Wild Man Creek (Virgin River #14)(52)

“It’s not just the burn scars, which I admit aren’t that noticeable, but what about that long hair and beard? You just don’t understand, Shelby—he’s just a grunt like me, and Jillian is like some big corporate vice president! I figured she came up here and started poking around in the dirt because she doesn’t have to work. She’s rich, made all her money in the software industry. Even if I didn’t know that about her, I’d know she was smart. Not just a little smart, but very smart! Smarter than any Riordan I’ve ever met.”

“How ridiculous—all the Riordans are smart and handsome. Aiden’s a doctor for heaven’s sake.”

“Well, that’s Aiden,” Luke said, cutting off a piece of his steak. “He’s always been a nerd.”

Shelby just shook her head. The Riordan men were all drop-dead gorgeous and pretty damn smart, Luke’s current idiocy notwithstanding.

“But that’s not the half of it, Shelby—I’m telling you, Colin doesn’t lean toward smart, beautiful, classy chicks like Jillian. He goes more for the pole-dancer type.” He chewed thoughtfully on his steak. He swallowed. “Course, so did I. I should never have been lucky enough to find you. You’re way outta my league.”

She lifted an eyebrow. “Are you trying to make up?”

“Oh, baby, I’m not saying that to flatter you—it’s just the God’s truth!” He shook his head. “To think Colin got all his rough edges filed down nice and smooth by Jillian. I thought it had to be illegal drugs.” He chewed another bite of meat. “I can’t wait to call Aiden!”

“Why don’t you just, for once, mind your own business?” she asked.

He shrugged. “I’m a Riordan,” he said simply.

Much later that night, after pie and coffee with Colin and Jillian, far too late to be placing phone calls, Luke dialed up Aiden.

“What?” Aiden answered gruffly.

“I didn’t wake Erin, did I?” Luke asked. “I’m sorry if I did, but this just couldn’t wait.”

“Are you drunk dialing, man?”

“Colin’s got himself a woman. He was so relaxed and pleasant, I was sure it was drugs, but it’s a woman.”

“Big surprise,” Aiden said. “Colin always seems to have a woman somewhere. What else is new? And what does this have to do with me at…” He paused as if to look at the clock. “Jesus, it’s eleven-thirty! The only people allowed to call me at eleven-thirty are in labor!”

“This one would just knock you out,” Luke said. “She’s not only really smart, I think she’s probably rich and she’s beautiful! I only see her in her dirty gardening clothes most of the time and she even makes those look like high fashion, she’s so pretty. And she’s real, real clean-cut. She has freckles!”

“Good for him,” Aiden said tiredly.

“But you know Colin,” Luke insisted. “He tends to go for girls who are—Shelby, honey? Put your hands over your ears for just a sec.” Back into the phone he said, “He likes the real slutty ones. Ow!” he yelled when he received a wop on the back of the head. He dropped the phone and when he got back on the line all he heard was a dial tone.

Aiden had hung up on him.

As the cloudy April skies led to a bright sunny spring, Jack was conscious of tongues wagging all over Virgin River. New relationships were always springing up, so the emergence of a couple of newcomers who had hooked up—Jillian and Colin—didn’t throw the River crowd too much. They were used to watching unexpected love bloom all the time.

But when the new relationship between Jack and Denny Cutler came out of the closet, the talk really launched into high-speed chatter.

“It’s probably too late for a baby shower,” Connie observed. Connie and her husband owned The Corner Store across the street from the bar.

“Oh, I don’t know,” Jack replied with a wink. “Denny’s looking for some better fishing equipment.”

Denny was proving to be a pretty good angler in a very short period of time, but casting and catching trout was secondary in importance to getting acquainted on a new level. Before this revelation they’d talked about everyday things from the Marines to car engines, but now Jack felt the need to fill Denny in on the Sheridan family tree. And being the only son in his family, he had always been very close to his father, so he tried to tell Denny everything about Sam Sheridan, his new grandfather. And he told him all the things he could remember of his growing-up years, things he wouldn’t ordinarily talk to a friend about—subjects ranging from Boy Scouts to high school football to having sisters.

To Jack’s great relief, he learned that Denny’s life hadn’t been all stormy seas. When Denny was a real little guy his mother might’ve had a hard time with her difficult and sometimes abusive partner, but Denny was cushioned from much of it by loving grandparents. His “father” left the scene not long prior to his grandparents’ passing, leaving just him and his mom and a small inheritance that helped them get by. “Me and my mom had a good life. She even dated a real nice guy, a man by the name of Dan Duke—we stay in touch even though they never got engaged or anything. I played football and he never missed a game. We were like a family. She found that cancer the first time when I was barely seventeen. When I went into the Marines at eighteen, we both thought she had it licked—she was doing so well. But no. She died when I was twenty-one—almost five years from start to end. I’m gonna be honest with you, Jack. That’s the hardest thing I ever went through.”