“Well, now that you know, you can expect it. In fact, I never heard any talk around town. After all, it wasn’t the first time you slipped away for a while.” She grinned.

There was a quiet moment between them as they just looked into each other’s eyes. Then Cheryl said, “Thank you, Mrs. Sheridan. It was a real good thing you did for me.”

Mel felt her gut clench and tears threaten to flow. Those had been Doc’s exact words! How he would have enjoyed seeing her like this, so different, so attractive and talking so smart. Mel liked to think maybe Doc did see. “I’m so glad it worked out, I’m proud of you. Go. See Jack and your folks. Have a nice visit. Will you stop by sometimes? When you visit your parents? Tell us how you are?”

Cheryl nodded. “Sure. If you want.”

“I want,” Mel said. “That would be nice.”

When Mel went back inside the clinic, she went to Doc’s old office, which she now shared with Cam. There were no patients, the kids were napping, Cam was off on errands. She was alone—free and clear. She put her head down on her arms and cried. Cried happy tears for Cheryl and special tears for missing Doc, knowing what it would mean to him to see one of his own coming out of such a dark time. God, to look at the woman was inspiring! To listen to her speak, so astounding! She was a whole new person. And she was young yet; she had a chance for a full and productive life.

Mel was consumed for at least a half hour. Then she heard the sound of a vehicle and thinking, again, it might be Bruce with mail, she wiped her eyes and walked out on the porch. This time it was Bruce. He handed her a packet of mail. “Any specimens?” he asked.

“Not today,” she said.

“Good. I get off early.”

As he jumped back in his truck, she looked at the front porch of Jack’s bar. He walked outside with an arm draped over Cheryl’s shoulders. They stopped, hugged, and Cheryl bounced down the steps to the waiting truck. The truck backed away.

Jack stood on his porch, looking at his wife. Even from across the street she could see the tenderness in his smile, the pride and gratitude. Cheryl had told him everything. He lifted his hand to Mel. And she lifted hers.

Nineteen

Aiden Riordan pulled up to Luke’s cabin and blew the horn before getting out of his car. Luke came out with a perplexed look on his haggard face.

“What the hell are you doing here?”

“You haven’t answered the phone in ten days!” he said angrily. “You know, answering machines work just fine out here!”

“Phone’s out,” Luke said, turning to go back inside.

Aiden rolled his eyes, shook his head and followed. He walked into the house behind Luke and pulled off his leather gloves as he looked around. Luke sat on the sectional, staring at him from beneath angry, hooded brows. “Nice,” Aiden said. Then he walked over to the kitchen phone, looked at it and plugged it in.

“You’re going to be real sorry you did that,” Luke said.

“What’s the matter? Getting a lot of calls?”

“I would call them attempts at calls. I don’t want to talk. That includes you, by the way.”

“Yeah, well, you’re stuck with me,” Aiden said. He went to the refrigerator and grabbed a bottled beer, popped the cap and went to the living room. He sat and without even bothering to take his jacket off, he said, “So. She left you.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about the perfect nymphet, Shelby. She left you and you’re going down the shitter.” He took a drink of his beer.

Luke silently and meanly glared at his brother.

“She left you, you’re miserable and completely fucked up. I had to come all the way up here to make sure your ten-day-old dead body wasn’t in this house and you’re not being at all cooperative or hospitable.”

“No one asked you.”

“Well, Jesus, I know that! God forbid the firstborn ever show weakness or ask for anything. You’re the steel man, right? Give me a break, Luke. Look at you. You augured in. Crashed.”

“I’ve been working,” he said.

“Bullshit. The work’s done. Tell me what happened.”

“Nothing happened,” Luke said. “It’s been kind of quiet around here. I didn’t feel like talking to anyone. That’s all.”

Aiden looked down and shook his head with silent laughter. “Brother, you give me no credit. You think I took emergency leave to come up here and save your life without knowing anything? I called that bar—that sweet little bar you like so much? Where they haven’t seen you in a long time? I talked to Jack a while, got Walt Booth’s number and talked to him, too. Here’s what happened—Shelby went to Maui for a warm, sunny vacation before heading to San Francisco to get an apartment for school that’s not starting for months. She got out of town. Since we had this talk once already, I can guess why. You pushed her away. You wouldn’t tell her how you feel because you think it’s a mistake for her. And you’re still scared every woman you meet is going to do you dirty. You’re still making decisions for other people without getting their opinion. Now she thinks you don’t care about her and so she took you up on the challenge and she left. Got as far away as she could. And now you’re in the shitter!”

Luke glared at Aiden for a moment before he said, “I’m going to fucking kill you.”

Aiden sat back in the chair and grinned. He took a slug of his beer. “Oh yeah? And why is that?”

“You called the general? About me?”

“Yup. And the bartender. But I got the call from Sean who got the call from Mom and you should just be glad Paddy and Colin aren’t stateside or they’d be in it. Now, why don’t you just answer the fucking phone and tell people you’re busy and can’t talk? What the hell are you doing?”

