She felt Landry slip from her side and heard him leave with Otis in the predawn. She smiled and allowed herself to go back to sleep. She wasn’t sure how much longer she slept but when her eyes opened, the sun was struggling to rise and shine, and Kaylee smelled coffee. She wrapped herself in a robe, brushed the knots out of her hair, pulled it back in a scrunchie and found her lover in the kitchen. He was drinking a cup of coffee and looking at his laptop. He put down his cup and held out an arm for her.

“Mm, I slept very well,” she said. “Very.”

“It was my pleasure,” he said. He tapped his laptop. “My morning news.”

“How’s the world looking this morning?” she asked.

“Despite the dire condition it’s been in lately, it’s never looked better.”

She poured her coffee and sat down across from him. “Funny, I woke up with just that feeling. Thank you for last night. For all of it, from the storytelling to the lovemaking. I feel brand-new.”

“You’re beautiful in the morning,” he said. “I wanted to be here when you woke but I don’t want to be a pest. I fed Tux and he’s already asleep. Can I make you some breakfast? And we can talk about our days?”

“I think I just had breakfast last night,” she said.

“Which is why I brought pancake mix. You have some berries. How does that sound?”

“Hm, I could get used to you,” she said.

“Let’s have some breakfast and go to our corners. I have a little work to do, you have work you’re supposed to do. And this afternoon I thought I’d drive over to the coast and around the hills—the leaves are at their peak. And it’s going to be a beautiful day. Want to come?”

“I do,” she said. “What time?”

“How does two sound? Does that give you enough time to get some work done?”

“Of course,” she said. But she thought the last thing she wanted was to work.

She felt the urge to burst into song.

When Landry had gone and the kitchen was cleaned up, she called Janette, the first person who came to mind. “It’s possible I’m falling in love,” she said. “With my landlord.”

“Well, now, that’s interesting. Is he falling in love right back?”

“I think so, yes. It’s early. Time will tell.”

“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.

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.”