Moonlight Road

In a couple of days Franci and Rosie would go to San Francisco to pick up Sean and bring him back to Virgin River. He had time for some leave, but by mid-July they had to be on their way to Montgomery. They had to find housing before Sean started Air Command and Staff College in August, a one-year program for senior officers who had the potential to be leaders. As in, generals.

The thought of Sean being a senior officer always made Aiden chuckle. He could almost see Luke as a general more than Sean. Sean had always been such a fuck-up. But he’d also been an honor graduate from the academy and a good stick—slang for a pilot with both good instincts and good hands.

After doing his family chores, Aiden was allowed his own time again. He dressed for a hike, but he took his car. He drove right up to Erin’s cabin this time, hoping his garden hadn’t dried up in his absence. There was no car there, as usual. And his garden seemed to be thriving.

But lo and behold, there was at long last a change. There were three pretty large plants sitting on the deck. Beside them sat three nice-looking ceramic pots. And that was all—no bag of potting soil. So someone had been around. He looked into the house through the French doors—no sign of life in there.

Also on the deck was an opened box displaying a macrame and wood something. He took a closer look. It was a hammock, the instructions lying out, but abandoned. There were no tools there for putting it up, but all that was needed was a screwdriver and small wrench to secure a couple of brackets. So he tended his garden and the next day he brought some potting soil and a couple of tools to put up the hammock. And why was he doing this? Because Erin was completely helpless and he had the time, that’s why. Then he smiled a little, remembering the sight of that fantastic booty.

When Erin went fleeing back to Virgin River after her long drive, she stopped in town. She decided to just grab something she could reheat for dinner, so she went to Jack’s bar. She recognized the only person there as the local midwife sitting at one of the tables, writing in some open folders. Erin had met Mel on her visit two and a half years before.

Mel looked over her shoulder and said, “Well! Hello! I knew I’d run into you eventually!” She stood up from her table, pen still in hand, and came to Erin, giving her a friendly hug. “How’s it going?”

“Great,” Erin said, smiling. “Totally great.”

“What can I get you?” Mel asked. “Come and sit with me and tell me all about the family.”

“I just thought I’d stop off and grab something I can warm up later for dinner, but you…” Erin glanced at the table Mel had occupied. “You seem to be working.”

“A little patient charting. I told Jack if he’d take David with him on errands, I’d do my charting over here and that way if anyone comes into the bar, I can fetch Preacher from the kitchen. The baby is asleep over at the clinic—Dr. Michaels is standing guard. Do you have time for something to drink?”

“I have nothing but time,” Erin said with a laugh. “All summer.”

“Wow. That must be an amazing feeling.”

“Oh, amazing,” she said. She glanced at Mel’s drink and said, “Diet cola?”

“Gotcha covered,” Mel said, going behind the bar. “So, Jack tells me Marcie and Ian are expecting…and what else did he say? Something about your younger brother.

“Accepted into an orthopedic residency at UCLA Medical Center.”

“Wow. I did some of my internship in my nurse-practitioner program there,” she said. She brought Erin the cola. “He’ll have enough broken bones and car wrecks to keep him busy. I saw the cabin—I hope you don’t mind.”

“Mind? I’m glad you did! What did you think?”

Mel leaned back. “Well, girl, I saw that place before and after. I don’t know how you and Paul managed to get something that beautiful out of some pictures sent over e-mail.”

“Collecting the pictures was the easy part,” Erin said. “It’s still small—just two rooms. Of course, I sent some design suggestions that Paul rejected for construction reasons—we had to modify the design in the kitchen and bathroom to accommodate new plumbing features. After that, it was furniture shopping, which I did well in advance so they could make the delivery date. He’s really gifted, isn’t he?”

“Paul built our house,” Mel said. “He did that as a favor, but now that he’s set up part of Haggerty Construction down here, he’s the builder of choice. What I’m really curious about, Erin, is why you decided to do this at all. I don’t know many people who can manage to take a whole summer off, and you planned it so carefully.”

“It didn’t really happen that neatly. Ian and Marcie were coming up here for the occasional weekend. Then Drew actually used the cabin as a getaway a couple of times. Both Drew and Ian have been in school and it was a great study retreat for both of them. I was the only one in the family not interested, at least not until the loo was moved indoors.”

Mel laughed. “Understandable. I never did go for the idea of the outhouse. Still fairly common up in the hills, by the way.”

