Moonlight Road (Virgin River #11)(12)

A year and a half ago, right at Christmastime, they married, but they stayed on with Erin and Drew in the house Marcie, Drew and Erin were raised in. Ian had gone back to college, studying music education. They had been a crowded, happy family—Drew finishing up medical school, Erin busy as ever with her practice, Marcie working as a secretary and Ian going to school full-time and working part-time. It felt so natural, so mutually nurturing. Because of all the studying and such going on, it was common to come home to a quiet house, but it was almost never an empty house. The four adults shared space, chores, cooking, and when they were all together their home was full of life.

Then summer a year ago, everything changed. Drew moved out to go to his orthopedic residency program, Ian and Marcie bought a little house of their own because they wanted a family and Erin found herself alone for the first time in her life. In her life. And she thought, I am completely on my own. The staggering responsibility is finally behind me. I have reached that pinnacle we’ve been struggling toward.

And then she thought, Uh-oh. I am no good at being alone, but I damn sure better learn it, because it is what it is. That was when she asked Ian if she could make some improvements in his old cabin on the mountain so she could use it now and then.

He had grinned and said, “Little rugged for you, sister?”

“It’s on the rugged side, yes. But I won’t touch it if it has sentimental value as the dump where you found yourself. I can look around for something else for vacations and long weekends.”

“Erin, you do anything you want to that dump,” he had said. “I’m all done doing things the hardest way I can.”

Tonight, sitting on her sofa, listening to them murmur on the deck, the image of Ian running his big hands over Marcie’s round belly emblazoned on her mind, she thought, I will never have that. What I’m going to have from now on is what I have right now—myself. Just myself. Oh, there will be family—Marcie and Drew won’t forget me. We’ll talk and there will be visits. But I will never have what they have. I had better learn to find value and appreciation in this, because this is what I have….

I am alone. And I’d better learn how to be that.

Ian was washing up breakfast dishes the next morning when he said to Erin, “You get your phone and satellite feed today, right? So you’ll have TV, Internet, et cetera?”

“Hopefully. It was supposed to be done before I moved up here, but they rescheduled a couple of times.”

“The minute you get hooked up, give us a call. All right?”

Erin smiled at him. “Sure, Dad.”

“How’s the head?”

She touched the Band-Aid at her hairline. “Funny looking.”

“That’s nothing to when Marcie burned off her eyebrows. Now, that was funny looking. Doesn’t hurt anymore? Any headache?”

“I’m fine. You can go. It’s all right.”

“When you get the laptop online, are you going to e-mail your office and tell them so they can send you work?”

“No. I brought the computer so I can research if I feel like exploring that book idea, but mainly I want to try my hand at total relaxation. I’ve never had the luxury before. This is my time and I’m going to—”

“If you get bored or lonesome,” he said, cutting her off, “just come back to Chico. We’ll all take some long weekends up here, together. All your hard work on making this place nice won’t go to waste.”

“I won’t get bored or lonesome,” she said emphatically. “I’ve been looking forward to this all year. But if I do, you’ll be the first person I call.”

“You do that, Erin,” he said.

Three

After a long day of hiking along the ocean, Aiden went home, showered and walked down the path to Luke and Shelby’s house at around dinnertime. He found Shelby in the kitchen, getting some dinner ready. He ponied right up. “Can I help?”

“You can set the table,” she said. “But first, there is a call for you on the machine from a guy named Jeff. I wrote the number down, but go ahead and listen to the message if you want.”

“Nah, I’ll just call him.” He went to the cupboard to pull out the dishes.

“Ah, Aiden, you might want to call him now. Set the table after.”

“Why?” he asked. He’d kept in touch with Jeff since undergrad days; they’d both been in ROTC and on navy scholarships for med school. Jeff was one of the few people besides his brothers he was in constant touch with.

“It’s something urgent,” she said, her back to him, stirring a pan on the stove. “Something to do with an Annalee Riordan.” She turned toward him. “I know you don’t have any sisters.”

He was stunned speechless for a second. Then he recovered and smiled. “The ex,” he said. “You’re right, I’ll call.”

When he got Jeff on the phone, he was informed that Annalee had been looking for him unsuccessfully. His mother’s Phoenix phone was disconnected, all the brothers had moved, Aiden had separated from the navy and was now a civilian. The only one she could round up was Aiden’s former frat brother/best friend/best man and currently lieutenant commander in the navy. “She says it’s urgent that she speak to you,” Jeff said.

“We’ve been divorced for eight years after a three-month marriage,” Aiden said. “We don’t have urgent issues.”