“I’m not doing my job if she feels that way….”

John just laughed. “You can’t control everything, Jack. Just take a media study—wrinkles and gray hair on men tend to make them look more worldly and powerful, but the world sees the same thing in women as the end. It’s not so, but it can be an emotional battle for some women.”

“That just doesn’t seem like Mel,” Jack said. “She’s so levelheaded….”

“If you’ve already told her you don’t like this idea and yet she’s made an appointment to have eggs harvested—is that levelheaded?”

“God,” Jack said, dropping his gaze to the floor.

“Sometimes counseling helps. Sometimes just a husband’s tender reinforcement that she’s the woman you want no matter how her body changes…Listen, let me know if you need help. But for Mel’s sake—face it down. Get to the bottom of this.”

Jack was silent for a long moment. He took a deep breath. He stuck out his hand to shake John’s and said, “Thanks. You were absolutely zero help.”

John laughed. “I’m sorry I couldn’t make it easier.”

“Not as sorry as me.”

“Good luck. But really, if it doesn’t work out, call me. I’m willing to get in this with you two, but I’d like to be sure what we’re dealing with, for her sake. Mel is really important to me, too.”

“Now, that might help. I appreciate it.”

Aiden was still feeling a bit melancholy by the time he got back to Luke’s. He saw that Luke, Shelby and Art were sitting on the porch at the house, and Luke gave a wave. Aiden walked over. “How are you feeling?” he asked Shelby.

“Ready,” she said with a smile.

“And how are you feeling?” Aiden asked Luke.

“Ready and so not ready,” he said.

Aiden chuckled and looked at Art. “And good morning, Art. How are you feeling this morning?”

Art took a drink of his diet soda and said, “I want to get married with Netta.”

Luke instantly lost all the color in his face and groaned. Shelby, however, just ran a hand over her big belly. “I don’t think so, Art,” she said. “You shouldn’t get married now. We need your help around here—especially with the baby coming. Besides, it’s hard to be married to someone who lives in Fortuna if you don’t drive a car.”

“Oh,” he said. Then he turned to Luke. “Should I drive a car?”

“No!” Luke said harshly, clearly in a panic.

“We’ll drive you wherever you need to go, Art,” Shelby said more calmly. “Don’t worry about that.”

“Okay,” he said. “You’ll drive me to Netta’s house?”

“Of course,” she said, smiling. “I’d be happy to. In fact, I’ll call Ellen and ask if Netta can come to the Fourth of July picnic in town. Would you like that?”

He smiled. “That would be good.”

“Consider it done,” Shelby said. “It will be fun to get to know her.”

Aiden chuckled and sat down on the porch steps. “Art, why don’t you go see if the fish are biting.”

“I’m on my break,” he said. Art was very careful of rules and routine. He liked following instructions, especially Luke’s.

“It’s okay,” Luke said. “Go ahead if you feel like it.”

“I feel like it,” Art said with a smile. And he hefted himself up and lumbered off, stopping at the front of his cabin to grab his rod and reel.

When he was out of earshot, Aiden said, “Try not to worry so much, Luke. I think Art’s pretty happy to be talking to Netta again. Ellen suggested we all just keep an eye on them and see how the renewed relationship is shaping up, make sure they’re not headed for trouble or anything. But she also said there was no indication from Netta’s behavior that she had a real active libido. Maybe this is something Netta mentioned to Art—Art’s been talking to her on the phone, right?”

Luke nodded. “I have to punch in the numbers for him. They don’t seem to talk that much, but they like being on the phone.”

“Well, don’t worry. Maybe you should ask to drop in to Ellen’s support group a few times. Pick up some very important information—stuff that people just don’t know. Things I didn’t know, and I thought I was up on some of this stuff.”

“Like what?” Luke asked.

“Well—here’s something. I know I told you Netta’s on birth control as a precaution, but not because she might accidentally have sex with some boyfriend like Art. It helps with PMS, for one thing. And to protect her from pregnancy in a worst-case scenario. Like sexual abuse—rape. There are predators out there who look for vulnerable women like Netta and her roommates.”

