Temptation Ridge (Virgin River #6)(97)

“She is that. Very mild mannered—hard to guess she could have that kind of conviction. Stubbornness.”

“Strength,” Aiden added. “Commitment.”

“Well, you’d have to be strong to do that, right? Yeah, she’s very strong, but she seems fragile.” Then he grinned. “Unless you see her on a horse. She’s a hundred and ten pounds, and on a horse, she’s Annie Oakley.”

Again Aiden was quiet for a moment, sipping. “What are you going to do?” he asked quietly.

“Do?” Luke repeated. “Nothing.”

“Nothing?”

“She needs to get on with her life. She’s behind. You can relate—I can relate. Remember being set free from medical school after years of no life? What did you do?”

“Married a nut job,” he said, smiling blandly.

“Shelby put in her time, did the right thing, took good care of her mom, and now it’s her turn. She’s going to go back to school. She says she’s going to be a nurse, but you watch—she’ll end up a doctor or something. She’s quiet, but scary smart. She has money from selling a paid-off house—so she can travel all over the world, pay for a dozen years of college. You know how important that is, we’ve been all over the world and it’s worth seeing.”

Aiden laughed. “I hope she sees better parts than we did. You saw a bunch of deserts, I went to sea, medical officer on a ship…”

“But it all counts. Life experience—it’s worth it. She’s young—she has time to look around. I’ll tell you what—that girl’s going to have men hunting her down, she’s that good-looking. She never had that before. In high school she was shy, had a couple of short-term boyfriends, but she lost a lot of shyness, got tougher and more aggressive while she was taking care of her mom and had to go up against doctors and therapists and hospitals and insurance companies.” His eyes glistened proudly. “Believe me, she’s ready now. It’s her time.”

He’s letting her go, Aiden thought. For her, though it’s going to kill him. Aiden leaned back in his chair and sipped his drink. “What if she just decides to stay? At her uncle’s place? Forever?”

Luke laughed. “She’s not going to, that would be a waste.”

“If she did?”

“Look, I admit it—I got a little comfortable. The whole chase is a little boring and it wasn’t exactly a punishment to have a sweet, pretty girl right there, handy. But that’s just convenience, I’m winding down a little. There’s this nice little bar in Virgin River—bunch of townpeople go there at the end of the day—real good people. They have the best food on the planet and the jukebox hasn’t been turned on once since I hit town. A couple of marines run the place, so we connected. It spoiled me for entertainment, I lost interest in noisy, smoky bars with slutty girls looking for a pickup. I’ve been thinking… If I can rent out those cabins…work and live there, grab a beer at Jack’s, hunt and fish…I’m telling you—it’s almost a perfect life. You’ll have to come up sometime.”

Aiden let him think about that for a minute. Then he said, “How old do you have to be to appreciate that as a perfect life?”

Luke laughed. “About thirty-eight, twenty years of army, four wars. But now I’m thinking about staying in one place a while. I might look around for some flying in the area, something like medical-airlift transport or something.”

“Could someone like me get into that? Small town like that?”

“They have a midwife and everyone loves her.” Luke laughed. “You’d have some stiff competition.”

“What I mean is, could someone younger than thirty-eight want that life? Or do you have to be this crusty, beat-up old grunt?”

Luke got the point and his lips went back into that firm, nonnegotiable line.

“Do you suppose young women ever choose that life over Ph.D.s or world travel? Think that’s ever happened?”

“I think young women like Shelby might think they want that life and two years later realize they threw away their real life and they’re stuck, and everything would go to hell at that point.”

“But that’s a guess,” Aiden said. “And this is a remarkable, committed, stubborn, aggressive woman who’s been up against a lot and knows what she wants.”

“You tricked me,” Luke said. “You said you were going to be a little curious but now you’re up my ass.”

“What are the odds you’re ever going to run into someone like her again, once she leaves Virgin River? If you let her get away?”

Luke stood up. He put his drink, what was left of it, on a coaster. “But that’s not the point,” he said. “I’m going to bed.”

Late on Christmas Day, Shelby leaned on the corral fence and watched as her cousin Tom kept an eye on Art astride Chico. Ever since first seeing Chico, Art had wanted to ride him, but Chico was a lot of horse for Art. Tom, however, was more than happy to spot that. And when they were done, Shelby would take Art back to his cabin and Tom would go into town and find his girl.

She jumped when she felt a hand on her shoulder. With the noise of churning hooves in the corral, she hadn’t heard Vanni’s approach. Shelby turned toward Vanni and then turned back, giving her cheeks a quick wipe.