Paige was once again burrowed into the room over the kitchen, but this time her injuries were not terrible. She had to recover from her D and C by staying off her feet for a couple of days, and although she’d received a bloody nose, it was not broken. While she rested, Preacher watched Christopher. Via long distance, Brie helped line up a lawyer in L.A. to appeal to the court to reverse the order to return Christopher to his father, given his pending trial. Wes Lassiter made bail after three days and went back to Los Angeles, returning to his job before his employer could sniff out the arrest. Preacher was not content to take Lassiter’s lawyer’s word for that—he called Mike Valenzuela, who was happy to check, twice a day if necessary, to be sure that Lassiter was back at his job, hundreds of miles away from Virgin River.
It seemed as though things might calm down, at least until the trial, but then Mel was surprised by a patient she wasn’t expecting. A patient and condition she would never have anticipated.
Doc was off fishing when Mel’s friend Connie came to the clinic. Connie was in her early fifties, a good-natured little redhead who was still recovering from cardiac bypass surgery that she’d had last May. She was almost back to her old self. With her was her niece, Liz. Upon seeing Liz’s face, Mel’s first reaction was to smile brightly, but then, noting that Liz’s eyes were downcast, her smile froze. Mel’s gaze drifted lower to the very slight rounding of her tummy, and she felt her heart plummet. Oh-oh. Then she stole a glance at Connie’s face and saw her friend grimace, then shrug, helpless.
Connie’s sister had sent Liz to her from Eureka last spring, right around the same time Mel had come to Virgin River. March. The reason was that Liz was a handful, too much for Connie’s sister to handle. She’d been reportedly running wild in Eureka. Both Connie and her sister thought Virgin River might calm the girl down, or at least prove to have fewer opportunities for getting in trouble than were available in the much larger town of Eureka. But when Connie had a heart attack in May, Liz was sent home to her mother.
“Hey there,” Mel said cheerfully. This was Mel’s work—she knew how to get beyond the shock, the panic. “Welcome back. How are you?”
“Not totally great,” Liz said.
“Well, it’s good to see you, anyway,” Mel said, reaching out and taking her hand. “I bet you’re here for an exam. Why don’t you come with me.”
Liz let herself be led to the exam room. The girl looked quite a bit different than she had last spring. She came into town looking like a hussie; she wore skirts no bigger than napkins, high-heeled boots, abbreviated tops, belly button ring, glossy lips and thick black mascara on her sexy long lashes—like an ad for Playboy. And at the time she was all of fourteen, a very beautiful, provocative fourteen who looked more like eighteen. No wonder her mother had been terrified. Now she was clad in jeans and a bulky sweatshirt that was pulled down to cover her tummy, but it was still evident she was pregnant. Her makeup was much more natural looking and conservative than it had been, but she really didn’t need it at all. She was lovely. And she actually looked younger today than she had last spring. Younger and more vulnerable.
Rick had taken one look at Liz last spring and went bonkers. Jack and Preacher had been looking out for Rick for years, kind of surrogate big brothers or dads. According to Jack, he’d had a serious talk with Rick about the dangers of intimacy, especially with such a young girl. After Liz went home to her mom, Rick had told Jack that they were no longer seeing each other. Knowing Rick, the kind of young man he was, Mel couldn’t imagine that he would get her pregnant and abandon her. He just didn’t seem like that kind of boy. Mel thought perhaps Liz had wasted no time in finding herself a fella back in Eureka.
“So,” Mel said to Liz. “Want to tell me why you’re here?”
“I’m pregnant. Obviously.”
“Have you been examined by a doctor yet?”
“No. I wasn’t sure I was until…I thought I was just getting fat.”
“Liz, how many periods have you missed?”
She shrugged. “Who knows? I hardly ever got any, anyway. I never knew when I was supposed to.”
“Do you have any idea how far along you might be?”
“I have a perfect idea. Since there’s only been one person. One guy. One time.” She lifted her clear blue eyes and looked directly into Mel’s.
Mel had a brief and delusional hope that Rick had escaped this mess. She asked, “If that’s the case, if you can remember the approximate time of conception, it will help us set a due date.”
“May 7th,” she said, and her eyes grew moist.
