The Best Of The Year - Medical Romance

CHAPTER THREE

“YOU GO DOWN the hill,” Mira said. “I need to stay here.”

“I can help.”

“Just do as I say.” Her tone was a little more impatient this time.

He didn’t care. “No can do. I’m a doctor.”

Mira gave him a sharp look. “Yeah, well, so am I. I’m the concierge doctor for the lodge.”

His heart stalled for a second, and he stared, fumbling a bit as he tried to remain upright. “I thought you were a ski instructor.”

“Pizza it, Jack, if you want to stop.”

He forced his mind back to what she was saying, using his skis to form a barricade and coming to a halt beside the still-screaming girl.

“What’s your specialty?” She nudged him aside so she could get to their patients, sinking to her knees in the snow to look at the unconscious teen. She laid a hand on the panicked girl’s shoulder, and like magic she quieted.

He was still struggling to process the fact that he was up on the slopes with a doctor, of all things. “I’m in sports medicine.”

Mira’s eyes widened when he mentioned the name of the team.

“The Hawks? Are you kidding me?” She gave him another quick glance. “What are you doing skiing, then? Isn’t this your busiest time of year?”

No way was he going to tell her he’d been sent off to recuperate. Especially not knowing what he did now. “I’m taking a short break.”

Speaking of breaks, they might have a bad one on their hands here. The teen hadn’t seemed to fall hard enough to do any real damage, at least it hadn’t looked that way, but the human body was a strange animal.

“Let me check her arm.” Carefully unzipping the girl’s jacket enough that he could slide his hand down the limb, he found the fracture immediately. Although the bone wasn’t protruding from her skin—a good thing—it was pressed right against it. A little more force and it would have come through. The edge felt jagged, though, so it could still break through, if they weren’t careful.

The girl was also out cold.

Mira spoke softly to the uninjured girl, while Jack focused on the friend.

“She’s still breathing,” he said. “Can you get her vitals, while I check her head?” He clicked his boots out of his skis, just like Mira had shown him, and then slid around until he was kneeling beside her shoulder.

Mira nodded, pressing her fingers against the girl’s right wrist, while Jack carefully undid the strap to her helmet. He checked it for cracks before running his fingers over her hair, looking for obvious signs of trauma. Her white beanie cap, which had probably been pulled down to hide the unfashionable headgear, lay a short distance away, knocked off by the impact. He couldn’t feel any bumps, but he knew that didn’t necessarily mean anything. Peeling apart her eyelids one at a time and wishing he had his medical kit, he peered at them to judge pupil size. Equal, and they reacted to light in a way that appeared normal.

Two guys who were evidently with the ski patrol slid to a halt beside them, asking Mira what she had.

“Broken arm at least.” She glanced at Jack.

“No contusions on her head that I can see, but I want to stabilize her neck and back just in case.”

Her friend stifled a sob. “Is she going to be okay? I wasn’t trying to knock her down. I was trying to get my ski loose before I fell. Instead, I made us both fall.”

Mira reached over and squeezed her hand, giving the two men a warning look when one of them started to say something. “Of course you didn’t. Where are your parents?”

“At—at the lodge. They said we could come ski, but that we had to stick to the easy slopes.”

Smart parents.

“And you did what they asked,” Mira said. “What’s your name?”

“Sandy. And that’s Marilyn.”

“Okay, Sandy, if you’ll go with Hans and help him locate your parents, we’ll take care of your friend.” Mira stood and helped the girl to her feet, waiting until she’d stopped swaying before saying anything. “Does anything hurt?”

“No. I’m okay.”

“Do you feel well enough to ski to the bottom?”

“I—I think so.”

The man she’d called Hans patted the terrified girl on the shoulder and gave her an encouraging nod. Then they slowly made their way down the slope, while the other guy went in search of a stretcher and called in the accident, telling the instructors and employees at the top to hold everyone right where they were.

Jack glanced at her. “At least they were wearing helmets. Let’s hope she’s out because of the pain and not anything else.”

“My da...er...the lodge requires all minors to use helmets on the slopes. Her pulse is steady. If we’re lucky, she just fainted.” She reached her fingers out and smoothed back her hair. “The EMS guys are pretty familiar with the routine up here, they should have something to stabilize her arm.”

“I’m beginning to think surfing is a hell of a lot safer.”

One curved brow went up. “I can think of a few things that make me think differently. At least you can’t drown on a ski slope.”

