Paradise Valley (Virgin River #7)(103)

“I am not fighting with you, man,” Rick said.

“You ought to be ashamed, treating that girl so bad,” Dan said calmly. “I don’t know what’s got into you. If yelling at her isn’t bad enough, you put your hands on her. And not in a sweet way.”

“It’s not your business,” Rick said, but some of the hostility was gone.

“Thought I explained about that,” Dan replied. “I don’t stand around and watch a man get tough with a woman and look the other way. You have to answer for it. For being one mean, weak dick. You want to answer to me or to her?”

Rick just stared up at him. “How you stay upright like that, man?”

“Practice.”

“How much practice?” Rick asked. “How long have you had it?”

“Been a few years now. I got mine in Iraq, too. And I was just as screwed up as you. Time we got this all straight, boy. You’ve whined and whimpered about long enough now.”

Rick shook his head. “You don’t even wobble around.”

“One of the neat little tricks I wish I’d never had to learn.” Dan reached in his pants’ pocket. “Do you know where to find Liz?”

Rick nodded.

Dan threw his keys at him, hit him in the chest with them. “Go find her. Beg her to forgive your sorry ass. That, or go a few rounds with me.”

“Hey! I can’t drive!”

“Why not? You gonna get rides the rest of your life? It’s the Ford truck with the camper shell.”

“It’s my right leg!”

“Then accelerate and brake with the left! Jesus, have you been in a coma all this time? Aren’t you even thinking about how to get on with your life?” Dan put out his hand and with the help of that and his own hand pushing himself up, Rick got off the ground. “And for God’s sake, be careful. It’s the only truck I have. When you find her, don’t be too surprised if she breaks your other leg. If I were her, I would.”

Standing, and in considerable awe of the one-legged man he faced, Rick said, “Listen, I know you mean to help, to teach me a lesson, but I’m not screwed up on purpose….”

“I know that, son. But you can get better on purpose. You ever want to talk about it with someone who’s been there, I can do that. But not right now. Right now, take care of that girl.”

“What am I supposed to tell her? Because we both know I’m not good enough for her.”

“Then I suggest, right after you beg her to forgive you, you thank her. Because she’s just crazy enough to think you are. Now, my beer’s getting warm. We about done with this circus?”

Rick tossed the keys in his hand. Then he turned and went to fetch his cane, carefully bending to get it off the ground.

Dan stood in the street until Rick had backed the truck out of its parking spot, accelerating too fast, breaking too hard, almost taking out the vehicle it was parked beside. Dan winced. It wasn’t as though that old truck didn’t have plenty of scrapes, but if the kid drove it right off the mountainside, he’d be real sorry he staged this whole production.

He bent to lift his prosthesis and boot. He started hopping back toward the bar. Before he got far, Jack was down in the street, draping Dan’s arm across his shoulders.

“Fancy,” Jack said. “You should be an acrobat. You have some serious skills.”

“Half the time I am an acrobat.”

“Where’d you send Rick in your truck?” Jack asked.

“I told him to go find Liz and beg her forgiveness.”

“And if they just duke it out again?”

“Aw, don’t worry. She can probably take him. Now, I need a bathroom or someplace private to drop my drawers and reassemble. I don’t want to show Hope my shorts.”

Rick had lied when he’d said he knew where to find Liz—he could think of a hundred places. One of those places was her house in Eureka. As he drove out of town, his first thought was that he wasn’t ready to drive on freeways. He wasn’t even ready for these country mountain roads he’d grown up on. He was going real slow, breaking cautiously around the curves. He’d almost forgotten about looking for Liz. He was busy learning to drive again.

But driving turned out to be okay. He was a little clumsy on the gas and brake for about ten minutes, so he headed for Valley High, though he knew she wouldn’t be there. He just wanted to practice, to be sure he wouldn’t end up in a ditch.

Twenty minutes into his driving experiment, he decided to go looking for her, and it was not because Dan told him to. The second she ran away from him, he knew. He wasn’t getting out of this business the way he’d planned. He felt two choices staring him in the face. Either he had to make peace with his leg and his life or he had to go away somewhere he could be alone forever. Where no one would ever remind him of all his bad experiences, all his losses. When he thought of making things right, he felt the sting of tears in his eyes, but when he thought of being alone forever, his throat closed so tight he couldn’t breathe. He had both reactions, to facing those two alternatives, within a matter of less than sixty seconds.

He drove out to a place in the woods where they used to park—no one was there. He drove through some vineyards in the valley, passed a couple of big trucks on a two-lane road, a daring move for a one-legged driver. The sun was starting to sink behind the mountains to the west; he’d have to get the truck back before long. The crazy fool, giving him a truck! Wasn’t he worried that Rick would just take off and never come back?