When We Fall, Contemporary Romance (Last Frontier Lodge Novels Book 6)

by J. H. Croix

  Peter snagged the water bottle in question and strode in his direction. Quinn met him on the way. “Notice anything before she fell?” he asked, his voice low.

  “Not much more than what Chad said. She mentioned her legs felt tired. Before that, she seemed, I don’t know, kind of out of it. Just for a minute or so and then she fell.”

  Quinn nodded as he took the proffered water bottle from Peter, his worry increasing. “Thanks. We’ll give her a few to see if she’s feeling better. Hope you guys don’t mind.”

  Peter’s eyes widened. “Of course not! You’ve already given us the best trip we’ve ever had. We’re happy to sit tight as long as we need. Don’t even worry about it.”

  “Good to know. Let me see how she’s doing.”

  Quinn headed back to Lacey’s side, hooking his hand around a camp chair on the way over and setting it down beside her. “Have some water,” he said, handing her the bottle.

  She curled her hand around the bottle and took a long swallow. After she lowered it, he noticed her grip was shaky, so he reached over and took it from her. “How you feeling now?”

  She canted her eyes to his and he saw fear in their depths, such an unusual feeling for Lacey, his worry notched higher. “Weird. I feel weird,” she finally said. “After I came out of the tent, I just started to feel funny. One of my legs felt numb and both of them felt weak. For a second, I couldn’t see right and then I just fell. That blurry thing is gone and my legs are starting to feel more normal, but it’s just weird. What the hell happened?”

  Quinn’s mind flipped through possibilities, but he didn’t want to go there right now with her. What she described could be minor, or not. The foreboding ‘or not’ wouldn’t be a helpful place for him to explore just now. “Maybe your fall yesterday was a little harder than you thought. Let’s see how you feel after a little bit. You still up for coffee?”

  She grinned and nodded emphatically. “That might be just what I need.”

  Two days later, Lacey made her way along the gravel path leading to the airstrip that would fly them out of Katmai and back to Anchorage. After her odd episode the other morning, she’d had some of Quinn’s coffee and felt like herself after that. The rest of the trip had been uneventful. Well, they’d had a close encounter with a brown bear and breathed a sigh of relief after they avoided two mama moose and their calves, but that was part of hiking in the wilderness in Alaska. Quinn was taking up the rear as they made their way to the airstrip. She could hear the whirr of the plane’s prop in the distance. She glanced skyward and suddenly her vision blurred again. She stopped right where she was and shook her head. Just like the other day, her legs felt weak and one of them started tingling. “No, no, no, no,” she mumbled to herself. She must have looked up too quickly. That’s probably what happened the other morning. She ignored the weakness and tingling and started walking again. Her right leg wouldn’t cooperate. She felt as if she was dragging it behind her. On sheer will alone, she kept trudging along the path.

  Before she knew it, Quinn was at her side, catching her as she fell, his hold so strong and sure. She just let go because she couldn’t hold herself up anymore. The last thing she remembered were Quinn’s amber eyes locking onto hers. “You’re okay. I’ve got you.”

  Chapter 2

  The whirr of the small plane’s prop drowned out Quinn’s voice. Lacey kept her eyes closed, hoping she could pick up enough pieces of whatever he was saying. She wondered how close they were to Anchorage.

  “…could be a few options…she said she didn’t hit her head when she fell the other day…rather not speculate…”

  After accepting all she could hear were bits and pieces, she gave up and opened her eyes. She was resting across three of the six seats in the plane. After years of complaining about the cramped space on the small planes that flew over the wilderness of Alaska, she finally got to stretch out all because she’d collapsed. She’d rather be jammed into one of the tiny seats if it meant she could erase the odd episodes she’d experienced over the last few days. She pushed up onto her elbows and looked around. Quinn and Chad were seated on the floor of the plane while the other three photographers were crammed into the remaining seats.

  Quinn was facing her, his hands clasped in front of his bent knees. His eyes caught hers, concerned and assessing. “How you feeling?” he asked, as he rolled onto his feet and carefully stood, slipping past Chad who scooted over to make room in the cramped space.

