Page 5 of Dr. Alaska
The city-slicker woman continued to glare at Mav.
Oh, come on. Two against one.
The golden glow of the woman’s skin had become snowdrift pale, and the fancy ripstop nylon coat fabricshushedas shivers made her small frame shake. Another burst of need to warm her up and be the reason she stopped shivering hit him like an avalanche. His hand halfway reached her before he stopped the instinctive impulse.
“Hmm. I can see my work here is done.” Her teeth might be chattering, but she still rolled her pretty brown eyes at him.
Pretty?
A flash hit him. He needed to know how long she would be in the area, what the hell she was doing out here, what her plans were for dinner. How bad of a conflict of interest was it to ask for her number while on a call in the field, neglecting his actual patient?
First of all, Bruce was medically stable.
Mav immediately stomped all of those lines of thought. He was the town’s EMS chief. He had to set an example. Second of all, Mav had one dating rule, and he had almost broken it right here. Nocheechakos, as the villagers liked to disparagingly call them. Outsiders. Besides, Mav knew better, even if the ratio of eligible women in Yukon Valley wasn’t in his favor. He’d learned his lesson a few years ago. This frozen princess was no different.
His mind stopped churning long enough for him to say, “Hey, why don’t you go get warmed up?” See? Helpful. Not pushy. Considerate.
Dumb!his inner voice chided him.
“I’ve got it. Will do.” She peered around him one more time. “Take care, Bruce.”
“Thanks, dear.” He barked toward the open rig door, “Hey, Louise, I’m freezing my venison off here. Get me in that nice warm ambulance already!”
Louise shook her head, held her palms up to the sky, and mouthedWhy me?
The blue lights of a state trooper vehicle grew brighter. Mav had known the trooper would take a while, being that Kate was the only one in this area and had been ten miles to the west of town when dispatch sent him and Louise out on the call. Dumb luck that they had just finished a transport from the hospital to a patient’s home in this general vicinity.
Suddenly, Mav didn’t know what to do with his hands as he stared at the woman. “Um, enjoy your visit to the area.” He tried to shove them in pockets but missed.
“Visit. Sure thing. Y’all take care.” She hurried to the sedan and opened the door on the second try. He could see her through the partially fogged front windshield.
Kate pulled up in the Alaska State Trooper vehicle with its typical matte black roof and rolled down her window.
Louise called out, “You going to do any work today, Mav, or keep staring at the nice lady?”
He hurried over and helped slide the gurney into the back of the rig to prove he was focused on his job. “Let me give Kate a quick update.” He stopped at the trooper’s car for a minute. The trooper took notes, then strolled to the citizen’s car for a statement. Their voices drifted over to him.
Mav closed the back doors of the ambulance and chanced one more glance at the woman. Her golden hair glinted even in the dimming late-afternoon light as she talked with Sheriff Kate. Shaking his head, he walked to the front of the vehicle, got in the front seat, and drove away.
He’d missed an opportunity.
And dodged a proverbial bullet.
Chapter Three
There was cold—andthen there was melted-snow-in-thin-leather-booties cold. Hells bells, Lee would never get warm again. She checked the car’s GPS—another four miles to Yukon Valley. The bottled water and disinfecting gel had dried the heck out of her hands, but at least she’d removed the blood that had seeped through her glove.
As she approached town, more snow-covered roads exiting the highway began to appear, along with a smattering of homes and mailboxes. The evidence of civilization after driving for several hours through Arctic tundra released the tight muscles around her neck and shoulders. Five minutes later, she spied aYukon Valley Warmly Welcomes Yousign. Lee snickered as she peered through the windshield at snowy, bare hills on one side of town and mountains rising up from the other side of what might be the ice-covered Yukon River.
She squinted at small figures on the ice. Oh gosh, were there people on snowmobiles out there? Lordie, was it safe? Must be. They took sled dogs on frozen rivers, right? Snowmobiles weren’t much different. She imagined ice cracking beneath her feet if she were to stand out there.
She drove slowly, head on a swivel. Where was the actual town?
A broad one-story log-cabin-style building appeared. Next to it, neon fuel prices glowed brightly on a marquee above the pumps. Three vehicles idled outside the store, constant puffs of exhaust vapor emitting from the tailpipes. Red lettering on white background above the store’s main entrance readThree Bears Alaska, and to the side of the door were several smaller signs identifying grocery, pharmacy, delicatessen, bait and tackle, automotive, office supplies, and sporting goods. Welp. All bases covered.
Lee shivered. She should stop back later for better winter gear.
Another half mile farther, Lee turned right at the ice-flocked, battered blue H sign, traveling a residential block off the highway to reach Yukon Valley Hospital. Putting the car into park on the snow-covered gravel lot, where the front row of spaces each contained a strange white box on a three-foot pole, she studied the scene in front of her. She wasn’t sure what she had expected, but this modest compact building with river stone entryway surrounded by ten-foot-high mounds of snow wasn’t it. On the end of the building was another sliding door with a bright red emergency sign lit overhead. This facility was nothing like the high-rise Atlanta hospitals or even the roomy hospital campus in Dahlonega where she’d practiced before.
