A Virgin River Christmas (Virgin River #4)(31)

“Okay,” Mel said, leaning her elbows on the table. “I don’t have a lot of experience with this sort of thing, but I do have a little. I have myself a marine who’s been to war way too much and he has a shaky, vulnerable side. I don’t know all the triggers. I wouldn’t want you at risk when you finally decide to confront these things—”

“He’s not going to snap,” Marcie said. “In fact, I don’t think he even realizes it, but he is not a tortured man. Maybe he was a few years ago, and maybe those memories are still disturbing, but now he’s just a man who lives in the mountains…in a simplified life…and he lives alone. It’s less complicated than it seems. At least, that’s my opinion.”

“I know. He sings,” Mel said with a smile.

“It’s not just that. He talks to me about other things. About the old man who gave him the cabin, about the deer that comes visiting. He washed my hair for me. He heated water so I could take a bath. He goes to the library and he reads every day—he doesn’t read books about how to build bombs or make poisons—he has a big stack of biographies. He’s intelligent. Has a sense of humor he doesn’t really want me to see—I’m sure he thinks I’ll get the misguided impression he’s enjoying me.”

“Still—”

“No, he’s not on a hair-trigger,” Marcie said, shaking her head. “For some reason he thinks being alone is better for him…Eventually I’ll figure that out.”

“Marcie, I think your sister has run out of time on this. She suggested she should come up here and get you.”

Marcie stiffened. “Did you tell her not to?”

“I told her I saw you myself and that you were fine. But I lied when I said that, you weren’t fine. You had a fever, a cough, and—”

“And I was being taken care of! I’m fine! My legs are even shaved!” Mel straightened up with a questioning look on her face. “It was a joke—I wanted to shave my legs and he wondered why that would matter out here, in the woods. But they’re shaved, damn it!”

Mel smiled. “You’re comfortable?” she asked.

“Hell, there’s no refrigerator or indoor plumbing,” Marcie said. “Ian’s gone from before six in the morning till early afternoon and then he reloads his truck, so I don’t see him until dinnertime. He always cooks something and we talk during dinner, which is early, and then he likes it quiet so he can just read his book and go to sleep, like he’s always done. I’m lonesome and I want to watch Medium, and Men in Trees. I want my favorite CD’s and DVD’s—I used to watch Love Actually once a month. Comfortable? I’m getting by—better than when I was looking for him and sleeping in my car, but—”

“You were sleeping in your car?” Mel asked, aghast.

“Well, I was running low on money. And I hadn’t found him. We shouldn’t tell Erin about that…”

“That’s not exactly medical business,” Mel warned.

“I bet it is, somehow. I bet it helped get me sick!”

Mel just smiled. She reached down and picked up her bag. “Can I take your temperature, look in your throat, hear your chest?”

“Yeah, sure…I can’t seem to shake the cough, but I feel pretty good.”

Mel got busy. While she was giving Marcie a once-over, she said, “I think you should tell Ian you have to make a phone call. Talk to your sister yourself.”

“I can drive. I’ll just go into—”

“You have snow tires or chains?”

“Well—no, but—”

“Ohhhh, Marcie. That little VW of yours would slip right off the mountain real easy. We’ve had snow up here since you arrived, and a bit lower, some rain. You just don’t have the weight or traction. Until we dry up a little, get a lift into town in something heavy—like that big, old truck of Ian’s. Or, you can tell me when you’d like a trip to town and I’ll come and get you—but, believe me, it’s a crazy notion to drive that VW into town. It could be disastrous. Besides, it appears to be buried…”

“Okay, sure. Maybe I’ll talk to him about that in the next day or two…”

“You’re definitely on the mend, my girl. I don’t think you’re contagious. We’ll keep an eye on the cough, and you take that expectorant Doc gave you. But your chest sounds good and I’m afraid it’s not that unusual for the cough to hang on. Your throat is still a little irritated and your lungs want to clean themselves of drainage.”

“Listen—was there a bill? For coming out here? For medicine?”

“Taken care of,” Mel said, packing up her stuff.

“Ian?”

“Yes, as a matter of fact. I think it might’ve been a case of pride. Why don’t you come to town for a few hours—it’ll help you from going stir crazy. The bar’s open from early morning till nine or ten at night. People are in and out all day. You can use the phone there or the one at the clinic.”

“Ah. Not a bad idea. Mel? The tree? The Christmas tree in town? Is it done now?”

“Almost done. There’s a little left to do. It’s awful big, you know. It’s beautiful,” she said, beaming. “And don’t tell Jack, but I got a ride in a cherry picker while he was away, running errands. It was so cool.”