Big-Bucks Bachelor

by Leah Vale

  “I do like the way you think, Dr. Woods.” He stood. “Lead on.”

  Hoping it would indeed be a private spot, Melinda led Jack straight to the pavilion. The space beneath the old gazebo like roof seemed even colder without the picnic tables at least giving the concrete pad visual warmth, if nothing else. And thanks to the wind that was steadily picking up, it was like stepping into a cooler. The mayor had been adamant that no activities take place beneath the cover, feeling that it would blight Jester’s new and improved image.

  But Melinda couldn’t think of a better place to plead her case than where she and Jack had shared their first kiss. The hot look in Jack’s eyes made her believe he was thinking about that night also.

  As soon as they’d taken a few steps on the concrete pad he pulled her into his arms. She was instantly enveloped in warmth. God, how she loved him.

  He reached up and cupped her face, drawing her away from his chest so he could lean down and kiss her. She kissed him back, but when he sought to deepen the kiss, she stepped away. She didn’t want passion to muddle what she wanted to say.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing,” she automatically replied, but she backed away. She gave him a smile that was shaky around the edges. This was going to be so hard for her, and she dearly prayed this was the right thing to do. But he had said he wanted her to speak up, right?

  He closed the distance she’d put between them and reached for her hands. It wasn’t until he pried them apart that she realized she’d been wringing them. “This doesn’t look like nothing.” He’d used his soothing voice. The one that gave her strength.

  “Well, I guess there is something. Something I want to ask you, that is.”

  “What is it, sweetheart?”

  His endearment was just the shot of courage she needed. He cared for her, she knew he did. Just as she knew he cared about this town, about the people in it. All she needed to do was get him to realize it. But she couldn’t think clearly with him so near. She slipped her hands from his and paced to the center of the empty pavilion.

  She finally turned and found him watching her with a wary look that turned his eyes a mossy green. Did he suspect what she was about to say? It didn’t matter, because this was the perfect time, the perfect place. Jack seemed ready to hear what she had to say and her heart couldn’t bear going one more day without saying it.

  “Jack, I want to make our—” The pavilion groaned loudly and cut her off as a particularly strong gust of biting wind buffeted it before dying down. Melinda raised her brows and glanced up at the large, rough-hewn beams that met in the center like the spokes of a wheel and were held in place by metal brackets over her head. Everything looked fine, so she shrugged and shifted her attention back to Jack.

  Before she could speak, the air was rent by the high pitched squeal of wood slipping against steel.

  Jack jerked his gaze upward, and Melinda followed suit. The trusses holding the center of the roof together seemed to be shifting, like the wind was blowing them out of place. Which was odd, because the wind wasn’t blowing at the moment—

  Jack shouted something, and she dropped her gaze to him in time to see the look of horror evolving on his handsome face as he lunged toward her. But before his words could register, the world above her exploded in ear-splitting noise, the beams fell and she was driven to the ground by searing pain and darkness.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Jack realized with horror that the roof of the pavilion was collapsing and he tried to warn Melinda, to get to her, but it happened too fast. His heart stalled in terror as he watched. In the blink of an eye and with a roar that didn’t quit in his ears, the beams that had met in the center of the roof came down on top of Melinda, hitting her on the head along with a seemingly endless amount of snow. But because the outer supports remained upright, the entire structure didn’t fall.

  Boards and snow rained down on him, too, but he never took his eyes off Melinda. Whether the rest was going to come down or not, Jack immediately threw himself at the edge of the pile of snow and ancient timbers Melinda lay beneath, clawing at it with a strength born of desperation.

  Please, God. Not Melinda. Not Melinda, too.

  He was nearly to her when he realized he wasn’t alone. There were other hands helping him dig through the snow that had been building up on the roof of the pavilion all winter. Snow that was supposed to be scraped off after every heavy snowfall but hadn’t been that winter. People were yelling and shouting instructions, but all he could hear was his own labored breathing, his own repeated prayer.

  Please God. Not Melinda. Not Melinda, too.

