Jack couldn’t help himself. He said, “You’re staying.”
“For the time being,” she said. “Another baby is coming at the end of summer. I live for those babies.”
One of these days, he said to himself, I’m going to tell her. Tell her I love her more than I thought I could love a woman. Tell her that my life started when she walked into town. But not yet. He didn’t want to back her into a corner and make her feel she had to either say she loved him, too, or run.
“Well, Mel, as it happens, I’ve driven a ton of Hummers.”
She glanced at him with surprise, for she hadn’t even thought of that. “Of course you have!” she said. “I had forgotten that!”
“I’m also a passably good mechanic. Born of necessity.”
“Good then,” she said. “You’ll be a bigger help than I realized.”
The first items on the agenda were her hair and his blood tests. Mel was very appreciative of the fact that her seventy-five-dollar cut and highlights seemed to be more than adequate. Either she’d been countrified or ripped off in L.A. After that they went to a used car lot where there was one ridiculously high-priced used Hummer. It was a repo, had only twenty thousand miles on it, and seemed to be in good condition. Jack looked at the engine and had them put it up on the lift so he could examine the axle, frame, shocks, brakes and whatever else he could see. They took it out and it drove well, but the price was out-of-sight. Sixty thousand and it wasn’t loaded.
Except—Mel had a sweet little BMW convertible trade-in and cash. It took only a couple of hours to bring that price into range and Jack was able to pridefully explore another aspect of Mel’s character—she was a hardheaded, master negotiator. Next they went to the hospital supply where they had the back of the Hummer outfitted with some emergency equipment, from a defibrillator to an oxygen tank. Some medical supplies had to be ordered and would be delivered to Virgin River within a couple of weeks. Then they drove it back down the highway and up the mountain pass to Virgin River. “You don’t want anyone to know where this came from,” Jack said to Mel. “How are you going to explain it?”
“I’m going to say that I used to work with a lot of rich, bored doctors in L.A. and hit them all up for donations for the town.”
“Ah,” he said. “If you leave?” He just couldn’t make himself say “when.”
“Maybe I’ll actually call some of those rich, bored doctors I really do know, and hit them up for a donation,” she said. “But let’s not put the cart before the Hummer.”
He laughed. “Let’s not.”
Mel and Jack took the Hummer back to the bar where they did a little show-and-tell with the dinner crowd who would waste no time spreading the word to the rest of the town. Doc Mullins, as if he was annoyed by this unnecessary addition to the town, grumbled that his old truck had worked just fine. But Mel countered his comments by telling him that he would have to get checked out in the new vehicle the very next morning. It soon became apparent that his fit of pique was obviously contrived and he was even caught smiling once or twice as he looked it over. Ricky talked her out of a spin and Preacher stood on the porch, arms crossed over his massive chest, grinning like a schoolgirl.
When Mel called June Hudson the next morning to tell her about the new vehicle, June suggested they get together at her home the next Sunday for a casual dinner of burgers and hot dogs. “If I bring some potato salad and beer, may I bring a friend?”
Mel asked. She told herself she asked because this little picnic was comprised of couples, except for June’s dad, old Doc Hudson, and she didn’t want to feel oddly alone. But really it was because she had found she didn’t much like being away from Jack.
“So,” Jack said, grinning. “Are you bringing me out of the closet?”
“Just for the day,” she answered. “Because you’ve been very good.”
June had the kind of adorable country house that Mel had fantasized about when planning her escape from the city—wide porch, bright paint, cozy furnishings, right up on a knoll from which she had a view of the valley. Part of her decor was comprised of needlepoint pillows and quilts—June was a master stitcher. She seemed to have the perfect country doctor life—her husband Jim to back her up and help with the baby; an ornery father butting in all the time and supportive and delightful friends in John and Susan Stone.
Susan was a nurse, so she and Mel compared notes. Plus, Susan and John were transplants from the city and she was candid about how it took her a while to appreciate the slower pace and get used to the absence of amenities in Grace Valley.
“I used to go to the day spa down the street for a facial and eyebrow wax,” she said.
“Now it’s a major undertaking just to buy groceries.” Susan was also very, very pregnant. She was continually pressing on her lower back, pushing her belly forward. The women sat on the porch. June rocked in the porch swing and nursed her baby, Susan fidgeted, trying to get a throw pillow to sit right against her lower back, while out in the yard the men stood around the Hummer, each one with a beer, occasionally looking inside or under the hood.
“That’s quite an attractive man you brought along,” June observed. Mel glanced out at them. Jim and Jack were about the same height and weight and both wore their uniforms of jeans, plaid or denim shirts and boots. John, just a bit shorter at a very respectable six feet, was not quite as casually dressed in his khakis and polo, but a damn fine specimen. “Look at them,” Mel said. “They look like an ad for Virility Magazine. Mother Nature’s best work.”
“Mother Nature is twisted,” Susan said, squirming. “If she had any compassion, we’d have six-week pregnancies.” She winced. “I bet it’s really Father Nature. The creep.”
