“On one condition—that we get a little counseling before we officially adopt.”
“Before I start on our adoption package—or just before we sign the final adoption papers?”
“I’d like to do it soon, but I don’t mind if you start the process.”
“Why, exactly, do you want some counseling? This isn’t about my uterus again, is it?”
He shook his head. “No. I’ve decided to stay away from that. I don’t much like being frozen out.”
“I said I was sorry…. So, why counseling?”
“To make sure we’d make good adoptive parents,” he said.
“That’s reasonable….”
“And to explore why my wife would lie to me.”
“What?”
“You’ve never lied to me before. Life has been pretty strange between us lately, but you’ve never lied before. You didn’t just decide to give up your desire to hire a surrogate in favor of adopting a newborn. You have a baby lined up.”
“Now, what in the world makes you think—”
He smirked and lifted a brow. “You’re a midwife. Gimme a break here. Now, why wouldn’t you tell me the truth? What’s going on with you? I thought we could trust each other. Tell each other everything. When did all this change?”
She sighed. “Well, you’ve been very difficult lately,” she said.
He touched her nose. “I believe this is the first time since the day we met that you haven’t had your way with me. You, Mrs. Sheridan, have been very spoiled.”
“All right, I stipulate to being spoiled if you admit to being difficult….”
“Again with the pot and the kettle…”
“I have a new patient,” she relented. “A lovely young woman. She and her boyfriend are good friends with Rick and Liz. Actually, Rick and Liz sent them to me. They asked for my help in setting up an adoption—one where they could give up their parenting rights to see their baby in a good home with loving parents, but adoptive parents who would be willing to share pictures, let them know that their child is doing fine. They understand they can’t be involved—at least not until the child reaches maturity, understands about his adoption and decides whether or not to seek them out.”
“We know it’s a boy already?”
She shook her head. “Just using he/him. It could well be a girl.”
“And they’re doing this because…?”
“For all the right reasons—they’ve been together since high school, but they’ve barely finished their first year of college, and it’s been a financially tough year. They know if they try to have the baby together, it will be a hardship on them and the baby. They want to get married eventually, have children—but they want better for this baby than they can reasonably give him. Or her. It was a very difficult and brave decision for them.”
“And did you tell them you want their baby?”
“I did not. And even though I actually would love that, even I would recommend to them that they interview several potential parents.”
“Uh-huh. But you can think of a hundred reasons why we’re likely to stand out, can’t you?”
“Well, I agree we’re fair candidates, but—”
“But we come personally recommended by their good friends, have small children of our own, are financially stable, healthy, local and guaranteed to remain local, you’re a medical professional who works with a pediatrician, we aren’t felons or abusers, have an entire town to vouch for us…Need I go on?”
“There’s more?” she asked.
“I bet there is,” he answered.
“Are you going to go along with this?” she asked, her eyes taking on that blue flash he knew only too well.
“Yes,” he said. “But we’re going to sit down with a counselor and make sure we’re good potential adoptive parents, good for that baby. I think that’s important. And if the counselor agrees, you can feel free to add it to your package.”
She smiled happily. “Thank you, Jack. I promise, you’ll never regret it.”
Fifteen
Aiden and Erin had a busy couple of days after the departure of Sean and Franci. Not only did Aiden contact his headhunter and tell him he was ready to take appointments for serious interviews in the Chico area, they made a run down to San Francisco to shop for clothes. It was supposed to be a shopping trip for Aiden, who had been in uniform for a very long time and had only one civilian suit, maybe just a bit out of date for interviews. But of course, Erin, a self-confessed clotheshorse, managed to buy a few things for herself, as well.
“Why not start on the trousseau,” he suggested. “Let’s pick up some perverted and extremely fun nightwear.”
What they started on instead was a ring. Aiden had it in his mind to have something original made for her, but on a pass through Tiffany’s she saw a ring that just brought her to her knees. That was good enough for him.
She couldn’t wait to tell her sister, whom she talked to at least once a day. She called her from San Francisco. Marcie shrieked with delight and demanded, “When am I going to see it?”
“I’ll take a picture with my phone—stand by. I’ll send it and call you back!”
A few minutes later, Erin got Marcie back on the line. “Oh my GOD!” Marcie said. “I want to see it in person! Does it weigh five pounds? Do I have to wait till you come home?” Marcie wanted to know. “Because the doctor says I’m done with long car trips.”
“Aiden’s hoping to interview in the Chico area. If anything comes up down there for him, I’ll ride along with him. But, honey, do you realize how soon I’ll be back for the baby? I’m coming before you have him, and you’re having him in just a few weeks! How do you feel?”
“Enormous, but good. I’m ready, let me tell you.”
“Soon, Marcie. Just be patient,” Erin said. “Be sure to cook him long enough.”
After spending a couple of nights in San Francisco, they sped back to Virgin River. They checked in with Luke to find everyone there was status quo and that Sean and family had arrived safely in Montgomery. Aiden and Erin spent the night in the cabin where more and more of Aiden’s things, including his laptop, were appearing. He’d nearly moved in.
