Virgin River (Virgin River #1)(64)

Two hours later, Doc was ready to take Mel back to her sister. By eight o’clock, all the patrons had left Jack’s except Joey. Jack had sent Ricky home, Preacher was cleaning up the kitchen, and he brought Joey a cup of coffee and sat down with her again. He asked about her kids, what her husband did, how she liked living in Colorado Springs, and then, “She didn’t know you were coming.”

“No, it was a complete surprise. Though it shouldn’t have been.”

“Your timing couldn’t be better. Something’s been eating at her.”

“Oh,” Joey said. “I guess I thought you knew what was going on. Because she said that you and she…” She stopped and looked into her coffee cup.

“We what?” he asked.

Joey raised her eyes and smiled sheepishly. “She said you kiss.”

“Every time she’ll give in a little.”

“In a place like Virgin River, does that make you a couple?” she asked. He sat back in his chair, willing the bar to stay empty. “Yeah, something like that,” he said. “With a big hunk of something missing.”

“Look, I don’t know that I have the right…”

“To tell me who ripped her heart out and crushed it under the heel of his boot?” he finished for her.

“Her husband,” Joey said bravely, lifting her chin.

That caused Jack to sit up straighter. Joey hadn’t said ex-husband. “What did he do to her?” he asked, a definite angry edge to his voice.

Joey sighed. In for a penny, in for a pound, she thought. If Mel hadn’t told him, she didn’t want him to know. She was going to be pissed. “He got himself murdered in an armed robbery that he happened into by accident.”

“Murdered,” Jack said weakly.

“He was an emergency room doc. He’d worked an all-nighter and stopped into a convenience store for milk on his way home in the morning. The robber panicked and shot him. Three times. He died instantly.”

“God,” Jack said. “When?”

“A year ago. Today.”

“God,” he said again. He leaned an elbow on the table and rested his head in his hand. He massaged his eyes. “She knows it was today?”

“Of course she knows. She’s been heading for it. Painfully.”

“In L.A.,” he said. It wasn’t a question. “And to think I wanted to punch him in the face a few times for hurting her.”

“Look, I feel kind of funny about this. Disloyal. One of the things that drew her here was that no one knows. No one looks at her with pity. No one asks her fifteen times a day how she’s doing, if she’s lost more weight, if she’s sleeping yet…I guess I thought she’d have told you, since…”

“She’s holding back,” he said. “Now I know why.”

“And I let it out. I don’t know whether to be guilty or relieved. Someone who cares about her out here should know what she’s been through. What she’s going through.”

She took a breath. “I didn’t think she’d make it a week here.”

“Neither did she.” Jack was quiet for a minute and then said, “Can you imagine what kind of courage it took for her to chuck her big job in L.A. and come to this little town, to work with a man like Doc Mullins? She told me a little about what it was like there—city medicine, she called it. A battle zone, she said. She thought it was going to be real dull and boring here. Then she ends up riding to the hospital with a patient in the back of an old pickup, over these roads, holding an IV bag over her head, freezing. Christ, I could’ve used her in combat.”

“Mel has always been tough, but Mark’s death really derailed her. That’s why she did this—she started being afraid to go to the bank, the store.”

“And she hates guns,” he supplied. “In a little town where everyone has a gun because they have to.”

“Oh, jeez. Look, it’s no secret—I begged her not to do this—I thought it was crazy and way too drastic a change,” Joey said. “But something about this seems to be working for her. What she calls country doctoring. Or maybe it’s you.”

“She has these spells,” he said. “When she’s so sad. But it passes and there is such a brightness inside her. You should have seen her the morning after she delivered her first baby at Doc’s. She said she felt like a champ. I’ve never seen anyone so lit up.”

He chuckled at the memory, but there was a morose tone to his laugh.

“You know what—I think I’m going to call it a night. Go back to Mel’s and hang out until she gets home, so I can be there for her.”

“Let Preacher drive you,” he said. “These roads at night, in the rain, can be treacherous if you don’t know them. The first night Mel drove out to the cabin, she slid off a soft shoulder and had to be towed out.”

“What about Mel?” she asked.

“Doc might just take her straight home—he has no respect for that little car of hers. Or she could come here for her car—she’s pretty good on these roads now, but if she has any worries about it, I’ll drive her out. Fact is, it wouldn’t surprise me if she was out at Patterson’s half the night, so don’t worry. She hates leaving a sick patient. But I’ll wait up.” He went to the bar and got a piece of paper. “Call me if she shows up at the cabin. Or, if you need anything,” he said, writing down his number. It was nearly ten by the time Mel walked into the bar. She saw Jack at the table by the fire, but frowned when she looked around and didn’t see Joey. “Where’s my sister?”