Moonlight Road (Virgin River #11)(86)

He accepted the cup. “Mel, I’m not getting into this with Jack under any circumstances. Wasn’t I clear about that? You’re my partner, he’s my friend, this is going to stay between the two of you. Period.”

“But what’s your opinion?” she asked.

He shook his head. “Nope. I’m not going there, either. Whatever you and Jack decide is good for your family, I’m happy for you.”

“But would you do it if that’s what Abby wanted?”

He just stared at her. “We really need to get your hearing checked. I’m not taking sides on this issue. It’s too personal. Personal issues get a very big emotional investment along with an unbelievable emotional memory.”

“You’re a wimp,” she accused.

“Guilty.”

“What if Jack asks you?” she wondered.

“I’ll say the same thing to him.”

“It’s pretty hard to get a consensus when no one will give me an opinion….”

He frowned. “A consensus on what?”

“Whether I’m crazy or not,” she said with a shrug.

“Okay, I have an opinion about that,” he said. “You’re not crazy. How’s that?”

“Would you please tell Jack that?”

“No,” he said firmly. “Besides, Jack knows you’re not crazy.”

“I’m not so sure. He thinks this is about me not grieving the loss of my uterus more than wanting another child.”

“Really?” Cameron asked. “That was quite a while ago, wasn’t it? Couple of years?”

“Exactly!” she said almost triumphantly. “Plenty of time!”

“I’m a little lost. How could it be that?”

“It can’t! But he thinks too many things happened, taking my attention off my need to mourn, to adjust. Like the surgery, the forest fire, Doc’s death, Rick’s tour in Iraq and all the adjustments he and Jack were making because he was injured…you know. But I’m sure that’s not—” She cocked her head and listened. “I think that’s my prenatal.” She put down her coffee cup. “Thanks for saying I’m not crazy.”

He just gave a lame smile and a nod. But when she left the kitchen he said to himself, “Whoa. Interesting…”

Mel met her new patient in the foyer. She didn’t know anything about her except her name, Marley Thurston, her age, eighteen, and that this would be her first prenatal. But there was a young man with her, solicitously pressing his hand on the small of her back.

“You must be Marley Thurston,” Mel said, putting out her hand. “Mel Sheridan. How are you?”

“Fine,” she said, taking the hand. “Nice to meet you. This is my boyfriend, Jake Conroy.”

“How do you do. Can I get you to fill out a little paperwork for me before the exam?”

“Sure, but before I do that, can we talk about it? About the pregnancy? About stuff?”

“Of course. Follow me. The office is free—let’s sit down in there.” And she led the way. Once Mel was behind the desk and the kids were seated facing her, she started the discussion. “I sense you have some concerns? Some special needs?”

They looked at each other, then the young man actually looked down, leaving Marley to answer. “The pregnancy isn’t planned,” she said. “My girlfriend Liz Anderson she said if you can’t help us, no one can.” She shrugged. “That’s why we came all the way from Eureka to see you.”

Liz and Mel went way back; Liz and Rick were now engaged, soon to be married. Mel folded her hands on the desk. “That depends on what kind of help you need, of course. If I can’t help, maybe I can direct you to the right place.”

“The thing is…” Her voice caught and tears gathered in her eyes. She couldn’t seem to go on.

“It wasn’t…It was an accident,” the young man said. “My fault. Totally my fault.”

“Easy does it,” Mel said. “These things do happen. Are you certain you’re pregnant? We haven’t done the exam yet.”

She nodded. “Three months. Almost three months, I think. Mrs. Sheridan, we decided we can’t be parents right now. We just finished our first year of college and you have no idea how hard it was. Not school—we’re both good in school. But working and going to school and trying to keep up with bills. We both had to borrow tuition money. We’re going to have to borrow lots more before…” She looked to her boyfriend for help.

“We’ve been together since high school and we want to get married, we really do, and we tried to think of a way…” Jake cleared his throat. “Our families aren’t…Thing is, no one on either side ever got to college and they don’t have any money to help. Marley said that if I really wanted her to, she’d quit school and we could live with her folks, in her bedroom, but—”

“But it wouldn’t be good for the baby, either. Not good for us, not good for the baby, not good for our families. God,” she said, pounding a fist on her knee. “We really screwed up. Really.”

Mel took a deep breath. She didn’t like where this was going. But before explaining that she didn’t do terminations, she asked, “How is it you think I can help?”