Second Chance Pass (Virgin River #5)(100)

“You are so frickin’ whipped.”

“Yeah? What are you right now?”

“Out of my head, that’s what.”

Paul lifted two eyebrows. “Six?”

“Aw, bite me!”

Before leaving Virgin River, Joe sat in the fifth wheel he’d borrowed and wrote a letter on a lined yellow pad, a letter in which every word embarrassed him. But he forced himself. He went through roughly fifty drafts to come up with one he could live with, and he still found it horribly inadequate.

Nikki—

I had a wonderful weekend with you. You left too soon and broke my heart. I want to talk to you again, see you again, and according to Vanni, you don’t want to be contacted by me. I don’t know what went wrong. For me, everything went right, and I thought it went right for you, too. I know you’re still recovering from a bad breakup, but it didn’t seem to have anything to do with you and me. Call me. Tell Vanni to give me your number so I can call you. I hope I didn’t do or say anything to hurt you, to make you feel bad, but if I did, at least give me a chance to apologize. Nikki, it was one of the nicest weekends of my life. Come on, baby. I’m dying here.

Love,

Joe.

He gave the letter to Paul because he didn’t trust Vanni just yet. However, when he took Vanessa into his arms to give her a kiss goodbye he said, “You have to believe me. I didn’t hurt her. I want to hear from her. Please, tell her that.”

“I’ll tell her. But I don’t know that it’ll change anything.”

“Just tell her. Please.”

Sixteen

T om had his gear packed by Sunday afternoon. He took Brenda out for a long ride and she held it together real well. She stayed for dinner with the general, Vanni and Paul. His dad was taking him to the bus at five in the morning. He drove Brenda back to her house at about 8:00 p.m., but he didn’t get home until 4:00 a.m. He found his dad was up.

“You didn’t keep Brenda out all this time, did you, son?”

“No, Dad. We were at her house. Her parents were home.”

“She okay?”

“Yeah, she’ll be okay. You haven’t been up all night, have you?”

“On and off.”

“I hope you weren’t worried,” Tom said.

“Not at all, son. I knew you’d be with your girl to the last minute. Unfortunately for you, there’s no time to sleep.”

“I’m not interested in sleep.”

“You will be.” He draped an arm around his son’s shoulder, gave a squeeze and said, “It’s what I would’ve done, too. She’s a wonderful girl.”

“She is a wonderful girl,” Tom agreed, a sadness at leaving her in his voice.

“Let’s get you some breakfast. Maybe a shower. Then we’ll take off.”

“Vanni and Paul getting up?”

“Oh, I’m sure. Come on, kid.”

Walt scrambled eggs and fried bacon and the sounds from the kitchen brought the others. An hour later they all stood out on the front porch and said goodbye. Tom kissed his sister and little Mattie. While his dad waited in the car, he embraced Paul. “Watch out for my dad, Paul,” Tom said. “He likes to act like this is no big deal. Be sure he’s handling me being gone okay.”

“I’ll watch,” Paul said. “I’ll take care of your family, boy. You just knock ’em dead in boot camp.”

“I’ll do my best.”

Ricky’s time was spent with the four most important people in his life. His grandma, Lydie, his girl, Liz, Jack and Preacher. Liz stayed in Virgin River for the ten days he was on leave and some afternoons, Jack took him fishing.

Standing out in the Virgin with Jack, watching the lines arc over their heads as they cast, Rick felt it was where he had always belonged. It was here, at the river, that all the important growing-up talks of his life had taken place, and always with Jack. It was here that Jack had that big talk with him about sex, for what good it did—Rick had still ended up getting his girl pregnant. What a tough time that had been. Later, while Rick was doing his best to stand by her like a man, it was Jack who encouraged him, coached him, tried to keep him on the right path to avoid even more disaster. And after the baby was stillborn, Jack and Preach held him up, helped him shoulder the pain.

“Thanks for everything you’ve done for me, Jack,” he said.

“I didn’t do anything. People tend to come out to celebrate their friends.”

“I wasn’t talking about this week—which, by the way, has been great. I was talking about the last few years. You were like my dad. I kind of always thought of you as my dad. I hope you don’t mind that too much.”

Jack felt his chest tighten up. “Mind? That would make me damn proud, Rick. If I could have another son, I would have it be you.”

“You gotta do something for me, Jack. If anything goes wrong over there—”

“Rick. We don’t like to talk that way.…”

“Jack! We know what it is over there. Now listen, if anything goes wrong over there, will you make sure my grandma and Lizzie get through it okay?”

Jack looked at him, at his profile, because Rick looked straight ahead. “You know you don’t have to ask that. We take care of each other’s families.”