She had no idea the nature of this abuse her mother put on her father, but she knew exactly what kind of abuse she suffered at her mother’s hands. Her mother had dramatic mood swings and she was never sure which woman was coming home from work each day. It could be the Therese in an upbeat mood with plans for a treat, like pizza for dinner and an evening of watching all their favorite TV shows or it could be the woman in a foul temper who blamed the stress of her work, a long day of listening to screwed-up crazy people’s problems. Or, sadly, one of the best options was when her mother went out after work, meeting friends for dinner or a movie or shopping, friends that Nora rarely got to know because it was so seldom Therese brought them home.

She struggled to remember when she fully realized that Therese almost never had a girlfriend who lasted a whole year, and Nora understood why. Therese was difficult, selfish, short-tempered and completely unpredictable. She was also very funny at times—she could certainly make people laugh when she wasn’t in a snit. She was attractive and well turned out and had a great singing voice she exercised when in a happy state. When Therese laughed and sang, Nora held her breath, afraid to let herself enjoy it.

But Nora was probably all of seven or eight when she began saying I will not be like my mother over and over to herself. When she found herself pregnant with Berry she was terrified that something would happen to her and she’d wake up one morning finding she hated her child, discovering she couldn’t control her anger.

* * *

Noah turned up at her house after work three evenings during that week, just to give her an opportunity to talk. News of her mother’s death brought out all these issues she had with her mother, which she told Noah.

“But what about this father of mine?” Nora asked. “Right in the area and never a phone call? Never any contact, any help to deflect some of my mother’s more cruel moments?”

“Yet another thing to ask, to try to understand,” Noah said.

“He’s either a very bad man or a very negligent man,” Nora said. “He had a daughter! Shouldn’t he have done something? Was my mother right? That I was better off? Because it’s hard to imagine being better off alone with her.”

“When you’re ready, you can ask these questions,” Noah said.

“I have a full-time job, thank God,” she said. “I can’t leave the kids with Adie and leave town. And I’m not letting him anywhere near my children.”

“All these concerns are resolvable. Once you settle on a day—a day that I can take you—I’ll ask Ellie to help out with the girls. She’s wonderful with babies and was a huge help to Vanessa Haggerty when she adopted a nine-month-old before her eighteen-month-old was out of diapers.” Noah laughed and shook his head. “It was insane—and all turned out well. Remember Paul Haggerty? He plowed the roads in town last Christmas and sent one of his crews over to your house to seal the windows and doors.”

“Listen, I don’t need everyone in town knowing that Nora Crane has yet another crisis, that I’m from a crazier background than they even imagined.”

“I know it sometimes seems that way, Nora—that everyone else has a normal, average, functional life and only you have stuff to work out. Believe me, I know the feeling. But really, it’s not that way. I come from a pretty crazy family, and poor Ellie—she had such trials growing up, taking care of her kids alone before we met. When you get to know her better, you can ask—Ellie is very up-front about everything. For right now, let’s think about the challenge you’re facing. You need to see your father. Talk to him. Ask him questions. Ask for some documentation that he’s really your father, that your parents were divorced and he chose not to see you, et cetera. First find out what he has to say and then let’s work on understanding what happened.”

“I won’t put my girls at risk,” she said.

“Absolutely not,” Noah agreed. “Whenever you’re ready.”

* * *

Of course Nora told her closest girlfriends what was going on—Adie and Martha, both in their seventies, and Leslie, the much younger neighbor a few doors down. Those three women had included Nora in gab sessions on the porch and shared stories and it happened they agreed with Noah—that she should face her father with her questions.

Of course she hadn’t mentioned anything at the orchard. She didn’t feel close enough to anyone there to talk about her personal business. In fact she had been so preoccupied thinking about her mother’s death and her father’s reappearance, she did her job mechanically, the hours passing like minutes while her mind was in another place.

She showed up at the crossroad of 36 and the road to Virgin River and there sat that familiar big white truck. And there he was, leaning against it. Waiting.

“Wow,” she said, stopped in her tracks.

“Hop in,” Tom invited.

She went around the front of the truck and climbed up and in the cab. “I bet when your grandmother forced you to hire me, you didn’t foresee taxi service.”

“Is everything all right, Nora?” he asked before starting the truck.

She was startled by the question. No, things were not all right. But it was personal business. It had nothing to do with her job. “Fine,” she said. “Why?”

“You’ve been really quiet,” he said.

He’d noticed? she wondered. “I have?” she asked.

He nodded. “Your muscles okay? Back, shoulders, et cetera?”

“Yes. No problems. Why are you quizzing me?”

“I don’t mean to pry, but I thought I should ask because… Well, you had some injuries before and kept it to yourself.”

“I don’t have any injuries.”

