Seduced by Snowfall

by Jennifer Bernard

  Maya scowled at him. “What kind of crazy situation have you gotten yourself into?”

  Okay, now she was getting under his skin. “Hey. I know it’s a little outside the lines, but I was looking out for her. I don’t need you lecturing me.”

  “You sure about that?”

  “Yes.” Firmly, he held her gaze. “I made a choice. If I get some kind of suspension or reprimand, that’s up to the chief.”

  “I could charge you for…something. Harboring a fugitive. Keeping secrets from your best friend.” Her stern expression softened into that of his longtime friend.

  He laughed. “So I’m not demoted again?”

  “Let’s call it probation.”

  “Fair.”

  She propped her elbows on the desk. “So where are things at now? What does this unidentified girl need?”

  “She needs a home. I can’t have her live with me. I’m not set up for something like that. She needs a real place to stay. She probably needs to go to school, but I’d be surprised if she even knows how to read. She’s going to be way behind on everything. And—”

  He took a break before he got into this next bit.

  “Go on, what else?” Maya rubbed the space between her eyebrows, just the way Chief Boone had done. Apparently, Nate’s role in life was to give everyone a headache.

  “It’s hard to get good information from S.G., but she says the man she was living with wasn’t her father. I believe he’s either a trapper or some wilderness survival dude. She has some pretty incredible survival skills. You should see her with a knife.”

  Maya looked up from her notebook. “That cut on your arm.”

  “Yeah. That was her,” he admitted.

  She scrutinized his face for a long moment. “She cut you, and you still wanted to help her?”

  He shrugged. “I didn’t take it personally. She knifed me because I startled her and she was afraid. She needed help. ”

  Finally, an actual smile from his friend. “You’re a good man, Nate Prudhoe, even when you’re driving people crazy. So you think she was being raised by a trapper who wasn’t a parent.”

  “Possibly a trapper. And I wouldn’t say ‘raised’ so much as ‘held for free labor.’ So my question is, what happened to her actual parents? What if they’re still alive? What if she was kidnapped by this man? Also, who is he? Where is he? She says he’d dead, but how can we confirm that?”

  “That’s a lot of questions.”

  “Yes.” He grinned at her cheerfully. “Luckily, we have this awesome detective in town. You might have heard of her. Name of Maya Badger. She can solve any crime. I actually heard she has a ninety-seven percent success rate.”

  Right on cue, she shifted back to stern detective mode. “Okay, you can go now. I got what I need. I’ll be coming to visit Ms. Spruce Grouse in the very near future.”

  “Great.” Nate got to his feet. “And…I’m sorry for the secrecy.”

  She waved him off. “It’s a damn good thing I didn’t know. I can’t get away with things with a wink and a smile the way you can. I have responsibilities.”

  The edge in her voice with the word “responsibilities” followed him back to his side of the firehouse. He had responsibilities too, after all. He was Lost Harbor’s best EMT. He’d saved lives, he’d saved property. He rescued cats from tree forts and dogs from porcupines. He was the guy people knew they could count on in a pinch.

  And yet—he knew what she was saying. He was good old Nate, everyone’s friend and no one’s “most important person.”

  He’d chosen that. But it did have its empty side.

  S.G. was still talking to Chief Boone. He interrupted them only to let them know that Maya Badger was going to stop by as soon as possible. Then he busied himself in the equipment bay. The ladder truck needed some polishing and no one had gotten to it yet. As he rubbed the front grill with a soft rag soaked in polish, his thoughts wandered back to S.G.

  Hopefully she would soon have a real bed in a real house with real foster parents. His brief role in her life would be over. And that was for the best.

  But something kept nagging at him, a thought deep in the back of his mind.

  It had to do with one of the possibilities he’d mentioned to Maya. What if S.G.’s parents were looking for her?

  Almost worse—what if they weren’t? What if they didn’t know their daughter was actually alive? What if they thought she was gone forever? Like Sabrina?