  Lacey rolled her eyes. “You don’t have to come rushing over here. I’m only three feet away.”

  Quinn chuckled as he sat on the floor beside her row of seats, leaning against the side of the plane. “Would it kill you to accept someone worrying about you?”

  She pushed up a little further and slid her back up against the plane. “It wouldn’t kill me, but it annoys the hell out of me,” she said with a sigh. She mentally ran a check to assess how she felt. Once again, she felt fine. She had no idea why she was having these strange episodes of weakness, but she knew she didn’t like it. At all. She caught Quinn’s eyes. “Any idea what’s going on with me?”

  She saw a flash of something in Quinn’s eyes. He was quiet for a long moment before he finally spoke. “It’s not going to help for me to speculate. Let’s get you to the hospital when we land and get you checked out. You sure you didn’t hit your head when you fell the other day?”

  “I’m sure! I swear. I fell on my hip and that’s it. How could I hit my head and not notice anyway? So if it’s not that, what the hell is it?”

  Quinn shrugged. “I’m not trying to piss you off by asking if you hit your head. If you did, it might explain a few things. If not, well, let’s leave it to a doctor.”

  “You are a doctor!”

  His low chuckle came again, sending a soft shiver through her. Here she was, just coming to after passing out in his arms, a most definitely not sexy moment, and somehow this inconvenient attraction to Quinn kept popping up and surprising her. She mentally shook herself and threw a glare at him.

  “Maybe so, but I’m not your doctor.”

  “Yeah, but can’t you give me a few ideas? You got your medical degree at Harvard. Surely you have some thoughts about it.” She was relieved to be feeling normal again, but scared inside about the weakness she’d experienced. She wanted answers and wanted them now.

  Quinn held her eyes for several beats, his amber gaze concerned and somber. “Lace, there are so many things that could be going on. It’s not worth it to guess until you can get a check up and they can run a few tests. Weakness and numbness can be as simple as a misalignment in your spine. I’m sure you’re freaking out in your head, but don’t make it more than it is.”

  Lacey took a deep breath and let it out with a sigh, closing her eyes and swallowing against the worry tightening her throat. She’d always prided herself on being healthy, fit and strong. She did not like wondering why she’d collapsed twice and only escaped collapsing another time because a tree happened to be right beside her. She wanted to believe it was as simple as needing a spinal adjustment, but something told her that wasn’t the case. Opening her eyes, she found Quinn’s warm amber gaze on her. Part of her wanted to allow herself to savor his concern, while another part of her chafed against it. She’d never depended on any man and certainly didn’t want to start doing it now. Most definitely not when she couldn’t make heads or tails of her out of the blue attraction to Quinn.

  The last time she’d seen him, she’d felt nothing other than warm camaraderie with him. He was a good friend whom she saw every so often on trips when they both worked for the same wilderness guiding business in Anchorage. Three years ago, he’d returned to Harvard to finish his medical degree and residency overseas after that. He came back to Alaska this year. When he’d offered via email to run this trip with her, she’d been excited. Quinn was easy to work with and she looked forward to seeing him. He’d stepped off the plane in Anchorage, and her body hummed at the sight of him. To make matters wors
e, she felt vulnerable and out of sorts that he’d gone and saved her from falling on her face on the way to the plane.

  He angled his head to the side. “Stop worrying yourself when you don’t even know what to worry about.”

  Good thing he couldn’t know she wasn’t just worrying about what was wrong with her, but her body’s reaction to him. She aimed for nonchalant. “I’ll try.”

  Quinn rested his elbow on a table in the examination room he’d stepped into to confer with the doctor. Quinn had met Dr. Julia Clark in passing, but he didn’t know her well. She was no-nonsense with her short dark hair, brown eyes and narrow square glasses adding to the overall sense of a completely practical woman. She adjusted her white jacket and pushed her glasses up her nose when she looked over at Quinn.

  “Lacey signed a release for me to talk with you, so I thought maybe you could give me an idea of how she’ll handle what I’m about to tell her,” Dr. Clark said.