  He finally reached one of the large central timbers, pausing for just one horrendous moment when he saw Melinda’s long hair fanned out on the concrete floor beneath it. But when he reached to lift the beam, he saw it wasn’t actually on top of her. Something had stopped the timber before it had crushed her. Fearing it might still drop the last foot and a half and land on top of her, he fell to his knees and wedged his shoulder beneath the huge, rough-hewn beam.

  It registered that Luke was there beside him, flat on his belly as he tried to get to Melinda. “She’s alive!” Luke shouted. “And there’s only one board actually on her. Somebody help me pull her out this way!”

  Jack started to move out from under the support beam, but the second he dropped his shoulder, the beam shifted with him.

  Luke popped his head up. “No Jack! Stay there. Don’t move.”

  Nathan and Connor came into Jack’s field of vision and got down to help Luke.

  The beam lightened infinitesimally, and Jack turned his head and saw Dev and Dean straddling the timber and pulling it upward between their legs as best they could. They would never be able to keep it from crushing Melinda if it did shift and fall, however, so Jack did as Luke had commanded and stayed put, his heart pounding with dread.

  Nathan, who was the smallest in stature of the three, scrambled under the debris the farthest. “I can’t tell how badly hurt she is, but—”

  “Ow.” The ultimate understatement was definitely female and had come from within the rubble near all that wonderful blond hair.

  Relief collapsed Jack’s lungs the same way the snow had collapsed the roof, and he could only draw in shallow breaths. Thank you.

  Nathan said, “Tell me where it hurts, Melinda.”

  “Where the roof hit me.” All that was missing from her tone was a prolonged duh. She sounded okay.

  His relief took hold, and Jack pulled in gulps of damp, cold, wood-tinged air.

  Nathan chuckled. “Okay. It looks like there’s just one board directly on top of you, so when I push it up, Luke and Connor will pull you out.” He yelled, “You got that, guys?”

  “Got it,” Luke answered.

  Melinda’s voice quavered, “Where’s Jack?”

  He shouted, “I’m right here, sweetheart!” Damn it. He should be the one under there with her. The inability to be the one at her side, soothing her, saving her resurrected all the feelings of helplessness he’d had the last time he’d been trapped in a waking nightmare.

  When Caroline had died. When he hadn’t been able to see her, let alone save her and their unborn child.

  “He’s busy holding up the house,” Nathan answered.

  She made a soft, scoffing sort of noise. “He does have an Atlas complex, you know.” The thinness of her voice belied her brave joking.

  Connor said to Luke, “I’ll stabilize her neck, and you reach under my arms and get a hold of her armpits. If you can, just slide her along the ground. Keep her as flat as possible.”

  “Ready, guys?” Nathan called.

  Wedging themselves next to Jack so they could be in a crouched position, Connor and Luke shouted, “Ready!”

  Nathan counted down, “Three, two, one!”

  The boards in the pile shifted slightly and Luke heaved, drawing Melinda out from beneath the pile in one smooth motion. The weight on Jack’s shoulder became crush
ing as the beam responded to the shift.

  Dev groaned and Jack shouted, “Get out Nathan. Now!”

  Nathan scrambled out. “Clear!”

  But Jack waited until they’d pulled Melinda clear of the roof, suspended by the outer supports like a collapsed soufflé, before he shrugged the beam off his shoulder and stood. The pavilion groaned ominously, so Jack grabbed hold of Dev’s coat as Dev was grabbing on to Dean, and hustled them out from under what was left of the cover.

  Releasing Dev, Jack ran to where Nathan and Connor were hunkered over the most important person in Jack’s life. The realization that Melinda was indeed that made his breath hitch.

  Her big brown eyes, looking darker than he’d ever seen them in her pale face, snagged on him and held. “Jack.” She tried to lift an arm, but Nathan wouldn’t let her, pausing as he unbuttoned her heavy barn jacket long enough to put her arm back down at her side. “You okay?” she asked, her voice reedy. It must hurt her to breathe.