  Without warning, a moment of overwhelming grief nearly knocked him off his feet. The familiar firehouse smell of diesel and chrome polish suddenly made him sick—nauseous. He bent over the engine, bile rising in his throat.

  Sabrina. His sweet, sweet sister. She’d loved peekaboo and her fuzzy panda onesie. Most of all, she’d loved Nate and crowed every time he came close. She was the first human being he’d ever tried to take care of, and the first one he couldn’t save.

  Dry-heaving next to the engine, he didn’t hear footsteps approaching.

  “Nate? Are you okay?”

  His head jerked up. Bethany and S.G. both stood a few feet away—one looking concerned, the other grossed out.

  “Hey.” He fought to collect himself. “That polish smell always gets me. Why don’t they make it cherry flavor or something?”

  They stared at him blankly.

  “What’s up?”

  “I came looking for you, and Chief Boone said you were back here. S.G. showed me the way.”

  “Your friend is here,” S.G. told him. “The police woman. She said I should come get you.”

  “Cool, cool. Great. She’s going to help you.” He tossed aside the rag and screwed the top back on the can of polish. “Let’s go.”

  S.G. scampered off, but Bethany lagged behind. She put a hand on his arm. “I’m not buying the allergic-to-polish story. What’s really going on? Is it something about S.G.?”

  “No, no. She’s in good shape. She’s handling this just fine.”

  Tell her, asshole, he told himself. She’ll understand. Fuck, she already knows about Sabrina.

  But his habit of never discussing his little sister was too ingrained. He couldn’t get the words out.

  Her expression shifted, as if she knew perfectly well what had just gone through his mind. Maybe not the specifics, but the gist—don’t say anything too personal. Don’t get too intimate. Don’t get vulnerable.

  “Fine.” A smile sketched across her face. “I have to get to work anyway. I was just stopping by to see if you needed any support in the ‘reasons we didn’t tell anyone about S.G.’ department.”

  “I think I’m in the clear. But Maya mentioned that we could both be in hot water for not reporting S.G. to the state.”

  Bethany’s eyes widened. “Is she going to say anything?”

  “No, because if she does I’ll never play golf with her again. And no one else in town will play with her because she’s too good. So it’s really not worth it.” His usual breezy tone was just a little bit off. She noticed that too, and her head cocked to the side.

  “Well, as long as you don’t decide to bust me, I won’t worry about it. I don’t regret anything.”

  Was she referring to more than just helping S.G.? Something in her voice told him she was. And that scared him. Was she going to pull the plug on their “casual relationship”? He wasn’t ready for that. Not even close.

  “Are you coming over after your shift? I’m marinating some black cod cheeks. They’re out of this world. Believe me, you haven’t experienced Alaskan seafood until you’ve tasted black cod.”

  Fuck, now he was sounding like a salesman.

  But it worked. She gave a short nod. “Sure. But only because I didn’t even know fish had cheeks.”

  He winked at her. “Stick with me, kid, and you’ll learn all kinds of random useless stuff.”

  Even though she smiled, it wasn’t her usual light-up-the-world effort. He knew why. But could he fix it?

  If his best attempt was marinat
ed black cod cheeks, probably not. If he threw in another night of incredible sex, maybe. He’d do his best, that was for sure.

  That night, he spread a plush fleece blanket in front of the fireplace and offered her a naked back rub. He loved the way her body flushed pink and gold in the firelight, and the way she arched her back and opened her body to him. The way her moonlight hair spread like molten gold over the blanket. The way her eyes went foggy and dreamy as he licked her delicious body.

  What could be better than shoveling snow all day, then snuggling by the fireplace with Dr. Bethany Morrison?

  Bethany with her secret wild side, her-heart stopping smile, her soft, warm body cuddling next to him.

  Things were different with her.

  Usually he was more of an out-of-sight, out-of-mind guy. He was great at being attentive when he was with a woman, not so much when he was doing his own thing.

