before doing a second residency in family practice. He’d never done a home birth in Sausalito, but once he’d arrived in Grace Valley he’d become the local midwife. He liked the hospital but couldn’t convince all the women to leave their homes to deliver. Small-town stories were told, laughter was shared, and too soon it was growing dark. As Jack and Mel were leaving, Mel took an opportunity to speak with June about the baby—Chloe. She expressed her concern that they still hadn’t heard anything from social services.

June was frowning. “It’s true that the county has a lot of ground to cover, but they’re usually pretty good. One of my closest friends is a social worker, although she’s in Mendocino county. I could run this by her—get her impression.”

“Maybe you should. Especially if you think this is irregular,” Mel said.

“I’ll do it, and give you a call. Meanwhile, if you consider the baby your patient, you can assess the situation. See if you can find out anything. Doc Mullins is smarter than he lets on,” June said. “He’s a crafty old devil. Find out if he’s got something up his sleeve.”

Mel hugged June while Jack waited at the car. “Thank you. For everything. It was a perfect day.”

Driving back to Virgin River, Mel was lost in one of the most serene moods she’d felt in a long time. Her connection to this place had deepened with the new friendships, and no small part of that was their acceptance of Jack.

“You’re awfully quiet,” Jack observed.

“I had such a good time,” she said dreamily.

“Me, too. Nice people, your friends.”

“They liked you, too. Did you know that Jim is a former cop?”

“I got that, yeah.”

“And John and Susan came up here from the city a couple of years ago. And Elmer—

the old doc—he’s a riot. I’m so glad we did that.”

They drove in companionable silence until they neared Virgin River. Jack said, “What do you want to do tonight? My place?”

“Would you be terribly hurt if we took a night off?”

“Whatever you need, Mel. Just so long as nothing’s wrong.”

“Nothing’s wrong. In fact, I’ve never felt more right with the world. I just thought I’d go home, shower off the picnic and get a good night’s sleep.”

“It’s up to you.” He reached across the front seat and grabbed her hand. “It’s always up to you.” He drew her hand to his lips and pressed a soft kiss into her palm. He pulled up to the bar and they traded places so she could drive home. After a kiss good-night, she left him there and went out to the cabin.

As she entered the clearing in front of her home, the first thing she noticed was a big, dark SUV parked in front of her cabin. The driver, the big nameless man with the ball cap and hair that curled beneath it was leaning against the passenger door. When she pulled up, he straightened and slipped his thumbs in his front pockets. She recognized him and the vehicle at once. This was the big guy who’d stopped by Doc’s several weeks ago, and what flashed through her mind was “someone’s pregnant.” Then she took note of his sidearm—a big gun, with straps holding the holster to his thigh. But his hands stayed away from it.

In a place like this, she was never sure how to feel about a person toting weapons. If she’d seen this in the city, she’d have ducked for cover. But out here, it didn’t necessarily mean anything. She could play it safe and make a run for it, though she didn’t handle the Hummer so well yet. Besides, the man had already approached her in the clear light of day to ask about a delivery. She pulled up, keeping her headlights on him, and he seemed to straighten expectantly, stepping away from the SUV. She opened her door and stepped out. “What are you doing out here?”

“That baby’s coming,” he said.

No matter what the circumstances, the same thing seemed to happen to her when she heard that—she stopped thinking of herself and began to concentrate on the work at hand, the mother and child. “That was pretty quick,” she said.

“No. I was pretty slow,” he said. “She kept it to herself for a long time and I didn’t realize she was this ready, this—look, I need you to come. To help.”

“But why are you here? Why didn’t you go into town, to the doctor’s office? I almost didn’t come home tonight…”

“Lucky for me you did. I couldn’t go to town, couldn’t run the risk of someone wanting to come with you, or someone telling you not to come with me. Please, let’s go.”

“Where?”

“I’ll take you,” he said.

“No. I’ll follow you. I’ll just go inside, make a call and—”

He took a step toward her. “We can’t do it that way. It’ll be better for all of us if you don’t know exactly where you are. And really, it has to be just you.”

“Oh, gimme a break,” she said with a short laugh. “You expect me to get in that car with you? Without knowing you or where we’re going?”

“That’s the general idea, yeah,” he said. “She thinks she’s doing this alone, having the baby. But I’d rather you come with me, in case…What if there’s a problem? Huh?”

“I can call Doc Mullins, maybe he’ll go with you. I don’t make a habit of getting in a vehicle with a stranger to be driven to some mysterious birthing…”

“Yeah, I wish it was mysterious. I wish it wasn’t happening, but it is. I don’t want to have to do this at all—but I also don’t want anything stupid to go wrong that we could prevent. I don’t want any unnecessary trouble. You should probably be there. In case.”

“This your baby?” she asked him.

He shrugged. “Yeah, could be. Probably.”