“I thought I might like to borrow the place if it was spruced up a little. When Ian told me to go for it, I got a little carried away. He admitted he was thinking as far as a septic tank, while I added a whole room and had it rebuilt from the floor up, adding a nice big master bath and full kitchen. Not to mention a stone hearth and covered deck.”

“The deck’s the best part, I think. Watching a sunset from there must be pure magic. You and Paul make a good team.”

“It’s beautiful,” Erin admitted.

“What made you decide to make a summer of it?” Mel asked.

She shrugged and looked into her cola. “Oh, I don’t know. I’ve been accused of working too much, of not knowing how to relax.”

To her surprise, Mel laughed softly. “I can relate.”

“You can?” Erin said, eyes wide.

She nodded. “I was an E.R. nurse for years before midwifery, and then I was a midwife in a huge trauma center—we got the most complicated cases. A lot of our patients hadn’t had prenatal care and were in serious trouble. My first delivery was a woman arrested on felony charges and handcuffed to the bed, surrounded by police. My older sister, Joey, said I was an adrenaline junkie.”

“And then you came here,” Erin said. Mel had actually shared her story with Erin on her only previous visit when she had come looking for Marcie to bring her home. Mel had told Erin her first husband had been killed in a violent crime and she’d fled L.A. in search of a major change.

“The joke was on me,” Mel said. “I was looking for peace and tranquillity and ended up being hijacked out to a marijuana grow op to deliver a woman in a life-threatening childbirth situation. I was almost killed by a grower who broke into the clinic looking for better drugs than his pot. And my own baby was born out at the cabin Jack and I lived in, by candlelight, because a bad storm knocked out the lights and phone. A tree blocked the road and we couldn’t get to the hospital.”

“Really?” Erin said, her eyebrows lifted high. “You didn’t tell me any of that before.”

“You came to get Marcie and she didn’t want to be rescued,” Mel said. “I didn’t think it would help Marcie’s cause much. Anyway, so much for me giving up adrenaline. I have to admit, though—most days are peaceful. It’s just that when they’re not, they’re really not.”

“Frankly, I could do with a little excitement,” Erin grumbled. “I swear to God, if one more person sends me an e-mail about taking time to smell the roses.

Mel just laughed at her. “Erin, don’t be talked into feeling a certain way. If working is what’s fun for you—then work!”

“You’re not going to lecture me on balance?” she asked with a smile.

“Don’t you have that? Family, friends, a getaway cottage in the mountains, an exciting job…?”

“Tax and estate law?” Erin asked, wide-eyed. “I think the fact that I find that exciting is one of the things that people think is most disturbing!”

“I wasn’t going to mention that.” Mel chuckled. “But if you find it exciting.

Erin leaned toward her. “I’ve worked really hard,” she said earnestly. “I did the things I set out to do. I have a very large client base. You can believe the partners never suggest I’m working too hard. The firm takes a lot of their pro bono cases off the backs of my rich clients who are in trouble with the IRS. My client base is so valuable to them, I had to threaten to resign to get a leave of absence from the firm. I hadn’t taken more than a long weekend in ten years. Drew’s in residency and engaged to be married soon to a lovely girl. Marcie and Ian are very happy, and expecting their first baby at the end of the summer. The pressure is off! I can now relax and enjoy life more and I can’t think of one thing I want to do.”

“Oh. My.”

Erin leaned back. “It’s true. Don’t you dare tell anyone—but I haven’t been here two weeks yet and I’m so bored I can’t stand to wake up in the morning, facing another long, impossible, dull day! I’ve been putting in so many hours for so many years…”

“Law school then a busy practice…” Mel said. “That’s been a long haul, I’m sure…”

“It started way before law school. I was busy as a kid, needed to help at home.”

Mel frowned. “Marcie mentioned you girls lost your parents young…”

“Our mother died when I was eleven. Marcie was four years old. Drew was still in diapers.”

Mel thought for a moment. “You must have done a lot of babysitting…”

Erin laughed. “A lot? That was all I did. I hurried home from school to take over from the babysitter we’d hired, start dinner, wash and fold some clothes, get their baths, settle them down for the night. The sitter usually left things a mess and I didn’t want Dad coming home to that, he was already a wreck. Our dad tried, but he’d just lost his wife and it took him a good year to catch up with us.”