  But with Bethany, even when she was at work and he was either on shift or shoveling snow, he couldn’t stop thinking about her. He thought about things to cook for her, what crazy medical emergencies were coming her way at the hospital, how he could make her scream his name when she got off work.

  He wondered what that meant—why it was different with Bethany. But it didn’t really matter. He was her “casual guru,” and that meant not overthinking things. He already foresaw the end of this. At some point, Bethany would decide she’d had enough of casual and needed to get serious about her future. And then she’d end it and they’d both move on. Her to a family. Him to…the usual.

  He didn’t like that thought. Bethany with another man—it felt all wrong. But she wasn’t a casual person and he wasn’t a serious person. End of story.

  So there was no point in questioning his approach. Might as well just enjoy the moment until it ended. Because that was what he did. That was who he was.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Somehow, word about the runaway minor hiding in the firehouse got back to the chief of staff at Misty Bay Regional. For the first time in her rule-abiding life, Bethany was in trouble with someone who wasn’t her father. Her supervisor’s supervisor, the chief of staff, called her in on a day off.

  “Damn it, Morrison. Why you are making me deal with this?”

  “I apologize,” she told him right away. He was a pudgy man on the verge of retirement. She cleared her throat, hating how weak she sounded. “I did what I thought best given the very unique circumstances.”

  “I should be running around to all my goodbye parties. Now I have to reprimand you, at the very least.”

  “Really? A reprimand?” The word sent a chill through her. She’d never been reprimanded. But at least she wasn’t being—

  “At the least,” he repeated firmly. “I have to talk to the state. There may be more. You know what we say. Prepare for the worst, hope for the best. Go, now. I’ve got things to do.”

  Completely numb, she left his office. A reprimand and maybe more? Like—could she be suspended? Her license to practice medicine revoked? Would there be a hearing? Should she hire a lawyer?

  Being on the shady side of the rules was such a new and disorienting experience for her. When she told Nate about it, he became furious and vowed to defend her with his own job if necessary.

  “I got you into this. If anyone gets disciplined, it should be me. And I’ll tell that to anyone who’ll listen.”

  Which was nice of him, but she knew perfectly well that the decision would be made by the Alaska state board of health. Her future would depend on their verdict and on the hospital’s reaction.

  She could easily find herself unemployed as well as disinherited.

  That night, she barely slept, even though Nate was on shift and she had no one to keep her up. She was all alone in her sketchily furnished house, with no sign of Gretel or even a visiting moose. Nothing to keep her company except worry and doubt.

  Finally, a couple days later, Bethany heard from Gretel. She’d gotten a call from Abby Noonan just before the snowstorm and rushed off to help her—forgetting her phone.

  “So you’ve been with Abby all this time? I was really worried!”

  Bethany was on her way to the harbor to see what the boats looked like covered in snow. But since she still wasn’t completely confident in her winter driving skills—even with the studded tires that Nate had mounted—she pulled into an overlook at the head of the harbor.

  A lone seabird circled over the empty mudflats. Some patches had iced over, but in others, the tide was creeping in with wind-rippled waves. The bird must have spotted a small fish, because it swooped down and nearly disappeared underwater, then flew off with strong strokes of its wings.

  “Don’t you know by now not to ever worry about me?” Gretel was saying. “I always float to the top, like a cork in a champagne bath.”

  “Nice imagery.”

  “Thank you. It’s inspired by all the things I don’t have here at Abby’s. There’s a bathtub, but you have to heat water on a wood stove to fill it, and it takes forever, especially when you aren’t entirely sure how to start a fire.”

  Bethany laughed. She’d missed her sister’s goofy wit. “How long are you planning to stay out there?”

  “I was thinking I’d stay until her husband gets back. She needs so much help, I don’t know how she handles everything. And—well, she offered to pay me. So I guess I’m doing something right.”

