Paul Haggerty introduced them to his wife Vanessa and their five children. “I’m glad I ran into you, Kaylee. You should give Bonnie and Gerald a call. They’re planning to come up in a week or two to check out the house. It’s nearly finished. I figured you’d want to see them.”
“I can’t wait to see them, and the house!”
Landry had a beer in one hand and passed a cup of wine to Kaylee so he could shake hands with Paul. “I’m going to drive over and take a look, too, if you don’t mind.”
“You’re always welcome. It turned out just right,” Paul said proudly.
They made the rounds, visited with the minister and his wife. Kaylee met Luke and Shelby Riordan, of course she already knew Colin and Jillian, and another brother was visiting so she was introduced to Sean. “How many of you are there?”
“Five Riordan boys—Patrick and Aiden are missing. When we all get together you can hear the noise shake the rooftops.”
“It’s a good thing Colin lives in a very big house,” Shelby said. “It gets to be quite a crowd.”
Kaylee visited with Jack, Preacher, Paige and Mike Valenzuela and was introduced to Brie, Jack’s sister. Then she found her way to the table Mel occupied with some other women. There were pony rides for the children, a big inflated bounce house for the smaller kids and all kinds of games taking place around the grounds. A lot of the kids and several adults were wearing costumes; Jillian was wearing a very inventive witch costume complete with shoes with curled up toes and a blacked out tooth. And the food! She looked at the long table covered with dishes that seemed to go on forever. “This is food porn,” she said to Landry.
They stayed for several hours, visited with most of the town, ate themselves silly, and Kaylee hated to see it ever end. But the temperature dropped as the sun was going down and Landry whispered in her ear, “I think you should come home with me and we should light the fire.”
“That sounds perfect,” she said. “Maybe I should go to my house first and take a shower.”
“Kaylee, I have a perfectly good shower. It’s big enough for two.”
* * *
“My life is wonderful,” Kaylee told Janette. “I almost feel guilty for being so happy.”
“Please don’t,” Janette said. “You know if your mother is watching, all she wants for you is that you feel happy and fulfilled. Remember that she was. Till the last day, she was happy all the time, even in the hardest times. She had some major struggles with the company, but she was positive and grateful for every day. Just be thankful that you were blessed with such a fantastic mother and role model.”
“Yes, I know. Sometimes losing her is so hard I forget to remember how lucky I was to have had her as a mother,” she said.
“That was one of many things that stood out about Meredith,” Janette said. “She always said the cure for the blues is gratitude. It works.”
* * *
“I have some good news and some bad news,” Kaylee said to Landry. He was just lighting the fire in his living room and she was sitting on the couch. He looked over his shoulder at her and lifted a brow. “The good news is I’m going to finish my book in four weeks.”
“Good for you,” he said.
“The bad news is, I’m going to have to get serious and hit it hard. I’m going to work at my house every day for at least six to eight hours a day until I can send it in. This book has been like a monkey on my back for over a year. I can’t separate it from losing my mother so I have to finish it and send it away. And until I can get my writing back, a part of me is missing.”
“That’s not bad news, Kaylee. I’m glad you’re going for it. If you wanted to give it up, I guess I’d understand, but I’m glad you want it back. It’s who you are.”
“Have you ever had trouble with your sculptures?” she asked. “Like when your dad passed away?”
“It was hard to concentrate then, for a little while. I can’t remember how long it took for me to feel like myself again. But I’ll tell you when I really choked. When I realized Laura was probably gone for good, I was disoriented. That’s when I decided to move back here and concentrate on the one thing I had some control over—my work. It wasn’t quick, either. And I spent a lot of time building the little house rather than being creative. But it all came back.”
“Even with Laura’s visits distracting you?”
“She didn’t visit that often, but sometimes she’d call and ask me when my next visit to the city would be and she’d meet me there for a couple of days. I insisted on separate rooms and separate checks and so those visits were less frequent. Her visits to Virgin River were rare unless she needed something. Laura didn’t have that big an impact on my work. If I was upset about her absence, working helped. If I was upset about her presence, working helped. So I know how you feel. We need it; it defines us. Just tell me what I can do to help. Except don’t tell me I have to ignore you 24/7. I won’t be good at that.”