“I think he let it slip,” she said. “I guess she booted her husband on the excuse of their many little fights, but it was really because she was in love with Brad. And he knew it.”

“Oh, man…” Mike said in a breath.

“But he never stopped sleeping with me. I was clueless, trying to surprise him with a baby. Nothing happened, though. I didn’t get pregnant.”

“Aw, honey,” he said, stroking her arm. “Maybe it’s best that didn’t work for you, under the circumstances. But this could be different. Your eyes should be wide open. I’m told you shouldn’t trust the water around here. It might be wise to do some planning, for your sake. I live in a trailer in Virgin River.”

“Details.” She smiled. “I’ve never felt more at home.” She touched his handsome face. “If last night made a baby, it will be a beautiful baby. I don’t want Mel’s help to make sure it doesn’t stick. If it’s there, it’s yours—and I want it.”

“Then that’s how it will be,” he said. He kissed her deeply, passionately. “Whatever you want.”

“I don’t want this to end.”

“There’s no end in sight, mi amor. Trust me.”

Jack hadn’t been watching the RV during the morning, even though it had been on his mind. It was a pure accident that he happened to see the door open and Brie step out. He glanced at his watch—eleven. Almost lunch. Right behind her was Mike. Probably he should have turned away, but he didn’t. His sister looked so small and girlish in her jeans, moccasins, suede jacket with fringe and all that light brown hair cascading down her back almost to her waist.

She stood in front of Mike and he lifted her chin, pressing an intimate kiss to her lips. Even from this distance it was easy to see they were not anxious to be parted. But in a moment Mike pulled himself away and went to his SUV to leave while Brie walked toward the back door of the bar.

Jack went behind the bar quickly so as not to get caught watching. He picked up a perfectly clean glass and began to wipe it with a towel. The door opened and Brie walked in, and he almost took a step back. He had never seen her look this way. She was radiant. There was an expression on her face, a glow in her eyes, a secret smile on her lips that said volumes. She didn’t hesitate—she walked behind the bar, right up to him, and put her arms around his waist. He got rid of that glass and towel and wrapped his arms around her, hugging her close.

All Jack had wanted since June was to have his sister back, well and whole, restored. Happy and alive, without that fuzzy blotch of fear and uncertainty around the edges of her aura like a smudge. He wanted his Brie back, renewed and a force in the world once again. Jack hadn’t been able to give that to her—none of the family had been able to do it. And yet the young woman in his embrace nearly vibrated with joy. It wasn’t as though the old Brie was merely back, but this was a new Brie—a woman reborn. A woman experiencing love and life as if for the first time.

Sometimes it took him such a long time to accept the very things that he knew intimately for himself. The very things he had discovered in his wife’s arms. What Brie needed in her life, what everyone needed, was perfect love. He’d found that with Mel, Preacher had found it with Paige and now… He kissed the top of her head.

She lifted her head to look up at him. In a voice soft and sincere, she said, “You are never to doubt him again. Never.”

He put his hand along the hair at her temple and smiled tenderly into her eyes. He gave his head a very slight shake—never again, he was saying to her. Brie had chosen her mate. And for all Jack’s previous doubts, it appeared she had chosen well.

Jack had resisted when he should have trusted his sister to know what she needed in her life, and he should have trusted Mike, as much a best friend as Preacher, to treat her like the precious jewel she was. Whatever had happened between them had clearly surpassed a physical fulfillment.

My wife, Jack thought, is always right about everything.

For Mel, a nightmare had come to roost in the form of sixteen-year-old Sophie Landau. She thought something might have “happened to her.” Mel had a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach even before more of the story came out. “Me and my girlfriend Becky went to a party that we weren’t supposed to—I said I was staying over at Becky’s and she said she was staying over at my house. Brendan Lancaster invited us. Brendan’s older—he graduated a couple of years ago,” she said with red lips that looked as if she’d been chewing on them.

“Okay,” Mel said, encouraging her.

Sophie sat on the exam table, still dressed, while Mel leaned against the cabinet, listening, dreading. Sophie was on the chubby side with straight brown hair that fell limply onto her shoulders. She had a little problem with acne, her teeth were crooked and she was clearly nervous in a general way—nails bitten down, a hair-twisting habit, an occasional twitch of her cheek.

“So you went to a party. Big party?” Mel asked.

“Small. Six or seven kids.”

“Brendan lives alone?”

“No, he lives with his mom, but she’s gone a lot. She was gone over the weekend. And he’s out of school now—you know—working over in Garberville, pouring concrete with his uncle. So there wasn’t anyone there but kids.”

“Okay…?”

“So there were a few kids and we drank beer, smoked a couple of joints. And got drunk and a little high. I passed out. Becky thinks she did, too.”

“Becky thinks she did?”

“She doesn’t know, because she got wasted and went to Brendan’s mother’s bedroom and lay down and woke up at about three in the morning. Me—I think I must have passed out, because I was just waking up in the morning, in Brendan’s room. There were only a couple of kids still there—Becky, Brendan, a couple others sleeping in the living room.”

