Second Chance Pass (Virgin River #5)(108)

“I don’t want to get hurt again.”

“I hear ya, Nikki. I understand, I do. You’ll be strong enough to take a chance again someday. When you are, I’m sure you’ll stumble on a good man. There are probably a million of ’em out there. Just wanted to be sure nothing bad happened.”

It took her a minute to respond. “Nothing bad happened.” “That’s good enough for me. You take care, Nikki.” He hung up the phone and looked at his wife. He smiled. “That was very sneaky,” Vanessa said.

Seventeen

T he dry heat of July brought passionately anticipated action to the Middleton family—labor pains. Preacher was back and forth from the kitchen to his quarters no less than every ten minutes. “How is it now?” he asked Paige.

Paige was reading to Christopher. “John, it’s going to be a very long day for you if you can’t relax a little. I’m still having contractions ten minutes apart.”

“But it’s going to be today, right?”

“This could go on for twenty-four hours,” she said. “They’re not real hard.” Then she turned to Chris. “Why don’t you read this page, honey. You can do it.”

“’Kay,” he said, and proceeded to read, but whether from identifying the words or from memory, it was hard to tell.

Preacher went back to the kitchen, his head hanging. “Still ten minutes,” he told Jack.

“I have an idea, buddy. Let’s get some food ready for dinner tonight and tomorrow night, just in case you don’t feel like cooking. I’ll hold down the fort.”

“Should we call Mel again?” he asked.

“No,” Jack said. “We should let her catch a nap, in case she has to be up all night with you.”

“Okay,” he said.

Jack chuckled under his breath. His own experience with his firstborn had definitely lacked this edge of anticipation, it having come upon him so fast. Maybe the nice slow buildup wasn’t so great after all. Preacher was going to be a wreck by the time this baby finally made an appearance.

As the afternoon dragged out, and the contractions not any closer together, Jack gave Brie a heads-up when he saw her. “I have a feeling I might need some child-care assistance at the house,” he said. “If Paige needs Mel during the night, can you and Mike come out to my place, stay with the kids, so I can stay here with Christopher? When Mel’s working at Doc’s, I like to be close by.”

“Sure. How’s Paige doing?”

“Early labor. She’s been trying to rest to save her strength, but I think Preacher’s driving her crazy,” Jack said.

“Aw, he’s excited.”

“Excited doesn’t touch it.”

Jack was jotting all this down in a letter for Rick, between serving drinks and meals to his customers. He thought he was turning out a very humorous running commentary on Preacher’s nerves, Paige’s slow progress and growing annoyance with her husband. The dinner hour came and Preacher, who had never held frequent or long conversations with patrons, told everyone who came in that her pains were down to eight minutes apart.

Mel arrived, carrying Emma and holding David’s pudgy little hand as he toddled in the door. He spied Jack and said, “Da!”

When Jack saw her, his eyes grew warm. It hadn’t changed for him since the first day she’d walked into his bar. She was so damn beautiful, so sexy, even with a baby on her shoulder and a toddler in hand. And though she was still complaining about her figure since Emma was born, the jeans she was wearing sure didn’t look any larger to him—those jeans just set him on fire. He was pretty sure that when she was old and gray, he still wouldn’t be able to keep his hands off her.

He walked around the bar and crouched for David. He put out his hands. “Come on, cowboy. Come to Dad.”

Mel let go of the hand and watched as Davie literally flew into his father’s arms. She laughed at his eagerness, his clumsiness, and her eyes glowed as he fell into his father’s arms. “So,” she said, “I heard someone’s trying to have a baby around here.”

“I hope you were able to get a little nap,” he said.

“I slept for a couple of hours. It was nice. Can you hang on to him so I can just look in on Paige?” she asked.

“Sure. Take your time.”

When Mel got to their quarters, she found Paige pacing back and forth. “How’s it going?” she asked.

“I’m trying to walk them down to five minutes,” she reported. “But I’m not moving very fast. It was like this with Christopher. A long early labor, all in my back.”

“That’s the way some women like to do it,” Mel said. “Are you uncomfortable?”

“Nah, not really. I can walk and talk through them. If they’re no different after dinner, I’m going to bed early and see if I can get a little sleep, but with John asking me every five minutes how I’m doing, that could be hard.”

She smiled. “Please, clear soup for dinner. Nothing heavy. Just on the off chance you get sick during delivery. That happens to some women during transition.”

“I had John make up some broth and Jell-O.”

“Good idea. May the Force be with you.” Mel laughed.

Sensing it could be a middle-of-the-night event, Mel got her children and herself settled early. At about ten o’clock she roused briefly as she felt her husband slip in beside her. She instinctively turned into his waiting arms, cuddling up against him. He slipped his big hand under the T-shirt she wore and she said, “You have to let me sleep. You know Preacher is going to get me up soon.”