Page 71 of Five Alarm Love
“I can keep my mouth shut,” Tuli muttered.
“Sure, and we might not get snow this winter.”
“What are you saying, Lou?”
She waved at Mav.“We have work to do.”Her face burned.Heart pounded.God, she hated conflict.
Turning on her heel, she exited not caring who followed or what anyone else thought of the scene.
Lou was over everything.
*
That cloudy afternoon,Lou filled up the rig at the Three Bears gas station, enjoying the few minutes of time alone as Mav completed run paperwork back at the EMS garage.She leaned against the side of the ambulance, zipped up her navy EMS jacket against the nip in the air, and stared up at the low mountains above town.No snow yet.But soon.
Another vehicle pulled across the island from her, and a door opened and shut.Beat-up truck.Looked familiar.
“Hi, Louise.”Bruce Garrett stepped down from his truck with an arthriticugh, then raised a hand in greeting.
Aggie got out of the truck, waved, and headed into the gas station.
“Nice day,” he said, his broad smile shifting his more salt than pepper bushy beard.
He leaned an arm on the side of the pump, his eyes narrowing as he looked at Lou.Uh-oh.This guy had nothing but time.Did no one in this town have things to do?Places to be?
She glanced at the old-school dial display slowly turning.Only ten gallons in the rig so far.Even the pumps worked against her today.
“Hi, Bruce,” she said.“How have you been?Staying well?”
Bruce had almost died last spring.Here he was, not only miraculously alive, but apparently with an even more annoying level of energy, thanks to his newly cleaned heart vessels.
“Still have to visit with those fancy docs in Fairbanks every few months,” he groused.“Don’t know why I can’t see the docs here.”
“The docs here aren’t cardiologists.”
“They were fine when I needed them.”
She remembered Bruce’s gray complexion while the ER team coded him for several long minutes.It really was a miracle to see him up and about nowadays.“That was a life-threatening emergency, and we could have used a cardiologist then.”
“Hmph.”He turned and fiddled with the gas cap, but seemed to be in no apparent rush to start pumping his own fuel.“Your brother okay?”
“Yes, sir.Thank you for asking.Gordy’s doing all right.I think he’s walking around town today.It’s a nice afternoon.”
“Anything else interesting in your life?”
After Bruce and his wife Aggie had conspired with pretty much the entire hospital staff to get Maverick and Dr.Tipton together, then successfully prodded Deirdre and Dr.Garrett into a lifetime commitment, Bruce had apparently decided it was time to focus his energy on Lou’s love life.
Such as it was.
“Bruce, is this twenty questions?”
“Why, has someone else beat me to it?”
“You’re down to nineteen remaining questions.”
“Oh!Tough crowd.”He winked.“My Calvin’s getting married this weekend.I’m happy for him.Are you coming?”
“Wouldn’t miss it.”The wedding, yes.Certain guests, not so much.
