Hidden Summit

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 fucking 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
    L eslie 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.”
    Candace laughed into the phone.
    “What’s funny?” Leslie asked.
    “He has such a high opinion of himself, that’s what’s