He grabbed her hands, pressing that twenty into one. “You can’t believe I’d let you buy a drink in my bar.”
“Old lovers drink on the house?” she asked sarcastically.
“No,” he said. “Good friends drink on the house.” He leaned toward her and kissed her forehead. “I’m sorry if I hurt you. I didn’t mean to.” He took a deep breath. “I never saw it coming.”
She sighed. “I understand, Jack. I miss you, is all. I hope it all works out for you, but if it doesn’t…”
“Char, if this doesn’t work, I won’t be worth a damn.”
She chuckled. “Okay, then. I’ll take off. Good luck, Jack.” She got in her car, backed out and drove away. He watched until she was gone, then went back inside.
He stood behind the bar, facing Mel. “I’m sorry about that.”
“What was that?”
“An old friend.”
“Clear River?”
“Yeah. Just checking up.”
“Wanting another run at you?”
He nodded. “I made it clear…”
“What did you make clear? Huh, Jack?”
“That I’m off the market. I tried to do that kindly.”
Her expression softened somewhat. She smiled a little and put the palm of her hand against his cheek. “Well, I guess I can’t bitch about that. Your kindness is one of your best features. But tell me something, cowboy. Is she going to keep showing up here?”
“No.”
“Good. I don’t like competition.”
“There isn’t any, Melinda. There never was.”
“There better not be. Turns out I’m a very selfish woman.”
“I broke it off with her before I even held your hand.”
She lifted an amused eyebrow. “That was optimistic of you. You could have ended up with no one.”
“A chance I was willing to take. The other way—I didn’t want to take that kind of chance. It could have seriously messed up what I wanted. And I wanted you.” He smiled at her. “You’re being a pretty good sport about this,” he said.
“Hey. I know why she was here. I wouldn’t give you up at the point of a gun. Wanna take me home? Spend the night?”
“Yeah,” he said with a smile. “I always want to.”
“Get permission from your bald guy then. I want you to prove yourself to me tonight. Again.” Then she grinned.
July came in sunny and warm with a bit of occasional rain. Jack was sitting out on the porch when Rick showed up for work. He came in earlier in the day during summer when there was no school—sometime between breakfast and lunch. It was the peculiar look on his face that caused Jack to say, “Hold up, pardner. How you doing?”
“Good, Jack,” he said.
“Pull up a chair. I haven’t wanted to ask, but it’s been on my mind. You and Liz.”
“Yeah,” Ricky said, leaning against the porch rail rather than sitting. “Must show all over me, huh?”
“Something’s showing. Everything okay?”
“Yeah, I guess.” He took a breath. “I kept after her to let me know if we were all clear, you know? And when she finally said it was okay, she wasn’t pregnant or anything, I told her that I thought maybe we should cool it. It killed her.”
“Whooo,” Jack said. “Rough.”
“I feel like the biggest dog.”
“I guess you had your reasons.”
“I tried to explain—it’s not that I don’t like her. A lot. I really like her a lot. I’m not just saying that. And it’s not just because of what we did. You know.”
“I get that, yeah,” Jack said.
“Can I tell you something?”
“It’s all up to you, bud.”
“I really like the girl a lot. I maybe even love her, if that doesn’t sound too stupid. But it turns out it’s a little too hot for me to handle, and I don’t want to screw up my life and her life because of that. That one time—Jack, I did not see that coming. I think it’s best for her and me to put some miles between us. Does that make me a wimp?”
Jack felt a slow smile spread across his lips. “Nah. That makes you a person with a brain.”
“I feel like a damn dog. But Jack, that girl—she just does it to me. Holy God. I get close to that girl and I have no brain at all.”
Jack sat forward in his chair, leaning toward Rick. “There will be times when too hot to handle will work right into your plans, Rick. But you won’t be sixteen anymore. You need to be smart. Sounds like you’re being smart. I’m sorry you and the girl are having a hard time with this.”
“I hope you’re right about this. Because I feel like shit. Plus, I miss her like mad. And not just that… I miss her.”
“Ricky, buddy, you are too young to be a daddy. I’m sorry this hurts, but sometimes you have to do the difficult thing. And she’s just too frickin’ young to be put in that position. Someone has to be a grown-up. You’re doing the right thing. If she’s the right girl, it’ll keep.”
“I don’t know,” he said, shaking his head sadly.
“Let the girl get a little older, pal. Maybe you can check back with her later.”
“Or maybe not, Jack. I think I hurt her real bad. I might not get another shot.”
“Do yourself a favor. Don’t keep going back to the scene of the crime. It’ll just buy you trouble.”
Mel began to glow in the brightness of summer. She had a patient in her last trimester with a first baby and first babies were so much fun. This couple, unlike Polly and Darryl, unlike the sad and anonymous couple in the woods, had been trying for a baby for quite a while, so they were filled with anxiety and excitement. Anne and Jeremy Givens were in their late twenties and had been married eight years. Jeremy’s dad owned a large orchard, and Jeremy and Anne lived on the land with the extended family. The baby would come before the apple crop.
Jack and Mel had solidified a couples’ friendship with June and Jim, and John and Susan. They spent more time in Grace Valley and the other couples came to Virgin River twice—once to Mel’s little cabin for dinner, once to Jack’s bar. On the last visit Susan announced that she wouldn’t be leaving town again, unless she could use the twisting, bumpy, thirty-minute drive to start labor. She was about to pop. Jack invited Jim, Elmer Hudson and a friend of Elmer’s, Judge Forrest, to fish with him and Preacher in the Virgin, and their catch was good. It made her almost as happy that the men were friends as it did that she had these women friends in her life.
Given the time she was spending with her girlfriends, Mel had opened up a little, but just a little. She admitted she was in a relationship with Jack and that he was the best thing that had happened to her in Virgin River. “It looks like you were made for each other,” Susan said. “Kind of like June and Jim—barely acquainted and like old soul mates.”
To Joey she reported, “I never sleep by myself anymore. It feels more natural to have him near. And Joey—it’s so nice not to be alone anymore.” She didn’t dare tell her sister that after going out to a marijuana grow to deliver a baby, Jack would hardly let her out of his sight. She smiled secretly; there was always a bright spot to everything.