“You probably don’t realize it—but the first couple of weeks at the orchard, you had a hard time keeping up, but you laughed. You also hummed a lot—I kept thinking you were going to break into song or something. We could hear you all over the place. Maxie could hear you from the back porch and she said things like, ‘That girl’s good to have around—she’s happy in her heart.’ I had no idea what you had to be so happy about, but we all got used to hearing you—and then you stopped. So I thought…wondered…”

Her mouth was hanging open. It took her a moment to recover from her shock. “Wait a minute,” she said. “When did you start to care if I was happy or not?”

“It’s not exactly like that,” he said. “I know you need the job to support your family because you told me you did and I know you go to a lot of trouble to prove yourself. And I know you’ve been quiet lately. I wanted to be sure you weren’t hurt or sick or maybe in trouble.”

“I didn’t even know I did that,” she said. “I was so damn relieved to have a job that actually put food on the table, I guess I was in a pretty good mood. I hum? Really? And you actually noticed?”

He hit the steering wheel with the heel of his hand in apparent frustration. “Excuse me for being sensitive,” he grumbled. “I’m not a bad guy, I’m just a guy and one of my employees is—”

“Okay, okay, okay,” she said. She ran her hands through her hair, removing and replacing the ponytail tie. “It’s been a very strange week. I’m estranged from my parents—my father left when I was little and I fell out with my mother when I was nineteen. I just found out my mother died two years ago, cause unknown. And my missing father has been looking for me. I’ve had a lot on my mind. I’ll try to laugh more if it’ll make you feel better.”

And now it was his turn to be silent. Shocked. “I’m sorry. I had no idea.”

“Of course you didn’t. I don’t usually talk about all that personal stuff. And I’m kind of sorry I just did, to tell the truth. I’m pretty sure I have the most screwed-up family on the planet and really, I don’t advertise that.”

And he laughed.

“This is funny to you?” she asked.

“Not at all. Coincidental, that’s all. Who would think we’d share something so bizarre—like screwed-up family?”

“I know Maxie a little bit and she is amazing,” Nora said.

“You bet she is. When I was born my dad was a test pilot in the Air Force, out in the high desert, Edwards Air Force Base. He flew spooky new jets. My mother was at the end of her rope with the living conditions, the lifestyle, all that went with his job, plus she was really young and I guess I wasn’t exactly planned. So, when I was a month old she brought me to Maxie and said, ‘Here. You take care of him. This was all a mistake.’ And off she went. I might know more about her except my dad was killed in a crash a couple of months later. I have no memory of either of them. So, there you go—we both have some unusual family histories. I hear my dad was a normal guy, but who knows what’s in the other gene pool. I don’t know anything at all about my mother.” He took a pause. “But I’ll tell you this—if she showed up all of a sudden, I’d have some questions.”

She was speechless. Why was it that everyone else’s life always seemed so easy, so flawless?

He pulled onto the road, heading for the orchard. Nora watched his profile. He was smiling. This was a hard man to read—he could be so kind, so generous and thoughtful, but she had also seen him glower as if just seconds from an outburst. Perhaps, she thought, being raised by Therese left her fearful of a frown. Surely not everyone came apart at the seams if something displeased them—that certainly wasn’t the case with her.

Tom pulled up to the barn and parked. He jumped out and she followed more slowly. When he got to the door to his office, he turned and looked at her. “You okay?” he asked.

She took a breath. “That was nice of you, to tell me that. It made me feel a little less…I don’t know…a little less like a loser.”

He actually laughed. “How long have you lived here?”

“Eight months.”

“If I hadn’t told you, someone else would have. Everyone knows. And everyone talks.”

“Right,” she said.

He turned to walk away and she said to his back, “So what would you ask her? Your mother? If she turned up suddenly?”

He pivoted. “I guess I’d ask her if she had any regrets.”

“Yeah,” she said. “Makes sense.”

“How about you?” he fired at her.

“What?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Any regrets? About finding yourself a single, twenty-three-year-old apple-picking mother?”

Remarkably, coming from him, she took no offense. After all, they shared some difficult history. And she was going to have to get used to that very thing he said—that everyone knew and everyone talked. “About having my daughters?” She shook her head. “I could never regret having them. They’re miracles. About not having them after being married to a handsome, rich investment banker for about six years? Yeah, that’s regrettable.”

That brought out his grin and she realized he had a very attractive dimple. Left cheek. “Investment banker, huh?”

“Okay, neurosurgeon. Astronaut. Computer genius. CEO of a Fortune 500 company.”

He laughed. In fact, he tilted his head back and guffawed, hands on his hips. “Damn, kid—an ordinary old apple grower wouldn’t stand a chance!”

She stared at him, watching him laugh at her for a long second. Then she headed for the office door. “I’ll make the coffee,” she said.

Well. If he’d been looking for something to take her mind off her current challenges, he’d certainly done it with that statement. He probably had no idea what a luxury it seemed to someone like her to raise a family in the healthy and pristine beauty of these mountains, in a great big house right in the middle of a delicious orchard. Or the fantasies it could inspire to think about being wanted by a man like Tom Cavanaugh.