Rick, she thought. Damn. Two days before the heart attack that sent Liz home to her mom. And it made her even further along in her pregnancy than Mel was. “Well, first things first. Let’s examine you and see how you’re doing. Can you put on his gown for me? Everything off, bra, panties, the whole bit.”
“I’ve never…I haven’t ever had one of these….”
“It’s okay, Liz. It’s not terrible. I’ll give you a few minutes to undress and when I come back, I’ll explain everything as I go. I promise you’ll be fine. Once you’re sexually active, it’s very important to have regular exams, pregnant or not.”
Even if Liz hadn’t delivered that date of conception, any of Mel’s curiosities would have been quickly answered when she found Connie in the waiting room. “My sister,” Connie said with an ounce of disgust. “She said, she got knocked up in Virgin River, she can go back there and have the baby. You’d think I did it.”
Mel shook her head. “It happens, Connie. Too often.”
“I don’t know which one of them I want to kill most.”
“No killing,” Mel said, reaching out and giving her hand a pat. “Let’s just get them through it and see if they can have their young lives back.”
“Stupid idiots,” Connie said. “What were they thinking?”
Mel sat down beside Connie for a second. “What gives you the impression they were thinking? If they were, they were thinking below the waist. How are you feeling? We don’t want your blood pressure up.”
“Ach, I’m fine. This just took me by surprise.”
“I have a feeling it’s going to take everyone by surprise.”
“How the hell could she not know?”
“Oh, Connie, you’d be amazed at how tight denial can keep those fourteen-year-old tummy muscles.”
“She’s fifteen now. Not that it matters too much.”
Mel heard herself laugh, though humorlessly. “It’s slightly less stunning. Let me take care of my patient while you practice deep breathing. Hmm?”
Liz was already more than five months pregnant. Almost six. She might’ve felt the baby move already, but she wasn’t sure. She thought it was just gas. She thought her breasts were sore because her period was coming. This was so typical of a young girl, especially a young girl who wasn’t getting regular periods. She was oblivious to the changes in her body, combined with an overwhelming desire for it not to be so.
“You’re staying here now?” Mel asked. “With your aunt Connie?”
She shrugged. “I guess so. If she doesn’t just throw me out.”
“You know she wouldn’t do that. Does this mean you’ve decided to have the baby?”
“Yes. What else can I do?”
“At this stage, your options are definitely limited.”
“I’m having it. I can’t do anything else now.” She took in a ragged breath. “This is going to be really bad.”
“How can I help you, Liz?” Mel asked.
She just shook her head miserably. “I don’t think anyone can help me now.”
“Honey, you’re not the first teenager to get pregnant. I won’t kid you—there will be some tough times, getting through this. But you will get through it.”
“I’m just hoping to get through today.”
“What’s so important about today?” Mel asked.
“I guess I better tell him. Huh?”
“He doesn’t know,” Mel said, and it was not a question.
“No.” She lifted her eyes and they welled with tears. “He’s going to be so mad.”
“Sweetheart, you didn’t get this way alone. You remember that. I’ll give you a few days to settle in, then we’ll drive down to Grace Valley and get an ultrasound. You’ll be able to see your baby. I think you’ll be able to determine the sex, if you want to know.”
“Okay,” she said. “Yes, I want to know.”
“You can think about who you would like to deliver your baby. You’ll meet the OB in Grace Valley when you have the ultrasound, and given this is a first pregnancy, there’s plenty of time for you to get to Valley Hospital. Or, you can have the baby here, but I don’t administer anesthesia, something you might want to keep in mind.”
“Okay. I don’t know what to do yet,” she said.
“You take your time. Some advice?”
“Sure,” she said. “Join the club.”
“Don’t wait. Tell him right away. Get that part behind you.”
Liz shuddered. “Yeah,” she said. “I know.”
Rick parked his little truck right next to Jack’s behind the bar and, whistling, he bounded up the back steps and into the kitchen. Preacher was rolling out dough for pies, and right beside him, sitting up on the counter cross-legged and pounding at his own little wad of dough, was Christopher. Preacher’s shadow. Rick tousled the boy’s hair. “How you doing, buddy? Makin’ pies?”
“I’m making my own,” he said, concentrating.
“Good for you,” Rick said.
Preacher said, “Rick, there’s someone out in the bar here to see you.”
“Oh, yeah?” he said, grinning.
