“I’ve been checking on them and keeping tabs on you. They tell me you’re seeing someone now. We better talk about that.”
“All right, now listen,” she said sternly. “Who I might be dating is none of your business and I don’t want you pestering my parents. They don’t like you!”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” he said. “They’re very nice to me!”
“They’re nice people! You better leave them alone or…or…or I’ll sic Paul on you.”
“Watch that temper, Leslie! There’s no reason to be so defiant, just listen to me a second. I’m here. I’m in Virgin River at that little bar in town and I’m not leaving until you meet me. I thought a public place might suit you better, make you feel less threatened....”
“Make me feel less threatened?” She laughed out loud. “Bullshit, Greg! You think I won’t hurt you in a public place? But you wasted your time. I’m not meeting you. We have nothing to talk about.”
“If you don’t, I’ll find out where you live and come to your house. Seriously, I’m not leaving without seeing you. We have to discuss this man you’re—”
She disconnected the cordless. “Goddamn it,” she muttered. And she wondered how she’d been married to him for so long without realizing what an idiotic pain in the ass he was. She briefly wondered if he had slipped drugs into her tea throughout their marriage.
She did not want to see him, talk to him. She was a little bit afraid that if she didn’t go to Jack’s, Greg was just going to make her life here so much more complicated. She did not want him to upset her relationship with Conner. She was truly happy for the first time in so long. She banged the phone on the top of her desk several times and swore.
Paul was quickly standing in her doorway. “Problem?”
She grabbed her purse and keys. “I have to run out, Paul.” She looked at her watch. “It’s late—I’m not going to make it back here today. I’ll come in early tomorrow....”
“You don’t have to come in early. Something wrong?”
“That man is getting on my last nerve,” she said.
“Conner?”
“God, no. Conner is a gem. Conner is perfect. Greg Adams.”
“What’s he doing now?”
“Waiting for me at Jack’s. Apparently my parents told him I’m seeing someone and he wants to discuss it with me.”
“Why?”
“I don’t have the first idea, but he’s threatening to wait me out or even show up at my house. I better get over there before Jack’s fills up with people and there’s an audience.”
Paul stepped aside so she could pass. “Want me to go with you?”
“Don’t be silly, Paul. I can take him.”
If Jack’s had been an old Western saloon and Leslie had been wearing six-guns on her hips, her entrance would have blended perfectly. She blew in, loaded for bear. By the time she arrived, there were a couple of men at a table by a window sharing a pitcher, but thankfully that was all. Within a half hour, the dinner crowd would begin to arrive.
Greg turned to see her enter. He smiled. She scowled and walked up to the bar, but she didn’t sit down.
“Drink, Les?” Jack asked.
“No. Greg, I don’t want to discuss anything with you unless you’re here to give me a big check. I want you to go home. And I want you to leave my parents and me alone.”
“Leslie, Leslie… Honey, I know this transition is difficult—”
“Don’t call me honey! It is not a transition and it is not difficult. It’s a divorce and I’ve discovered it’s the best thing that ever happened to me. Now, listen to me, please. We’re done. We’re over. You left me! You have a pregnant wife in Grants Pass. You—”
“Pregnant wife?” Jack repeated. Jack being Jack, he wasn’t far from the conversation.
“Don’t you have something to do?” Greg asked him.
“No,” Jack said. “Buddy, you gotta let go....”
“You don’t understand,” Greg said to Jack. He turned to Leslie. “This doesn’t have to be so adversarial, Leslie. I only want to help because I care about you. I just thought maybe we should talk about this guy you’re seeing because, well…” He reached for her hand, and she snatched it away. “Okay, well, this may be hard to hear, but you’re on the rebound. People can make serious mistakes on the rebound.”
“I. Am. Not.”
“It’s not the length of time that’s the deciding factor, Leslie,” he said. “It’s really about the emotional investment. And believe me, I know how hard our divorce was for you.”
“It’s not hard anymore. I feel like you did me a monumental favor. Now go.”
“Just tell me who he is, Leslie. Tell me about him. I don’t want to worry about you.”
“You lost that privilege, Greg. I no longer discuss my personal business with you.”
He shook his head. “Your bitterness speaks for itself. There must be something about this guy that worries you or you wouldn’t be so defensive.”
“There’s something about you that worries me. If you come down here one more time I’m going to call Allison and suggest she have you committed.”
“Seriously,” Jack said. “I’m a little worried about you, too, buddy. You got a bun in the oven up there and you’re still hanging around here, bothering the ex?”
Greg turned sharply toward Jack. “Can you go find something to do?”
Jack shrugged. “I could, but this is fascinating. And it’s my bar.” Then he smiled.
Greg sighed in frustration. He turned back to Leslie. “Let’s get right to it.”
She rested an elbow on the bar and let her head drop into her hand. She groaned. She swore under her breath.
