Temptation Ridge (Virgin River #6)(120)

“I thought I explained this,” Luke said, sounding annoyed. “She’s a beautiful young girl. She might be a chronological twenty-five, but subtract a few years of her being tied to an invalid. She would be carded in most bars. I was almost her first flirt! She should do things! Experience things! She’s been patient and dedicated a long time—she has to get out there and…”

“And not take a chance on you and then realize in a couple years that she was hasty,” Aiden supplied.

“Aw, what the hell,” Luke said, standing up and running a hand across the back of his neck. “She’s not ready to make that kind of choice. She might think she is, but she’s not!”

“Because you weren’t?”

“She’s too young!”

“Because you were?”

Luke didn’t respond. He turned his back on his brother.

Aiden stood up and approached Luke’s back. He put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed. “You weren’t too young when you married Felicia. You weren’t too naive or inexperienced when you were twenty-five. You had it all—you were sharp and loyal and you knew how you felt. You had enough passion and commitment to never change your mind. You got screwed up by someone who wasn’t your match. I’m sorry, buddy, but it wasn’t your fault. Jesus, will you ever let yourself off the hook for that? You didn’t cheat on her! She went out on you!”

“She wasn’t enough,” he said. Then he laughed ruefully and shook his head. “That’s what she said to me….”

“Felicia?”

Luke turned around. “Shelby. She said she knew she wasn’t enough….”

“Oh, Christ,” Aiden said in a breath. He thought for a second and said, “Okay, look, let’s not just get tanked and whimper. Let’s go out, get a decent meal, maybe have a conversation that doesn’t include yelling, and when I’m satisfied you’re all right and won’t unplug your phone anymore, I’ll get out of your hair.”

Luke answered with a weak nod.

“Want to go to that bar you like so much?” Aiden asked.

“No,” he said immediately. “I need a little more time on that. Let’s go over to Fortuna. There’s a fish place…”

Aiden drove Luke to the next big town over and they ate at a nice little restaurant near a wide river. They ordered the same thing, which happened a lot in their family. There were things Aiden wanted to understand, but knowing Luke it wouldn’t work to just come out and ask him. So Aiden got him talking about the town, the people, the cabins and what he thought he’d end up doing with the property.

The mission when he bought the house and cabins was to turn them for a profit as soon as it was reasonable to do so. Now Luke was thinking about taking a year to see what booking them as vacation rentals looked like. There wasn’t a motel or bed-and-breakfast in Virgin River and it could be a highly profitable venture and not too much to manage. If it worked itself into a decent income, he might try to buy out Sean and run it as the sole owner. It would be the most settled Luke had been in more than twenty years.

Luke was ready to put down roots. He was just scared to death to ask anyone like Shelby to take that on. Because she might change her mind. And that would kill him.

So then Aiden got a little brazen and said, “There must have been something about this Shelby that really tripped you up. It’s not like you to get mixed up with some local girl, especially one with a general for an uncle.”

Luke chuckled. “Her looks. The first day I passed through town, I ran into her twice. I thought she was about eighteen and, brother, I knew better.”

“She was the only pretty girl in three counties?” Aiden asked.

“I couldn’t tell you,” Luke said. “I think I hit my head or something. I had a bad case of tunnel vision. I tried like hell to talk myself out of it, but it wasn’t long before all I could do was finish what I’d started. You’ve been there.”

“Been there,” Aiden agreed. After all, he’d married a woman because of tunnel vision. “And that’s when you started to lose interest?”

He was quiet for a second. “You don’t lose interest in someone like Shelby. No matter how hard you try.”

Aiden took a chance. “Been a while since you felt something like that, I guess.”

Luke leveled his gaze across the table at Aiden. “I know what you’re doing. I don’t want to spend a lot of time talking about this. I don’t need the aggravation. What I need is time.”

“You fell hard,” Aiden said.

“It happens. Now, that’s enough.”

“I just want to be sure you’re going to be able to move on without…” His voice trailed off.

“Without going completely crazy? Listen, I think I learned a few things, Aiden. This is as bad as it’s going to get. Until it gets better. Leave it alone.”

“Damn shame you couldn’t just go with it, Luke. There’s at least a fifty-percent chance you’re all wrong about her, about yourself, about the way the whole thing could turn out. You might’ve been happy every day of your stupid life, and now you’re just working on getting over her.”

“There’s the thing, Aiden. Fifty-percent chance one of us is right. We just don’t know which one.”