“I really didn’t think life could ever get this perfect,” she said. “If we have a home and good jobs in Chico, an ideal getaway on this mountain, what more could we want?”
“Besides my divorce? How about a kid or two?” he asked.
“What if I can’t?” she asked him.
“What if I can’t?” he parroted. “The fact is, we probably both can. You game?”
“Are you sure I’m not too old?” she asked.
“At thirty-six? I delivered a forty-two-year-old right before exiting the navy. It was her first. You’re definitely not too old to have a baby. Do you feel like it’s a little late in the game to commit twenty years plus to raising one?”
“I just thought it was one of those things that had passed me by, that would never happen. I know you have your heart set on it….”
“I’d like that, true. But parenting is definitely a team sport. We both have to be on that team, Erin. If you don’t want it, I’m not going to push it.”
“And that wouldn’t change your mind about settling down with me?”
“At this point, nothing would change my mind about that. But how about we make an agreement right now—issues that really require two people to be of like minds, we either agree we both want it or we don’t go there.”
“What things besides having children?” she asked.
“I don’t know. Moving,” he said. “Major purchases. Expensive vacations. Sterilization.” He shrugged and added, “Adoption?”
She went to him and sat on his lap. “I’d like to have a child of my own with a husband, but I’m worried about my eggs being too old or something. And I have some strong feelings about that.”
“Which are?”
“You get what you get. If you decide to give it a go, you get what you get. I wouldn’
t terminate because a baby isn’t perfect.”
“I go along with that. See how easy it is to act on things you agree on? Is your period late, by the way?”
She laughed. “It’s not time yet. That was something we acted on without agreeing first. Whoops.”
“Really, I meant to have you check in with the local doctor or midwife about some emergency birth control, but we got distracted by all the insanity. We’ll be okay, honey. No matter which way that flows, we’ll be fine.” He smiled. “Pun intended.”
She fell asleep that night in Aiden’s arms, thinking that she had never expected her life could ever be so calm, so sane, so reasonable.
But she woke up to someone hammering at the door.
Aiden rolled over with a groan and sat up on the edge of the bed, grabbing his boxers off the floor. “Find a robe, babe. I’ll see who’s lost their mind at—” he glanced at the clock “—five in the morning?”
She scurried to the bathroom where her robe hung on a hook, but before she could get it completely around her and securely tied, she heard the crash of the door as it banged open, Aiden’s grunt and another loud thud. Then came the angry male voice that shouted, “Aiden Riordan, you’re under arrest for battery and I’m going to read you your rights….”
By the time Erin got to the great room, still tying her robe, three sheriff’s deputies stood just inside the door and the biggest one had Aiden slammed up against the wall, cuffing his hands behind his back. “Good God!” she shouted. “Hey! Where’s your warrant?”
One of the deputies handed her a folded piece of paper and she flipped it open to read it.
“Battery? Who is it I battered?” Aiden asked as his hands were being secured behind his back.
“Your wife, Annalee Riordan, just like the warrant says,” the deputy informed him. “You have the right to remain silent,” he said, reciting Aiden’s Miranda rights.
“When did this happen?” Aiden asked while the deputy continued.
“Last night,” Erin read from the warrant. “But he was here, with me, all night. No one else was here. She wasn’t here…we didn’t go out…”
“Erin, call Ron Preston,” Aiden said. “I’m probably going to need some local lawyer. Officer, ease up—I haven’t even seen her in well over a week. She said I beat her?”
“That’s the story.”
“Pants, Officer. Shoes,” he said. “Come on. I’m in my underwear!”
“That’s how we know you’re not armed,” the deputy said.
“I don’t even own a weapon!” he said hotly, turning around, straining against the arms that pushed him up against the wall.
“Settle down!”
Erin stepped forward, warrant in hand, her cheeks inflamed with fury. “Slow down here—let me get him some clothes, and take it real easy on him—he’s not resisting and will go with you willingly, so bear that in mind when you manhandle him. I’m an officer of the court and I’ve been with him the last seventy-two hours—most of it in San Francisco.”
“Every minute?” another deputy asked.
“Except when he was trying on his new slacks or left the restaurant table for the men’s room. This is bogus,” she said. “This is a soon-to-be ex-wife making a lot of trouble. They’ve been separated for eight years. Dr. Riordan is trying to expedite the divorce so we can get married.”
“Dr. Riordan?” one of the deputies asked.
“That’s right,” he confirmed, looking over his shoulder. “Are you sure she’s really battered?”
“Oh, yeah. All banged up.”
“Is she all right?” Aiden asked. “Was she badly beaten?”
“Treated and released,” the deputy said. Then he sarcastically added, “Is there a beaten that’s not so bad?”
“Slow down, gentlemen, and stop with the innuendo,” Erin said firmly and authoritatively, even though she was both naked and shaking under her robe. “Obviously my fiancé knows nothing about this. Aiden hasn’t been away from me for more than three minutes in the last three days. He’ll go with you without any argument, but you’re going to uncuff him right now and let him get into some clothes.”
“I have no problem with clothes.” The deputy jerked up on the cuffed wrists, causing Aiden to wince. “You gonna behave?”
“I’ll go with you,” he said in a low growl. “Let’s just take this a little easy, huh?”