  “Is there a reason you’re concerned?” Quinn countered. His worry for Lacey flared into full-blown dread. He feared Dr. Clark was about to confirm his suspicions.

  Dr. Clark pursed her lips and sighed. “Look, I think you probably suspected what I do. We won’t be able to know until she has another episode, but this looks like Multiple Sclerosis. The MRI shows a few brain lesions suggestive of MS. Right now, I’m only noting a single episode, but the MRI gives us a pretty strong clue. I don’t doubt the findings, but I’m guessing your friend is most definitely not going to take this too well.”

  Quinn’s chest tightened. Dr. Clark had said aloud the one diagnosis he’d hoped wouldn’t be on the table. He’d meant what he said to Lacey when he’d said her symptoms could be a number of things, but in the back of his mind he’d worried about MS. While he knew many people lived with MS and managed it well, Dr. Clark was discerning enough to notice Lacey’s tendency to rely on her strength. Even if she had MS and even if her MS was symptomatic sporadically with potentially years without symptoms, Lacey would chafe against it. That was only if she didn’t have the misfortune of the more serious type of MS, which could lead to her being wheelchair bound eventually. He forcibly knocked his mind off considering that possibility. Quinn was startled at the depth of his reaction to how Lacey might feel about this, along with the level of concern he felt on her behalf. He was completely unprepared for the tightness around his heart. Lacey was all verve and strength. This possibility struck hard at that.

  He looked over at Dr. Clark. “You’re right about that. She won’t be thrilled about any of this.”

  Dr. Clark nodded slowly. “Right then. Well, I’ll go talk to her. Don’t suppose you’d like to join me?”

  Quinn pushed away from the counter. “If she’s okay with it, sure. Just remember, she’s my friend first, not a patient.”

  Only minutes later, Quinn watched Lacey from a few feet away. He shackled the urge to step to the side of the table where she sat and hug her. Her green eyes were wide and disbelieving. The tiny freckles scattered across her cheeks and nose stood out under the harsh fluorescent lights of the examining room. Her eyes flicked to him, to the floor and back to Dr. Clark.

  “I don’t understand. You’re saying these, these stupid episodes might mean I have MS, but you’re not giving me a diagnosis yet. You’re saying it’s a…what did you say?” Lacey asked, her tone exasperated.

  “Clinically Isolated Syndrome, CIS. That’s the diagnosis when we don’t have enough confirmation to say the disease is progressing. You may never have any other symptoms or episodes like this, in which case this will be a one-off episode. Or, you may experience other episodes. If, and that’s a definite if, that happens, we’ll run more tests and make a determination then.”

  Lacey swung one leg back and forth rapidly before she finally nodded. “Right. Okay then, so this is all one big maybe.” She pushed off the table and rubbed her hands together. “Is there anything else before I go?”

  Dr. Clark glanced to him, as if looking for help. He shrugged because he knew damn well now wasn’t the time for more discussion. He had to forcibly hold himself back from pulling Lacey into his arms. A sense of protectiveness he’d never experienced washed over him. Dr. Clark looked back to Lacey, her expression soft. “No, nothing else. If you don’t mind, I’d like to touch base with your doctor in Diamond Creek. If nothing else comes of this, it’ll still be good for her to have the MRI results.”

  Lacey nodded jerkily. “Fine, fine. I think I already signed a release.”

  After a few more moments of stilted conversation while Dr. Clark confirmed she had a release on record, Quinn walked down the long hallway at the hospital with Lacey. Hours earlier, they’d landed in Anchorage and he’d driven straight here. She’d refused to call her family in Diamond Creek, insisting she’d get checked out only so she could prove to him all she needed was a chiropractic adjustment.

  Lacey’s arms were clutched around her waist while she all but stalked down the hall. She reached the revolving door that led outside. The door whooshed behind them as they stepped outside. Lacey strode quickly to the parking lot. She turned to face him when she reached his car. When he caught up, he stopped a few feet in front of her. Her eyes bounced to the ground and then back to him. She toed the pavement, idly kicking a rock. “So, I’m not due to fly back to Diamond Creek until tomorrow. Do you want to grab some dinner?”

