The Best Of The Year - Medical Romance. Carol Marinelli
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it’s the right thing to do.” She straightened. “But you go ahead. Thanks. You’re not having much of a vacation, are you?”
“That’s okay. Wasn’t my idea to take a vacation in the first place.”
He’d mentioned that before. Who came to a ski resort against their will?
A horrible thought came to her. “Are you married?”
He pulled back, dropping his arm from her shoulders and meeting her eyes with a frown. “Are you serious? Have you forgotten that sleigh ride?”
She swallowed. No. Not for a second. “That doesn’t always mean anything.” Who knew that better than she did? Her dad hadn’t respected his vows, and neither had her ex. She and Robert might not have been married but they’d been heading that way.
“It might not mean anything up here, but it does where I come from.”
“Meaning?”
“Evidently people up here on the slopes play loose and easy with their marriage vows.”
And how did he know...? Oh! Mrs. Botox.
“Those kinds of people live all over the world. Even in Texas.”
“Well, I’m not one of them.” His eyes, dark with some intense emotion, stared right through her for a second before he took a deep breath. “Sorry. That was uncalled for.”
Yes, it had been. But she could see how he might have taken her words. “It’s okay.” Another shiver went through her. Her hands went into her pocket to find her gloves, only to remember that she’d ripped them off to do chest compressions earlier. They were still over on the other side of the slope.
She turned, thinking she was going to retrieve them, when Jack pulled his out of his pocket. “Put these on.”
“Oh, but—”
“Do it.” He touched his fingers to hers. “I’m not as cold as you are.”
It was true. His hands weren’t warm, by any stretch of the imagination, but next to her stiff fingers his were like a tropical paradise.
One she didn’t dare think about right now.
“Okay.” She slipped her hands into the thickly lined fingers, smiling when Jack pulled her hat further down over her ears. “Thanks.”
“No problem.” He smiled back at her. “Lady, I have to tell you, you have a strange idea of a date.”
“I wouldn’t exactly call this a date.” It may have started out that way, but it certainly hadn’t ended the way she’d envisioned.
“Neither would I.” His thumb slid along her cheek. “It’s one thing after another when you’re around.”
“Believe me, I’d rather there were no such things as avalanches.” Her eyes went to the shovel sticking up out of the snow near the last victim. The whole lodge would mourn the man as if he were one of their own. These guests, even though they knew the risks of winter sports, never expected it to happen to them. And as careful as her father was, Mother Nature could—and sometimes did—trample right over the resort’s precautions. “I hate that this happened.”
“I know.” His arm went back around her.
It felt good. Comforting. She was used to being the only doctor around this place. It was nice to have someone to share this particular burden with. And she honestly wasn’t sure she could have handled this on her own. The worst thing she’d encountered other than the odd ski injury had been a norovirus outbreak that had swept through the ski resort three years ago, making a third of the guests and staff sick before they’d finally been able to contain it.
“Thank you for your help.”
“I’m glad I was here.”
“Even if being here wasn’t your idea?” She couldn’t help tossing his earlier words back at him.
He was tugging her further away from the site when two rescue workers arrived with a basket and some more digging equipment.
Now that most of the patients had been cleared from the area, the other skiers had also headed down, no doubt urged by the ski instructors to clear this part of the mountain until further notice.
Anson came by and gave her a half-wave and said her dad and some others were working on contacting the rest of the guests. He was fairly confident no one else was under the snow, so he was headed back to the station to check in and fill out a report.
As soon as he was gone, Jack turned to her. “It might not have been my idea to come but I’m beginning to think my coach might have known what he was talking about.”
“And what was that?”
He hesitated, then finally said, “Long story.”
“Fair enough.” He didn’t owe her any explanations. He was simply man number five. It was better if she didn’t know anything about him—well, except for the marriage thing. She’d have to remind herself to verify the marital status of any other man she went out with. She’d looked for the obvious thing, like a ring, but hadn’t bothered doing that with anyone else.
Then again, she hadn’t expected to go out multiple times with the same man.
She frowned. Now was probably as good a time as any to make her escape and move forward, otherwise she would just end up in the same old rut. Attracted to a man who wasn’t what she needed him to be. He’d said it himself. He hadn’t wanted to come. Preferred the surf to the snow.
Definitely not compatible. If she hadn’t been able to make it work with a man—make that three men—who were from the Silver Pass area, why would she even think about getting attached to someone who not only wasn’t from here but had no interest in sticking around?
Before she could say anything, though, he reached over and gripped her hand. “Walk you down?”
“Thanks. I’d like that.”
Okay, so she could put off this whole separation process until she got back to her room. She wasn’t even going to worry about dinner. Then, with their date officially over, she could sleep knowing this little bump in the road had been successfully navigated. She could tell Ellory she was moving on.
Life would continue, and Jack—no matter how tempting it might be to linger for a while and let him throw that rare smile her way—would be in her rear-view mirror, his reflection growing smaller and smaller with each day that passed. Until, finally, he was gone. Back to his home team. Back to his life with his coach and his friends.
And out of her life, forever.
MIRA HAD DESERTED HIM.
With dinner behind them and the night closing in fast, Jack sat at the bar, wondering exactly how he’d gotten here. After the shock of the avalanche and subsequent rescue efforts had worn off, it would have been easy to just cancel their plans to eat at the restaurant and go back to their rooms. Alone.
And yet once they’d come off that slope and stood in the arched doorway of the lodge, the words had come out of his mouth of their own volition. “Are we still on for dinner?”
She hadn’t paused, even for a second, before saying yes.
Jack wasn’t sure why he wanted it so badly, but he did. Maybe he wasn’t quite ready to be by himself. Seeing that person’s death earlier today had shaken him. Would someone grieve for the victim the way he’d grieved for Paula?
He ordered his first drink of the trip—other than that spiked hot chocolate—from the bartender and took a healthy swallow.
His wife had helped so many people. Worked tirelessly for her young patients, even when hope had seemingly been lost, to make sure