Page 25 of Shared By the Mountain Men

“To the fact that you’re technically not my patient,” Noah agreed, clinking his glass to mine. The margarita was tart and boozy, just the way I liked it.

“So, you have a house on the river,” I said, switching to typical date material. “I bet that’s nice.”

“I’m extremely lucky,” he admitted. “I bought the land in 2019, right before COVID. The real estate market around here went nuts after that. But yeah, it’s great. I’ve got a few acres, and can take the kayak out on the river from my backyard. Do you…” He trailed off and shook his head. “I was going to ask what kind of place you live in, but then I realized I don’t even knowwhereyou’re from.”

“Toledo, Ohio,” I replied. “And yes, it’s as boring as it sounds. I hate it there.”

“Then why not move?”

“I don’t know. Too many things keeping me there.” Suddenly, I slammed down my drink. “Forget about my story. I want to hear about how you got blown up!”

“I can’t reveal my most interesting story before our food even arrives,” Noah protested.

“No.” I jabbed a finger in his direction. “I was supposed to hear this story at lunch yesterday, but you were called away on an emergency.”

“The emergency was an interesting case,” he mused. “You know the ski slopes up on Mount Crested Butte overlooking the town? They turn them into mountain biking trails in the summer. One of the kids lost control going around a corner and flew into a tree. Compound fracture in his femur.”

“Don’t try appeasing me with interesting medical stories,” I argued.

“What about details of stuff people have shoved up their butts?” he countered, leaning forward on the table. “One of them will shock you.”

“Save it for dessert. I want the blown up story!”

Sighing, Noah drank some more of his margarita. “All right. In another life, I was an Army medic. My unit was deployed to Afghanistan…”

I felt all the blood drain out of my face. “Oh no.”

Noah gave me a sad smile. “Did you think it was a patient who had a bomb in his chest, like onGrey’s Anatomy?”

“…No.” I paused. “Okay, yeah, that’s exactly what I thought. You don’t have to tell the rest of the story.”

“It’s all good. I’ve told it a hundred times.” He ran a hand through his thick blond hair before continuing. “We were escorting some informants back to base when a roadside bomb went off. It flipped one of our armored cars, and put three nickels worth of shrapnel in my leg. No permanent damage, except my thigh aches sometimes when I go for a jog. I got chapter sixty-one’d after that. A chapter sixty-one discharge is a medical discharge.”

“Wow, you were lucky.”

“Sure was.” Another long pull from his margarita. “Two buddies of mine weren’t so lucky. Both were closer to the blast. One lost both legs, and the other… didn’t make it.”

“Oh my God.” I instinctively reached across the table to cup his hand. “I amso sorryfor asking. I shouldn’t have been so nosy.”

Noah smiled. “No apology needed. This story is a big part of who I am. That’s why I teased it to you yesterday.”

I relaxed a little. But I still felt guilty.

“Believe it or not, that was the first time I ever patched anyone up in combat,” he went on. “Being deployed is a tale of two extremes. You’re bored out of your mind for ninety-nine percent of the time. And then when something finally happens, it’s chaos and blood and adrenaline. Stop looking at me like that.”

“Like what?”

“Like I’m a puppy with three legs,” he teased.

Wincing, I said, “Sorry.”

“I was numb for a while after that. Like, a couple of years. My uncle passed away, and I didn’t feel anything. Same when my mom died a year later. It was like a blanket was wrapped around my brain, muffling everything going on. Which sucks, because I’m a very open and emotional person. Well, eventually, the blanket disappeared. And when I could finally feel things again, I decided I wanted to help people.”

“What led you to Crested Butte?” I asked. “Did you grow up out here?”

“I grew up in Denver, but my family used to take trips out here to ski. When I heard there was a shortage of doctors, it was an easy choice. I found someone renting a room for cheap—that turned out to be Jack, and we became good buddies.”

“You were renting one of the colorful cabins?”

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