Whispering Rock (Virgin River #3)(84)

“I’m fine, Jack. I should see Vanni.”

“Sure.”

Then he watched as his wife, medical bag in hand, went to her patient. Mel put a hand on Vanni’s shoulder and said, “I’m here, Vanni. I just want to be here,” she said. What she didn’t say was, to be sure you don’t have any problems with your pregnancy on account of the news.

Shortly the house filled up even more. Preacher and Paige with Christopher, Brie with David. Preacher brought food that had been prepared for that night’s dinner, plus a couple of bottles of good liquor.

Eventually the Marine contingent spoke with the general about arrangements and told Walt that a similar detachment had paid a visit to Matt’s parents in Oregon once Vanni had been notified. They’d be available to help with the burial, when those decisions were made.

Paul took Vanni to her room, glancing over his shoulder to Mel, indicating she should follow. Once there, Vanni lay back on the bed and cried helplessly. Paul sat beside her, gently rubbing her back. Mel quickly checked her vitals, listened to the fetal heartbeat and gave her a light sedative that wouldn’t bother the baby.

This was the first time Mel became aware of a truly special bond between Paul and Vanni even though she’d seen their reunion a couple of months before, even though she’d heard Matt ask his best friend to look after his wife. Right now, in the moment, Vanni was completely dependent on Paul. Not on her father or brother, but on Paul, who continued to keep at least a hand on her, if not his arms around her. “Paul, if you can, if it’s all right with Vanni, lie down beside her and stay close for a while. The contact,” she said. “Loving contact is good.”

“Vanni?” he asked.

She turned in his arms, nodding and sobbing, and he climbed onto her bed with her, drawing her close as she cried.

“Call me if you need me. I’ll be near,” Mel said.

It was a long while before the sobbing finally subsided. Vanni’s eyes were swollen and red, her breathing jagged. She turned to look at Paul and asked, “Did he know?”

“Know what, honey?”

“Did he know he was going to die? I heard him ask you to take care of us if anything happened. It was almost as if he knew….”

“He didn’t know. When it gets hot, you think like that. That’s all it was. You always wonder. Plus, he knew without asking I’d be here for you.”

“What am I going to do?” She wept again.

“We’ll get through it, Vanni. You have a lot of people around who love you.”

“He’ll never see his baby. His son.”

“Sure he will. You think he won’t be watching? I know the guy—he’ll be watching.”

They lay together on her bed and Paul held her. No one bothered them; no one checked to see if they were okay. Paul could hear the soft murmur of voices in the other room, but the only thing that mattered at the moment was Vanni and the baby. She faced him, her head on his arm, her belly pressed up against him, and he felt the baby move. Relief flooded him. It was bad enough that Vanni was going through this—he couldn’t have anything happen to the baby. Matt’s baby.

The room was dark. There was a soft glow from the hallway from lights in the great room and kitchen spilling over. Vanni’s breathing became even and calmer—she slept, probably due to the sedative. He eased himself away reluctantly; he knew he wouldn’t be able to justify putting himself back on her bed, at her side, his arms around her, so it was hard to leave her.

In the great room he found all his friends. Waiting.

“She’s asleep,” he said. “Mel, I could feel the baby moving, so I guess he’s okay, right?”

“She’s in her last trimester—the baby’s pretty tough. Resilient. I’m confident she’ll carry, though she’ll have a lot of emotional pain.”

“You want to call his parents?” Walt asked Paul.

“I can do that, yeah. Any idea what Vanni would want to do about the burial?”

“Yeah, but I don’t know how it’s going to sit,” Walt said. “If anything happened in Iraq, they’d decided together that he’s to come here. Not Virginia, where she’s never going to live. Not Oregon, where their child isn’t going to grow up. Do you think you can talk to his folks about that, or should I?”

“I can do it,” Paul said. “When you say here…?”

“On my land,” the general said. “I’m always going to be here. This is going to be home base for Vanessa, at least. There’s a kind of…the baby should have a link to his dad.”

“And me,” Tommy said. “And to me.”

“Yeah, of course,” Paul said. And he was beginning to long for the moment when he could be alone and grieve for his best friend. But it wasn’t going to happen soon. He knew these people needed him to be strong.

A permit had to be obtained for burial on private property and a digging crew had to be hired from a cemetery in Fortuna. A site that could be seen from the house was chosen, up on a small rise under a big tree, a place from which a person could stand and see the many acres of General Booth’s land. A contingent of Marines brought the body, a body it was not possible to view. It was never spoken of and no one really knew if it was a routine practice of the Corps to deliver an honor guard and twenty-one-gun salute to a ranch in the backwoods, or if a three-star general could whip that up with a phone call or two.