Maybe not, but when her brown eyes met his, looking all soft and warm as she kept her hand protectively on the injured girl’s head, he thought it was possible to drown in something other than the ocean.

He shook away the thought.

She’s a doctor, Jack. Not someone you want to play around with.

He was glad when a pair of emergency service guys came clomping down the hill, heavy-duty boots making easy work out of the packed snow.

After a quick rundown of her vitals and injuries and explaining what they’d seen, one of the paramedics asked where the girl’s parents were.

“We sent her friend and a member of the ski patrol to find them.”

In short order, the pair had immobilized the teen’s injured arm and done their own assessment of her injuries, coming to the same conclusions as he and Mira had. Then they stabilized her neck and removed her skis before loading her onto a blue stretcher with a metal pull bar attached to it. The girl started to come to, moaning as her eyes fluttered open.

Mira leaned close and whispered to her.

The sight made a pang go through his chest. If he and Paula had had any kids, is that how she would’ve looked as she comforted them?

Not the time, Jack.

He cleared his throat. “They’re going to pull her down the hill?”

“That’s the safest way. It’s hard to keep your balance on the snow, if you haven’t noticed.” The right side of her mouth curved slightly, as if she was fighting a smile.

“Oh, I noticed all right.” In fact, he was having a little trouble keeping his balance right now, and it had nothing to do with skiing. He felt like the wind had been knocked from his lungs the second he’d realized she was a doctor. He was still struggling to catch his breath fifteen minutes later.

She stood and went over to retrieve the girl’s hat and skis. “I’ll bring these down with me,” she told the men. “Hopefully they’ve located her folks. I want to be on hand if something changes.”

“Sure thing, Mira.” One of the medical workers threw her a quick smile.

It seemed everyone knew her around these parts.

The paramedics started down the hill, leaving them to follow.

“Do you want to walk down or ski?”

“At the rate I go, it’s probably faster to walk.” He took the girl’s skis from her and lumped them together with his, tucking them under his arm with his poles.

Together, they trudged down the bunny slope, staying a few yards behind the rescue team. His mind couldn’t help wandering back to her instructions on how to maneuver with his skis and how her words had yielded much better results than the lessons her ex—the professional—had given him.

Wanting to show off for the pretty doctor, Jack?

Self-preservation was more like it. Something he should probably remember. Because the fact that she was a doctor was all the more reason he should avoid her for the rest of his stay. If his coach were here, he’d be calling for a time-out and hauling Jack’s ass off the playing field.

And the man would be right. Injured players should remain on the sidelines until they had time to heal.

Yeah? Well, he’d had four damn years. How much longer would it take?

Some players never recovered. Maybe he was one of them. He could just throw in the towel right now.

His body gave a quick tug of irritation, one that grew when Mira glanced back at him with a smile. “Keeping up okay?”

Oh, he could keep up just fine. He balled his hands into fists when his mind immediately headed into more dangerous territory. Of Mira saying those words under very different circumstances.

Sidelines, Jack, remember?

Thankfully, they reached the bottom of the slope, and he had other things to occupy his mind, like the small crowd that had gathered near the door of the lodge, and the woman in a pink parka rushing forward to meet the EMS guys as they headed for the pick-up site where their truck was probably parked. Forced to stop, the guys lifted the stretcher just as he and Mira arrived.

Habit made him start toward the group to brief the girl’s parents, but Mira beat him to it, smoothly maneuvering right into the center of the gathering. Besides, he wasn’t here with his football team. This was her gig, not his.

He could see her gesturing as she explained the situation, but he couldn’t hear the words. Whatever she said, it seemed to have the right effect. People started to move away until all that was left were a man and a woman who looked like they were in their early fifties—Marilyn’s parent’s probably—standing near the stretcher. Jack debated slipping through the glass doors of the lodge and escaping while he could, while Mira’s attention was fixed on something else.

Coward’s way out. He’d decided four years ago that he wasn’t going that route ever again. He’d lost his head in a bottle for a while after his wife’s death. Once he’d picked himself up off the bathroom floor after a particularly bad hangover, he’d decided to live a life Paula would be proud of rather than throwing it away in a booze-filled haze. He obviously wasn’t there yet—this temporary exile and the sleep aids were proof of that.

What he needed was something to take his mind off himself for a few hours.

His eyes slid back to Mira, whose glossy hair showed beneath her cap as she leaned over the stretcher to talk to the injured girl once more.

