by Annie O'Neil
Despite years of hearing the medical term, Maggie winced. She hated that term, “gross deformities.” Whenever she was with patients she always made a joke of it and called them “beautiful variations.” Being injured or in pain was bad enough. No need to add insult to an actual injury.
Alex shook his head as once again Salty tried to lift himself up. The old man gave a grunt of irritation and lay back down on the dock, his eyes closed tight as Alex continued, “We’re most likely going to have to set the bones, Salty. A pretty good reason not to keep trying to get up and test it out.” Maggie pressed her fingers to Salty’s carotid artery. Irritation had ratcheted up his heart rate. Better than thready, but skyrocketing in the other direction wasn’t great either.
Patiently, and presumably as a time-filler until more help could arrive, Alex continued, “Pending a follow through on any soft-tissue damage and splinting you, with any luck, and some proper physio from Maggie here, we’ll have you up and running in a couple of months.”
“Months?” Salty roared, eliciting a few shrieks from the onlookers who’d thought his closed eyes had meant he had passed out.
Maggie could barely hear her own voice trying to tell him an oblique fracture was a good thing such was the roar of blood careering round her own brain.
Broken was so much better than what she’d imagined.
“Chin up, Salty. You’ll be back in action in no time,” she told the old man.
Alex threw her A Look. “If by ‘no time’ you mean possibly having to go through surgery and attend months of rehab after the fractures have healed, I suppose you’re right.”
Alex’s tone made his stance crystal clear. He didn’t “do” optimism. He did facts.
Maggie’s blood shot from ice cold straight up to boiling point. The facts weren’t all in yet and optimism had helped her over more than a few hurdles in her life.
“Your bedside manner stinks,” she ground out through gritted teeth.
“Both of yers does.” Salty tried to push himself up once more, only to have Alex and Maggie press him back down onto the thick wooden dock planks. “Listen up, the pair of you,” Salty persisted. “All I need is a good hot cup of coffee. One of Fiona’s’ll do. I don’t want any cardamom or turmeric or any sort of nut milk anywhere near my cup of Joe. And I’m hungry so I’d a like a cruller to go with it. While I have that you can tape up my leg, then the both of you can get on over to the clinic so I can shut down the Fish Tank for the night.”
“Erm... Salty?” Maggie shot a look at Alex, who was still very busy glaring at her. “I think the Fish Tank needs to be shut down for a bit longer than that. And perhaps by someone who isn’t you. Do you have any family who can help?”
Salty’s already murderous expression turned even darker. “Nope.”
He folded his arms across his chest and stared at the steel-gray sky that was turning suspiciously darker by the minute.
Someone pushed through the crowd. “Utter rot and nonsense, Salty. You’ve got us, whether you’re happy with it or not.”
Salty shifted his eyes to stare at the new arrival. A man with a bright orange crew cut who could’ve doubled as a leprechaun. Brave, too, as he was wagging his finger at Salty as if he’d been a naughty toddler.
“Tom Brady, I hope you’ve got a cruller in one of those pockets of yours, otherwise I’m not remotely interested in what you’re about to say.”
“You know there are crullers on tap for you every day of the week at the bakery, Salty, but perhaps the doc here might like you to wait a couple of minutes. Now, I’ll get Jim down here and he and I’ll see to the Fish Tank.” He nodded to Alex. “Dr. Kirkland. Good to see you, despite the circumstances. You and your son see in the New Year on your own?”
Alex nodded and gave the man’s shoulder a quick affirmative clap. “I imagine the Brady family saw it in with their usual verve.”
“I’ll have a headache for days,” Tom confirmed with a smile.
Alex laughed and shook his head.
Okay. So he wasn’t Captain von Grumpy to everyone. Just her. If there was any sort of record being taken, she would like it duly noted that she found Dr. Alex Kirkland infuriatingly...he turned to her with a soft apologetic smile playing on those lips of his...gorgeous.
He looked back at Tom. “I think Salty could do with a couple of extra pairs of hands today.”
“That’s settled, then. I’ll get the boys down and they’ll clean her up.”
“Not necessary!” Salty growled.
“Definitely necessary,” said another man who looked an awful lot like Tom Brady. “From where I’m standing, you aren’t looking your best.”
That was one way to put it.
All the blood had drained from Salty’s face. His breath was coming in quick, sharp huffs. The body’s way of coping with pain. If they didn’t get him somewhere dry and warm soon they could add hypothermia to his list.
As if by magic, a woman in a Maple Island Clinic jacket appeared with a backboard.
“Can we get a bit of space around Salty, please, folks?” Alex ordered. “Just need to load him up and get him to the clinic.”
“I don’t know what my insurance is going to think of this,” Salty bit out.
“Doesn’t matter,” Alex said matter-of-factly. “You were doing a clinic rescue mission. All your care is on us.”
A shot of respect crackled along Maggie’s spine. Gorgeous and with ramrod-straight integrity. She sniffed. Didn’t mean his social skills couldn’t do with some improvement, but everyone had their crosses to bear.
Salty grumbled but didn’t resist.
Then Alex started reciting another list of instructions so specific she had to hide her smile.