“Listen, Rick,” Preacher said. “Nice and easy, Rick. Take it nice and easy. Use your head. Think before you talk, okay?”
“Yeah?” he said again, in question.
Rick went into the next room and saw that Jack was behind the bar serving beer to a couple of men. He met Rick’s eyes and his expression was real serious. Then he inclined his head slightly, into the room. Rick glanced across the room to a corner table, and when he saw her there, his eyes lit up and he grinned. Liz, he thought. Oh, God—Liz! His heart actually started to hammer—he hadn’t seen her since last May and he had missed her like mad! He couldn’t imagine the number of times he thought about her. He’d dreamed about her.
As he walked quickly around the bar toward her, she stood. And as she stood, her hands automatically went to her middle, as if holding up her round tummy, and the bottom suddenly dropped out of Rick’s world. He stopped dead in his tracks, stunned. Paralyzed. His mouth hung open and his eyes went from her face to her belly to her face. He wanted to run for his life. He wanted to die.
From across the room he could see that tears instantly gathered in her eyes. She was scared, he could see that. He heard Preacher’s voice in his head—nice and easy; think before you talk. He managed to close his mouth, swallow and take slow steps toward her. As he neared, she lifted her chin bravely, even though a big, fat tear spilled over.
His head was spinning. How could this be? It couldn’t be his—she said she was okay—no baby. Next thought—I’m a senior in high school and the only girl I ever did anything with is pregnant, standing here right in front of me, scared to death of me. While I’m scared to death of her… Please, God, let this not happen to me.
Then, helplessly, What does she think—I’m going to blame her?
And then he concentrated real hard, as if grabbing hold of his brain—get a grip. A pregnant girl you did it with is standing in front of you, scared to death of you. He heard Jack in his head—it’s not enough to feel like a man, Rick—you have to think like a man. Do the right thing.
He had limited options. He could run, he could deny, he could pass out, and when they brought him around, she and her belly would be gone.
Another tear spilled down her cheek while he was in shock. He tried to imagine what Jack would do, because he admired and respected Jack. What would Preacher do? And he got a picture in his mind of Preacher watching over Paige and Chris. He decided that no matter what he was feeling, he’d just act like them. He’d deal with the real issues later. For now, he was at least going to look like a man.
He stood in front of her, looked into her eyes, her terrified eyes, and managed a soft smile. He put an arm around her waist and drew her close enough to put a kiss on her forehead. His life was unraveling, but what he noticed was that she smelled so good—like he remembered. “Lizzie,” he whispered. She let her head drop against his shoulder and he could feel the trembling, feel her shoulders quaking. He pulled her against him and held her. “Don’t cry,” he whispered. “Come on, Lizzie. Don’t cry.”
He looked over his shoulder at Jack and Jack solemnly inclined his head toward the door. He turned back to Liz. “Come on. We have to go somewhere and talk. Come on,” he said, his arm around her waist, leading her out of the bar as she leaned against him in tears.
He led her out behind the bar where there were no people, where they were alone, and stood with her under a tree. “Here now,” he said. “How we gonna talk if you cry?”
“Rick,” she said, leaning her head against his shoulder. “I’m sorry, Rick.”
He lifted her chin with a finger and took in her red eyes, her chapped cheeks. He tried to keep his voice soft. Tender. “What happened, Lizzie? You said it was all right.”
She shrugged. “I thought it was. It seemed like that’s what you wanted me to say.”
“Only if it was true,” he said.
“I didn’t know, that’s all. I just didn’t know.”
“I thought you got your period. Didn’t you tell me that?” he asked her.
She shrugged again. “I never got ’em very much. I only had, like, four last year, all year. You asked me every day, so I said it was okay, so you’d stop asking me. And you broke up with me. Right then. That minute. On the phone. Pretty soon, that was all I thought about…not anything else. Just that you broke it off. That you didn’t want me. Like I did something wrong, something bad. I felt like such a—”
“Stop. You didn’t do anything wrong,” he said, ashamed of how he’d made her feel.
“That’s how it felt,” she said in a whimper.
