Page 12 of Embattled Ever After

She hurried through the rest of the shower and dried off. Her thick hair would take a couple of hours to air dry, but she didn’t want to wake him running the blow dryer if he wasn’t up. After she dressed she would scope out the area and see what was going on.

The minute she opened the door, the wafting perfume of bacon tickled her nose. Grinning, she padded to her bedroom and dropped her dirty clothes at the foot of the bed, then headed toward the kitchen. Snow still fell softly outside the windows, making the house feel cozy and warm.

Duncan leaned against the counter beside the stove, fork in hand as he watched a pan of bacon sizzling. He glanced up when Alex entered the room and she was caught by the intensity in his expression. Then the skin around his eyes crinkled and he smiled.

“Good morning. Did you sleep well?”

“I did,” she told him honestly. “I think it’s been years since I’ve slept so soundly. Between traveling and everything else, I was worn out. And it was nice not bolting out of bed for an emergency.”

Duncan nodded, turning back to flip a few pieces of bacon. He reached to turn the heat down on the burner and Alex had to admire the long line of his strong back. Though he wore a sweatshirt, she could tell he had muscles buried under there. When he moved to the sink, his limp seemed more pronounced. “How did you sleep?”

He gave her a crooked grin over his shoulder. “Not too bad.”

For some reason she thought he was lying. If he had slept well the lines of pain bracketing his mouth would be less pronounced, wouldn’t they? It wasn’t her job to call him out on it, though.

She glanced out the sliding glass doors to her right. They led to a glassed-in outdoor room, with a hot tub inside. Beyond the tub she could see the better part of a foot and a half of snow piled at the bottom of the glass wall. “Oh, jeez! Is that all from last night?”

Duncan followed her line of sight. “Yes. I used the tub at about eleven and it was only up a few inches. Guess we’ve got a system sitting over top of us. It happens sometimes. You just learn to keep things stocked for snowy days.”

Alex ran her fingers through her wet hair, feeling chilled. “Will the power go out?”

Duncan shrugged. “If it does, we have a generator.”

Well, that made her feel better.

“Can I help you cook?”

“Nah. I’ve got this.”

“Good,” she sighed. “I’m not much of a cook. If somebody else wants to take the job, I am more than willing to let them.”

Turning, he gave her a quizzical expression. “What if you get hungry?”

“There are some great takeout restaurants around. And I can do frozen meals if I need to.”

His quizzical expression settled into laughter. “As a doctor I would think that eating fast food all the time is counter-intuitive.”

She nodded, leaning her elbow on the edge of the table as she sat down. “Oh, it is. I can spout off all the dietary information a patient needs, but I can’t cook for shit. I can throw bagged salad on a plate or something, but not much more than that. I just wasn’t given that gene. Believe me, I’ve tried.”

And she had. Even her father, worldly soldier that he was, could cook up a mean casserole when the need arose. For Christmas one year he’d given her cooking classes at the local community college. It had given her a few tenuous basics, but nothing complicated. After a few weeks, Mrs. Houser, the kind lady teaching the class, had finally pulled Alex aside after yet another scalded pan incident to suggest that perhaps she should find another hobby. Alex had left with her tail between her legs. It had been the only significant failure in her long and gloried school career.

Her father had merely shaken his head at her. “I should have saved my money.”

It wasn’t like she starved or anything. Fast food was everywhere now as well as portable, healthy food. Bananas and a yogurt started her day every day. If she had time for a lunch, she tried to eat a salad.

Duncan still looked at her. “What?”

With a slight grin he shook his head again and turned back to the counter. Alex didn’t care about her long-ago bruised ego if it meant she could see Duncan’s slight smile. The man was entirely too serious for his own good.

As he cooked her breakfast Alex talked to him about the men he worked with. All were former military, she knew that, but she didn’t know they were all under medical supervision for one or more issues, both physical and mental.

“PTSD affects most of us in the company and we have a very good relationship with a local therapist. She can get the guys in short term and knows how to work with the VA system. And if the system completely drops the ball, I’ve set up a fund to cover some of the costs.”

Though she loved being a hospitalist, an in-house general practitioner, as it were, she’d felt something motivating her ever since she’d dealt with Aiden Willingham. Veterans seemed to really get the short end of the stick when it came to care.

“Are there other programs that provide care? I mean so you don’t have to rely on the VA for everything.”

Duncan nodded. “There are several organizations and charities that have popped up willing to aid vets. But those are few and far between, and often hard to get into. If they’re really cutting edge, many times they have waiting lists comparable to the VA.”

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