“The fact is, whether you realize it or not, you’ve had a blow to your self-esteem, and you’re in no condition to get involved with some guy you don’t really know. I knew when I made the hard choice to leave that I would have to be prepared to help see you through it, and I will, Leslie. Because I care about you. Because even though I don’t love you as my wife, I love you as my best friend and always will.”
“I am not your best friend. I am not even your casual friend. And my self-esteem has never been healthier.”
“And so even though it’s reasonable for you to be in denial, I know that losing me destroyed you. It was like hitting bottom for you and I don’t want you to reach out to a man who isn’t good for you. Not when I’m prepared to help you through the crisis. We both know you’ve never had a strong self-image, that you’ve always struggled with your perception of yourself. All I want to do is help. You have more potential than you realize, Leslie. Let me help.”
She stared at him in dumb wonder for a minute. The irony was—not only did he believe this to be true, there was a time it actually had been. His leaving had shattered her. Every time she’d seen him with the new pretty, smart, accomplished young woman, it had hurt. He thought he was God’s gift to women, and if he left his wife, she must be devastated.
Oh, how it pissed her off that she had been!
She turned her back on him and stomped away, charging through the swinging door to the kitchen. Preacher looked up from the stove and lifted his eyebrows, wondering what she was doing there.
She looked around. Then she saw it. The fire extinguisher was mounted on the wall in the kitchen by the back door. She rushed to it, snatched it off the brackets that held it and made for the bar.
If Jack hadn’t been following her to see what the devil she was up to, he might not have been in time. He was right near the door as she came back through; she was freeing the hose and positioning her hands on the handle. She was aiming. Preacher was right behind her, but not fast enough.
“Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!” Jack said, circling her waist with one arm and lifting her clear of the floor. “Hold on there!”
“Did you hear what he said to me?” she ground out angrily. “That his leaving destroyed me? That I now have no self-esteem because he left me?”
“Yeah, I couldn’t miss that. He’s an idiot. I’ll throw him out for you,” Jack said.
“No! This is the only thing he understands!”
“Aw, Les, it’s so messy....”
“It’s not as messy as me killing him!”
Jack smirked. He stole a look at Greg, who was backing away a little nervously, unknowingly making himself a better target.
“You have to help clean up the mess,” Jack said to Leslie.
“Certainly,” she said.
“All right, then.” He let her go.
She ran around the bar and fired. This time there was no warning, no countdown, no compassion. She hit him square in the chest, face, arms, legs and in the back as he ran away, yelling.
“You are an insane f**king bitch!” he screamed, looking a little like a snowman as he ran into the street.
Leslie turned back to the bar. Laughing.
“It wasn’t that messy,” she said. “I got most of it on him. I’ll have that drink now.”
Jack served her up her preferred Merlot and handed her a rag from behind the bar. “He seems to have forgotten his sports coat.”
“Church rummage sale,” she said, lifting it with one finger and handing it over the bar to Jack. She propped the fire extinguisher on the bar stool beside her, as if it was her date. “I don’t think he’ll be back for it. Too bad they’ll never get what it’s worth. I’m sure it’s expensive.”
She turned toward the door just in time to see Conner and Paul enter the bar together, no doubt having seen Greg. She lifted her drink toward them in a little toast.
“She did it again,” Paul said to Conner.
“That’s my girl,” Conner said to Paul.
Eleven
Leslie hated to sacrifice time with Conner, but she couldn’t wait to get home and call her mother. She asked him to give her an hour, then if he wanted to see her later, the price of admission was takeout from the bar.
“Why didn’t you tell me Greg’s been pestering you?” she said when she got her mom on the phone.
“Oh, I thought I mentioned…” Candace said.
“I knew he called or something to ask where I’d gone when he couldn’t find me in Grants Pass, but I had no idea he’d continued bothering you.”
“Well, I knew it wasn’t your doing, Leslie. I didn’t want you to worry about it. And I thought I finally got rid of him.”
“How long has this been going on?”
“Oh, really since you moved,” she said. “At first I thought he was only stopping by because he wanted to know where you’d gone, but then when he kept it up after he finally knew where you were, I was a little confused. I finally told him, in a nice way, that he just couldn’t drop in on us anymore. I said it was a requirement that he call ahead. In which case I always said we were just on our way out. But the doofus just kept calling.”
“What is up with him?” Leslie asked.
“Well, at first he said he didn’t want his relationship with us to be lost just because the marriage was over, but I knew that wasn’t true. The conversation always came around to you very quickly. He wanted to know how you were. So I told him you had never been better, that you were seeing a wonderful man and were so happy.”
“When did you do that?”
“Just last week,” Candace said. “Why?”
“He came down here to Virgin River. Again!”
“What on earth…”
“He wanted the details about this man I’m seeing. He wanted to help me through the rebound crisis because he’s certain I’m devastated over losing him.”
