feeling she got when she communicated with Meredith was that her mom would be so relieved to know that Kaylee had someone special in her life, someone to love. Someone to take a little of the weight of her grief off her back. It had been quite a while since she’d had a boyfriend.
She ran into Mel at the bar and Mel said, “You look so great. Have you been getting a little extra sunshine on your cheeks? Did you get a new haircut or something?”
“No change that I’m aware of, but I’m feeling great. Maybe it’s just time. Maybe I’m finally learning to live with losing my mom. I still miss her like mad. Nothing has changed there. But lately I’ve been spending a lot of time with Landry. We’ve become pretty close and it’s making me happy.”
“Maybe that’s what’s glowing on your pretty cheeks,” Mel said. “I don’t know if you heard this through the grapevine, but Jack is my second husband. I was widowed when my first husband was killed. He stumbled into a robbery in progress and was shot. It was a terrible ordeal. I came to Virgin River for a fresh start, too.”
“I’m sorry, Mel. That must have been so horrible.”
“Very hard, but it’s a process. I wish I had some advice on how to survive the grieving process, but all I can say is, there’s no shortcut. You just have to plow through it. One suggestion is to just weather the year of the firsts without your loved one—first birthday, first anniversary, first holidays, etc.”
“I’m working on that,” Kaylee said.
“Like I said, there’s no shortcut. But are you coming to the Halloween party?”
“Yes! And thankfully that’s not a memorable holiday that my mom and I shared. There should be no dark clouds hanging over the day.”
“Then it could be total fun. It’s supposed to be a chilly, sunny day.”
On that Saturday, Landry and Kaylee arrived in town at about three and had to park all the way down at the edge of town, there were so many cars and trucks lining the road. They walked to the picnic area behind the bar and it looked as if the entire town was there. People were camped out at the picnic tables, in lawn chairs, on blankets and just standing around in clusters or leaning against trees. Kaylee had made a big platter of chicken wings and Landry’s contribution was a large bowl of fruit and nuts mixed up with Cool Whip. Once they added their contributions to the table, they held hands. That was how they were linked as Landry began to introduce Kaylee to people she didn’t already know.
Paul Haggerty introduced them to his wife Vanessa and their five children. “I’m glad I ran into you, Kaylee. You should give Bonnie and Gerald a call. They’re planning to come up in a week or two to check out the house. It’s nearly finished. I figured you’d want to see them.”
“I can’t wait to see them, and the house!”
Landry had a beer in one hand and passed a cup of wine to Kaylee so he could shake hands with Paul. “I’m going to drive over and take a look, too, if you don’t mind.”
“You’re always welcome. It turned out just right,” Paul said proudly.
They made the rounds, visited with the minister and his wife. Kaylee met Luke and Shelby Riordan, of course she already knew Colin and Jillian, and another brother was visiting so she was introduced to Sean. “How many of you are there?”
“Five Riordan boys—Patrick and Aiden are missing. When we all get together you can hear the noise shake the rooftops.”
“It’s a good thing Colin lives in a very big house,” Shelby said. “It gets to be quite a crowd.”
Kaylee visited with Jack, Preacher, Paige and Mike Valenzuela and was introduced to Brie, Jack’s sister. Then she found her way to the table Mel occupied with some other women. There were pony rides for the children, a big inflated bounce house for the smaller kids and all kinds of games taking place around the grounds. A lot of the kids and several adults were wearing costumes; Jillian was wearing a very inventive witch costume complete with shoes with curled up toes and a blacked out tooth. And the food! She looked at the long table covered with dishes that seemed to go on forever. “This is food porn,” she said to Landry.
They stayed for several hours, visited with most of the town,