“Save my life?” Luke asked. “Emergency leave? Save my life? What the hell are you talking about?”

Aiden sat forward and grew serious. “Look, we’ve been here before. We were all young, true, and the circumstances were entirely different, but try to imagine what it’s like to see your big brother—the guy you most admire in the world—hit the skids and just about sink out of sight. Scared the shit out of everyone. That’s not going to happen again. No one is going to let it happen again.”

Luke took a breath. “Look, it’s not a big deal. Shelby was just following through with her plans. She wants to travel, go to school. I’m adjusting. Gimme a week. It’ll be fine.”

Aiden stared at him for a second. “Aw, bullshit,” he said.

Before Luke could respond, the phone rang.

“See? Goddamnit! Why’d you plug that thing in?” Luke roared.

Aiden went to the phone. He said hello. “Yes, Mom, I’m here—he’s fine. Yes, fine. I took his pulse, he’s alive, he’ll be fine. Yes, Mom. Yes, Mom. Mom! I just got here! Would you let me— Yes, Mom. Goodbye. I love you, too.” Before he could get back to his chair, it rang again and Luke groaned very loudly. Aiden picked it up and said hello. “Jesus, I just got here! Will you give me ten minutes to find out what the hell’s going on? Yeah, he’s fine! I’ll call you back. Now leave us alone!”

Aiden went back to his chair, his beer.

“See?” Luke said.

“Yeah, but you obviously unplugged the phone after all the calls started. You never bothered to tell anyone you were fine. What if Shelby called to say she’d thought it over and decided to sit it out here until her classes started? What’s the deal?”

“She wasn’t going to call.”

“What if she did?”

“That wouldn’t be good for her.”

Aiden was stunned silent for a minute. His mind was whirring. Then he was slowly overcome by a sly grin. “Oh man,” he said. “You wouldn’t be able to keep yourself from answering the phone if it rang, hoping it could be her, so you unplugged it.”

“You’re out of your mind…”

“You’d rather have her think you weren’t here. That a day or a week after she left you, you got it together and you were out looking for girls. Jesus, Luke.” He laughed. “What if she wanted some more time with you? Huh? What if she wanted to give you some more time with her to work out your issues?”

Luke shook his head helplessly. He got up from the sectional and went to the kitchen to get a beer. He went back to the living room. “That would be a bad decision.”

“Okay, now we’re on the same page. You’re looking out for her. You going to come clean with me, or do we have to have six more beers to get there? Because I don’t drink a lot anymore. On call all the time, you know…”

“I thought I explained this,” Luke said, sounding annoyed. “She’s a beautiful young girl. She might be a chronological twenty-five, but subtract a few years of her being tied to an invalid. She would be carded in most bars. I was almost her first flirt! She should do things! Experience things! She’s been patient and dedicated a long time—she has to get out there and…”

“And not take a chance on you and then realize in a couple years that she was hasty,” Aiden supplied.

“Aw, what the hell,” Luke said, standing up and running a hand across the back of his neck. “She’s not ready to make that kind of choice. She might think she is, but she’s not!”

“Because you weren’t?”

“She’s too young!”

“Because you were?”

Luke didn’t respond. He turned his back on his brother.

Aiden stood up and approached Luke’s back. He put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed. “You weren’t too young when you married Felicia. You weren’t too naive or inexperienced when you were twenty-five. You had it all—you were sharp and loyal and you knew how you felt. You had enough passion and commitment to never change your mind. You got screwed up by someone who wasn’t your match. I’m sorry, buddy, but it wasn’t your fault. Jesus, will you ever let yourself off the hook for that? You didn’t cheat on her! She went out on you!”

“She wasn’t enough,” he said. Then he laughed ruefully and shook his head. “That’s what she said to me….”

“Felicia?”

Luke turned around. “Shelby. She said she knew she wasn’t enough….”

“Oh, Christ,” Aiden said in a breath. He thought for a second and said, “Okay, look, let’s not just get tanked and whimper. Let’s go out, get a decent meal, maybe have a conversation that doesn’t include yelling, and when I’m satisfied you’re all right and won’t unplug your phone anymore, I’ll get out of your hair.”

Luke answered with a weak nod.

“Want to go to that bar you like so much?” Aiden asked.

“No,” he said immediately. “I need a little more time on that. Let’s go over to Fortuna. There’s a fish place…”

Aiden drove Luke to the next big town over and they ate at a nice little restaurant near a wide river. They ordered the same thing, which happened a lot in their family. There were things Aiden wanted to understand, but knowing Luke it wouldn’t work to just come out and ask him. So Aiden got him talking about the town, the people, the cabins and what he thought he’d end up doing with the property.

The mission when he bought the house and cabins was to turn them for a profit as soon as it was reasonable to do so. Now Luke was thinking about taking a year to see what booking them as vacation rentals looked like. There wasn’t a motel or bed-and-breakfast in Virgin River and it could be a highly profitable venture and not too much to manage. If it worked itself into a decent income, he might try to buy out Sean and run it as the sole owner. It would be the most settled Luke had been in more than twenty years.