“All right, now listen,” she said sternly. “Who I might be dating is none of your business and I don’t want you pestering my parents. They don’t like you!”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” he said. “They’re very nice to me!”
“They’re nice people! You better leave them alone or…or…or I’ll sic Paul on you.”
“Watch that temper, Leslie! There’s no reason to be so defiant, just listen to me a second. I’m here. I’m in Virgin River at that little bar in town and I’m not leaving until you meet me. I thought a public place might suit you better, make you feel less threatened....”
“Make me feel less threatened?” She laughed out loud. “Bullshit, Greg! You think I won’t hurt you in a public place? But you wasted your time. I’m not meeting you. We have nothing to talk about.”
“If you don’t, I’ll find out where you live and come to your house. Seriously, I’m not leaving without seeing you. We have to discuss this man you’re—”
She disconnected the cordless. “Goddamn it,” she muttered. And she wondered how she’d been married to him for so long without realizing what an idiotic pain in the ass he was. She briefly wondered if he had slipped drugs into her tea throughout their marriage.
She did not want to see him, talk to him. She was a little bit afraid that if she didn’t go to Jack’s, Greg was just going to make her life here so much more complicated. She did not want him to upset her relationship with Conner. She was truly happy for the first time in so long. She banged the phone on the top of her desk several times and swore.
Paul was quickly standing in her doorway. “Problem?”
She grabbed her purse and keys. “I have to run out, Paul.” She looked at her watch. “It’s late—I’m not going to make it back here today. I’ll come in early tomorrow....”
“You don’t have to come in early. Something wrong?”
“That man is getting on my last nerve,” she said.
“Conner?”
“God, no. Conner is a gem. Conner is perfect. Greg Adams.”
“What’s he doing now?”
“Waiting for me at Jack’s. Apparently my parents told him I’m seeing someone and he wants to discuss it with me.”
“Why?”
“I don’t have the first idea, but he’s threatening to wait me out or even show up at my house. I better get over there before Jack’s fills up with people and there’s an audience.”
Paul stepped aside so she could pass. “Want me to go with you?”
“Don’t be silly, Paul. I can take him.”
If Jack’s had been an old Western saloon and Leslie had been wearing six-guns on her hips, her entrance would have blended perfectly. She blew in, loaded for bear. By the time she arrived, there were a couple of men at a table by a window sharing a pitcher, but thankfully that was all. Within a half hour, the dinner crowd would begin to arrive.
Greg turned to see her enter. He smiled. She scowled and walked up to the bar, but she didn’t sit down.
“Drink, Les?” Jack asked.
“No. Greg, I don’t want to discuss anything with you unless you’re here to give me a big check. I want you to go home. And I want you to leave my parents and me alone.”
“Leslie, Leslie… Honey, I know this transition is difficult—”
“Don’t call me honey! It is not a transition and it is not difficult. It’s a divorce and I’ve discovered it’s the best thing that ever happened to me. Now, listen to me, please. We’re done. We’re over. You left me! You have a pregnant wife in Grants Pass. You—”
“Pregnant wife?” Jack repeated. Jack being Jack, he wasn’t far from the conversation.
“Don’t you have something to do?” Greg asked him.
“No,” Jack said. “Buddy, you gotta let go....”
“You don’t understand,” Greg said to Jack. He turned to Leslie. “This doesn’t have to be so adversarial, Leslie. I only want to help because I care about you. I just thought maybe we should talk about this guy you’re seeing because, well…” He reached for her hand, and she snatched it away. “Okay, well, this may be hard to hear, but you’re on the rebound. People can make serious mistakes on the rebound.”
“I. Am. Not.”
“It’s not the length of time that’s the deciding factor, Leslie,” he said. “It’s really about the emotional investment. And believe me, I know how hard our divorce was for you.”
“It’s not hard anymore. I feel like you did me a monumental favor. Now go.”
“Just tell me who he is, Leslie. Tell me about him. I don’t want to worry about you.”
“You lost that privilege, Greg. I no longer discuss my personal business with you.”
He shook his head. “Your bitterness speaks for itself. There must be something about this guy that worries you or you wouldn’t be so defensive.”
“There’s something about you that worries me. If you come down here one more time I’m going to call Allison and suggest she have you committed.”
“Seriously,” Jack said. “I’m a little worried about you, too, buddy. You got a bun in the oven up there and you’re still hanging around here, bothering the ex?”
Greg turned sharply toward Jack. “Can you go find something to do?”
Jack shrugged. “I could, but this is fascinating. And it’s my bar.” Then he smiled.
Greg sighed in frustration. He turned back to Leslie. “Let’s get right to it.”
She rested an elbow on the bar and let her head drop into her hand. She groaned. She swore under her breath.
