Virgin River (Virgin River #1)(83)

“I went out on a call. A baby. And I didn’t want to go home. Didn’t want to be alone after that. It was a close one, Jack.”

He slipped his hands inside her jacket to hold her closer. “Did everything work out okay?”

“Yes,” she said. “But there wasn’t very much time. If I’d been five minutes longer getting there…The cord was around his neck.” She shook her head. “But I did get there. And he’s a beautiful baby.”

“Where?” he asked, smoothing her hair over her ear.

“The other side of Clear River,” she said, remembering what the man had said when he pulled up to the front of Doc’s clinic. In truth, she had no idea where they’d gone. He could’ve driven around in circles for all she knew.

“You’re trembling,” he said, pressing his lips to her brow.

“Yeah, a little. Coming down from the experience.” She tilted her head to look up at him. “Is it okay that I’m here?”

“Of course it is. Mel, what’s wrong?”

“The mother was going to deliver herself, but the father got nervous and came for me.” She shivered. “I thought I had some wild experiences in L.A.,” she said with a weak laugh. “If you’d told me a year ago that I’d go out to some poor trailer in the woods, in the middle of the night to deliver a baby, I would have said, never gonna happen.”

He rubbed a knuckle along her cheek. “Who was it?”

She shook her head. If she told him she didn’t have the first idea, he’d flip. “They’re not from around here, Jack. He dropped by Doc’s a while ago, looking for someone who could handle a birth. I can’t talk about patients unless they say it’s okay, but these patients, I didn’t even ask. They weren’t married or anything. She lives in a crappy little trailer by herself. It’s a pretty horrid situation for her.” And she thought, I’m doing things out here in the mountains that I never, in a million years, thought I could do. Terrifying, impossible, dangerous things. Exhilarating things that no one else would do. And if no one had, there’d be a dead baby. Possibly a critical mother. She leaned her head against Jack’s chest and took a deep, steadying breath.

“He called you?” Jack asked.

Damn. Bold-faced lies to straight questions were so hard for her. “He was waiting at the cabin. If I’d stayed the night here with you, I’d have missed him and that baby wouldn’t have made it.”

“Did you tell him where to find you after hours?”

She shook her head before she thought about her answer. “He must have asked someone,” she said. “Everyone in Virgin River knows where I live. And probably half the people in Clear River.”

“God,” he said, tightening his arms around her. “Did it ever occur to you that you could have been at risk?” he asked her.

“For a minute or two,” she said. She looked up at him and smiled. “I don’t expect you to understand this—but there was a baby coming. And I’m glad I went. Besides, I wasn’t in trouble. The mother was.”

He let out a slow, relieved breath. “Jesus. I’m going to have to keep a much closer eye on you.” He kissed her brow. “Something happened tonight. Something you’re not telling me. Whatever it was—never, never let that happen again.”

“Could we get in bed, please? I really need you to hold me.”

Jack was sitting on the porch of the bar, tying off flies, when a familiar black Range Rover pulled slowly into town and parked right in front of Doc’s. He sat forward on the porch chair and watched as the driver got out, went around to the passenger door and opened it. A woman carrying a small bundle got out of the car, walked up the porch steps to enter the clinic and Jack’s heart began to pound. When the woman entered Doc’s, the man went back to his SUV and leaned against the hood, his back to Jack. He took out a small pen knife and began to idly clean under his nails. Because of the kind of guy this was, Jack knew he had seen him sitting there, on the porch. He would have observed everything worth seeing when he came into town; he’d know every escape route, any threat. Today, coming into town with a woman and new baby, Jack would bet there wouldn’t be contraband of any kind in that vehicle and if he had weapons, they’d be registered. And…his license plate was splattered with mud so it couldn’t be read. Lame trick. But Jack remembered it; he’d memorized it the first time this guy had come to town. So, he hadn’t come to Virgin River for a couple of drinks a while back. He’d come to see if there was medical assistance here. Mel had said that the delivery that shook her up had occurred on the other side of Clear River and there was no doctor or clinic in that town. Grace Valley and Garberville were just a little farther away, but there were more people around.

It was a little over a half hour before the woman came out, Mel walking behind her. The woman turned and shook Mel’s hand; Mel squeezed her upper arm. The man helped her into the car and drove slowly out of town.

Jack stood and Mel met his eyes across the street. They were on their respective porches and, even from the distance, she could see the deepening frown gather on his face. Then he walked over to her.

She slipped her hands into the pockets of her jeans as he approached. When he was near, he put one foot up on the porch steps and leaned his forearms on his bent knee, looking up at her. The frown was not angry, but definitely unhappy. “Doc know what you did?” he asked her.