Dr. Protocol, indeed.
He was obviously a good doctor. His neurosurgical skills were highly lauded in all the articles she’d read about him before she’d taken the three-month contract at the clinic. Ground-breaking this and new innovations that. She’d had run-ins with a lot of surgeons in her time. They could be elitist. Reserved. Brusque. Downright rude. Alex obviously had the brains, but now that she’d watched him interact with Salty and the other islanders who were still pitching in as if this sort of thing happened every day, she realized he also had compassion. And that was a game changer as far as she was concerned. Anyone who could put themselves in someone else’s shoes...
This was going to be a funny few months. Whether it was going to be funny ha-ha or funny peculiar remained to be seen.
CHAPTER FOUR
“NEUROVASCULAR ASSESSMENT BORDERLINE.”
“Borderline?” Alex took off his coat as he listened to Dr. Cody Brennan reel off his findings.
“The swelling has obviously interfered with certain results. His blood pressure’s all over the place. We’ve set Mr. Harrington—”
“Salty?”
Cody shot him a quick look. “Yes. That’s what I said. Mr. Harrington. Salty. Same thing. We’ve set his leg in a soft cast and put him on a drip. The swelling on his head appears to be superficial. Long and short of it? He won’t need surgery.” Cody was staring at his ever-present tablet as he spoke, and Alex knew him well enough by now that that was probably all the information he’d be getting from his colleague.
As a respected orthopedic surgeon, Alex was more than happy to take Cody’s word for it.
Co-founding the clinic with him had been just about one of the best things he’d done since his wife had died. Not double checking on exactly who they were hiring when Cody had told him he’d brought on another physio was not.
For a number of reasons.
Some were practical. Maggie Green clearly sang from a very different hymnbook when it came to health and safety. Not that he could poke holes in how she’d handled today’s extreme situation, but...
Fine. She unnerved him. Her...her looks. Those dusky rose
lips of hers. That smile that seemed to light up her face from the outside in. She oozed life.
“She’s the best in her game.”
“Who?”
“Maggie. So quit looking like I poured salt in your coffee. She’s staying.”
Alex stared at Cody. “I didn’t say one thing about Maggie.”
“You didn’t have to,” Cody said dryly, finally looking up from his tablet. “You’re acting funny.”
Alex just managed to stop himself from retorting, “Am not.”
He was a grown man. He ran a world-class clinic. He did not engage in schoolyard imbroglios over whether or not he had a crush on the new girl.
He fixed Cody with his best grown-up face.
“I presume you’ve got Rosaline on the case?” The Haitian nurse who’d agreed to work over the holiday period was a no-nonsense stickler. Tough enough to take Salty’s complaints—which were accruing by the minute—on the chin.
“Yup.” Cody was already wandering off, lost, no doubt, in the details of another patient’s upcoming surgery. If the weather was anything to go by, he’d be stuck doing the minor surgeries here on the island rather than the more high-stakes surgeries he performed over at Boston Harbor. Alex made a mental to note to charge himself with hiring the next physio. He also needed to put a call in to Dr. Rafael Valdez and commend him on the excellent work he’d done with the twins. They could do with a surgeon of his caliber on staff. He wondered if Rafael would ever consider—
“Um...excuse me.”
Alex felt a tap on his shoulder but didn’t need to turn around to know who it was. The combination of the smoky voice and citrus scent spoke for her. Maggie Green.
“Yes? How can I help?” He turned and took a couple of steps back. Close proximity to Maggie was...unsettling.
“Yeah...er...” Her dark eyes shot up to the right as she continued, “This is a little bit awkward, but is there any chance someone could show me to my living quarters? I should probably get a shower.”
Alex narrowed his eyes and scanned her. His response came out in staccato observations.
“Your lips are blue.”
“They’re just a little cold after the day out and Salty was using my fleece as a pillow, so—”
“There’s a bump on your forehead.”
Her slender fingers flew to touch it and when she made contact she drew in a sharp breath. “I’d forgotten about that. Nothing to worry about. Just took a bit of a conk when the children and I were in the ambulance. I’d love to see them, but maybe when I’m looking a bit less like a zombie?” She grimaced and gave her chilled arms a rub.
“Why haven’t you been shown your room yet?”
She grinned. “I’m guessing it might have something to do with young patients arriving in less than ordinary circumstances on a holiday, chased up by the hero of the day getting a double fracture? Plus the fact I’m a week early for work.” She lifted her eyebrows when he said nothing in response. “Maybe?”
She was shivering. Something raw and primal urged him to pull her into his arms. Warm her. Console her. Not particularly professional. Not particularly normal.
“It’s only a short walk from the clinic. Just above the horse barns.”
Her eyebrows drew together. “It’s up a flight of stairs?”
“Yes. Two, I think. In the old hayloft. The apartment overlooks the riding ring. Is that a problem for you?”
“Well, it’s not a bad problem, but it’s not exactly an ideal health and safety situation.” That smile of hers hit her face with full wattage. “Seeing as you like things to be on the up and up, I had just assumed my request had been noted and acted on.”
“What request?”
“That my housing be on the ground floor or by an elevator. I did tell Dr. Brennan.”
