Mountain Mystic (16 page)

Joshua negotiated a sharp curve as he murmured, “The two of you looked thick as thieves.”

“I could have talked to her for hours. I’ve never been much of a diarist, but after seeing hers, after seeing all those experiences and emotions jump off the page, I realize that I don’t want to forget the details of my life. I don’t want my children to forget.”

“Gran says, ‘We don’t bequeath what we collect; we contribute what we create.’ ”

Softly, Victoria repeated the saying. “What a wonderful way of looking at life. My grandmother, on the other hand, would say, ‘The one with the biggest pile of stuff wins.’ ”

Chuckling, Joshua asked, “And is her pile the biggest yet?”

“Let’s just say that she is definitely in the semifinals. She’s completely different from your grandmother. How old is Granny Logan? Exactly?”

Joshua did some fast math. He never bothered to keep up with the actual years, mostly because he
didn’t want to face the reality of all those years adding up. “Ninety-two come January.”

“Has she always been able to heal?” Victoria asked, and then realized she’d probably trod on a sensitive area. When Lara Logan confessed to having a healing touch, Joshua’s face had done a fair imitation of immovable granite. She doubted he wanted to discuss the subject now, but she’d already broached it. So she hurried to assure him that her interest wasn’t idle curiosity.

“The reason I ask is that I’ve done a little reading about therapeutic touch, and I’ve seen it used in hospices. It can have such a calming effect as well as reducing the level of pain. I wondered if she learned it or if it was simply something she could always do.”

In a flat tone Joshua said, “I don’t know. I never asked.”

Victoria blinked. “You never asked?”

“We don’t discuss the subject.”

“The healing?”

“Any of it.”

“Why?”

“We don’t agree.”

“About what?”

“Any of it.”

Victoria’s eyebrows rose in surprise at his curt answers. Softly, she said, “Your grandmother said you could do it too. The healing.”

“But I don’t. Now, can we drop this interrogation?” His tone was as effective as a warning siren that the topic was off-limits.

“Okay.” After that response she didn’t dare ask him anything else about his ability to heal. However, she noted that he said he didn’t heal, not that he couldn’t. “But I do have to ask one more question.”

Joshua sighed, anticipating the worst. “All right.”

“Would you mind stopping for dinner? I’m really hungry.”

Pleasantly surprised, Joshua agreed, knowing dinner would give him a chance to remind Victoria of the chemistry between them. “What do you have in mind?”

“There’s that little hole-in-the-wall place down past Mention.”

“Why would you want to go there?” Joshua asked, a little disturbed that her choice felt more like a buddy-date place.

“Last week I saw a tractor parked in front of it. I swear!” She held up her fingers in a Girl Scout oath. “I figure if a guy is so eager for lunch that he won’t take the time to get off his tractor and get in his car, then the food has got to be pretty good.”

“Good point.” Joshua nodded his head in understanding. It wasn’t the first time he’d noticed that Victoria took her food seriously. “Katie’s Grill it is.”

By the time dinner was done and he was standing on Victoria’s front porch, Joshua had a whole new appreciation for buddy-dates. He’d discovered they had a way of turning into something unexpected. He’d been out on two real dates with Victoria, and both
times all he thought about was her. When he was with her, the world faded away. Like now. He was aware of only the dark night with a quarter moon, the woman in front of him, and the bed behind the door.

“Well … good night.” Victoria was absently playing with her key, rubbing it between her thumb and index finger. “And thanks for dinner.”

Carefully, Joshua took the key, and reached behind her to unlock the door without ever shifting his gaze from her face. “Most women would be scared living out in the middle of nowhere like this. I’d be happy to check and see if any bears have broken in while you’ve been gone. If you need me, that is.”

Victoria cleared her throat. He was too close. All of a sudden the relaxed and laughing friend who’d sat across the table was gone, and in his place was a very sexy man. The intensity that always affected her equilibrium was back in his eyes. She managed to say, “I don’t need you. But thank you. I’m sure the bears are all asleep for the winter. I’m probably safe.”