“And…”

“And I felt really awful. Like I’d been hit in the head with a brick and my stomach was all upset. I couldn’t wait to get home and sleep it off. When I got home I told my mother I thought I’d got the flu while I was at Becky’s, and I went to get into bed, and undressed, you know? My underpants were inside out and backward.”

Ew, Mel thought. I have another one.

“So—I didn’t think anything about it—figured I did that to myself drunk.”

“Big drinker, are you?”

She hung her head. “Not really,” she said. “I’ve been to a few parties with these guys. Maybe three. I never got so trashed before.”

“Ever pass out and put on your undies inside out and backward?”

“No. Nothing like that. But I realize I was pretty drunk.”

“But you didn’t think anything about it? Let me ask you something—did you have any soreness anywhere? Bruises or anything?”

“I was a little sore, down there,” she said, glancing into her lap. “I just thought it was impossible. You know? Because I thought if anything had happened, I would’ve woken up. But then later when I heard this girl in the locker room at gym class telling one of her girlfriends to never go to one of those parties—those beer parties. And she said something like, ‘I’m not even going to tell you what happened to me! You just wouldn’t believe it!’ And right away I knew. Don’t ask me how I knew—I just knew.”

“You think you might have been raped?”

“I might’ve been, yeah. I don’t know. It just doesn’t seem like those guys… They’re just friends. They don’t seem like the kind of guys who…”

“Have you missed periods or anything?”

“I’m on the pill. I’m on it for my periods, you know? Because they’re awful. I got my period on time about a week later, but now I’m starting to worry about other stuff. Like what if something happened to me and I got something?”

“Straight thinking, kiddo. We can check for everything and put your mind at ease. But, Sophie—I’ve heard something similar to this before and I’m concerned. I have no idea if anything happened to you besides a little too much beer, but I seriously need you to talk to a friend of mine, a police officer, who—”

“Wait a sec,” she said. “I don’t want to get into trouble.”

“Sophie, you’re not in trouble. My advice is to stop going to unchaperoned parties where alcohol is served and joints are available, but that’s just advice. My friend might want to ask you who was there, just to see if there are any similarities between your experience and… And other things I’ve picked up just talking with people.”

“And if there are? Will the people who were there get in trouble? Because I don’t want to do that.”

“Sophie, I can assure you no one’s going to get into trouble for drinking beer. I’m not even interested in the pot. Everything you say will be kept in confidence. But seriously—we need to know what’s going on, if something like assault is going on.”

“What if nothing’s going on?”

“Then nothing more will come of it,” Mel said. But in her gut, she knew. “My friend, he has a lot of detective experience, he’s worked with a lot of kids—and he’s been looking into this stuff already. He’d be very interested in talking to you. And he will never divulge where he got his information without your complete permission. Will you, Sophie? If it could help keep this from happening to anyone else?”

“I might,” she said, ducking her head shyly. “Let me think about it.”

Mel did the requisite pelvic exam, tested for STDs and convinced Sophie to talk to Mike. Mel asked Sophie to wait at the clinic for a little while, just long enough to see if she could find Mike. They could have their conversation in private at the clinic—the safest place she could think of, away from Sophie’s friends and parents. If Mike wasn’t around, she would have to ask Sophie to come back the next day, and cross her fingers that the girl would.

Mel felt terrible all over. She hated hearing Sophie’s story, because she was convinced there was a date raper in town, maybe even a group of boys, young men, possibly using drugs on unsuspecting girls.

It was early afternoon when she left Sophie in the clinic and went to the bar. It was quiet, as was usual for the mid-afternoon. Jack’s truck was gone—she assumed he was out at the house, getting in everyone’s business. In the kitchen she found Paige and Preacher getting things started for the evening meal. “Hi, guys. Anyone seen Mike?”

“His car’s out back, but I think he’s locked in with his…You know Brie’s in town, right?” Preacher asked.

“Yeah,” she said, picking up the phone in the kitchen. She punched in Mike’s land line. “Hi, Mike. I hate to do this to you. I need you. It’s about a situation we discussed a while ago—it’s business.” Then she said, “Thanks. I owe you one.”

She went behind the bar and fixed herself a sparkling water, waiting for Mike. The speed with which he appeared gave her a little peace of mind. She hadn’t interrupted anything too complicated or private, and for that she was grateful.

“What’s up?” he asked.

“Let’s step out on the porch,” she said.

Once outside, she explained in hushed tones what she’d just heard, and the girl’s willingness to talk to him. Then she took him across the street and introduced him to Sophie. She should have expected Mike to be a pro, yet she was pleasantly surprised by the tenderness and finesse with which he handled Sophie, putting her at ease at once, gaining her confidence and trust. He took her into Doc’s kitchen, since there were no patients in the clinic. A few moments later he came out, asking for a tablet and pen, then went back behind closed doors.