Virgin River (Virgin River #1)(22)

“Tell you what,” Jack said to the man, making long and serious eye contact. “On the house this time.”

“Thanks,” he said, folding his bill back onto the wad and stuffing it in his pocket. He turned to go.

“And buddy?” Jack called as the man reached the door to leave. He turned and Jack said, “Sheriff’s deputy and California Highway Patrol eat and drink on the house in my place.”

The man’s shoulders rose once with a silent huff of laughter. He was on notice. He touched the brim of his hat and left.

Jack walked around the bar and looked out the window to see the man get into a black late model Range Rover, super-charged, big wheels jacked up real high, windows tinted, lights on the roof. That model would go for nearly a hundred grand. This guy was no hobbyist. He memorized the license plate.

Preacher was rolling out pie dough when Jack went into the kitchen. “I just served a guy who tried to pay for his drinks with a wad of stinky Bens as big as my fist,” Jack told him.

“Crap.”

“He’s driving a new Range Rover, loaded, jacked up and lit up. Big guy.”

“You think he’s growing around town here?”

“Have no idea,” Jack said. “We better pay attention. Next time the deputy’s in town, I’ll mention it. But it’s not against the law to have stinky money or drive a big truck.”

“If he’s rich, it’s probably not a small operation,” Preacher said.

“He’s got a bulldog tattoo on his upper right arm.”

Preacher frowned. “You kind of hate to see a brother go that way.”

“Yeah, tell me about it. Maybe he’s not in business around here. He could have been just scoping out the town to see if this is a good place to set up. I think I sent the message that it’s not. I told him law enforcement eats and drinks on the house.”

Preacher smiled. “We should start doing that, then,” he said.

“How about a discount, to start? We don’t want to get crazy.”

Mel got her sister Joey on the phone.

“Oh, Jesus, Mel! You scared me to death! Where have you been? Why didn’t you call sooner?”

“I’ve been in Virgin River where I have no phone and my cell doesn’t work. And I’ve been pretty busy.”

“I was about to call out the National Guard!”

“Yeah? Well, don’t bother. They’d never be able to find the place.”

“You’re all right?”

“Well…This will probably make you perversely happy,” Mel told her. “You were right. I shouldn’t have done this. I was nuts. As usual.”

“Is it terrible?”

“Well, it definitely started out terrible—the free housing turned out to be a fallingdown hovel and the doctor is a mean old coot who doesn’t want any help in his practice. I was on my way out of town when—you’ll never believe this—someone left an abandoned newborn on the doctor’s porch. But things have improved, if slightly. I’m staying for at least a few more days to help with the baby. The old doc wouldn’t wake up to those middle-of-the-night hunger cries. Oh, Joey, my first impression of him is that he was the poorest excuse for a town doctor I’d ever met. Mean as a snake, rude as sour milk. Fortunately, working with those L.A. medical residents, especially those dicky surgeons, prepared me nicely.”

“Okay, that was your first impression. How has it changed?”

“He proves tractable. Since my housing was uninhabitable, I’m staying in the guest room in his house. It’s actually set up to be the only hospital room in town. This house is fine—clean and functional. There could be a slight inconvenience at any moment—

a young woman who asked me to deliver her first baby will be having it here—in my bedroom, which I share with the abandoned baby. Picture this—a post-partum patient and a full nursery.”

“And you will sleep where?”

“I’ll probably hang myself up in a corner and sleep standing up. But that’s only if she delivers within the next week, while I’m still here. Surely a family will turn up to foster this baby soon. Although, I wouldn’t mind a birth. A sweet, happy birth to loving, excited, healthy parents…”

“You don’t have to stay for that,” Joey said firmly. “It’s not as though they don’t have a doctor.”

“I know—but she’s so young. And she was so happy, thinking there was a woman doctor here who could deliver her rather than this ornery old man.”

“Mel, I want you to get in your car and drive. Come to us. Where we can look after you for a while.”

“I don’t need looking after,” she said with a laugh. “Work helps. I need to work. Whole hours go by without thinking about Mark.”

“How are you doing with that?”

She sighed deeply. “That’s another thing. No one here knows, so no one looks at me with those sad, pitying eyes. And since they don’t look at me that way, I don’t crumble so often. At least, not where anyone can see.”

“Oh, Mel, I wish I could comfort you somehow…”

“But Joey, I have to grieve this, it’s the only way. And I have to live with the fact that I might never be over it.”