Sunrise Point (Virgin River #19)(25)

“No kidding…”

“For a little while, I was on a cloud. I’m not an exciting guy, I know that—I’m a nerdy, quiet, boring history teacher. I’m excited by things very few other people care about. And then this pretty, funny, intelligent woman liked me. Liked me a lot. Wanted to be with me, have a family with me… It was such a powerful feeling. I couldn’t resist—I thought I’d finally found the life I’d been waiting for. She was pregnant immediately. And then I thought a lot of the high drama and tantrums had to do with that.”

“Nah,” Nora said. “Trust me—the temper came out of the blue. I never knew what a day would hold. We’d go for days, sometimes weeks, and everything would seem so normal. Maybe not a happy circus, but normal. And then there’d be some incident—fight with the neighbors, disagreement at work, an argument with a friend… Once a traffic ticket had her in a state for weeks! She ranted on the phone to anyone who would listen right up to her court appearance. She performed for a traffic judge who threatened to throw her in jail. I might never have known about that, but I was with her. It was regular. Frequent. I don’t know what made her so crazy.”

“There were also lies—things she said people did to her, that hadn’t been done. I’m sure she claimed that traffic cop abused her in some way,” Jed added.

“Um, yes,” Nora said. “She had an elaborate story. But there are cameras in the patrol cars. That got her in trouble…and produced a long running rage. If there was one thing Therese hated, it was being caught.”

“And there you have it,” Jed said. “After four years of trying to be the ballast in the drama of the day, I finally told her I couldn’t take the mood swings, the anger, the crazy-making. And it wasn’t always directed at me—but fifty percent of the time there was some enormous melodrama that I didn’t understand and couldn’t deal with. And I was the most convenient person she had to dump it on. I suggested we try a trial separation. I said I thought the pressure of working and parenting was wearing on her and I could take some of that stress off her hands. I wanted to take you. I might as well have launched a missile—she went into an immediate defensive posture. She saw a lawyer right away. We were instantly at war.” He took a breath. “You’d think after the number of years I spent studying historic battles, I’d know better than to draw first blood. I’m sorry, Nora. I’m the one at fault for all of it.”

“Well…apology accepted, but I know you were no more capable of making things different than I was. Life was sometimes so hard with her… .”

“I’m so sorry, Nora. I’d give anything if I could’ve been smarter. If I’d been a better father.”

“What if I inherited it? Her instability?”

“According to her sisters, whatever it was, it was there since she was a just a girl. Her sisters were older than she—larger, stronger, presumably smarter—and yet they were sometimes afraid of her. When we got married, she didn’t want any family there… . Nora, I don’t know what caused your mother’s problems, but if you don’t have those issues now… I trust you’re free of it. I hate that I had to miss so much of your life.”

“I have something to tell you,” she said. “There are… I have…” She swallowed. “I have children. Two girls. Ten months and almost three years. And no, I haven’t been married. Their names are Fay and Berry.”

She heard a strange sound on the phone. “God,” he said in a whisper. “Oh, my God…”

“They’re very smart and beautiful,” she told him.

“Can I… Will you let me meet them?”

“You can visit for an afternoon when I’m not working,” she said. “Even though you’re my father and we’ve been talking for a couple of weeks, I’m not ready to leave you unsupervised with them, so that’s the best I can do. I work a lot. I’m not close to Stanford—I’m in Humboldt County. A little town called Virgin River. There are a couple of motels on the coast a good half hour away, but no guest room and no bed-and-breakfast.”

He sniffed loudly. “Don’t worry about that. Tell me when I can come. I’ll take time off. Oh, Nora, thank you for telling me. Thank you for giving me a chance.”

“Yeah, don’t screw up,” she said. “I’ve somehow survived one really mean parent. The first time it looks like it’s going down that road with you, it’s over.”

Chapter Six

Nora rode to the orchard with Tom and said, “I’m going to let Jed visit for a couple of hours on Sunday afternoon while I’m there.”

“Jed?” Tom asked.

“It might be quite a while before I call him Dad.”

“But you’re going to let him meet your daughters…?”

She laughed lightly. “I’m not going to give him my daughters, I’m just going to let him see them. And let them meet him. I think it’s the right thing to do.”

“Want me to be there? Just in case you get nervous?” Tom asked.

She smiled at him. “I could have sworn you found me annoying… .”

“Well, maybe I did. At first. But you’re not a bad kid.”