  This conversation probably would’ve happened regardless of this afternoon. Whenever they ran trips, they often had casual meals together. Quinn sensed Lacey needed him not to talk about the discussion she’d just had with Dr. Clark, but rather just do what they would usually do. As much as he wanted to somehow offer comfort, he gathered for now this was the only comfort she would accept. “Of course. Susitna Burgers & Brew?”

  At Lacey’s quick nod, Quinn stepped to her side and opened the passenger door to his SUV. Without a word, Lacey climbed in.

  Lacey looked across the table at Quinn. Susitna Burgers & Brew was one of the places they’d frequented over the years. In the days since she’d first met Quinn and then they crossed paths in Anchorage whenever they picked up trips together, they often ate here with other friends. Over the last few years, she’d spent less time in the area since she started her own business and Quinn had been away. She traced the edge of her wineglass, enjoying the comfort of being here. Flitting along the edges of her mind was the conversation with the doctor at the hospital. With a mental shake, she focused on Quinn. Her inconvenient attraction to him was suddenly just the distraction she needed. The light caught on his amber hair. His mouth, always in a half-smile, lifted a tad higher. “What?”

  She shrugged. “It’s nice to be here. I was trying to remember the last time I ate here. Pretty sure it was with you the summer before you left for your residency back East. We had just finished that trip to the refuge. Remember that couple who wanted to get back to the land?” At his nod, she continued. “After all that, I ran into them in Anchorage the following year and they were moving back to Los Angeles. They said they realized they could have a smaller ecological footprint in an urban area.”

  Quinn threw his head back with a laugh. “Seriously? I thought they were going to write a book and everything. So much for that, huh?”

  “Guess so,” she said with a laugh. She felt caught in Quinn’s warm cognac gaze, heat rippling through her.

  The waiter arrived and quickly cleared their table, leaving the check behind. Within moments, they were walking outside. A chilly autumn breeze gusted across the parking lot. Quinn drove toward the hotel where they had booked a shared suite months ago, long before Lacey had any inkling of her simmering attraction to Quinn. Were it not for the fact she was desperate to forget what the doctor had shared with her today and the churning anxiety she felt every time she thought about it, she’d be planning to run into the hotel and escape to her half of the shared suite. She didn’t want to be alone with her thoughts though.

  When they walked into the suite, Lacey tossed her backpack
onto the floor in her room. “I’m gonna wash the trip off of me. Wanna watch a movie after?” she asked, nodding toward the television mounted on the wall in the sitting area between their rooms.

  Quinn flashed a grin. “Sure thing.”

  Lacey walked out of her room a bit later, feeling clean and refreshed. Her body was practically humming in anticipation. As she’d slid the soap over her skin, she couldn’t help but imagine how it would feel to have Quinn’s hands on her. Quinn was standing beside the couch, flipping through the channels. His amber hair was damp. He wore a pair of sweatpants, which hung low on his hips, and a plain white t-shirt. Every inch of his muscled chest and abs were visible under the fitted cotton. She swallowed and aimed for nonchalant.

  “Anything good on?” she asked, as she tugged the fluffy terry-cloth robe around her.

  “Couple of sci-fi movies.”

  She plunked down on the couch and tucked her feet under her. “I like anything sci-fi, even the totally cheesy stuff.”

  Quinn joined her, sitting in the opposite corner of the couch. “Cheesy sci-fi it is then.” He clicked a channel and leaned back into the cushions with a sigh.

  For several minutes, Lacey tried to watch the movie, which was about some bizarre sea creature that somehow made its way into a lake and was terrorizing the town nearby. With only maybe a foot separating her and Quinn, she began calculating how to inch closer to him.

  Have you lost your mind? Her rational brain asked, incredulous. Maybe, maybe not. Quinn is totally hot and what would it hurt to have a little fun? Um, he’s your friend and you maybe don’t want to mess that up. The second she thought that, an image of how vulnerable and strange she felt when she’d collapsed the other day flashed through her mind. She did not want to think about that. Restless and reckless, anxious to push any thoughts about her possible medical issues as far away as possible, she turned to Quinn and boldly closed the distance between them.