Chapter 1

“Ohhhhhh-oo-oh, sweet child of mine,” Jenna belted out with every drop of passion she could muster. Every song on her playlist was one she saw herself performing on a stage… that is, if she could actually hold a decent note. For the time being, she’d simply stick to her car-seat concerts and the occasional shower show. Her makeshift karaoke also kept her mind focused on the drive. While the music blasted, the wind blew through every open window. The sun sat high and bright as she flew down Interstate 76 toward Doveport, PA. Her bachelor’s degree was completed and she was finally free. And freedom always brought her home.

Jenna Ferris had just spent the last week and a half emptying out her campus apartment and making countless trips to UPS to ship her things home. So by the time she finally hit the road for the six-hour drive, she was happy to leave her undergraduate life behind her. The craziness of finals, cram sessions and study groups, coupled with the mixed emotions of seeing people she’d gotten to know over the last four or five years disappear into their futures, was enough for Jenna to miss Doveport.

“Yes, home sweet home,” she sighed, turning down the music and glancing at a highway sign that read DOVEPORT 8 MILES. Her pale blue eyes peered into the rearview mirror toward the road behind her, and she reflected that she was glad to leave it all back there.

Thoughts of her college experience should have been chock-full of laughs and memories she’d never forget. They should have been about midnight coffee and Red Bull runs to push through that 12-page paper due at nine o’clock in the morning. However, there was a gap in Jenna’s memories. Not just a gap, but a chasm of pain, chaos, and every other crappy emotion she could think of as she pushed down on the gas pedal just a little harder so she could get home just a little faster.

Pulling off the highway, Jenna was surprised at how much the town she grew up in had changed. There were gas stations and fast food restaurants right off the exit ramp. The one major road, which ran from one edge of town to the other, was now lined with towering street lights, and there was even a billboard that drivers could see as they cruise controlled down the Interstate. But the further she drove away from the highway, the more it began to feel like home.

She knew the clock in her car was a few minutes fast, but she stared at it anyway as she wondered if she should take a left or a right at the intersection she’d stopped at. To the right would take her toward tree-lined blocks, white picket fences, and every other residential area of Doveport. If she headed left, she’d run into more stores, a few municipal buildings, and more importantly, her father’s bar. Everyone had gotten a kick out of the place’s name when her father revealed it would be called The Wheel. It was her mother’s idea, and that in and of itself made her smile. So she turned to the left.

The bar was on a piece of land to itself, sitting like an island with a parking lot wrapped around it. There was a tire and mechanic place to one side, a vacant office building to the other, and the parking lot backed up against the rear of a building whose entrance was on the next street over.

Pulling into the empty lot, Jenna knew it wouldn’t be open yet, but waiting around for her father to get there seemed like a much better idea than rushing home to unpack. As she rounded the building, she noticed that she wasn’t alone. A large white truck with blue stripes and utility company insignia was parked diagonally across several spaces, aimed toward the back of the building.

Jenna rolled her eyes as she watched a man with a clipboard and a blue hard hat walk back and forth from the electric meter to the truck. All the utilities in town were run by one company, and this one company had been a royal pain in the ass for her family. She hated everything about them. So after parking her car, she grabbed her phone and keys and got out to find out exactly what was going on.

“Hey!” she shouted.

The man in the hard hat looked up but didn’t say anything as he put his head back down into his paperwork.

“I’m talking to you! This is my daddy’s place!” Jenna shouted, marching up to the man. “What the hell do you think you’re doing here?!?”

“Sorry, ma’am, but I’m under orders to shut off the power to this facility for non-payment,” he mumbled, neglecting the social courtesy of looking at her when he spoke.

“Non-payment? How much is it behind?” she asked, pulling out her phone.

He consulted his clipboard. “Says here the total amount is 854 dollars and 62 cents. But I don’t know the ins and outs of what’s due at the moment. I can only tell you that this was a place on my list that I had to come out to for today, ma’am.”

Jenna thought of calling her father, but he’d only bring a shotgun and frustration to the situation. The power would still get shut off, and he’d have to spend a night in jail. So instead she looked up her banking information. The chunk of change she’d been saving was earmarked for a little Labor Day weekend getaway with some college buddies before they headed out into, well, life. But it seemed life had gotten ahead of itself.