  Jack sunk down on his knees in the snow at her shoulder. This close he could see why her eyes appeared so dark—her pupils were blown wide. His chest grew tight again. She still might not be out of the woods yet. “Forget about me. How about you? In case you didn’t notice, the sky just fell on your head.”

  She grinned, though it was clearly just for show. “Chicken Little was right.” Then she flinched when Nathan pressed on her side. “How long was I out?”

  “It seemed like an eternity, but I guess it couldn’t have been more than a minute or two.”

  Her eyes grew shinny with moisture. “I’m sorry to have worried you, Jack.”

  Before he could reassure her with something that would have been a lie, Nathan sat back and blew out a huge breath. “Believe it or not, despite the fact that this particular sky was made up of huge hunks of wood, I think all that she has going here is an obvious concussion and maybe broken ribs.” He spotted the backboard Kyle Mason had run to the medical clinic for. “Ah, good,” he said. “Let’s get her to the clinic and make sure. That X-ray machine I spent some of my lottery dough on sure is coming in handy.”

  Telling himself his hands were shaking in relief, Jack helped the two doctors slide the backboard beneath her and fastened the Velcro strap that went over her chest.

  Luke squatted next to him and softly asked, “What happened here, Jack?”

  Jack slowly shook his head in bewilderment. “It just came down.”

  “Do you think it was the wind?”

  Looking up at the bare tree branches moving above them as the winter storm that had been predicted moved in, Jack said, “A gust blew through and made the whole thing groan, but the wind wasn’t blowing when it came down. And even when it was, I don’t think it was blowing hard enough to bring the roof down. That pavilion has withstood winds a heck of a lot stronger than what’s going on today.”

  Luke nodded in agreement, his lips pressed into a grim line.

  Jack looked back down at Melinda, who was following Connor’s instructions as he fastened a thick, bright yellow, padded collar that was connected to the backboard around her neck. There was no blood, so her scalp hadn’t been cut, but she would surely have a hell of a bump on the top of her head.

  He met Luke’s deep blue eyes again. “But there was a lot of snow built up on the roof. Isn’t it supposed to be scraped off every now and again?”

  Luke shifted his gaze to the collapsed pavilion. “Yeah, it is. But just like with the wind, I’ve seen more snow than that on the pavilion and it handled the load just fine. I’ll have to get someone to look at it.”

  When they all stood, Dean stepped forward. “Here, Jack. Let me help carry her. You got whacked yourself.” He pointed at Jack’s head.

  Jack started to reach up, unaware of anything except his fear for Melinda, but Dean’s comment had caught Connor’s attention, and with Melinda’s neck collared and strapped to the board, he was free to reach over and stop Jack from touching his head.

  Connor instructed, “Tilt your chin down.” The same height as Jack, Connor had no trouble getting a good look at Jack’s head. “Eh. Butterfly strip will probably be enough to close that. I’ll take care of it as soon as we get Melinda checked out.”

  Jack finally noticed a warm trickle of wet at his hairline, and reached up to wipe the blood away under Dean’s worried gaze. “It can’t be much if that’s all it’s bleeding. I want to carry her.” Hell, he’d rather gather her into his arms and rush her to the clinic himself, but Nathan and Connor were right to put her on a backboard.

  Even though there were plenty of offers, he insisted on helping carry her along with Connor, Luke and Dev. She was so petite, two of them could have done it, but the object was to jostle her as little as possible, so four men were better. Nathan went ahead to prep.

  Jack took the handhold near her shoulder so he could easily check her face for signs of pain, despite knowing she’d rather chew nails than let on how much she hurt. It wasn’t until they were heading out that he noticed how many people were still milling around the park despite the fact that the weather had indeed turned. An icy wind blew steadily now, and along with it had come the snow-heavy cloud layer that lent a weird glow to the sky. There was no doubting that a blizzard was on its way.

  But people hadn’t gone home. And when they saw Melinda being carried out, everyone formed a sort of path so that they could give him and Melinda encouragement and well wishes as they went by. Wyla and Bobby were especially upset and vocal, wishing Melinda Godspeed like she was heading off on some sort of dangerous mission.

