Page 5 of Hot Winter Nights (Bear Mountain Rescue 1)

She turned away from him as she trailed off, her gaze scanning the room again, taking in all the things that were wrong with the place. Dex knew for a fact that the repairs weren’t as extensive as she assumed. He’d had a contractor out months ago to give him an estimate, but Dex had sent him on his merry way. Dex could do everything he’d listed for a quarter of the guy’s “conservative estimate.”

“Wow, so you’re a construction worker, too?” he asked.

She turned those big brown eyes on him. “No, but I don’t need to be to tell you this place needs a lot of work.”

“Not as much as you think, sweetheart. A little patch here and a bit of p

aint there, and it will be grand.” His fake Irish accent didn’t even crack the skeptical look on her face. He’d never met a woman immune to it before.

“I’m sure you think so, but until you get the repairs done, I’m withholding rent.”

Outrage blazed through Dex and he took a step toward her. “Now, just one damn minute—”

“No, Mr. Belmont”—the way she exaggerated his name, he knew it was meant to rankle him—“you already admitted that the cabin isn’t ready for me. I may have had a change of plans, but when I called two days ago, you could have told me the truth and I would have made other arrangements. As it stands, I am not going to pay you to live in a place that probably has a leaky roof, because you weren’t honest. Now, you can tell me to get the hell off your property, and I will be happy to find a hotel while I search for another place to live. Or you can get started on the repairs right away, and as soon as they’re complete, I’ll reinstate our original agreement.”

Then she actually smiled at him like she’d invited him over for tea.

“So what do you say? Do I stay or do I go?”

Chapter 3

Hunter Gracin pulled on his blue scrubs, tying the knot quickly. He was running late this morning, and couldn’t afford to piss off the new director of Bear Mountain Memorial Hospital. God only knew he’d tested Bill Featherton, the previous director, more times than he could count when he’d come here after finishing his residency in his home state of Texas. It didn’t help that old Bill had been a bullheaded dick too tightfisted to update a single machine in the place during his reign.

Hunter hoped that the new director was actually here to work and make a change, and wasn’t using Bear Mountain as a placeholder until he retired.

No one knew anything about this guy except that he was from New York. Hunter couldn’t figure out why some big-city dude would move to the-middle-of-nowhere Montana. Maybe he was originally from the area and wanted to come home.

Grabbing his stethoscope and lab coat, Hunter ran down the hallway to the room where the staff was supposed to gather for the formal introduction. He could speculate all he wanted, but if he didn’t get his ass front and center before the bigwig started talking, he might not have a job at all.

He pushed in next to Jay Cromwell, who glanced his way briefly before facing forward once more. Jay was a large man of few words, except when he got a couple of glasses of whisky in him. Then he wouldn’t shut up. Both of them had served in the armed forces, and it had been an instant bond with them and the other two doctors on staff.

“Rough night?” Jay asked quietly.

“Nah, just forgot to charge my phone, so my alarm didn’t go off.”

“You’re lucky she’s not here yet.”

Hunter paused as he shrugged into his lab coat, surprised. “Our new director is a woman?”

“Apparently.”

Hunter grinned, imagining the kind of woman that would come in and whip their asses into shape. Sadly, in his mind she looked a bit like his fourth-grade teacher, Mrs. Harvel, who had sounded as if she smoked six packs a day and looked like she could bench-press a Buick. Hunter had to admit it would be nice to get a younger woman in town, though. The women they had were either married, too young, or about twenty years older than his thirty-four years. As fun as cougars were, he was ready to settle down. He wanted someone he could have kids and grow old with.

“Holy shit,” Jay hissed.

Hunter tried to follow his line of vision, but there were too many people in the way. And then, suddenly, a young blonde in a purple silky blouse and black slacks stepped up onto the stairs, smiling out at the crowd.

“Good morning, everyone. My name is Allison Fairchild and I will be taking over as director of Bear Mountain Memorial Hospital.

“What does that mean for you? Well, for starters, I want to assure you that there will be no layoffs; your jobs are safe. However, we will be working to update the equipment and computer system. My goal is to help Bear Mountain become one of the best trauma centers in the country, and to do that, I’m going to need all of your cooperation to make sure the changes I will be implementing are seamless. I will be conducting interviews with all of you, as a way to introduce myself to you and address any of your concerns. Again, I appreciate you all being here today and look forward to working with you. Thank you.”

As she stepped down out of sight, Jay whistled. “Damn, she’s a lot more fun to look at than grizzled Bill, am I right?”

Hunter couldn’t have agreed more, and as the crowd dispersed, a buzz of excitement continued sparking him as he went about his work, waiting for Allison Fairchild to call him into her office.

Just after lunch, his pager went off and he made his way to the administration floor. When he reached the room that used to be Bill’s office, he knocked on the door.

“Come in.”

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