Virgin River (Virgin River #1)(63)

Mel ran her hand over Joey’s shiny and smooth brown hair. “Why are you here?” she asked.

“You know. I thought you might need me.”

“I’m okay,” she lied.

“Just in case, then.”

“That’s so sweet. Do you want to see the town? Where I live? Everything?”

“I want to see the man,” Joey whispered in Mel’s ear.

“We’ll do that last. Doc? Can I have the afternoon?”

“I certainly wouldn’t be able to stand having the two of you yakking and giggling around here all day.”

Mel rushed on Doc and gave him a kiss on his withered cheek, which the old boy quickly wiped off with a grimace.

Mel’s spirits were high and she didn’t think about Mark for a little while. She took Joey to all her favorite places, beginning with her cabin in the woods, which Joey thought was charming, if a little in need of her professional decorator’s touch. “You should have seen it when I arrived,” Mel laughed. “There was a bird’s nest in the oven!”

“God!”

Then they went to the river where there were at least ten men in waders and vests, angling. A couple of them turned and waved to her. “The first time I was here, Jack brought me and we saw a mama bear and her cub, right downriver, fishing. First and last bear I’ve ever seen. I think I’d like to keep it that way. The next time I came, I fished. I fly fished—not as good as what they’re doing, but I actually caught a fish. I have my own gear in the trunk.”

“No way!”

“Way!”

Next, to the Anderson ranch to visit little baby Chloe and see the new lambs. Buck Anderson lifted a couple of little lambs out of the pen and handed one to each woman. Mel stuck her finger in a lamb’s mouth and he closed his little eyes and sucked, making the women say, “Awwww….”

“I raised six kids—three boys and three girls—and each and every one of them smuggled a lamb into their bedroom to sleep in their beds. Keeping the livestock out of the house was a lifetime chore,” he told them.

Mel drove her sister down Highway 299 through the redwoods and took great pleasure in her oohs and ahhs. They got out and walked through Fern Canyon, one of the filming sites of Spielberg’s The Lost World. She showed her the back roads of Virgin River, the green pastures, fields of crops, craggy knolls, towering pines, grazing livestock, vineyards in the valley. “If you’re going to stay awhile and I can pry myself away from Doc, I’ll take you to Grace Valley to meet some of my newer friends. They have a larger clinic there, complete with EKG, a small surgery and ultrasound.”

Then, as the dinner hour approached, so did a heavy and cool summer shower and they ended up at Jack’s, where the drop in temperature had prompted the laying of a friendly fire. Word had apparently gotten out, because the bar was busier than usual—

so untypical of a rainy night. Some of her favorite people were present. There was Doc, of course, and Hope McCrea. Ron brought Connie for a little while and where Connie went these days, Joy was nearby with her husband, Bruce. Darryl Fishburn and his parents stopped by and she introduced Darryl as the daddy of her first Virgin River baby. Anne Givens and her husband were there, a couple from out on a big orchard—their first baby was due in August. Preacher treated Joey to his rare smiles, Rick was his usual grinning, adorable self, joking about how the whole family must be gorgeous, and Jack charmed her thoroughly. When he went to the kitchen to get their dinners, Joey leaned close to Mel and said, “Holy crap, is he a hunk or what?”

“Hunk,” Mel confirmed.

They were served a delicious salmon-in-dill-sauce dinner, which Jack ate with them, and Mel regaled her sister with tales of country doctoring, including the two births she had attended on her own.

It was a little after seven when Doc’s pager sent him to the phone in Jack’s kitchen. Then he dropped by Mel’s table. “Pattersons called. The baby seems to be having trouble breathing and is getting a little pale and blue around the gills.”

“I’m going with you,” Mel said. She stood and told Joey, “I delivered that baby and he had a slow start. If I’m late, can you find the cabin?”

“Sure. Want to give me a key?”

Mel smiled at her sister. She kissed her cheek. “We don’t use too many keys around here, sugar. It’s open.”

Mel rode with Doc in his truck, just in case some of the dirt roads had gotten soft from the rain. She didn’t want her BMW stuck in the mud.

They found Sondra and her husband in a state of panic, for the baby did seem to be wheezing. His respirations were accelerated and shallow, but he had no temperature. After a little oxygen, he cleared right up, which did nothing to tell them what was wrong. Mel rocked him for a good long while. Doc sat at the kitchen table and talked to the Pattersons, drinking coffee. “He’s too young for something like asthma. Might be some kind of allergic reaction, a symptom of an infection, or it could be more serious—a problem with his heart or lungs. Tomorrow you’re going to have to take him over to Valley Hospital to the outpatient clinic for tests. I’ll write down the name of a good pediatrician.”

“Is he going to be all right through the night?” Sondra asked tearfully.

“I expect so, but I’ll leave the oxygen. You can drop it off tomorrow. It wouldn’t hurt to spell each other and stay awake, just in case. If you have any problems or you’re worried about him, call me. That little foreign thing of Mel’s isn’t worth a crap on these roads in the rain. Besides, Melinda has company from out of town.”