“Oh, God!” Luke nearly roared, standing up fast as a shot. “You gotta be kidding me!”

“I had a similar reaction, but I managed not to stand up and shout about it. Made me think about things. It’s a very dark, very tragic reality. Netta, by all accounts, is very eager to please—what’s she going to do if a bunch of high school boys tell her to meet them after school? And—it’s illegal to sterilize a mentally challenged woman…To get her an abortion would be a legal nightmare and impossible without her consent, which someone like Netta wouldn’t be able to give. To let her give birth to a rapist’s baby could be an even worse trauma. Her caretakers are taking the only precautions they can to keep her safe in a dangerous world. I’m sure there are a million more things to understand.”

Luke’s face was actually red. “Aiden, if I ever came face-to-face with a man who would sexually molest a mentally challenged woman, I don’t know if I could keep from—”

Aiden stood, as well. “I understand completely. Listen, you’ve done a great job with Art and he’s content, anyone can see that,” Aiden said. “But I think you and Shelby would benefit from getting to know Ellen and Bo and maybe, down the road when there’s time, you should try out that support group.”

“Yeah,” Luke said. “Yeah…”

“Try not to worry too much, Luke. Art’s not going to marry Netta. And it’s good he has a friend.”

“I might have been a little tense lately—Mom being around, Art wanting to marry someone, Shelby ready to have a baby…”

“Ya think?” Shelby asked with a smile. “I’ll call Ellen and offer to pick up Netta for the picnic, if Netta wants to come. It’ll be fun.”

“I should do it, baby,” Luke said. “You’re too pregnant.”

“To drive a car?” Aiden and Shelby asked at the same time.

Aiden turned and went to his cabin, chuckling as he went. He flipped on his laptop, signed on to his e-mail account and found an e-mail from someone he didn’t recognize. He opened it and read, Aiden—I have to talk to you. It’s urgent. It’s more than urgent. It’s about our divorce. Call me at once. Here is my cell number. Annalee

He sat down and typed, No. Go away. Pretend I’m dead.

Within five minutes he heard a ping, alerting him of new mail. I’d love to, but that won’t work. Call me at once!!!

Despite Erin’s lack of sleep and her desire to spend the rest of her life in bed with Aiden, she was thrilled to see Marcie. Her sister looked absolutely beautiful—just as round as could be and happier than Erin had ever seen her. Her cheeks were flushed, her eyes bright and her laugh quick. Ian was bursting with both pride and a very special soft attentiveness toward his wife. Those two, who had been through so much, had reached a place of peace and contentment in their lives, in their marriage, and it gave Erin great satisfaction to have helped them along.

She didn’t realize that she was looking a bit different to Marcie and Ian. She was calm and fulfilled, a lot more relaxed than was typical for her. It was something she could feel but didn’t know would show on her face, in her lithe movements, in her twinkling eyes and secret smile. After their initial hugs of greeting, she poured them all iced fruit drinks and suggested they sit out on the deck to watch the sunset. Ian and Marcie went first, Erin following with a big aluminum soup pot and a metal spoon, which she casually put beside her chaise.

“Uh, Erin—what’s that for?” Ian asked.

“Oh, I have that bear.”

Ian and Marcie exchanged looks, then looked back at Erin. “What bear?”

“I told you about the bear,” she said. “You know—the one in the house?”

“I think you might’ve forgotten to mention that….”

And then she tried to recall. Actually, she’d talked to them daily but had been leaving out anything in her summer at the cabin that had to do with Aiden, so she’d left out many things. But she was going to introduce him to her sister and brother-in-law, so she had better catch them up a bit. “Well, remember the vagrant who caused my concussion?” she began. By the end of her explanation and story, leaving out the more delicious details, they were both staring at her with wide eyes and open mouths. “What?” Erin asked.