“Cody? He—” Alex bit back the near confession. Cody could be as distracted as he himself could be exacting. They’d met at a conference a few years back when both of their lives had imploded. Alex had been a recent widower and Cody’s marriage had just ended. It had sounded as though a lot of his marriage hadn’t exactly been a barrel of laughs. That’s why they’d dreamed up the clinic. The in-house childcare. The built-in routines their families needed now they no longer had wives.
Alex loved routine. He wasn’t as sure about Cody. Though they’d been on the island for three years, the poor guy seemed to be doing about as good a job at leaving the past behind in California as Alex was at remembering where he’d left the happy-go-lucky man his wife had fallen in love with.
Maggie washed the air between them with her hands. “Doesn’t matter. I’m sure it’ll be fine for now.”
“You said it was for health and safety reasons. If there’s something I should know...”
Maggie features turned serious then brightened again as if she’d just hit on a solution. “Right. Well. This definitely falls into the super-duper embarrassing department, but it looks like Cody might’ve forgotten to tell you something important about me.”
“Which is?”
He didn’t do guessing games. And by the change of her expression she clearly didn’t reveal things about herself lightly.
Snap.
She gave her arms a brisk rub as if chivvying herself up to tell him. What on earth could be so big a confession that this force of nature would be wary to reveal it to him?
She hitched up her trouser legs and looked down.
“I’m a double amputee.”
* * *
“Ah.” Alex looked down and saw her prosthetics neatly fitted into her trainers. “It looks as though Dr. Brennan did neglect to mention your...situation.”
“Yeah. Double below-the-knee amputations when I was thirteen. Ain’t bacterial meningitis a bitch?”
For the first time in a long time, Alex’s poker face befriended him.
“Yes. I suppose it can be.” He looked into Maggie’s eyes. Infinitesimal flashes of worry flashed through her chocolate-colored irises as she waited for his response. A total sea change from the fiery woman he’d met on the rocking deck of a grounded ferry.
Everything he’d presumed about her was flipped on its head.
She wasn’t overzealous. She was determined.
She wasn’t irresponsibly spontaneous. She was resourceful.
Every single thing she did came with a set of calculated risks.
And she took them.
Grit. Stamina. Pride.
Those were the things that had seen her through the challenges that came each and every day. Not foolishness. He knew the traits well. They were all traits required of a soldier on a battlefield.
She hadn’t asked for help. Not once. All her energies had been focused on looking after her patients. Just like any other medical professional. Which was clearly how she wanted to be treated.
And just like that his respect for her doubled again.
Not that he was going to tell her. Maggie struck him as the type who’d see compassion as pity and heaven knew he was no stranger to being on the wrong side of the pity stick.
As nonchalantly as he could he said, “It looks as though some alternative arrangements will have to be made.”
She pushed out her lower lip and tipped her head back and forth as if this sort of thing happened all the time.
“No problem. In other news. I’m still freezing. Any chance we can get me a blanket or I can find some other way to get up to the apartment? I’m sure a few days there will be fine. It’s not like you get massive lightning storms setting places on fire in the dead of winter, do you?” She gave her arms another rub.
Actually...
Before he could tell her there were a bunch of meteorology students holed up in one of their parents’ mansions on the far side of the island, hoping for a rare thunder snowstorm, she batted away her own question.
“Don’t listen to me. I’m a bit of a babbler. I mean, sometimes you should listen to me. Like when I’m talking about patients. But right now? Probably best to ignore just about everything I say. Except about the being cold part.”
Alex nodded as things clicked into place at a rate of knots. The slight hitch to her gait on the docks. She’d been fine on the ferry, or so he’d thought, but suddenly the guide ropes made more sense. She had needed them for the extra support if she’d been as bashed about as he had been on the journey back, and, of course, the incident with Salty had had her literally on her knees... Hell. The pain she must be in.
Clearly mistaking his lack of response for uncertainty about her work ethic, Maggie launched into another one of her high-speed monologues. “It won’t impede my work in any way. I’ve got several sets of legs, all made to exacting specification for each patient I work with. If it’s hydro, equine, or a long slow walk on the beach, I’m covered.” She grinned. “I even have an awesome new pair of snow boots.”
Alex pulled a blanket from a nearby storage cupboard, belatedly spurred into action by the sound of her chattering teeth. They both stared at it as he held it aloft, torn between simply handing it to her or snapping it open, wrapping it round her then pulling her to him. Feeling his body heat cross over to her. Letting his warmth become her warmth.
Shards of anger replaced the carnal thoughts. She was a colleague, not a love interest. Even if his below-the-belt brain insisted on picturing her in his bed for the night, his actual above-the-shoulders brain did not. The woman clearly brought chaos in her wake.
Some people were just like that.
Hurricane Maggie.
Patients stranded at sea in a winter storm. Salty’s broken leg. He didn’t need any more drama in his life other than what crossed his desk professionally. He cleared his throat with a sharp cough and handed her the blanket. “No. The apartment is out of the question. I’m sure it won’t surprise you to know I take OSHA regulations seriously.”
“Yeah, but—”
“Yeah, but nothing.”