It took him less than half a minute to remember those details, and to feel like total crap at the accuracy. Just a couple of days after the little mishap that caused this pregnancy, Liz went home to her mom in Eureka. He called her all the time, kept asking her if she was okay, if she’d gotten her period so they could relax that they hadn’t been caught. Finally she said yes, they were okay. And in that very same conversation he told her they should cool it, not see each other anymore. He told her he cared about her, but holy God—they obviously couldn’t control themselves. And they were both too young to get caught with a baby.
Except, no, they weren’t.
He pulled her into his arms. “Oh, Liz, baby,” he said. “I broke it off to keep you safe!” To keep me safe! “I didn’t want to lose control again and get you in trouble.” Get me in trouble! “You’re so young! Too young!” I’m too young! “Oh, God, Lizzie. You should have told me the truth.”
“I didn’t know,” she said again, crumbling into sobs against him.
“Okay, baby, don’t cry. It’s not your fault. It’s my fault. Come on, don’t cry.”
But she was going to cry for a long time, it seemed. First, because she’d been so scared of what he would say, and second, because she was so relieved. He held her for what seemed like forever, but it at least gave him time to think of what he might say next. When finally the tears abated, he said, “Can we go for a ride? Is that okay?”
She nodded.
He wiped the tears from her cheeks with the backs of his fingers. “Should you tell your aunt Connie?”
“It’s okay,” she said. “She knows I came to talk to you. To tell you.”
“Okay, then. We’ll go for a ride, settle down a little bit, and then we’ll face the music with Connie. Hmm?”
“Should you ask Jack?”
He put an arm around her shoulders and led her to his little truck. Jack had seen her belly, had seen Rick take her out of the bar. “Jack knows exactly what I’m doing right now.” The only thing I can do, he thought. What I should have done before this happened. Try to act like the grown-up. A little too late…
“Where are we going?”
“Let’s go out to the river. We’ll sit on a rock and talk about what’s coming. How about that?”
“You’re sticking by me?” she asked.
“Sure I am, Liz.”
“Do you love me, Rick?” she asked him.
He looked down at her round belly; he’d put that there. Holy shit, he thought. Love? That was a stretch. He wanted no part of this. So he forced himself to think about Preach and Jack, how they were around women. And he put a soft kiss on her temple. “Of course I do. I want you to stop being afraid now. Everything is going to be okay. Maybe not so easy, but okay.”
Ordinarily Jack would have left the bar as soon as possible after the dinner hour had passed. Preacher was occupied with little Christopher and Paige, and he had a sense that Rick might come back. Rick would feel that he had to explain things. There wasn’t too much to explain—it had been pretty obvious by Lizzie’s presence. But still, Rick looked to Jack as if he were a father, and Jack had never been unhappy about that. Not even now.
Jack had talked to Mel briefly, before she went home for the night. “We have a situation, and I think you know all about it.”
“I can’t talk about it, darling,” she said. “I’m sorry.”
“I just want to help,” he said.
“I know, Jack. I still can’t talk about a patient.”
“Can’t you give me any advice?” he asked.
She leaned toward him, kissed him and said, “You don’t need any advice. You’ll know exactly what to do.” She looked down at his swollen hand, up at his black eye. “You’re a mess. Try not to get into a fight tonight.” She smiled her sweetest smile. “Follow your instincts with Rick. It’s not as though you haven’t been there yourself.”
There was that, he thought. He was certain their baby had been conceived the first time they’d been together. The only time he’d had unprotected sex in more years than he could remember.
It was about eight-thirty and he was close to giving up. Preacher had bathed Christopher and put him in the bed beside his mother and was back downstairs, pouring a short whiskey with Jack, when Rick came in. He was tall, already six feet. Hard work around the bar had honed his arms and shoulders, made him strong. He was seventeen now, and this was his last year of high school. With his high cheekbones, square jaw and thick, expressive brows, he was a handsome youth. But as he walked into the bar, head down and hands in his jacket pockets, he seemed to have new lines on his face. He might have aged about ten years in the past few hours.
The bar was empty but for Jack and Preacher, so Rick jumped up on a bar stool and faced them. He ran a hand through his hair and looked at the two men who, if they hadn’t just about raised him since he was thirteen, sure had mentored him. “So, by now you’ve figured most of this out. Right?”
“Liz seems to be pregnant,” Jack said.
“Yeah. That little slip last spring—it hit solid ground. The baby is due in February, as near as she can figure out. As near as Mel can figure out. She’s very pregnant.”