Fighting back anger and the urge to cry, she called up the utility company and paid off the balance. Then she turned to the man, who’d taken off his hard hat, to tell him, “You can leave now. It’s paid. Make sure that whatever you touched you put back like you found it!”

“Will do, ma’am,” he nodded, and got to work turning the power back on.

“I know you, don’t I?” she asked him, cocking her head to the side and letting her dark brown hair cascade over her shoulder.

The face was familiar, but the body wasn’t. She was staring at a guy who could pass for forty with a beer gut and receding hairline. His eyes were squinting as he shrugged his broad shoulders. “I think we may have been in Oakwood High together, or something like that.”

“That’s right!” she said excitedly. Jenna was hardly ecstatic about the utility worker coming to shut off her father’s power, but she couldn’t help being pleased that she’d been able to recognize someone after having been back in town for only a few minutes. “Um, RJ, right?”

“Yeah, but I go by Rick now,” he smiled, “Listen, I’m sorry about all of this, too. Jenna, right?”

“Yep, that’s me. So how ya been?”

“Not bad, just working, you know? Got a baby on the way and whatnot. I mean, what else is there to do in Doveport other than work, shop, and make babies, right?” he laughed.

Jenna chuckled a bit, but she could sense the sadness in his voice. There were tons of other things to do in Doveport… but even as the thought crossed her mind she laughed at herself. “Well, congratulations, although that seems like a very limited selection of things to do. I bet you can still find a good party out here, right?”

He shrugged his shoulders. “I guess. It ain’t like when we was in high school. There’s no place for us to hang out and let loose. We gotta go all the way to Glendale just have a good time, but who’s driving 40 minutes each way to party?”

“Yeah, I guess not,” Jenna sighed. “Well, I’ll be here for the summer until I decide what my next step is going to be. Why don’t you come on by, out of that dang uniform, with some of your buddies and let loose here?”

“Tried that,” he huffed, shifting his weight against his truck. “Your dad don’t like it getting too rowdy inside. It’s like a bar for librarians in there most nights.”

“I’m here, and that’s all going to change,” she beamed. “Come down Friday night and you’ll see.”

“Okay, if you say so. I’ll tell the fellas down near the plant too,” Rick told her, moving toward his truck. “It was nice seeing you, Jenna. Not like this, but still nice.”

“Nice seeing you too, RJ.” She waved as he pulled back from the building and drove out of the lot. But as she turned back toward the bar, anger consumed her once again. She’d told her father too many times to keep on top of the bills, but it wasn’t his style. It made her wonder if going off to grad school was still a viable option. She couldn’t leave her father to run things for another two years, only stopping home a few weekends per semester while getting her master’s degree. The bar would go belly up if he kept doing business the way he was.

She unlocked the back door and let herself inside. There was a long hallway that led past the private bathroom and the office. A decent layer of dust rested on the brass doorknob as she turned it to step into the small room. A wave of sorrow washed over her as she looked at the two desks, side by side. One was a mess of paperwork, while the other one was pristine. It was the cleanest spot in the entire bar, and that was only because her father took the time to make it so. Jenna’s heart sank as she pictured her old man wiping down the desk with tears in his eyes.

Overwhelmed with grief, she turned away from the memorial to stare at the storm of bright, threatening red-lettered papers piled up on her father’s desk. While she didn’t want to touch anything and disrupt his system, his system clearly wasn’t working. His checkbook was opened to a check that was half filled out to the electric company. Right next to that was the carbon copy of the check he’d actually completed and signed. The words Graduation Dues in the memo line ripped through her heart.

Even though she wanted to scream at him, it was clear to her that her father had made a choice. Pay the electric company or pay for her cap and gown. Not to mention him taking the drive, by himself, to watch her walk across the stage and shout from the top of his lungs to everyone who could hear, that she was his baby girl.

“Stubborn old goat.” She shook her head, choking back tears, and decided that she’d had enough of her emotions tearing through her body for the moment. She was ready to go home. There wasn’t a doubt in her mind that she’d be back later that night, but right then, all she wanted to do was snuggle with her father before he left to come open the bar.

