Moonlight Road (Virgin River #11)(65)

“Aiden,” Maureen began, “she’s just a slight little woman who—”

“I won’t let her hang around,” Sean said.

“The thing you have to remember about her—no lie is too big a lie. Her stories have been so extraordinary, I think she believes them. I’m not even sure where she grew up—not in this country, that’s for sure. Russia or maybe Bosnia—probably a place of grave unrest. The lying and manipulations—it might be something she learned in childhood, a survival thing. It’s pathological…it’s automatic for her. I’m not telling you that to make an excuse for her, but so you’ll be on your guard. She’s very convincing.”

He felt his mother’s hand on his shoulder. “What kind of lies, Aiden?” she asked him. “Do you think she’d lie about wanting another chance?”

He looked at his mother levelly, his expression angry. “Absolutely. She’d lie about anything, Mom,” he tried to say gently. “She has lied about anything.”

Annalee already had a little hotel room, though it was not in Fortuna. She was staying in Garberville for the time being, but not under the name Annalee Riordan. And she wasn’t alone, but Aiden didn’t need to know that. Annalee was with Mujo, her partner in every sense of the word.

Annalee drove around the countryside for a little while, then finally pulled into the little town of Virgin River. She sat in her car, refreshed her makeup and made sure her hair was just so before walking into the little bar at the center of town. It was a crapshoot—she had to choose between the bar, church or medical clinic. Since Luke’s truck was not outside the clinic, she assumed they had not gone there to have the baby.

Baby. She wished she’d had a baby with Aiden. That was a major miscalculation of hers, not having a baby. That would have been a much better long-term arrangement. But at the time they’d married and divorced she’d been so young, the very idea of being tied down to an infant made her feel claustrophobic. Truthfully, it still made her cringe—she wasn’t crazy about kids. But—she could have let him have the kid, then come back regularly to discuss taking over custody…That thought made her smile. An arrangement like that would be like an annuity.

She walked into the bar and, wearing her prettiest smile, jumped up on a stool in front of one of the best-looking bartenders she’d ever seen in her life. “Hi,” she said cheerily.

“Hello, there. You must be lost.”

“No,” she said with a laugh, shaking her head. “Not in the least. But my timing is really off today. I was just visiting family and almost the second I arrived, my cousin-in-law was in labor, heading off to the hospital to have her baby, and the entire family was following. To tell the truth, I wanted to go along, but I’d barely met her, so it didn’t seem like a good idea to horn in.”

He lifted a handsome brow. “Shelby, by chance?”

“Exactly!” she said as if surprised. “My gosh, you must know everyone!”

“Pretty much,” he said. “And sometimes it seems like all the women are pregnant, but that isn’t really the case. I know she was due any second, and my wife was called out for a delivery.”

“You’re married to Mel, the doctor?”

“Midwife,” he corrected. He put out his big hand. “Jack Sheridan,” he said, introducing himself.

She put her much smaller hand in his. His palm was callused; she loved his hand. “Annalee,” she said. “Annalee Riordan.” Too bad the guy was just a poor country bartender. He was hot. She loved a big, rugged man. But she had to think about the future and she wasn’t about to hook up with some low-income country boy. Well, she thought, smiling. Maybe for an afternoon or something. But she had bigger fish to fry. “I’m pleased to meet you.”

“Can I get you something?” he asked. “Late breakfast? Early lunch? Cold drink?”

“Well, let’s see.” She looked at her watch. “I’ve been driving since about five this morning. Do you think it’s too early for a bloody Mary?”

“Coming up,” he said, turning away from her to fix her drink. When he put it back in front of her, he said, “Where’d you come from?”

“I just drove from San Francisco today,” she said. “I was there on business and since I was on the right side of the country and most of the family seemed to be here, I thought I’d take a little extra time to visit. I actually live in New York.” She slid her hand into the thin clutch and pulled out a fancy business card, sliding it across the bar to him. “There’s a designer in San Francisco I wanted to visit, look at some of his new designs. I have some very important clients in New York who will probably be interested.”

He looked at the card. “Aren’t there a lot of fashion consultants in New York?”

“Exactly,” she said, grinning widely. “That’s just it—everyone in New York sees all the same things. They count on me to bring something new to the party on a regular basis.”

He slipped the card into his pocket. “I guess it’s pretty obvious—I wouldn’t know the first thing about fashion. My wife used to have a lot of fun with it, before she settled here with me. I guess when she lived in L.A., she spent all her money on designer this, designer that.”