Sunrise Point (Virgin River #19)(76)

Nora was completely confused. She had to concentrate to close her mouth.

“That’s right, darling. I followed some useless logger from Idaho. Well, he let me come along, I guess you could say. And I lived in a logger’s camp with a few other women while my logger alternately ignored me and visited me. I was just a foolish young girl who thought the right man would make everything better.”

“And he was killed,” Nora remembered.

“God rest his soul,” she said. “We’re not to speak ill of the dead, but if he hadn’t gotten himself killed in a logjam, I can’t imagine what would’ve become of me. As it turned out, I couldn’t stay in the camp without his sponsorship, so to speak. I had to go looking for work. So I walked and hitchhiked all over this county and came upon the orchard at harvest time, just like you did.”

“And fell in love with the owner’s son… .”

“To be fair, I tried very hard not to. Poor Warren—what was he thinking? I had another man’s baby in me!”

“He must have been thinking how much he loved you.”

“He was the most beautiful man. We had such a good time. He could bring me out of a bad mood just by saying, ‘Maxine, you’re probably right but you’re so damn loud!’ He was a little older than me—twelve years. And we were married over forty years. We married just before my baby was born. We’d planned to have a lot of children, but it turned out we were only going to have that one. When I cried and cried and apologized that I couldn’t give him his own, he shushed me and thanked me for making sure he had at least that one. ‘This is my son,’ he said to me. He was a wonder. Warren took after his mother, I think.”

“And your son, Tom’s father, died in a plane crash,” Nora recalled.

Maxie inhaled sharply and gave a nod. Her eyes closed for a moment, proving you never get over burying a child. “Our children are not our possessions, Nora. They’re loaned to us to raise and to be set free. From the time he could look up, he was determined to fly high and fast. I wasn’t put on this earth to stomp on a young man’s dreams. Although…there were times I had to ask myself if I’d have been happier if I had discouraged him in every way, even if it meant having an unhappy, bitter man alive long enough to harvest many, many years of apples. Surely not. Surely not.”

Nora wanted to be her. She had to brush away a tear.

“What? You’re crying? Stop at once—I’ve had my setbacks, but I’ve had the best life of anyone I know! I can’t find a person I’d trade places with, and believe me, I’ve been looking!” Then she paused for a minute of reflection. “Maybe Penny, about once a year. Every Christmas her son gives her a ten-day cruise, anywhere in the world. I could stand a cruise, I think.”

Nora sniffed back a laugh. “If I could, I’d give you a cruise. Don’t worry, Maxie—I won’t ever tell anyone.”

She gave a huff of laughter, a quiet laugh as Fay’s mouth opened around the nipple on the bottle and her head lolled back, asleep. “Nora, this is a small town. The biggest mistake I could’ve made was trying to pretend to be something I’m not. Those people who were around back then knew I showed up in Virgin River pregnant, married the lord of the manor at eight months, raised a logger’s son as Warren’s… . Those people told the ones who came later, I expect. At least until my son’s young wife gave me their baby and he died shortly thereafter…and all that became more interesting news. Nora, there aren’t many secrets here. At least not for long.”

* * *

Tom spent some quality time with Nora at the picnic; he introduced her to Jill who gave her a tour of the enormous Victorian house that fronted her specialty farm. Tom helped Berry pick out a pumpkin while Nora was in the house and promised to help her carve a face in it. He tried to get her to take a break by lying still on the blanket with a book, even for a little while, but she was on the move. She would have been happy to stay on the ponies for hours and, because she so often played alone, the concept of taking turns was new to her.

As long as his day had been, made a little longer by chasing and holding small children, he was relieved when the late October sun finally began to sink behind the trees. He helped Nora pack up and take the kids home.

The day and possibly the cookies had worn on Berry. Tom had seen her fuss a little now and then, get stubborn or pouty, but the act she put on while being dragged to the car, and then on the drive home, was a shocker. Gone was the shy, mousy little girl. She screamed bloody murder and kicked her feet wildly. That had the effect of stirring Fay into a wail.

“So this is what happens when there’s no nap?” Tom asked Nora.

“And Fay didn’t have much of one—just a cat nap while Maxie held her. I’m going to have to get them right in the tub and into bed.”

Tom helped get the girls inside for Nora. While she got them into the bath, he unloaded the trunk, put the chairs back in his truck and brought the stroller, blanket and supplies into the house. By that time Berry was in a towel, still sniffing from what had seemed an endless meltdown while Nora was drying Fay. “How can I help?” he asked.

“If you could get a bottle for Fay, that would help.”

While he did that, Nora got them into pajamas. Since he was just standing around looking kind of useless with a bottle in his hand, she passed him the baby and asked, “Do you mind? I need to see if I can get this girl settled down so she can sleep. She’s had way too much picnic.”