  Jack’s throat grew unmercifully tight. There was no way Melinda would be able to deny any longer that she had a place in this town.

  His place.

  With her accepted as the town vet, he’d be free to leave. Free to go someplace where he wouldn’t know anyone, wouldn’t care about them.

  This close brush with losing her made him realize how much he was risking by allowing himself to care for a woman this way again. He was so close to giving his heart to her, so close to loving her.

  But he couldn’t. He wouldn’t survive losing the woman he loved again. Yeah, she hadn’t died this time, but there were so many unexpected, uncontrollable things that could happen to her. The danger in their job was expected, part of the deal, and he trusted her skill enough to know that she’d minimize the danger by being careful. But there were so many things she didn’t have control over, so many things he couldn’t protect her from.

  He couldn’t risk loving and losing again. He wouldn’t survive it.

  He glanced down at her as they made their way into the Jester Medical Clinic. Carlie Goodwin, the clinic’s receptionist, had rushed ahead with Nathan and held the door open for them. Melinda’s eyes were closed and he could see the muscles straining in her jaw and neck as she clenched her teeth. She might be more seriously injured than Nathan had first thought.

  Jack’s heart spasmed painfully.

  He had wanted to see how long this thing with Melinda would last, and now he knew. However deep his feelings for her might go—and judging by the searing pain in his heart, they went deep—he suspected they would last forever, but he couldn’t allow this relationship to continue another day.

  He couldn’t keep her if he couldn’t bear to lose her.

  They carried her into the examination room Nathan had readied and placed her, backboard and all, on the bed. With the two doctors immediately going to work on her, Jack started to back out of the room.

  “Jack?” Melinda called.

  Connor stepped to the side so she could see him. Though the neck brace kept her from looking directly at him, he could see the worry on her face.

  His guts twisting, he reassured her. “It’s okay. I’ll just be out here. I don’t want to be in the way.”

  Connor said, “I’ll come take care of that cut on your head in a second, Jack.”

  Jack waved him off. “You see to her. I can clean this up myself.” He grabbed a couple packets of medicate
d gauze pads and left the room.

  He’d planned on planting himself on one of the couches in the reception area, but everyone who’d helped him dig Melinda out was milling around there along with their wives, so he instead went into the other exam room and sat in a chair tucked next to the door. He cradled his head in his hands, finally noticing how much it was throbbing and bleeding, and closed his eyes, trying to shut out the all too familiar horror that came along with images of the roof collapsing onto Melinda. Now he had one more set of memories, one more set of circumstances—albeit with a better ending, but awful just the same—to haunt him here in Jester.

  He should have already done what he’d planned for so long.

  Leave.

  FREEZING IN NOTHING but her off-white, wool boot socks and the open-backed gown they’d helped her into with discretely turned heads, Melinda tried her best to be a patient patient while Dr. Perkins and Dr. O’Rourke poked, prodded and X-rayed her. She already knew that besides having her bell rung pretty good, she was fine. But they were going over the X-rays of her ribs like a missed crack could cost her her life.

  “Dr. Perkins, Dr. O’Rourke—”

  “Nathan,” Dr. Perkins insisted over his shoulder.

  “Connor,” Dr. O’Rourke said right after.

  Their willingness to be familiar warmed her. She smiled. “Nathan, Connor, they aren’t broken, are they?”

  They both shook their heads.

  As Connor reached to switch off the light board, Nathan said, “Amazingly, no. But they are badly bruised. I thought for sure that 4×6 I had to lift off you would have caused at least a crack, but you’re a lot tougher than you look.”

  “You’ve clearly never seen me wrestle a steer down,” she boasted to cover up her relief.

  She didn’t want anyone to treat her like she might break. The fact that she’d weathered having a roof drop on her without suffering any serious damage should go a long way to convince folks that her looks were deceiving. And that was important because after seeing the sort of response she could get from Jack when she dressed more feminine, she had no intentions of going back to her tomboy look ever again.