Virgin River (Virgin River #1)(62)

“No, thank you,” she declined.

“Did I try anything?” he wanted to know.

“No.” She laughed. “Why?”

“I drank enough so that could have been really humiliating. Assault with a dead weapon.”

She ran her fingers over the tattoo. “I sort of expected this,” she said.

“Rite of passage. I bet every young marine wakes up with a splitting head and a little remembrance of the Corps.”

“What does this mean?” she asked, running her fingers over the words on the other arm.

“Often tested, always faithful, brothers forever.” He touched her cheek. “What did Preacher tell you?” he asked her.

“That the boys come up here and stir up some of your roughest memories of the wars you’ve been in. But, I suspect that now and then you’d have those memories anyway, whether they came or not.”

“I love those boys,” he said.

“And they’re devoted to you. So—maybe it’s worth a little discomfort now and then. Friendships like that don’t come cheap.”





Ten




Jack was back to his old self. It was either the Scotch or the fact that he woke up to a pretty blonde in his bed. He bet on the blonde.

He never did ask Preacher precisely what he had told Mel. And he didn’t ask Mel to be more specific. It didn’t really matter. What did matter was that he had bonded with Mel on a new level that night without planning to. That she knew he was tortured over something terrible from his past and instead of shying away, stayed with him, willing to take it on—it had meant something. She had held him while he tossed and turned against a mean-spirited ghost. After that, she yielded more willingly to those kisses. He was definitely ready to move ahead with her.

They were the current talk in Virgin River, which gave Jack a strange satisfaction. For a man who didn’t want to be tied down to a woman, a man who tended to keep his woman in the shadows, he found himself wanting everyone to know they were a couple. And he worried that she would make good on her threats to leave before he could convince her to stay forever.

Jack took Mel to the coast to whale watch and they talked all the way there and back, but on the high cliffs above the ocean, they held hands, quiet, while the great fleet of behemoth mammals swam by, jumping out of the water and landing with an enormous splash. Their own guard of dolphins escorted them to the north. She let him kiss her for a long time that day. Many times. Then if his hand wandered she said, “No. Not yet.” And that gave him hope. Not yet meant it was on the agenda.

He was completely smitten. Jack was forty and this was the first time that he had a woman in his life he couldn’t imagine giving up.



Mel called her sister. “Joey,” she said quietly, in almost a whisper. “I think I have a man in my life.”

“You found a man in that place?”

“Uh-huh. I think so.”

“Why do you sound so…strange?”

“I have to know something. Is it okay? Because I’m not even close to being over Mark. I still love Mark more than anything. Anyone.”

Joey let out her breath slowly. “Mel, it’s all right to get on with your life. Maybe you’ll never love anyone as much as you loved Mark—but then maybe there will be someone else. Someone next. You don’t have to compare them, honey, because Mark is gone and we can’t get him back.”

“Love,” she corrected. “Not past tense. I still love Mark.”

“It’s all right, Mel,” Joey said. “You can go on living. You might as well have someone to pass the time with. Who is he?”

“The man who owns the bar across from Doc’s clinic—the one who fixed up the cabin, bought me the fishing pole, got my phone installed. Jack. He’s a good man, Joey. And he cares about me.”

“Mel… Have you…? Are you…?”

There was no answer.

“Mel? Are you sleeping with him?”

“No. But I let him kiss me.”

Joey laughed sadly. “It’s okay, Mel. Can you really think otherwise? Would Mark want you to wither away, lonely? Mark was one of the finest men I’ve ever known—generous, kind, loving, genuine. He’d want you to remember him sweetly, but to get on with your life and be happy.”

Melinda started to cry. “He would,” she said through her tears. “But what if I can’t be happy with anyone except Mark?”

“Baby sis, after what you’ve been through, would you settle for some marginal happiness? And a few good kisses?”

“I don’t know. I just don’t know.”

“Give it a go. Worst case—it takes your mind off your loneliness.”

“Is that wrong? To use someone to take your mind off your dead husband?”

“What if you put that another way? What if you enjoyed someone who took your mind off your dead husband? That could pass for happiness, couldn’t it?”

“I probably shouldn’t be kissing him,” she said. And she cried. “Because I just can’t stay here. I don’t belong here. I belong in L.A. with Mark.”

Joey sighed heavily. “It’s only kissing, Mel. Just take it one kiss at a time.”

When they hung up the phone, Joey said to her husband Bill, “I have to go to her. I think she might be heading for a crisis.”