  Bethany’s heart swelled at the shy pride in her sister’s voice. “Of course you are. And yeah, you should stay as long as you like. I miss you, but I’m happy you’re helping out.”

  “Uh oh. What’s up?”

  “What do you mean?” Gretel’s sensitivity to undertones always amazed Bethany.

  “You never say you miss me unless there’s something you need to talk about. Is it something at work?”

  Bethany filled her in on the situation with the medical board. Gretel was outraged, and spent a few moments ranting about stupid rules and bosses.

  “But there’s something else, isn’t there?” she said when she was done. “Probably something man-related. How’s everything with Nate?”

  Bethany decided to skip over the usual process of denial and insistence that everything was fine. “Frustrating!”

  “Okay, tell Auntie Gretel all about it.”

  “I mean, it’s great. Believe me, greater than any relationship I’ve ever had—in bed. It’s the part out of bed that’s the problem.”

  “You guys don’t have much to talk about?”

  “No, we do. We talk a lot. But there are things he won’t talk about, and they’re the most important ones.”

  “So…let me see if I have this right…you’re upset because a man is having intimacy issues?” The wry humor in Gretel’s voice made her laugh.

  “When you put it that way…”

  “Breaking news—water is wet. Men aren’t always great at talking about stuff. Some are, obviously. Others need a little nudge. But hey, if that’s all you’re worried about. You say things are good between the sheets?”

  Bethany’s face flamed. Why had she mentioned that? “No complaints.”

  “Good, then. If he’s sensitive to your needs in bed, that’s a good sign.”

  “I know he’s a sensitive person. That’s not—” She broke off. Would Nate want her to share Sabrina’s story? “I’m worried that he’s too…wounded, I guess.”

  “Ooh, the wounded ones are tricky. They make you fall for them, and then push you away. Step carefully, big sis.”

  Bethany nodded, knowing it was good advice. “I’d better go. I have to get to work.”

  “See you soon. Have you noticed how I’m still fine despite Daddy’s heartless abandonment of me?”

  Bethany laughed. “I’m proud of you.”

  When she was working at the hospital, Bethany tried to put her potential punishment out of her mind and focus on her patients. That worked only when she was actually with a patient. At all other times, the anxiety would creep back in.


  Running into Ian was a relief, because he knew nothing about the situation and wouldn’t have cared anyway. He had just returned from his latest trip to Barrow with news about the outbreak of polyneuropathy. It turned out that mussels were to blame.

  “Your scallop tip was the key to the whole thing.” As they sat down with their coffee, he launched into a long account of his trip, while she tried her best to pay attention. But talking about scallops made her think of Nate, and she could barely focus on Ian’s words.

  How she felt about Nate—well, it made her realize that she’d never been in love with Ian, not even a little. Her feelings for Nate went so much deeper. It was like being on a speeding train with no brakes.

  The worst part? She wasn’t sure if Nate was on that train with her. Sometimes she saw her feelings reflected in his gray eyes, and sometimes all she saw was that familiar twinkle.

  “Your phone’s ringing,” Ian was saying.

  She started, and shot him an embarrassed smile. “Just a second.”

  Ian turned his attention to his notes and his coffee, while Bethany answered the call.

  Which was from New York. Specifically, from one of the top hospitals in Manhattan, Mount Sinai. After her residency, she’d applied for a position there but had known all along that she didn’t have a chance.

  “Hello, this is Dan Furness, head of HR at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. I’m calling with some good news.”

  Good news? She could definitely use some of that. “How can I help you, Mr. Furness?”

  “I’m calling to see if you’re still interested in coming to work for us.”

  “What?” She pulled the phone away from her face and stared at it in shock. “Excuse me?”

  “We’ve had some shifts in our staffing and a new position has opened up. We have your application on file and you’re at the top of our list.” The rest of what he said was a blur.

  “Holy smokes,” she told Ian after she hung up. “I just got a job offer. From Mount Sinai. That was my top choice before I got this job.”