“Where are you going?” Leigh demanded.

“I’m going visiting, sweetheart. Probably to Maureen’s again, since she has that empty guesthouse. I was planning to talk to you about this but I was waiting until you got your situation settled. I didn’t want to abandon you, but I see I’d better. You’re depending on me to rescue you and I can’t. I’m sixty-two. I have a lot of energy still and I’d like to spend most of it on myself. Raising you was a great gift to me, but you’re a grown-up now and you have to make a grown-up decision about how you and Rob are going to move forward. Eventually I want to stay with Sully. It turns out we’re in love.”

“You’re what? But that’s crazy!”

“It is, a little. It’s also very nice. So you see, I won’t be far away when the baby comes. You’ll come to the Crossing, I’ll come to town, we’ll have dinner, we’ll talk on the phone like we always have. You need to put your mind to your future.”

“Helen, I love Sully, but he’s an old man!”

Helen was silent for a moment. “He’s not that old. And we have a very good time.”

“You have nothing in common!”

“I think you’re right,” Helen said. “Yet it’s amazing how much we find to talk about. I’m dreading winter, and if it’s awful, I’ll head for someplace warm. Sully knows I like regular travel—he understands that I’ll have trips now and then, conferences and visiting friends. It’s going to be an adventure.”

“Is it just that you want me to get married? Is that it?”

“Oh, heavens, I don’t care. Do whatever suits you, but the two people who made that baby should raise it. Not you and your old-maid aunt. So figure it out.”

“How can I when my old-maid aunt is running out on me?”

Helen smiled and touched Leigh’s soft cheek. “You can do it,” she said. “But I’ll be a phone call away. And, of course, when the baby comes, I’ll be with you. If you want me.”

“What in the world are people going to say about you moving in with Sully?” Leigh cried.

“Well, if I cared, I could probably guess. But I don’t care. And you know Sully—what are the odds he gives a shit?”

“What does Maggie say?”

“That’s not my problem but I’ll tell you this—Maggie likes me. The last time I saw her she said I put a little color in her father’s cheeks.” Helen laughed. “I never expected to meet a man like Sully and want to spend every day with him. He said the cabins are all heated and I should invite my girls to visit. He said he’d cook and clean and we could have a little writers’ retreat. Isn’t that sweet?”

“I’m going to be sick,” Leigh said sarcastically.

“Well, shame on you,” Helen said. “Don’t be so selfish. Everyone deserves their own brand of happiness and we’ve found ours.”

“And so are you getting married?”

“Oh, hell, no,” Helen said. “Why would we bother with that? We have our own grown children and grandchildren, our own retirement funds, our own jobs. He tends the Crossing. I write. And we laugh so much, it’s wonderful. I’ll miss him while I’m away so I hope you get yourself straightened out quickly.”

“I can’t believe you’re doing this.”

“Believe it,” Helen said. “You’re on your own. And I love you. I’ll talk to you in a few hours. I’ll let you know where I land.”

Leigh muttered something about a crazy old woman and Helen couldn’t help it—she chuckled under her breath. She didn’t feel that old. She felt young actually. She felt thirty-five. She had mentioned Sully to a couple of her girlfriends and they were anxious to meet him. She knew they would love him.

And Leigh would have to plan her life. Her safety net was about to walk out the door.

Helen left most of her things at Leigh’s house because it was pointless to make a major move. She had packed enough essentials to last a few weeks. If that didn’t kick Leigh in the butt, she wasn’t sure what would. Then she went to the Crossing to tell Sully she was leaving.

“Really?” he asked. “You’re leaving me? Now?”

“Just for a little while,” she said. “A few weeks, maybe...”

He put his arms around her. “No, Helen,” he said, holding her closely. “Please. Don’t leave. Stay with me. You’re going to end up here, anyway. And I love you.”

“Oh, Sully, do you think that will be enough of a shock to get Leigh moving?”

“More than enough,” he said. “It’ll prolly get the whole damn town moving!”

“And if you find you’re not quite ready for a roommate?” she asked.

“This few weeks with your girlfriend isn’t necessary,” he said. “There’s plenty of room for your things. And you’ll be making your point. I just barely got you back.”

“I suppose...”

