Paradise Valley (Virgin River #7)(72)

“Is that a fact?” Rick asked, taking Dana into his arms. “Where’s the little guy?”

“Chris is in school. He’s in first grade now.”

“Aw, jeez, was he in that bus accident?” Rick asked. “Jack told me about it.”

Paige shook her head. “He was home that day. I kept him home because of the nasty weather. If it weren’t just first grade, I probably would have sent him. Now, till I get my confidence back, I drive him.”

“I rode that bus for years. Must have scared you to death,” Rick said, and sniffed the baby’s neck while she patted him on the cheek.

Preacher smiled and exchanged glances with his wife. “Scared everyone in town, Rick,” Preacher said, not wanting to draw attention to the fact that Rick was caving in to the baby’s softness, sweetness. “How about a sandwich? I’m just making up some for lunch. And I want you to see the new house Paul built on the bar for me and Paige—it’s amazing. Turned that little apartment into a real house.”

“That’d be great,” Rick said, and then he actually laughed as Dana pressed her forehead against his and blubbered her lips in a spitty noise.

Jack just wandered into the bar. But he smiled to himself. It was true, he wasn’t patient. But all he had to see was one ounce of recovery and it gave him some hope to hang on to.

Eleven

Friday afternoon came and Jerry Powell sat at his desk. He didn’t take notes during sessions, but afterward he wrote out a summary for the client files. He heard the outside door open and quickly closed and put away the file. Then he smiled as Liz walked into the office. “Hey there,” he said.

“Hi,” she answered, taking one of the chairs in the room.

This sort of thing didn’t happen in Jerry’s practice as often as one might think it would, given the size of the towns. He’d been counseling Liz since right after her baby was stillborn. He had a nice contract with the county school district. There were school counselors in both Eureka and Fortuna who liked his work and made referrals to him. And after Rick had been wounded in Iraq, Liz came back to him. After all, he’d been able to help before and they had history, so he was a logical choice.

If Rick and Liz talked about it, they would find out that he was counselor to both of them, but they wouldn’t learn it from him. And information he got from them about each other didn’t factor in his therapeutic work, though it was pretty impossible not to be aware. Therefore enlightened, he hoped.

Even though he felt a lot closer to Liz, and knew her much better, it hadn’t taken him long to feel a certain attachment to Rick. Here were a couple of kids who had been to hell and back. And while they loved each other, they were in a bad enough place that they might not get through it together. In fact, Jerry knew they were already apart. The one thing he couldn’t do was fill in the blanks for them—it would be a breach of ethics. If he were in a place where more PhDs were available to counsel, it would probably be wise to push one of them off on another counselor. If they were a married couple seeking individual as opposed to marriage counseling, he would be forced to. Otherwise, it would be a conflict of interest.

They needed him. And he was confident he could counsel them without prejudice.

Jerry came around his desk and went to the chair facing Liz. She came by his office every Friday after school on her way to Virgin River to help her aunt in the store. She had been for a couple of months now. “How was your week?” he asked her.

She shrugged. “Not great,” she said. “I’m worried I might be sliding backward.”

“Go ahead and tell me about it, Liz,” he said.

“Well, I had myself toughened up a little. Like I’ve told you before, I started concentrating on school more, so Rick would be proud. But then I liked it. Liked that I could get the grades when I tried. Liked that I already got an acceptance into community college. It was for me. And I hung in there pretty good, even though Rick wouldn’t take my phone calls or anything. But then I finally saw him and talked to him. Last Friday night. I had to go to him, of course, even though he knows exactly how to find me. He made it real clear—he wants us to break up. He’s through with me. All week I haven’t been able to study at all. And I have finals coming up.” She swallowed a couple of times, as if trying to keep her tears in check. “All of a sudden, I don’t care anymore.”

“What don’t you care about?” Jerry asked.

She shrugged. “Not much of anything.”

“Does that mean, it’s not just schoolwork that’s been affected?”

She scooted forward on her chair. “Here’s the thing, Jerry. I knew this all along. I’ve known it since I read the pamphlets with Jack in Germany. He’s breaking up with me for my own good. He said as much.”

“Can you remember what he said?”

“That with him there was one bad thing after another, and they were always his fault. Which is the craziest thing I’ve ever heard. But I read in all the stuff they gave us and the stuff I found online, some wounded military guys go through this kind of thing. They feel as if it’s their fault or something. As if they don’t deserve to be loved. What the hell is that? Why doesn’t he blame me for all the stuff that’s gone wrong since we’ve been together? Why don’t I blame me?”