“I don’t even know there is a baby coming. I’ve never seen the mother,” Mel said.

“What if there is no baby?” she said.

He took a tentative step toward her. “What if there is?” he asked. She looked around her. It was obvious if he wanted to hurt her, he wouldn’t need to take her anywhere. He wouldn’t even need to draw that weapon. They were completely isolated. He could take ten short steps toward her, whack her across the jaw and it would be done.

He spread his arms wide. “I just have to keep the place covered. It’s a place of business, all right? Could we please go get that baby born? I’m not kidding, it freaks me out. She says she’s been hurting all day. And there’s blood.”

“A lot of blood?”

“What’s a lot? Not puddles, but enough to make me get in the truck and come for you. Pronto.”

“You have a gun,” she pointed out to him. “I hate guns.”

He rubbed a hand along the back of his neck. “Protection for you,” he said. “I’m just a businessman, but there’s some crazy people stuck out there in the woods. I’m not going to let anything happen to you—that would make my life way too complicated. I don’t want any attention from the sheriff. We really gotta go. There’s a baby coming. Real soon.”

“Oh, shit,” she said. “Don’t do this to me.”

“I’m doing something to you? I’m asking. That’s all. I want to get a baby born without anything stupid and wrong happening to the baby or the mother. Get me?”

“Why didn’t you just take her to the hospital?” she asked him.

“She works for me, okay? And she has warrants. They ID her at a hospital and she’s going to jail. You can’t take care of a baby from jail. That’s why it’s gotta be this way.”

“Look, go get her and take her to town, to Doc’s. We’ll do it there and no one will ask any questions about—”

“I’m telling you, there isn’t time!” he shouted. The look on his face was desperate and he took a pleading step toward her, arms wide, palms out. “It’s gonna happen soon, and we’re almost an hour from her! We might not make it as it is!”

She took a deep breath. “We should take the Hummer…”

“Can’t,” he said. “Can’t leave my vehicle here in case someone comes looking for you and finds only my truck. Sorry.”

“I’ll get my bag,” Mel said, reluctantly.

She grabbed her bag out of the Hummer and got in his SUV. He held a black sash in his hand. “You should blindfold,” he said.

“Get real,” she answered. “I’m not doing that. Hurry up. If she’s been hurting all day, just hurry up.”

“Put it on. Come on.”

“So I won’t see what? Where we’re headed? I’m from L.A., buddy. I’ve been here three months and I can hardly get myself to town in the daylight along these mountain roads. It’s pitch black. Just move it—I’m never going to be able to tell anyone where we went.” And more softly, “Besides, I wouldn’t. The only thing that would make me do that is if I needed to find you, or her, to save a life.”

“This some kind of trick?” he asked.

“Oh, please. Now stop scaring me. I might panic and throw myself out of the car, and then where would you be?”

He put the SUV in gear and peeled out of the drive and headed east. “I hope you’re not lying to me, setting me up. Because after this is taken care of, you don’t have to see me again. Unless…?”

“Setting you up?” She laughed. “Did I come to your house? You want to just get this baby born on your own?” she asked him.

“I never did anything like this before,” he said, his voice solemn and serious. “If I’d known there was a baby coming, I would’ve taken her somewhere. Somewhere out of this county. But I didn’t know. Just do your thing, I’ll pay you, and we’ll be done. Okay?”

“We’ll be done?” she asked. “These babies that no one expects? Sometimes they last about ninety years! After labor and delivery, there’s stuff to do! Children to raise!”

“Yeah,” he said, tiredly. Focused on the road he whirled the SUV around the tight turns, gunned the engine when the road was straight. But the straightaways were short, always followed by more tight turns. Most of the time the speedometer read about twenty miles per hour. He used not only his headlights, but the lights mounted on his roof. It was a long, silent spell before he said, “I’ll take care of what they need. After the baby’s here, when she’s up to it, there’s a sister she can go to in Nevada.”

“Why’s this all so secret?” Mel asked. She looked at his profile and saw him grin largely. He had a slight bump in his nose. Under the bill of his ball cap his eyes crinkled when he smiled like that, and she noted that while he was rugged and scruffy, he was not unattractive.

“Jesus, you’re something, you know that? Just go with it, little girl.”

“How’d you know where I live?” she asked him.

He laughed. “I hope you don’t think you’re hiding out there, miss. Because everyone knows where the new midwife lives.”

“Oh, great,” she said under her breath. “That’s just great.”

“It’ll be okay. Nobody wants you hurt or anything. That would just bring a whole heap of trouble on a whole lot of people.” He stole a glance at her. “Someone like you goes missing, three counties go tearing up the hills. That’s bad for business.”

“Well,” she said softly. “I guess I should be honored.” She looked over at him. “Why am I not feeling so honored yet?”

He shrugged. “I guess this is all new to you.”

“Yeah,” she said. “Boy howdy.”