“You fell in love,” Marcie said softly.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Erin returned with a flip of her hand. “I’m simply hiking and biking with someone and allowing him the privilege of chasing my bear out of the kitchen. By the way, I’m sorry about the cookies. I know how much you like them, but I was afraid to make more.”

“You fell in love with a vagrant who turned out to be a doctor and you’re like a completely different person,” Marcie said. “Erin, you’re all soft and cuddly.”

“Oh, pooh—you’re just very pregnant and sentimental.”

“When do we meet him?” Ian wanted to know.

“Well—I have you guys in town for the weekend and he has tons of family at his brother’s for the weekend and longer, but I guess we’ll all be at the Fourth of July picnic at Jack’s on Monday. Try not to embarrass me by making too much of this. All right?”

“All right,” Marcie said, grinning from ear to ear.

Aiden had had total peace in the eight years since his divorce. He hadn’t been able to find a woman to settle down with, but he’d been extremely pleased that he hadn’t had to deal with that whackjob Annalee. Well, apparently that was over—in true Annalee fashion. He should never have responded to her e-mail.

What followed were literally hundreds of e-mails. Call me immediately! I have to talk to you! You don’t understand how urgent this is—and I’m not telling you anything until I talk to you and hear your voice!

He knew she was cutting and pasting, or maybe she’d set up her computer to keep sending every five seconds, but that didn’t diminish the panic it threatened to fill him with. Just the thought of having her anywhere near his life at this time made him want to run as fast and as far as he could.

The only two people who could possibly understand his panic were his brothers Sean and Luke—the only two who had ever actually met her in the flesh. He had called them both—he’d said something like “I got in some trouble, got married to a nutcase a couple of months ago and now I’m working on a divorce, and I haven’t told Mom.” Luke, who had gone through his own horrific marriage/divorce crisis at roughly the same age, took some leave and flew to San Diego to make sure Aiden was all right. Aiden wasn’t too all right and Luke called in Sean.

Try as he might to get her to leave him alone, Annalee kept coming around. When Luke met her, he asked, “Holy shit, Aiden! Is she human?” He saw how beautiful and sneaky Annalee was and couldn’t believe she was real. Sean was the one who said, “Buy her off. You can make her go away with money.” They even offered to pool their funds to finance her departure, but Aiden hadn’t needed financial help. He’d been on a boat for two years; his money had been going in the bank.

Everyone in the family knew about her after it was all over, of course, just as they knew about how much trouble he’d been facing when he’d gotten mixed up with her. They also knew what it had cost him to get out of it. After all that had been resolved, his brief marriage to the little sex kitten had become a joke with his brothers—Aiden got off a big gray boat with a hard-on and the first willing woman he encountered was a sociopath with extraordinary skills in bed. Ha-ha.

Not so funny right now.

He turned off his computer. She might crash it with her e-mails. Tough. He’d just buy a new one. He knew from experience that even the slightest response could somehow set off the diabolical Annalee. In the past she had somehow managed to glean information about him and his family that he didn’t intend for her to have. He was sticking to his guns—he was done with her!

On Saturday he went to Eureka, shopping. He couldn’t find what he was looking for in the couple of dress shops he visited, so he ended up at a clothing-consignment store where he bought an emerald-green strapless chiffon dress. It was used, of course, but he was out of options. He wasn’t entirely sure of Erin’s size, but he thought he was at least close. There was no question about the color of her eyes—like his—that Irish green. He also bought a pair of silver slip-on heels. He had a scheme and that made him smile and forget all about Annalee.

That night the Riordans had a big family meal at Luke’s and on Sunday everyone went to General Booth’s house to gather with Shelby’s side of the family. Everyone was there, including Tom Booth on leave after two years of West Point, with his newly engaged fiancée, Brenda, who was a college student in New York, not far from the academy Tom attended. They were only back in Virgin River for a couple of weeks of Tom’s leave; Tom was headed for some airborne training with the army. In the academy, you didn’t get summers off like civilian college. Active-duty military were always in training or on assignment.