Although she really didn’t want a repeat of the scenario with the grower, something about the experience got her attention. When she’d left L.A., they didn’t have any trouble filling her job. There were ten people who could do what she did, and do it just as well. In Virgin River, and the surrounding area, it was her and Doc. There just wasn’t anyone else. There was no day off or week off. And if she had hesitated even long enough to fetch Doc to go with her, that baby wouldn’t have made it.
I came here because I thought life would be simpler, easier, quieter, she thought. That there would be fewer challenges, and certainly nothing to fear. I thought I’d feel safer, not that I’d have to grow stronger. Braver.
She smiled at him. “In L.A. we send the paramedics. You see any paramedics? I’m in this little town that you said was uncomplicated. You’re a big liar, that’s what you are…”
“I told you, we have our own kind of drama. Mel, you should listen to me—”
“This is a real complicated place sometimes. I’m just going to do my job the best I can.”
He stepped up onto the porch, put a finger under her chin and lifted it, gazing into her eyes. “Melinda, you’re getting to be a real handful.”
“Yeah?” she asked, smiling. “So are you.”
Thirteen
Mel didn’t tell Doc where she was going, just that there were a couple of people she wanted to look in on. He asked her, since she was out, to stop and check on Frannie Butler, an elderly woman who lived alone and had high blood pressure. “Make sure she has plenty of medicine and that she’s actually taking it,” he said. He popped an antacid.
“Should you be having so much heartburn?” she asked him.
“Everyone my age has this much heartburn,” he answered, brushing her off.
Mel got Frannie’s blood pressure out of the way first, though it wasn’t quick. The thing about house calls in little towns like this was it involved tea and cookies and conversation. It was as much a social event as medical care. Then she drove out to the Anderson ranch. When she pulled up, Buck came out of the shed with a shovel in his hand and an astonished look on his face when he saw the Hummer. “Who-ee,” he said. “When did that thing turn up?”
“Just last week,” she said. “Better for getting around the back roads than my little foreign job, as Doc calls it.”
“Mind if I have a look?” he asked, peering into the window.
“Help yourself. I’d like to check on Chloe. Lilly inside?”
“Yup. In the kitchen. Go on in—door’s open.” And he immediately stuck his head in the driver’s door, taken with the vehicle.
Mel went around back. Through the kitchen window she could see Lilly’s profile as she sat at the kitchen table. The door was open and only the screen door was closed. She gave a couple of quick raps, called out, “Hey, Lilly,” and opened the door. And was stopped dead in her tracks.
Lilly, too late, pulled the baby blanket over her exposed breast. She was nursing Chloe.
Mel was frozen in place. “Lilly?” she said, confused.
Tears sprang to the woman’s eyes. “Mel,” she said, her voice a mere whisper. The baby immediately started to whimper and Lilly tried to comfort her, but Chloe wasn’t done nursing. Lilly’s cheeks were instantly red and damp; the hands that fussed with her shirt and held the baby were shaking.
“How is this possible?” Mel asked, completely confused. Lilly’s youngest child was grown—she couldn’t possibly have breast milk. But then she realized what had happened. “Oh, my God!” Chloe was Lilly’s baby! Mel walked slowly to the kitchen table and pulled out a chair to sit down because her knees were shaking. “Does everyone in the family know?”
Lilly shook her head, her eyes pinched closed. “Just me and Buck,” she finally said. “I wasn’t in my right mind.”
Mel shook her head, baffled. “Lilly. What in the world happened?”
“I thought they’d come for her—the county. And that someone would want her right off. Some nice young couple who couldn’t have a baby. Then she’d have young parents and I—” she shook her head pitifully. “I just didn’t think I could do it again,” she said, dissolving into sobs.
Mel got out of her chair and went to her, taking the fussing baby, trying to comfort her. Lilly lay her head down on the table top and wept hard tears.
“I’m so ashamed,” she cried. When she looked up at Mel again she said, “I raised six kids. I spent thirty years raising kids and we got seven grandkids. I couldn’t imagine another one. So late in my life.”
“Wasn’t there anyone you could talk to about this?” Mel asked.
She shook her head. “Mel,” she wept. “Country people… Small-town country people know that once you talk about it… No,” she said, shaking her head. “I was sick when I realized I was pregnant and forty-eight years old. I was sick and a little crazy.”
“Did you ever consider terminating the pregnancy?”
“I did, but I couldn’t. I just couldn’t. I make no judgment, but it isn’t in me.”
“What about arranging an adoption?” Mel asked.
“No one in this family, in this town for that matter, would ever understand that. They’d have looked at me like I killed her. Even my friends—good women my age who would understand how I felt, could never accept it if I said I didn’t want to raise another child, my own child. I didn’t know what else to do.”
“And now what do you intend to do?” Mel asked.
“I don’t know,” she wailed. “I just don’t know.”
“What if they come now—social services? Lilly, can you give her up?”
She was shaking her head. “I don’t know. I don’t think so. Oh, God, I wish I had a chance to do it over.”
“Lilly—how did you conceal your pregnancy? How did you give birth alone?”
“No one pays much attention—I’m overweight. Buck helped. Poor Buck—he didn’t even know till it was almost time—I kept it from him, too. Maybe we can adopt her now?”
Mel sat down again, still jiggling the baby. She looked down at Chloe, who was burying her fist in her mouth, squirming and fussing. “You don’t have to adopt her, you gave birth to her. But I’m awful worried about you. You abandoned her. That must have almost killed you.”
“I watched the whole time. Till you and Jack came to the porch. I wouldn’t let anything happen to her. It was terrible hard, but I felt like I had to. I just didn’t know what else to do.”
“Oh, Lilly,” Mel said. “I’m not sure you’re okay yet. This is just too crazy.” She passed the baby back to Lilly. “Here, nurse your baby. She’s hungry.”
“I don’t know that I can,” she said, but she took the baby. “I might be too upset.”
“Just hook her up—she’ll do the work,” Mel said. When the baby was again at the breast, Mel put her arms around Lilly and just held them both for a few minutes.
“What are you going to do?” Lilly asked, her voice a quivering mess.