Hopping back into her car, she drove out of the lot, away from the busier part of town, toward a small, pale yellow house just down the road. She’d spent countless days riding her bike up and down these streets as a girl. Now, as she drove down those same streets, her heart swelled with feel-good memories that she’d never let go of.

She pulled up to the house, refusing to park behind her father’s pickup truck in the driveway. Before she could even move the gate, he was out of the house and greeting her with a smile and open arms.

Paul Ferris was tall and lean, with the most telling signs of his age being around his face. Crow’s-feet clung to the sides of his bright blue eyes as his smile beamed from ear to ear while he watched Jenna get out of her car. Running his fingers through his hair, dark brown with burgeoning streaks of grey, he rushed to meet her.

“Now why didn’t you let me come pull my truck out so you can put your car in the garage?” he scolded playfully.

“Daddy,” she smiled, inhaling his scent that always made her feel safe and warm, “I’m not going to make you move the truck when I know you gotta head down to the bar to open up soon.”

“I’m not going down there today,” he huffed. “Doesn’t make much sense since they shut off the lights.”

“Wait,” she pushed away from him slightly, “you knew they were shutting off the lights?”

“Of course I knew!” he practically shouted. “I’m the one who ain’t paid the bill!”

“Well, it’s paid now. Go on and get ready. I’m going to come work with you tonight and see if I can scrounge up some of us who made it home to come buy a few drinks.”

“What do you mean, it’s paid? How?” He raised an eyebrow to her.

“I paid it. I was coming into Doveport and instead of coming straight here, I went to The Wheel. There was a guy there shutting the power off and I stopped him. I just paid the thing. We can’t have a business that’s not open for business. And what’s this I hear about you not wanting a rowdy crowd in the bar? Rowdy crowds order drinks and food, and leave money for you to pay the bills with. What’s going on, Daddy?”

Paul took a step back, pumping his hands in the air to get her to slow down. “Now you hold on just a second, young lady. No one told you to pay that bill. I don’t even want to know where you got the money for it. I told those people down at that miserable company that I’d have the balance for them by the end of the week and I meant it, damn it! I was waiting for one of my customers to settle their tab, and they did! But I shouldn’t have to explain anything to you, Jenna! I’m running this business. I’m in charge of this family. You should have called me first!”

Their formerly sweet and loving reunion was in danger of being cut short by a fight in the front yard. Jenna took a deep breath. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to pursue the issue or if she should just apologize and hope he’d let it go. “I’m going to go inside. Did my stuff get here yet?”

“We’re not done!” He charged after her. “Where did you get the money to pay off that bill? It was almost 900 dollars!”

“Don’t worry about it! You need to start asking me for help every now and then. I have a degree in business now, after all. I can stay here for the fall semester and—”

He cut her off. “You will not! I will not have you squandering that fancy education on a little ol’ bar that I can run on my own. I know what I’m doin’! Now tell me where you got that money from!”

“Gram sent it to me last week since she couldn’t make the ceremony,” Jenna blurted out.

Paul threw his hands up in frustration. “That stubborn old bat can send you a thousand dollars but can’t come bury her…”

Jenna was on the brink of tears, and he stopped himself. “That woman just thinks her money can fix anything. I told you I don’t want anything from her. When your mother needed her she wasn’t here, and it’s her guilt that gets you that money. Now I’m not gonna tell you to stop talking to your Gram, but I will tell you that I don’t want her guilt money that she’ll lord over me with every chance she gets.”

“She won’t, Dad, because she thinks I’m using the money to go on a trip for Labor Day weekend, and that’s what I’m going to tell her,” Jenna told him firmly.

Paul appeared to calm down, as if he realized he wasn’t going to win this one. “Fine, let’s just get your stuff out of the garage, and then I guess I should get ready to open. I’m going to get your money back for that trip. Thank you, baby girl. I know I don’t say it often, but I appreciate you looking after your old man. Just don’t make it a habit! I’m still strong enough to take care of you.”

Letting him wrap his arm around her shoulder, Jenna walked side by side with him. “I know you’re always gonna be strong enough to take care of me, Daddy. I just want to be able to help out more, you know, before they shut the power off.”

Paul chuckled and Jenna giggled. Home was home, and there was no better welcome than arguing with her dad on their front lawn.