Nope. No matter how tempting that might be, it wasn’t smart. He needed something light and easy. Something other than skiing with pretty women.

Large black letters from a flyer taped to the door of the lodge caught his attention:

Not a Ski Fan?

Ha, you could say that. He continued reading.

Check out Silver Pass’s other exciting offerings.

The bullet points proceeded to list things like evening sleigh rides, trips down the mountains on inner tubes, gondola lifts that boasted spectacular views, and even snowmobile rentals.

The snowmobiles sounded interesting. Maybe even a little bit like jet skis.

He pulled out his smartphone to store the number in his address book.

“The gondola ride is a lot of fun. And there’s only room for two in each car.”

A sultry voice came from just over his left shoulder. Not Mira’s, since she was still over by the stretcher.

He turned around and found a brunette with darkly penciled brows that matched the carefully modulated tones of her voice. Overdone. Whispering of desperation. And when the woman smiled, nothing happened to the skin around her eyes.

Botox.

He’d thought of Mira as a professional snow bunny when he’d first met her, but her sparkling eyes and sunny disposition had dashed his suspicions away. This woman, however...

Swallowing, he nodded. “I’ll keep that in mind, thank you.”

She took a step closer, her jacket pulling tight across her breasts. “Did I overhear someone say that you’re a doctor?”

Oh, Lord. Not what he wanted to deal with right now.

Why was it that a quick fling with Mira appealed to him, despite its dangers, while the thought of spending the night with this woman just left him cold? He didn’t want to hurt her feelings—if they hadn’t already been paralyzed by the overzealous needle of her surgeon.

“I am. Just here for a couple of days’ R&R.” Okay, a couple of days was on the verge of being a lie, since he still had three weeks left of his vacation.

“That’s enough time to squeeze in a fun activity or two, isn’t it? It’ll be a tight fit, but it would be well worth the effort.”

She said the words with a completely straight face, but she had to know how they sounded.

Hell. He was surprised she wasn’t listed on that flier as one of the lodge’s alternate activities, along with her name, phone number, and measurements. And that she promised a tight fit.

“Well—”

Mira suddenly appeared beside them, looking from one to the other. “I wondered where you went.” She glanced at the advertisement and then the phone in his hand. “Planning something fun?”

“Thinking about it. Did Marilyn get off okay?”

“She’s on her way to the hospital right now.”

The brunette quirked a brow. Wow, maybe there wasn’t as much happy juice in her face as he’d thought. “Girlfriend?” she asked, her voice not quite as sultry as it had been.

He wanted to say yes, just to get rid of her without having to be rude. Would Mira kill him? He could always explain later.

“She’s—”

“Definitely a girlfriend. And you are?” Mira wrapped her hands around his right bicep, giving it a quick squeeze as if to say she knew he was in a tight spot.

Squeeze. Tight spot. Well the woman might not have done anything for him with those words, but Mira’s touch was definitely doing something to his gut. It clenched, one muscle group at a time, until his whole abdomen was a mass of tension.

“Well, why didn’t you say so?” The brunette tossed her head.

Mira’s hand ventured from his arm, sliding low across his back until it curved around his left side. She left a trail of heat in her wake that he felt even through his coat. “He’s too nice. Women get the wrong idea all the time.”

Evidently she didn’t have any of the same reservations about hurting the woman’s feelings as he did, because she continued. “So did you get the number for that sleigh-ride company, Jack, or what?”

“I was just doing that.”

“Good.” Her glance shot to the brunette. “Thanks for keeping him company for me. I’ve got it from here.”

With a strangled sound the woman wheeled around and then jerked open the door to the lodge before disappearing inside.

The breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding whistled out through his teeth as relief swept over him. “How did you know?”

She let go of his side and lifted her hand to pat his cheek. “Your face is about as red as the walls in the dining hall.” She laughed. “And she’s a regular. She comes on to all the men.”

There was a bitter edge to her words.

So much for thinking she’d singled him out. Ouch. The punch to his ego stung.

“So I wasn’t in any real danger.”

“I didn’t say that. She’s dangerous all right.”

As much as he tried to school his face into a blank slate, a smile crept up from somewhere inside him. “How do you know I don’t thrive on danger?”

“Do you? I didn’t take you for the type.”

There it was again. That quick one-two to his pride. “I might surprise you.”

“Really? In that case, I think you owe me a sleigh ride. For bailing you out of what could have been an awkward situation. Especially if her husband had found out.”