Erin went into the bedroom and brought back a shirt, pants and shoes. “I’ll get in touch with Ron and contact the D.A.—this is a bad, bad joke. I’ll have you out in an hour.”
“Maybe not, ma’am,” one of the deputies said. “We won’t have him processed in an hour.”
“You might want to use your head and think before you book him. Is there evidence of any kind? Because the woman’s a nutcase and he didn’t hurt her. He’d never hurt anyone. Be very careful with this. And if you hurt this physician’s hands, the county’s going to be paying for a long, long time.”
“Thanks for the advice,” the meanest of the three deputies said. “We know what we’re doing.”
“You better hope so,” Erin replied. “Because I never forget a face.”
The second the deputies took Aiden away, Erin made a few phone calls, then rushed to the sheriff’s department. A local attorney who turned out to be Jack Sheridan’s sister and well acquainted with the D.A. met them there. Brie Valenzuela interviewed Aiden, Erin, then sat down with the D.A., and it was agreed there wasn’t anything besides the woman’s word on which to charge Aiden, and not only did Aiden have a perfectly good alibi for the time in question, the woman seemed to have dropped out of sight. There was no victim. No victim, no crime. But it was a very long day before Aiden was released without charges being filed.
They were both exhausted by the time they got back to Erin’s cabin. Aiden wasn’t just tired, he was demoralized. There was nothing like being taken away in the back of a police cruiser and thought to be the kind of animal who’d beat a small woman to take the starch out of a man’s spine. He slumped onto Erin’s sofa.
“We’re going to figure this out,” she said to him. “I’m going to fix you a drink. I have scotch or brandy….”
“Pass,” he said, grimacing at the choices.
She looked into the refrigerator. “I have two beers and a tablespoon or so of Merlot. Really good Merlot, but we drank almost all of it,” she said.
“Gimme a beer,” he said.
She got two out and popped off the caps, taking one to him and keeping one for herself. Sitting down beside him, she leaned back as he did and put her feet up on the ottoman. She took a deep drink of her beer and let out a tired sigh.
Aiden’s hand came down on her knee. “Maybe you should go home, babe. I should go stay at Luke’s and you should go home.”
“No way,” she said. “Not unless you come with me. A, you need an alibi and I’m going to make sure you have one every second, and B, I don’t want to be away from you! If you feel you need to go to Luke’s for some reason, I’ll go stay there, too.”
He shook his head. “I want you away from this. I hate that you’re even involved.”
“You’d be in worse shape if I wasn’t.”
“I’ll make sure I always have someone around. Luke or someone.”
“You’ll have me around,” she said. “I’m not going to give you a hard time about feeling real low right now. After the way that deputy treated you, I’m hardly surprised. But as soon as you catch your breath, I want you to come out fighting mad. Aiden, she’s working you. I don’t know why or how, but she’s working you.” She gathered up her hair in a hand on top of her head. “God, how could she beat herself to make it look like you’d done it? Throw herself down the stairs? How?”
“I have no idea. Nor do I know why.”
The phone rang. Erin got up to answer it. Then she said, “Oh, Marcie, honey! I was just going to call you!” She threw an uh-oh look at Aiden. “No, no, of course nothing’s wrong—did you leave messages? Oh, baby,
I’m sorry—we barely walked in the door. I haven’t even checked the voice mail. We were out all day—over on the coast. Didn’t I mention we were going to do that? Honey, I’m sorry—but please don’t ever worry. It’s my job to worry about you, not the other way around.” Then Erin laughed softly. “But, sweetheart, I’m not up here all alone anymore. I have Aiden, and we’re almost never apart. Yes, you can relax—I’m in for the night and exhausted from a very full day. I’ll be sure to call you tomorrow. I love you, too. Bye.”
She went back to the couch and slumped beside Aiden.
“You haven’t told her anything,” he said.
She took a drink of her beer. “I told her you were previously married. I told her that on Fourth of July weekend.”
“But none of this madness.” It wasn’t a question.
“She’s hugely pregnant and her baby can’t be born normally. I don’t want her upset. If she goes into labor now, it’s an emergency C-section. I don’t want her to have the slightest worry.”
“It might make sense to tell her the truth, in that case. And tell her we’re on top of it.”
“I did tell her the truth. There’s nothing to worry about and we’re almost never apart. I’ll tell her all about Annalee the whackjob after the baby’s born. And it will absolutely get her all hyper and wigged out, wanting every sordid detail. Marcie’s always been the only one in the room who didn’t close her eyes during the massacre scenes in bad horror films.”
Aiden turned to her and lifted his eyebrows in question.
“She talked me into going with her to see The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. She never missed a thing. I was nearly crawling under the seat, hiding my eyes.”
“She’s a ghoul?” Aiden asked.
“She’s too gutsy for her own good, not afraid of anything. She’s braver than I’ve ever been. What the hell, it got her through some wicked stuff. I admire her. But I don’t want her all zooped up on Annalee’s craziness right now. Right now I want her growing my nephew to a healthy size and having a safe delivery.”
He considered this. “Makes perfect sense, the way you say it.”
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