“Jesus, Rick,” Preacher said, almost weak. “Aw, man…”
Rick shook his head. “Well, it’s mine. I did it.”
“It wasn’t just you, buddy,” Preacher said, remembering too well the little sexpot act Liz was putting on back then.
“She’s carrying the baby,” Rick said. “The least I can do is take the blame. Besides, she didn’t hold me down.” He took a breath. “Guys. I’m sorry. I let you down. I fucked up. Big.”
Jack felt a proud smile threaten his lips. Any other seventeen-year-old boy would be on his way out of town, but not Rick. He was stepping up the best he could, like a man. Accountable. Facing Jack and Preacher had to be as hard for him as facing this disaster. “You manage to work anything out?”
“No, not really. You can’t really do too much the second you find out. You know? But I told her I’m in this with her. And I want her to not be afraid anymore. Then I told Connie that I’ll pay for everything, no matter what I have to do.”
“How’d Connie and Ron hold up?” Preacher asked him.
“Oh, I think they pretty much want to kill me right now,” Rick said. “I did an awful lot of groveling. Apologizing. Begging. Promising to work till I drop dead seemed to ease the pain a little bit.”
“You probably won’t have to do that,” Jack said. “We can always help you with extra hours. School’s important, Rick. No matter what else comes.”
“Thanks. The most important thing right now is that she not be scared. She’s so frickin’ scared, it kills me. I not only knocked her up, I terrified the shit outta her! Holy Jesus! Aw, guys. I know you expected better out of me than this.”
“Rick, you didn’t let anyone down,” Jack said. “Shit happens. You handled yourself real well. Better than most guys in your position would.”
“You see how scared she was? You know why? She told me everything was okay because I kept asking and asking, like that was all I cared about. And the second she let me off the hook, I dumped her!” He scrubbed a hand along the back of his sweaty neck. “I knew I screwed that up, I just didn’t know how bad. I thought I was keeping us out of trouble—instead I was keeping her from telling me sooner. If I’d known sooner, maybe we could’ve done something about—that baby,” he said softly, almost reverently. “That baby’s moving inside her. I felt it move. Holy God.”
Jack felt something in his chest stir. He was over forty and more than ready for a family, true, but he could relate to Rick’s shock and awe just the same.
As for Preacher, no one in the world knew how much he’d give for a mess like this one. Not even Jack.
“She’s just a kid,” Rick said. “I don’t know how I’m going to make this up to her.”
“For starters, you’re in this with her,” Preacher said. “You treat her good, sweet as you can, with respect. You treat her like the mother of your baby, no matter what’s coming for that baby.”
“Yeah,” Rick said. “She asked me if I loved her,” he said uncomfortably.
Silence hung in the air for a second. Then Jack got down a third glass and tipped the whiskey bottle over it, a short shot. He pushed it toward Rick. He probably needed it right about now.
“What’d you say?” Preacher asked.
“She’s got my baby in her, Preach. She didn’t ask for it. What the hell was I gonna say, huh? Maybe I should’ve said, I sure thought I did last spring when we were doing it—that’d be a real stand-up guy.” He looked down into that short shot and shook his head. “I said, ‘Of course I do.’”
“Aw, Rick, that was the right thing,” Preacher said. “What else could you do?”
Jack clinked Rick’s glass; he was damn proud of the boy. No feeling sorry for himself, no whining about how he got screwed. No blaming. It took a lot to straighten your back like that, hold your head up, be the strength and not the victim. Took a lot to do that at any age—and at seventeen, it was admirable. “You’re going to be okay, buddy,” he said, hoping it was true.
“I feel like I have to do something, and I have no idea what,” Rick said.
“Right now, you do nothing,” Jack said. “You take some time to think. Don’t get crazy on me and run off and get married or something. You’re seventeen, she’s fifteen, and the only thing for sure is a baby’s coming. You just hang close to her, treat her right, and we’ll figure it all out.”
“Jack, Preach,” he said, his eyes getting a little wet. “Guys, I’m sorry. You tried to warn me about this and I—”
“Rick,” Jack said, stopping him. “You’re not the first guy to walk down this road, okay? Take it slow.” Jack lifted his glass and had a little sip. “We’re gonna get through this. Might be tough, but thank God—we’re tough.”