“She’s married?” Maybe he did owe her something.

“Aren’t they all?”

He wouldn’t know. He hadn’t been on the dating circuit since he’d met Paula. “I guess you wouldn’t accept a simple thank-you.”

“I would, but I couldn’t promise I’d bail you out a second time. If her being married doesn’t stop her, do you really think me saying I’m your girlfriend is going to scare her off? But if she knows you not only have a girlfriend but that you’re happy with that girlfriend, she’ll probably leave you alone.”

Jack’s head was spinning, partly at the audacity of married women propositioning men who were taken and partly just because of the clean crisp scent of the woman at his side. It reminded him of frosty days and mocha-filled nights. He leaned in closer. “Did you just have coffee?”

Why he asked that he had no idea.

She blinked at him in surprise. She could match that look and raise it. His face heated again.

“I just ate a coffee-flavored candy.”

“Sorry. I think my brain is misfiring over what just happened.”

“You’ve never been propositioned by a married woman before?” Her voice was shocked, like it was something that happened all the time.

“Never. If you were married, would you do it? Proposition someone who wasn’t your husband?”

“Oh, but I’m not married.” Although light and delivered with a smile, her words contained a hint of darkness. Because of her ex? Had he slept with Mrs. Botox or something?

He decided to change the subject entirely. “So this sleigh ride. Is it worth going on alone?”

“Um, yeah, but if she finds out you’re planning on going solo, she’s going to show up and invite herself along for the ride.”

He glanced through the glass to see that the brunette in question was indeed eyeing them while sipping on something boozy that looked like it had a tiny plastic ski sticking out of it. He guessed ski resorts didn’t want little umbrellas reminding people they could be in a tropical paradise instead. “As much as I never thought I’d say it, would you mind going with me? To ward off trouble...” He wasn’t sure that “warding off” trouble was the right way to put it. Because it sure felt like he was busy cultivating it at the moment.

“No problem. I haven’t been on a sleigh ride in ages, actually.”

So her ex hadn’t taken her on one? Maybe they’d had fun in other ways.

Something that made his jaw tense.

She grabbed his hand. “And now for my last good deed until our sleigh ride.” She hauled him through the door and paraded him right in front of Mrs. Botox, their hands firmly joined. They were about halfway to the receptionist’s desk when she turned to grin at him and then promptly plowed into an older man who stepped into her path.

“Oh, I’m sorry.” She turned around. “I didn’t see...”

Her voice died away, and her face drained of all its color as she looked up at the man she’d just run into. She let go of Jack’s hand in a rush.

The stranger’s brows came together, and his eyes narrowed as he studied Jack and then Mira. Then he addressed her, saying, “I think you have some explaining to do.”

Her arms went around her waist, and she drew in a shaky breath. “Daddy, what are you doing here?”

CHAPTER FOUR

MIRA TRIED TO give off an appearance of calm.

But her heart was ticking at an alarming pace, and she was aware of Jack standing just behind her. He had to be wondering what the hell was going on.

He wasn’t the only one. She was pretty much wondering the same thing.

Why was her father here? He rarely put in an appearance at the lodge these days. And he wasn’t exactly what she would call “involved” in her life any more. Although much of that was her own fault. Even when he’d tried to get close over the past several years while she’d been at med school, she’d tended to pull away. Her mom had let his infidelity go, why couldn’t she?

“Well?” he said, evidently waiting for that explanation he’d asked for.

She lifted her chin, refusing to act the part of the meek little girl he’d once carried around on his shoulders. “You want an explanation? Maybe you should ask Robert for one.”

“Robert, what’s he got to do with this?” He looked genuinely puzzled.

Gulping, she scrambled to figure out what else he could be talking about. She figured her ex had called her father—like he’d hinted he would do—to cry on his shoulder or ask him to intervene on his behalf. And that her dad had hightailed it up to Silver Pass to give her hell. Okay, so if that wasn’t the case, it could only mean he was asking for an explanation about why she was holding hands with a strange man. She glanced back at Jack and blew out a breath at the grim expression on his face. Her dad wasn’t the only one asking some mental questions. Better get the introductions out of the way.

“Sorry. I’ll talk to you about Robert later.” She motioned Jack closer. “Daddy, this is Jack Perry. He’s the team doctor for the Texas Hawks. He helped out with an accident on the slopes a few minutes ago.”