someone had arrived. “Want to stay long enough to wait on one customer and learn the ropes a little bit?” Jake asked.

“I’ll be glad to,” she answered.

He led the way back into the shop. “Hello, Miz Dolly. What can I get you today?”

“I need a nice bottle of wine to put in a basket,” she answered and then smiled at Ophelia. “Oh, hello. I’m glad to run into you here today. Can you tell me what kind of wine Ursula and Remy like? I’m making them a basket of wine and cheeses to give them for a wedding gift.”

“I’m sure they’ll like anything you pick out,” Ophelia answered. “Would you like to taste what Jake has out on the table today?”

“Oh no, honey.” Dolly shook her head. “I’m a Jack Daniel’s girl when I drink, but I give bottles from our local winery as gifts all the time.”

“You and Aunt Bernie would get along very well,” Ophelia said.

“Yes, we do,” Dolly said. “I go to her trailer on Monday nights for a game of poker and a little nip of Jack or Jameson. There’s four of us golden girls—that’s what we call ourselves because we are all over seventy, and we love that old show. We have such a good time. If we weren’t so old, we’d turn the old store building into a bar. That would sure enough bring folks back to Spanish Fort.”

“It just might,” Ophelia said. “I wish someone would do something with that old building.”

“Call me if you need me, and holler before you leave,” Jake said and left her alone with Dolly.

“So, you’re working here?” Dolly asked.

“I guess I am,” Ophelia answered, and it felt right.