Page 8 of Dr. Alaska
“Hi, Tuli,” he said to Tulimak Sampson, a local firefighter and part-time deli employee who Mav had been friends with for years.
“Gganaa’! What’ll it be, Mav?”
“A pound of sliced ham and ten pounds of beef. Can I have some bone-in?”
“For you and the team?”
“Bone broth and treats. Nothing but the best for my babies. The ham’s for me.”
“Got it.” Tuli got to work setting the slicing machine as he weighed and packaged the beef. He said over his shoulder, “Heard you took care of Bruce today.”
Mav shifted from foot to foot, warm in his heavy EMS pants, shirt, and jacket. “You know we can’t talk about what may or may not have happened at work.”
“Aggie dropped by here a few hours ago, so it’s not like Bruce’s ambulance trip was a secret. Said he was banged up but okay. It sounds like you took over for the new doctor at the wreck.” He grinned.
A nasty knot twisted in Mav’s gut. Really? That was what people thought? Sheesh. “First of all, if I come upon a wreck and a nonparamedic is there, it’s my job to take control of the situation. Hypothetically.” He scuffed his salt-rimed black boot against the blobs of melting snow on the worn linoleum floor. “Just because someone works in healthcare doesn’t mean they’re experts in prehospital care.” He leaned against the counter and pointed a finger. “In fact, more often than not, nonmedics make our jobs harder. You know all about that, working with the fire department and helping on medical calls.” The light squeak of grocery carts and low voices in the store behind him created a soothing background.
“Hey, sorry for asking, man!” Tuli piled ham slices on a piece of wax paper on the scale, then packaged up the bundle and handed it and the steak to Mav. “New doctor’s cute, yeah?”
Tuli wasn’t wrong, damn it. Dr. Tipton’s button nose and wind-pinkened cheeks made her brown eyes glow. Hell, in the ED when he’d seen her without the beanie, she took his breath away. The color of those long waves was a rich gold, like aspens in the fall. Off-balance, Mav shook his head. He had to be hypoglycemic.
“How would you know?”
“Bruce raved about her to Aggie, who then told me. Also, Billy’s fast on the hospital switchboard.”
Mav placed the meat in the cart next to him, keeping his eyes on Tuli. “Why would you, a man too busy to hang out with his friend and watch the Seahawks playoff game last weekend, have time to care what the new doctor looks like?”
“I mean, besides the obvious?” Tuli smirked and motioned in a way that encompassed the sparsely populated town with its lack of relationship prospects, unless cuddling with brown bears counted as companionship.
“Besides, she’s been in town for only four hours. How would you know her from anyone? Although I suppose she’s easy to pick out, being all city-slicker in fancy clothes and hating the cold, searching for Starbucks and a mall.”
Like his ex. Skylar had been a pretty face and nice person who hated every minute out here in Yukon Valley. He had vowed never to make the mistake of investing time in an outsider who didn’t love the Alaskan interior like Mav did.
“Because, ah…” Tuli lifted his chin.
Mav’s stomach dropped like a rumbling avalanche bore down on him. Slowly, he pivoted. Raised eyebrows above pursed pink lips identified a certain new physician who, yes, looked like she’d prefer a Starbucks and who wore expensive but inadequate gear. She blinked at him. The temperature under his coat shot up twenty degrees.
If Mav was lucky, then she hadn’t heard him.
Sweat prickled his lower back.Say something, damn it. “Um, getting deli meat?” he managed.
A ghost of a smile came and went. “Is that okay for a city slicker to do here?”
Yep, she’d heard him all right. “Tulimak will fix you right up.” He waved toward his useless friend, who had hung Mav out to dry.
Tuli now stood tall with a puffed chest.
“Thanks. Good to know.” She curled bare fingers around the cart handle. “Does this store carry any good gloves? I ruined mine whilemaking your job hardertoday.”
Geez, exactly how long had she been listening? The pretty doctor must have ears like a bat.
Then, in an unfortunate turn of events, his mouth became uncoupled from good sense. “It’s true, you know,” he said. “Non-EMS personnel trying to render care in a prehospital setting can be a barrier to doing our job.” He barreled ahead like an unpiloted bobsled on a steep track. “Besides, you should have established yourself as a physician back at the accident.”
She sucked in a breath, thewhooshlike an Arctic gale bearing down on him. “First of all, I didn’t see other medical personnel lined up to help at that accident, so it was slim pickings, and we make do with what we’ve got. Then you cut me off before I could identify myself. However, I’m still confused. Did the capable manner in which I stabilized our patient not make my competence clear?”
That jut of her chin and quirk to her full lips made him want to lean over and soften that mad expression with his mouth.
She continued. “Perhaps in the future I should broadcast proficiency via interpretive dance for all to see.”
