Temptation Ridge (Virgin River #6)(39)

“I don’t know…”

“This is your one shot, Cheryl. I’ll take you, check you in. The county will pick up the tab, but you only get this one chance. If you say no right now, that’s it. That’s all I can do.”

“Who told you to do this?” she asked.

“No one told me. I thought you could use a little help, so I found it for you. All by myself. And no, I haven’t even mentioned it to Jack. You could try this. You know you can’t do it on your own.”

“You ask my mom?”

“I haven’t asked anyone. You’re over twenty-one, aren’t you? You want help? Go shower and pack a bag—you don’t need much. They have washers and dryers. Clean sheets and towels. Healthy food. And a lot of people just like you who are trying to sober up. It’s hard for everyone, but they’re the experts and if anyone can help you, they can.”

She looked at her feet, her dirty, unlaced boots. “I get the shakes real bad sometimes,” she said.

“Just about everyone does. They have medicine to get you through the first days.” Mel looked at her watch. “I’m not hanging around while you think about it.”

“Where is this place?” she asked.

“Eureka.”

Cheryl shuffled her feet a little bit. Finally she lifted her head. “Okay,” she said.

“Fine. Go shower and pack. I’ll be back for you in thirty minutes.”

She came back and picked up Cheryl, who carried her belongings in a brown grocery bag. She had cleaned up; her hair was washed but only towel dried. She probably didn’t own a blow-dryer. She smelled of soap and a touch of liquor—a little nip to help her get into the truck, Mel suspected.

“Did you tell your parents where you’re going?” Mel asked.

Cheryl shrugged. “My mom. I told my mom.”

“And is she glad you’re going?”

Cheryl shrugged. She looked away from Mel as she answered. “She said it’s probably a waste of time and money.”

Mel waited for Cheryl to look back at her. Then she said, “No. It’s not.” She took a breath. “Come on, let’s get going.”

They didn’t talk much on the long drive to Eureka, but Mel did learn that Cheryl had been at a cousin’s house in some other mountain town for the past year until her father brought her home. And Cheryl had had some delusional and grandiose aspirations—she’d wanted to join the Peace Corps, travel to foreign lands, be a nurse, a teacher, a veterinarian. Instead, she drank her dreams away. She didn’t have any friends in Virgin River anymore, just her mother and father.

“You don’t have to tell me anything you don’t feel like talking about,” Mel began, “but I’m curious. I know you don’t go to Jack’s. How did you manage to get liquor?”

“Hmm,” Cheryl started. “There’s a liquor store in Garberville, but usually my dad would get me something to keep me from driving his truck.”

“Ah. I understand,” Mel said.

“I try to stop all the time,” Cheryl said. “But if I get shaky and crazy, my dad takes care of it. Just enough to get me straight.”

So Dad was the enabler, Mel thought.

The aftercare was going to be a huge problem, Mel realized. Because Cheryl had nowhere to go but back home to her parents, who seemed unable to support her in getting healthy. That would have to be her sponsor’s challenge—maybe they would find a place for her in Eureka where she could work, live, go to meetings, get a grip on sobriety before landing back in Virgin River, doomed.

It was late afternoon by the time Mel got back to town. She went into the clinic to give Doc his keys.

“Mission accomplished?” he asked.

“All taken care of.”

“Your husband’s been looking for you.”

“Swell. What did you tell him?”

“That you were on a mission. A medical mission.”

“I bet that thrilled him. I guess I’ll go tap-dance around Jack and grab the kids from Brie. I’m going to call it a day, Doc.”

“I’ll phone you if anything exciting pops up.” She turned to leave and he called her back. She turned to him. “That was a good thing you did. I don’t like her chances, but that was a real good thing.”

“Thanks, Doc.”

“All my years here, all my years watching her go downhill, I never gave her that much hope. Glad someone did. Glad you did.”

She felt a small smile come to her lips.



Over the course of the previous three days, Luke had taken Sean over to the Booth house for a couple of morning rides. He hadn’t done it for Sean, certainly. But for Shelby, because it made her happy to have someone with whom to share the rides. And although it irked Luke, she found Sean amusing.

The rest of the time Luke and his brother worked together. They finished the floors in the house, then concentrated on cabin number one for Luke’s new tenant.

“We should have this ready for you in a couple of days, Art,” Luke told him. That put Art in a fever of excitement, that he was going to have his own little house. “Ever had your own house before?” Luke asked him.

“By myself?” Art asked. “Not by myself.”

“Think you’re ready for your own little house?”