“I wouldn’t bet on it. Bears don’t actually hibernate. They shift gears to a lower speed, but they’re still out there, foraging.”

“You make it sound like they’re ready to gobble me up,” Victoria whispered as she stepped backward and bumped into the door, which swung open.

Joshua’s hand snaked around her waist and pulled her back. “Maybe they are.”

Both of them knew this conversation had nothing to do with bears. Joshua lowered his head and kissed her. He nibbled at her lips, growing more impatient
with each touch, but he stopped short of gobbling her up. When he raised his head, he smiled at her. “ ’Night, Vicky.”

Victoria wrote a few notes and closed the chart with a shake of her head. When Wally had given it to her, he’d been as charming as ever. He truly hadn’t seemed to mind that Rachel Shelby wanted to change practitioners. Wonders never ceased, and neither did the passage of time. She could hardly believe it had been two weeks since she’d delivered Rachel’s baby.

When Rachel came out of the examination room, Victoria looked up and smiled. “I want to see you again in four weeks. That will be your last postpartum checkup. After that, unless you have a problem, you can return to an annual checkup schedule.”

“Can I call you back about scheduling the last checkup?” Rachel put down the baby seat. “I’m in the middle of preparations for the family reunion, and I can barely think right now.”

“I’d imagine you barely have time to breathe with a two-week-old infant and a reunion to juggle. How’d that happen?”

“Well, it’s a small family and they didn’t mind switching the location to here at the last minute. I didn’t want to travel with Billy yet, but I really wanted to show him off.”

Victoria looked down at the happy baby who lay in the brightly colored baby seat at Rachel’s feet. He was gorgeous and hadn’t made a peep since Rachel arrived.
He opened his eyes occasionally and sighed with contentment.

“He’s ready to travel,” Victoria assured her.

“Well, I’m not!” Rachel laughed. “I’m just now getting the hang of this mommy stuff. Coming here today was a major event. It took me an hour to organize and get out of the house this morning. As it was, I almost forgot this.” She rummaged in Billy’s diaper bag and pulled out a flyer. “Here. It’s a map and an invitation to the reunion this weekend.”

Startled, Victoria took it from her. “Why would you invite me?”

“Are you kidding? You’re the guest of honor. Billy’s the newest member of the clan, and you delivered him. It’s not anything fancy. We’re having it on our land. It’s more of a picnic. Kids will be running wild, and the adults will pretty much have to fend for themselves. But you’d be welcome. And bring a date, of course.”

Victoria didn’t quite know what to say. Rachel seemed so earnest and genuine in her invitation. “I’d like to accept, but I never know with my schedule. I’ve got one patient due a few days after that. Is it okay if I just show up if I can make it?”

“Sure.” Rachel picked Billy up, smiling at the baby as if she were struck all over again by what a miracle he was. “I’ve raved to everyone about how you helped me through this, and Rob would like to say thanks too. Try to come, okay? I know two of my sisters-in-law are dying to meet you. It’d be good for business,” she promised.

Unable to resist, Victoria agreed. Once Rachel left, Victoria reached for the oversize purse she carried and fished out the journal she kept with her most of the time now. The bits and pieces of her life were beginning to weave themselves into a tapestry, giving her a feeling of security. Joshua had tried to sneak a peek inside her book the last time he was over, but she’d caught him and whisked it out of his hands, officially notifying him that this was off-limits. He wouldn’t talk about healing, and she didn’t want to share her journal. Fair was fair. Especially since some of the pages had to do with Joshua and the attraction she spent a lot of energy fighting.

The practice was growing steadily, so she no longer had the excuse of needing all her energies to build it up. Women were knocking on her door now instead of the other way around. Joshua was knocking on her door too, and she was running out of excuses. Their relationship had hit a stalemate. They were beyond friendship but not yet lovers.