“Try it with me,” he said. “I’ll be polite, do my half of the chores and cook. I’ll keep you warm and make you laugh. I’ll read your books and live with your twisted side. And you can harvest the garden till we’re down to dirt.”

She sighed and put her head against his chest. “It is what I want.” She looked up at his smile. “I hope you meant it when you said you want me to stay. And if it’s an inconvenience, I can go visit friends. But I’m not going to live with Leigh again. I may visit her but I think my being such a constant roommate in her life is preventing her from moving on.”

“Helen, you can have my whole house.”

She laughed. “Maybe I can use the extra drawers in the guest room but your bathroom cupboard is full of stuff.”

“I’ll burn it,” he said. “Can I make you some breakfast?”

“That would be wonderful. I was awake all night. I had a showdown with Leigh and then couldn’t sleep.”

She sat at his kitchen table. While he turned a couple of eggs over in the pan, she told him the whole story.

He laughed. “Before Maggie met Cal, before my heart attack, she decided to take a leave from her practice and thought she’d come here to hide out. She had a mess going on—she’d broken it off with that useless guy she was seeing, she was being sued—and she ran home. I was thrilled, but I couldn’t let on. If I told her that, she’d never leave. And I knew she had to face the difficult reality, stare her problems in the face or they’d never go away. I wished she could stay forever but then all that medical training would be wasted. Turned out to be a good thing she was here. She was on hand for my heart attack.”

“I’m not here for one of those,” Helen said. “Sully, does Maggie know we’re an item?”

“She does. And I made her promise to keep watch that you don’t end up playing nurse to some sick old man.”

“Oh, Sully! I have a feeling you’re going to outlive us all. I’m just happy to have some fun right now.”

“Would you like a morning walk?”

“I don’t think so,” she said. “I think what I need is a morning nap. I’m exhausted. Trying to wiggle out of being the babysitter for the next generation has me worn out.”

“Don’t you have murdering to do this morning?”

“It’ll just have to wait.”

“Is Leigh angry?” Sully asked.

“Uh-huh. She called me a crazy old woman. That’s going to come back and bite her in the ass.”

“Why’d you do it, Helen?” he asked.

“I love Leigh more than life itself, but when I realized she was planning on me being her main support when the baby comes, I knew I’d been too much at her beck and call. She relies too heavily on me, even when we’re apart. It’s really not my job anymore. So I pulled the rug out from under her, just like you said. We’ll see if she falls or flies. It might take a while. She’s disgruntled. And blaming me.”

“Are you going to be happy here?” he asked.

“It’s what I’ve been wanting to do,” she said. “I was just waiting for my niece to get her life together. Just so you know, I’ve never been tempted to live with a man before.”

He reached for her hand. “My life has changed so much in just a few months,” he said. “I never saw myself with a woman. And such a quality woman. I hope Maggie tells her mother. Phoebe will just shit.”

“Underneath it all, you’re vindictive.”

“Just with Phoebe,” he said. “Did you bring those polka dot pajamas?”

“I did.”

“I can’t wait till bedtime,” he said.

* * *

Leigh had an unhappy morning. She worked her way through a couple of chest colds, an allergic reaction, false labor and an asthma attack, staying focused on her patients. Connie Boyle brought his little son in with a barking cough. “That doesn’t sound good,” she said. She listened to his chest, wrote a prescription, ordered a chest X-ray at the hospital in either Aurora or Breckenridge and suggested using steam to help loosen his congestion. “How are Sierra and the baby?” she asked.

“They’re doing great, except that Sam likes to get up in the night with the baby, and since I’m back at work, she’s sleep deprived. We’re both sleep deprived. You know you’re running on fumes when I get more rest at night at the firehouse. But this won’t last forever.”

It wasn’t long after Connie left that Cal came in with Elizabeth. “Fever,” he said. “I consulted the doctor, who is in Denver, and she said I should ask you to check her ears.”

“Bingo,” Leigh said. “Ear infection.” And she wrote out another script.

And next, Rafe Vadas and all three of his kids came in, three runny noses and one croupy cough. “I guess it’s Father’s Day at the clinic,” she said. “All the fathers are bringing in the kids and all the kids spend time together. I wonder where it started?”