“You have nothing but time, cookie,” she said. “Can I suggest you use that time to enjoy life? It seems you’ve been having some trouble doing that for a while. Obvious reasons.”
“Obvious,” Kaylee returned.
9
LIFE TOOK ON a glow for Kaylee. Every day was a bright and sunny day even when there were clouds in the sky. She saw Landry every day but not all day. They had coffee inside in the mornings now because it was getting very chilly outside and they drove around the countryside at least once a week, sometimes twice. They went to dinner on the coast, watched movies on his big-screen TV, had dinner together frequently and breakfast most mornings. They slept together every night. One of them always made the first overture: Do you need a night alone? Would you like to spend the night? Even if they didn’t make love like a couple of sex-starved bunnies, they held each other and murmured sweet, soft words during the night. But they also made love like sex-starved bunnies.
They had long, meaningful talks about everything from philosophy to great books; they had read many of the same authors. Thanks to digital publishing, they would often download each other’s recommendations so they could discuss more of the great books they loved. They talked about religion, politics, travel and even the possibility of space aliens. They told each other about their friends, family, people they worked with or people they had known who left an impression.
One day they drove down to San Francisco. Jack agreed to check on Lady and the pups, let her out a few times, and to feed Tux. He took Otis home with him for the night, much to the joy of Jack’s kids and the annoyance of his border collie, Ralph. The purpose of the trip to San Francisco was to visit some of the galleries that Landry liked to work with. Some of his finer glass creations were on display and Kaylee was bursting with pride. They had a nice dinner at Fisherman’s Wharf and stayed overnight at a lovely hotel. Kaylee was a little nervous that they might run into Laura but Landry said, “It’s a very big city. And besides, it doesn’t matter if we do.”
They only stayed the one night, both anxious to get back to their pets.
Kaylee told her closest friends about Landry, about his art, his tenderness, his dogs, his kindness and his passion for her. She told Michelle and Janette and her aunt, Beth. No one seemed concerned that this could be a bad idea. In fact, everyone was thrilled to hear some joy in her voice for the first time in so long.
She even told her mom, though of course her mom had no reply. She wished her mom could meet him, get to know him, love him as Kaylee did. The feeling she got when she communicated with Meredith was that her mom would be so relieved to know that Kaylee had someone special in her life, someone to love. Someone to take a little of the weight of her grief off her back. It had been quite a while since she’d had a boyfriend.
She ran into Mel at the bar and Mel said, “You look so great. Have you been getting a little extra sunshine on your cheeks? Did you get a new haircut or something?”
“No change that I’m aware of, but I’m feeling great. Maybe it’s just time. Maybe I’m finally learning to live with losing my mom. I still miss her like mad. Nothing has changed there. But lately I’ve been spending a lot of time with Landry. We’ve become pretty close and it’s making me happy.”
“Maybe that’s what’s glowing on your pretty cheeks,” Mel said. “I don’t know if you heard this through the grapevine, but Jack is my second husband. I was widowed when my first husband was killed. He stumbled into a robbery in progress and was shot. It was a terrible ordeal. I came to Virgin River for a fresh start, too.”
“I’m sorry, Mel. That must have been so horrible.”
“Very hard, but it’s a process. I wish I had some advice on how to survive the grieving process, but all I can say is, there’s no shortcut. You just have to plow through it. One suggestion is to just weather the year of the firsts without your loved one—first birthday, first anniversary, first holidays, etc.”
“I’m working on that,” Kaylee said.
“Like I said, there’s no shortcut. But are you coming to the Halloween party?”
“Yes! And thankfully that’s not a memorable holiday that my mom and I shared. There should be no dark clouds hanging over the day.”
“Then it could be total fun. It’s supposed to be a chilly, sunny day.”
On that Saturday, Landry and Kaylee arrived in town at about three and had to park all the way down at the edge of town, there were so many cars and trucks lining the road. They walked to the picnic area behind the bar and it looked as if the entire town was there. People were camped out at the picnic tables, in lawn chairs, on blankets and just standing around in clusters or leaning against trees. Kaylee had made a big platter of chicken wings and Landry’s contribution was a large bowl of fruit and nuts mixed up with Cool Whip. Once they added their contributions to the table, they held hands. That was how they were linked as Landry began to introduce Kaylee to people she didn’t already know.