Sunrise Point (Virgin River #19)(17)

She showed up at the crossroad of 36 and the road to Virgin River and there sat that familiar big white truck. And there he was, leaning against it. Waiting.

“Wow,” she said, stopped in her tracks.

“Hop in,” Tom invited.

She went around the front of the truck and climbed up and in the cab. “I bet when your grandmother forced you to hire me, you didn’t foresee taxi service.”

“Is everything all right, Nora?” he asked before starting the truck.

She was startled by the question. No, things were not all right. But it was personal business. It had nothing to do with her job. “Fine,” she said. “Why?”

“You’ve been really quiet,” he said.

He’d noticed? she wondered. “I have?” she asked.

He nodded. “Your muscles okay? Back, shoulders, et cetera?”

“Yes. No problems. Why are you quizzing me?”

“I don’t mean to pry, but I thought I should ask because… Well, you had some injuries before and kept it to yourself.”

“I don’t have any injuries.”

“You probably don’t realize it—but the first couple of weeks at the orchard, you had a hard time keeping up, but you laughed. You also hummed a lot—I kept thinking you were going to break into song or something. We could hear you all over the place. Maxie could hear you from the back porch and she said things like, ‘That girl’s good to have around—she’s happy in her heart.’ I had no idea what you had to be so happy about, but we all got used to hearing you—and then you stopped. So I thought…wondered…”

Her mouth was hanging open. It took her a moment to recover from her shock. “Wait a minute,” she said. “When did you start to care if I was happy or not?”

“It’s not exactly like that,” he said. “I know you need the job to support your family because you told me you did and I know you go to a lot of trouble to prove yourself. And I know you’ve been quiet lately. I wanted to be sure you weren’t hurt or sick or maybe in trouble.”

“I didn’t even know I did that,” she said. “I was so damn relieved to have a job that actually put food on the table, I guess I was in a pretty good mood. I hum? Really? And you actually noticed?”

He hit the steering wheel with the heel of his hand in apparent frustration. “Excuse me for being sensitive,” he grumbled. “I’m not a bad guy, I’m just a guy and one of my employees is—”

“Okay, okay, okay,” she said. She ran her hands through her hair, removing and replacing the ponytail tie. “It’s been a very strange week. I’m estranged from my parents—my father left when I was little and I fell out with my mother when I was nineteen. I just found out my mother died two years ago, cause unknown. And my missing father has been looking for me. I’ve had a lot on my mind. I’ll try to laugh more if it’ll make you feel better.”

And now it was his turn to be silent. Shocked. “I’m sorry. I had no idea.”

“Of course you didn’t. I don’t usually talk about all that personal stuff. And I’m kind of sorry I just did, to tell the truth. I’m pretty sure I have the most screwed-up family on the planet and really, I don’t advertise that.”

And he laughed.

“This is funny to you?” she asked.

“Not at all. Coincidental, that’s all. Who would think we’d share something so bizarre—like screwed-up family?”

“I know Maxie a little bit and she is amazing,” Nora said.

“You bet she is. When I was born my dad was a test pilot in the Air Force, out in the high desert, Edwards Air Force Base. He flew spooky new jets. My mother was at the end of her rope with the living conditions, the lifestyle, all that went with his job, plus she was really young and I guess I wasn’t exactly planned. So, when I was a month old she brought me to Maxie and said, ‘Here. You take care of him. This was all a mistake.’ And off she went. I might know more about her except my dad was killed in a crash a couple of months later. I have no memory of either of them. So, there you go—we both have some unusual family histories. I hear my dad was a normal guy, but who knows what’s in the other gene pool. I don’t know anything at all about my mother.” He took a pause. “But I’ll tell you this—if she showed up all of a sudden, I’d have some questions.”

She was speechless. Why was it that everyone else’s life always seemed so easy, so flawless?

He pulled onto the road, heading for the orchard. Nora watched his profile. He was smiling. This was a hard man to read—he could be so kind, so generous and thoughtful, but she had also seen him glower as if just seconds from an outburst. Perhaps, she thought, being raised by Therese left her fearful of a frown. Surely not everyone came apart at the seams if something displeased them—that certainly wasn’t the case with her.

Tom pulled up to the barn and parked. He jumped out and she followed more slowly. When he got to the door to his office, he turned and looked at her. “You okay?” he asked.

She took a breath. “That was nice of you, to tell me that. It made me feel a little less…I don’t know…a little less like a loser.”

He actually laughed. “How long have you lived here?”