“The fact is, whether you realize it or not, you’ve had a blow to your self-esteem, and you’re in no condition to get involved with some guy you don’t really know. I knew when I made the hard choice to leave that I would have to be prepared to help see you through it, and I will, Leslie. Because I care about you. Because even though I don’t love you as my wife, I love you as my best friend and always will.”
“I am not your best friend. I am not even your casual friend. And my self-esteem has never been healthier.”
“And so even though it’s reasonable for you to be in denial, I know that losing me destroyed you. It was like hitting bottom for you and I don’t want you to reach out to a man who isn’t good for you. Not when I’m prepared to help you through the crisis. We both know you’ve never had a strong self-image, that you’ve always struggled with your perception of yourself. All I want to do is help. You have more potential than you realize, Leslie. Let me help.”
She stared at him in dumb wonder for a minute. The irony was—not only did he believe this to be true, there was a time it actually had been. His leaving had shattered her. Every time she’d seen him with the new pretty, smart, accomplished young woman, it had hurt. He thought he was God’s gift to women, and if he left his wife, she must be devastated.
Oh, how it pissed her off that she had been!
She turned her back on him and stomped away, charging through the swinging door to the kitchen. Preacher looked up from the stove and lifted his eyebrows, wondering what she was doing there.
She looked around. Then she saw it. The fire extinguisher was mounted on the wall in the kitchen by the back door. She rushed to it, snatched it off the brackets that held it and made for the bar.
If Jack hadn’t been following her to see what the devil she was up to, he might not have been in time. He was right near the door as she came back through; she was freeing the hose and positioning her hands on the handle. She was aiming. Preacher was right behind her, but not fast enough.
“Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!” Jack said, circling her waist with one arm and lifting her clear of the floor. “Hold on there!”
“Did you hear what he said to me?” she ground out angrily. “That his leaving destroyed me? That I now have no self-esteem because he left me?”
“Yeah, I couldn’t miss that. He’s an idiot. I’ll throw him out for you,” Jack said.
“No! This is the only thing he understands!”
“Aw, Les, it’s so messy....”
“It’s not as messy as me killing him!”
Jack smirked. He stole a look at Greg, who was backing away a little nervously, unknowingly making himself a better target.
“You have to help clean up the mess,” Jack said to Leslie.
“Certainly,” she said.
“All right, then.” He let her go.
She ran around the bar and fired. This time there was no warning, no countdown, no compassion. She hit him square in the chest, face, arms, legs and in the back as he ran away, yelling.
“You are an insane f**king bitch!” he screamed, looking a little like a snowman as he ran into the street.
Leslie turned back to the bar. Laughing.
“It wasn’t that messy,” she said. “I got most of it on him. I’ll have that drink now.”
Jack served her up her preferred Merlot and handed her a rag from behind the bar. “He seems to have forgotten his sports coat.”
“Church rummage sale,” she said, lifting it with one finger and handing it over the bar to Jack. She propped the fire extinguisher on the bar stool beside her, as if it was her date. “I don’t think he’ll be back for it. Too bad they’ll never get what it’s worth. I’m sure it’s expensive.”
She turned toward the door just in time to see Conner and Paul enter the bar together, no doubt having seen Greg. She lifted her drink toward them in a little toast.
“She did it again,” Paul said to Conner.
“That’s my girl,” Conner said to Paul.
Eleven
Leslie hated to sacrifice time with Conner, but she couldn’t wait to get home and call her mother. She asked him to give her an hour, then if he wanted to see her later, the price of admission was takeout from the bar.
“Why didn’t you tell me Greg’s been pestering you?” she said when she got her mom on the phone.
“Oh, I thought I mentioned…” Candace said.
“I knew he called or something to ask where I’d gone when he couldn’t find me in Grants Pass, but I had no idea he’d continued bothering you.”
“Well, I knew it wasn’t your doing, Leslie. I didn’t want you to worry about it. And I thought I finally got rid of him.”
“How long has this been going on?”
“Oh, really since you moved,” she said. “At first I thought he was only stopping by because he wanted to know where you’d gone, but then when he kept it up after he finally knew where you were, I was a little confused. I finally told him, in a nice way, that he just couldn’t drop in on us anymore. I said it was a requirement that he call ahead. In which case I always said we were just on our way out. But the doofus just kept calling.”
“What is up with him?” Leslie asked.
“Well, at first he said he didn’t want his relationship with us to be lost just because the marriage was over, but I knew that wasn’t true. The conversation always came around to you very quickly. He wanted to know how you were. So I told him you had never been better, that you were seeing a wonderful man and were so happy.”
“When did you do that?”
“Just last week,” Candace said. “Why?”
“He came down here to Virgin River. Again!”
“What on earth…”
“He wanted the details about this man I’m seeing. He wanted to help me through the rebound crisis because he’s certain I’m devastated over losing him.”