“Uncomfortable, huh?” Mel asked.
“I’m going to have back labor again, I just know it. It’s such a nice day to be so pregnant.”
“This is nice, June. Thank you,” Mel said. “It’s so relaxing, low stress, for me if not poor Susan. Does everybody in the valley have such simple, uncomplicated lives?”June surprised her by laughing, after which Susan joined in. Sydney, Susan’s sevenyear-old, burst through the door, blond curls flying, and ran down the steps with Sadie, June’s collie chasing her into the yard. She ran to her dad and hung on his leg for a minute, then continued racing around the yard with the dog in pursuit, the collie trying to herd her back to the group.
“Something’s funny?” Mel asked.
“Things haven’t exactly been uncomplicated around here. A couple of years ago I was pretty sure I’d never get married, much less have a baby.”
This caused Mel to scoot to the edge of her chair. “It seems like you and Jim have been together forever.”
“He came into my clinic late at night a little over a year ago, looking for help with a comrade’s gunshot wound. Jim’s now a retired law enforcement officer. When I met him, though, he was skulking around the countryside, working some case—and in the dark of night he’d sneak into my bedroom. I kept him my little secret for quite a while—until my tummy started to grow.”
“No way.”
“Oh, yeah. No one in town knew I even had a man in my life, and then suddenly I’m pregnant. And not a little pregnant—by the time I realized it, I was already pretty far along. We’ve only been married a few months. We didn’t get it done before the baby came.”
“In a small town like this?” Mel was flabbergasted.
“People were decent about it. I mean, we did have a flood, lost our preacher for a while, there was a huge drug raid out in the woods, one thing after another. And probably because they all took to Jim so quickly. But my dad almost had a stroke.”
“And maybe because Jim moved right into your house and wouldn’t let you out of his sight until you agreed to marry him,” Susan added.
“I had been single a long time,” June said. “I was a little nervous about the whole thing. I mean, we hadn’t even been together all that long—and my God, not very often. I don’t know how it happened,” June said. “But it sure happened fast.”
“No—you know how it happened,” Susan said. “This,” she said, petting the giant mound that would soon be screaming to be changed, “is the great mystery. We had to try for a long time to get Sydney. We needed a little help, in fact. I just don’t get pregnant.”
Maybe in time Mel would join in, share her secrets. For now, though, she just wanted to hear theirs.
“John and I were having a big fight,” Susan said. “We were barely speaking. I had him sleeping on the couch—he was such an ass. By the time I forgave him and let him back in bed with me, he was packing quite a punch.” She giggled. Her eyes twinkled.
“At least you’re married,” June put in.
“Tell us about your man,” Susan said.
“Oh, Jack’s not my man,” she said automatically. “He is the first friend I made in Virgin River, however. He runs a little bar and grill across the street from Doc’s—as much a meeting place as a restaurant. They don’t even have a menu—his partner, a big scary-looking guy named Preacher who turns out to be an angel—cooks up one breakfast item, one lunch item and one dinner item everyday. On an ambitious day, they might have two items—maybe something left from the day before. They run it on the cheap, fish a lot, and help out around town wherever needed. He fixed up the cabin I was given to stay in while I’m there.”
The women didn’t say anything for a moment. Then Susan said, “Honey, I have a feeling he doesn’t think of you as a friend. Have you seen the way he looks at you?”
She glanced at him and as if he could feel her gaze, he turned his eyes on her. Soft and hard all at once. “Yeah,” Mel said. “He promised to stop doing that.”
“Girl, I’d never make a man stop doing that to me! You can’t possibly not know how much he—”
“Susan,” June said. “We don’t mean to pry, Mel.”
“June doesn’t mean to pry, but I do. You mean to say he hasn’t…?”
Mel felt her cheeks flame. “Well, it isn’t what you think,” she said. June and Susan burst out laughing, loud enough to cause the men to turn away from their conversation and look up at the porch. Mel laughed in spite of herself. Ah, she had missed this—girlfriends. Talking about the secret stuff, the private stuff. Laughing at their weaknesses and strengths.
“That’s what I thought,” Susan said. “He looks like he can’t wait to get you alone. And do unspeakable things to you.”
Mel sighed in spite of herself, her cheeks growing hotter. He can’t, she almost said. And ohhhh…
June took the baby off her breast and put him on her shoulder to burp him. The group of men seemed to turn as one and head for the porch, Jim first. “Sounds like trouble up here,” he said. He reached for the baby and took over the burping. John lowered his lips to Susan’s forehead and gave her a kiss. His other hand ran smoothly over her belly. “How are you doing, honey?” he asked solicitously.
“Great. Right after dinner, I want you to get it out of me.”
He handed her his beer. “Here, have a slug and mellow out.”
Jack stood behind Mel and put his hand on her shoulder. Without even realizing it, she reached up and stroked his hand.
“I’ll start the grill,” old Doc Hudson said, going through the house. They all sat around a picnic table in the backyard, talking about their towns, their cases. Mel got some tips from John on home births—he explained that he was an OB