Intellectually, she recognized that she was afraid to go further because she was hung up on finding a man that instinctively believed in and trusted her. Regardless of that tidy speech about giving trust to get trust, she was still waiting for Joshua to change the same way she kept waiting for Richard to change.

Maybe it was time she stopped waiting and just plunged right in.

“Explain to me again why we’re going to this shindig?” Joshua teased her as they got out of her Range Rover, which, in a fit of generosity, she had allowed him to drive for once.

“We are here,” Victoria explained, shoving her arms into a blue-jean jacket, “so I can bask in the glory of having delivered the newest member of this family.”

“Oh?” Joshua commented, and grabbed her hand to pull her back as she started toward the throng of people gathered by the river’s edge. “I thought you didn’t care about glory.”

“This is different. It’s not really my glory. It’s Rachel’s glory. I just get to share.”

“Sharing. Isn’t that where you play with her toys and she can’t complain when you break them?”

“Something like that.” Victoria smiled. She could get used to the quiet, gentle teasing of Joshua Logan.

He ran a finger down the bridge of her nose and over her lips to her chin. “It isn’t fair for you to look like this in public. The nip in the air has made your cheeks pink. Your lips are incredible, and you look about eighteen with your hair in that ponytail. I feel like I’m robbing the cradle.”

Victoria laughed and eyed him critically. He wore a flannel shirt open at the neck with a wheat-colored T-shirt beneath, loose-fitting jeans, and expensive leather sneakers. “Six years’ difference is not robbing the cradle. You don’t look old. Except for maybe that tiny bit of gray at the temples. And the worry you get
around your eyes when you have to meet a crowd of people. They don’t bite you know.”

“Not when I’m around you,” Joshua told her seriously. “I’m so damn busy wanting you that I tend to ignore all the other signals.”

Now the pink in her cheeks was caused by more than the cool autumn weather. Not knowing how to answer the raw hunger in his eyes, at least not in public, Victoria looked away and led him down the hill. A half-dozen picnic tables were scattered around, and two grills were fired up, cooking hot dogs and hamburgers. Ice chests full of sodas and beer were opening and closing at an alarming rate.

Rachel saw them first, grinned widely, and waved with her whole arm. She grabbed a good-looking young man by the arm and dragged him over. “You made it! This is Rob.”

He extended his hand. “Thanks for coming. I didn’t know how much this community needed you until Rachel told me what would have happened to her if you hadn’t been there. I didn’t want her to go through that alone in a room with no one to sit with her. If I’d had any idea the baby was coming early—”

“Don’t beat yourself up,” Victoria interrupted with a laugh. “Babies come when they darn well please.”

That answer seemed to relieve him, as if he’d been waiting for her to chastise him for being out of town. Then he turned to Joshua and held out his hand again. “Hi, I’m Rob Shelby.”

After a fraction of second Joshua held out his hand to complete the handshake. “Joshua Logan.”

Victoria noted that the gesture was extremely brief despite the friendly smile that never faltered. For the first time, she realized how good Joshua was at hiding his reactions to the people around him. She also knew that he had come only because she asked him. Somehow it meant a lot to her that Joshua would put himself in what might be an uncomfortable situation simply because she had asked it of him.

“Aren’t you—” Rob began as recognition flickered in his eyes.

“Yeah,” Joshua answered, and got hit squarely in the back with a football before he could say another word. He staggered slightly and made a sound faintly like
ooof.

Three preadolescent boys came racing toward them, bumping into each other as the first one caught a glimpse of Joshua’s face and stopped on a dime. Victoria was reminded of the Three Stooges, but she hid her smile.

Rachel coughed and said with a glint of mischief in her eyes, “These are our nephews. Larry, Moe, and Curly.”

Unable to stop herself, Victoria burst out laughing, and so did the men. The youngsters exchanged puzzled glances, not quite sure what the grown-ups found so funny. The first one spoke up. “Those aren’t really our names, mister. We’re sorry about the football. It was an accident.”