Chapter 21
ALLIE WOKE UP the next morning disoriented and exhausted. She’d tossed and turned half the night before finally drifting off after she’d heard Dex’s steps outside her door. For the briefest moment, she’d imagined him opening it and stepping inside. He’d tell her again how sorry he was and offer to do anything to make it up to her.
The fantasy had been enough to put her to sleep, but it still felt like there was a sledgehammer currently beating inside her head. Getting out of the bed, she tried to straighten the covers and then tiptoed into the hallway. She was hoping Dex was still asleep, so she could grab Kermit and sneak out.
Except she didn’t have any shoes. Crap. Maybe she could slip on a pair of his tennis shoes.
One glance out the big bay windows made her heart sink. She wasn’t sneaking out, at least not in tennis shoes. Outside was completely white, with several feet of snow covering the ground and still more coming down in a dense whiteout.
“Good morning,” Dex called from the kitchen, startling her.
“Hi. Any idea when this is supposed to let up?” Allie tried to look anywhere but Dex’s bare chest, but was losing the battle. It was just so defined and chiseled.
“My weather app says it’s going to continue through tomorrow night. I hope you don’t have to work.”
“No, but if there is a break in the weather, I’ll have to get my phone in case there is an emergency at the hospital.”
His deep chuckle rose gooseflesh over her skin as he approached in just a pair of sweats and his bare feet. “Not sure what kind of break you’re expecting. It’s only going to get worse from here. The only good thing to come out of heavy snow like this is the winter tourists who show up to snowboard, ski, and snowmobile.”
Allie loved to snowboard when she was a teenager, but she hadn’t been in years. With Bear Mountain Ski Resort just up the road, she supposed she’d get a chance to pick it up again. “I guess that means things pick up for you again, huh? Having to rescue people from snowdrifts or avalanches?”
“Not very often. I was actually hoping for a little peace and quiet.”
“Don’t you need to make a living?” she asked.
“Well, between acts of heroism, I work for the National Park Service as a ranger. I patrol the area, make sure people aren’t being stupid and trespassing.”
“A jack-of-all-trades,” she said. “Why search-and-rescue?”
“Because I enjoy it. Most people who get lost are found cold or hungry, but relatively unharmed. But when they see me coming, they are damn happy I’m there. I can say I do it for the adrenaline rush, but that’s only part of it. I want to help people, to feel needed. Useful. I do it for that look on their face that says I’m the guy they’ve been waiting for.”
Allie paused and stared into Dex’s eyes. She understood that. Allie had become a nurse to help people, and an administrator to make a difference. And even though her job function required that she make things better for the hospital system as a whole, she did it because she was helping individuals get the care they needed.
Suddenly, she and Dex were looking a hell of a lot more similar.
Dex made coffee, wishing that he could read Allie’s mind. He couldn’t imagine she was happy to be stuck with him for at least a day, but she seemed content enough. She’d just curled up on the couch with Kermit, staring quietly at the falling snow outside.
“The coffee should be ready in a minute. How would you feel about some breakfast?” he asked.
“Sure, that would be great. Thanks.”
He went about the kitchen, pulling out eggs, potatoes, peppers, onions, and cheese. “Do omelets and country potatoes sound good?”
“Like heaven.” She was snuggling Kermit, Bluebell dogging her steps as she walked into the kitchen. “Will she hurt him if I put him down?”
“She might lick him to death, but that’s about the extent of her viciousness,” he said.
As Allie set Kermit on the ground, Dex was pretty sure she called him an ass under her breath, but he let it go. Maybe it was because she was actually talking to him, or that he had her all to himself for another twenty-four hours, but he started whistling joyfully.
“Do you have family?” she asked.
He stopped whistling. “Sure. My parents and my little brother live in Philadelphia.”
“Why didn’t you go home to visit them for Thanksgiving?”
Beating the eggs with his whisk, he shrugged. “We’re not exactly the warm-and-fuzzy type. I love my family, but I’m a bit of an odd duck to them.”
“How’s that?”
“Mainly because I preferred camping and fishing to studying.”
“Ah,” she said. “My parents don’t understand me, either. Thought I would have been better off marrying a man with an education than getting one.”
“That’s too bad.” Dex started cutting up the ingredients. “I like that you’re smart.”
Allie cleared her throat. “Can I help?”
“Sure, just wash your hands and—”
“Yes. Jeez, I was a nurse. I wouldn’t touch the food with dog cooties all over me.”
Dex grinned. “My apologies, Nurse Fairchild.”
“Like I was saying, I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life married to a politician or CEO, organizing teas and charity auctions. It took me a while to find my calling, but when I did, nothing was going to stand in my way.”
Dex had to admit he was surprised by her admission. Allie might be a stubborn, infuriating woman, but she didn’t exactly scream rebel.
“I take it you didn’t go home because you didn’t want to deal with their judgment?” he asked.
“Exactly.” She smiled at him over the green bell pepper she was cutting, and he opened his mouth to warn her right before the knife came down. She cried out and cradled her hand, and he was at her side in a second.
“Let me see.” She allowed him to examine the side of her thumb, which had been neatly sliced on its side. He grabbed a clean hand towel from the cupboard and wrapped it tightly to stanch the blood. He noticed her wince and mumbled an apology.
“I have a first aid kit in the bathroom. Come on. You sit on the couch and wait while I grab it.”
He held the towel around her finger as he led her toward the couch, leaving her there to retrieve the first aid kit. When he got back, her face was sheet-white.
As he kneeled down, he teased lightly, “You’re not going to faint on me, are you? Might have to kiss you if you pass out on my couch. Maybe even cop a feel.”
“Pervert.” A ghost of a smile played across her lips, even as pain filled her eyes, wet with unshed tears.
He pulled back the towel and the cut started bleeding again. Dex was half tempted to put her on the snowmobile and take her up for some stitches, but it was nasty out there and hardly worth endangering their lives for a stitch or two when he could do them just as well.
“Think you can man up while I clean, stitch, and wrap this? It will hurt like a mother, but I think I have some Tylenol with codeine or might even have a couple of Valium.”
“Tylenol is fine. Narcotics make me sick.” Weakly, she slapped his shoulder. “That’s for stringing together one very sexist sentence.”
“What? Woman up, then. For a nurse, you’re pretty squeamish. It’s cute.”
“I can handle other people’s blood, but I get woozy when I see my own,” she said.
He handed her the pain pill and finished doctoring her thumb. He patted her knee comfortingly. “I’ll get you some water.”
She covered his hand with hers, and held it to her knee. His gaze rose to meet hers, and he was shocked when she leaned over and kissed him. It wasn’t anything more than a peck, but it left him wanting to bury his hands in her hair and bring her back for more.
Instead, he just smiled as he stood up. “You’re welcome.”