by Amy Ruttan
“I don’t like leaving a mess,” he joked, and then he picked up another log.
He was trying not to look at her in her pajamas. He had never realized how sexy plaid flannel pajamas could be.
Get a grip.
Except he couldn’t shake that image of her touching him. Touching the most vulnerable part of him, easing his pain with her gentleness. And how he’d wanted to reach down and kiss her, to bring her as much pleasure as she’d brought him.
He wanted to taste her lips again. He wanted to get lost in her arms.
He wanted to bare everything to her.
“I hope I didn’t wake you with the wood-chopping?” he asked, trying not to think about what was under those pajamas and how much he wanted to find out.
“No, I was up,” she said. “I did wonder who was chopping my wood. Why are you chopping my wood?”
“It was cold in the night and I couldn’t sleep.”
“Nightmares?”
A shiver ran down his spine and he hesitated. “Why would you say that?”
“I heard you,” she said gently.
“Sorry.” He felt bad that he’d woken her.
“Is it PTSD?”
“No,” he snapped.
“Come on—I can see you’re still suffering with the after-effects of what happened to you. You don’t need to hide your post traumatic stress from me.”
He didn’t say anything. He didn’t like her talking about it. He didn’t want to talk about it with her. He didn’t want to let her in. But the thing was the more he was around her the more she just wiggled her way in.
And you want to know what she’s hiding from you.
“You going to pick up Chinook this morning? I kind of miss him.” He was changing the subject and he didn’t care. He only hoped that she didn’t keep pressing him on the matter.
“No. Sam is going to keep him for a couple more days.” She took a seat on the step and took a sip of her coffee. “I got a message in from Dr. Franklin. There’s a typhoon blowing in and threatening the Aleutian Islands. It’s wreaking havoc in the Bering Sea.”
“Typhoon?”
“They’re rare, but they can happen in southeast Alaska. Dr. Franklin wants to have a meeting and get a plan in place to fly in extra supplies and make sure we’re here and ready to help the people who live along those islands.”
“Will your entire team fit in your plane?” he asked.
“No, Dr. Franklin will fly another plane and I’ll load up mine. We can fly together. Dr. Franklin is from Unalaska, which is part of the Aleutian Islands. He wants to make sure that everyone is taken care of there. He’ll be heading out right away—we’ll follow.”
“Okay. Sounds good.”
Aran finished his wood-chopping while Ruby sat and watched.
“That’s a couple of storms and a typhoon since I started here. Maybe it’s a sign,” he said.
“A sign of what?” she asked.
“That I should leave Alaska,” he teased.
Only he wasn’t really teasing. It was best that he leave.
Sure. Run away again.
Ruby smiled. “No, it’s common for early summer. The winter is worse for the islands, when the Aleutian low pressure sits there. We have a lot of bodies of water converging and meeting up. The Beaufort Sea, Bering Sea, Gulf of Alaska and the Pacific. And then you add in mountains and permafrost... Yeah, it can be a bit unpredictable.”
“Just a bit!”
Ruby stood. “Keeps it interesting, though. There’s coffee in the house when you’re ready.”
Aran nodded and watched her make her way inside. Watched her walk away. Her hair was down and loose and she looked totally relaxed and comfortable. She was comfortable around him. When had that happened?
And then he realized that he was at ease around her too—for the most part. He wasn’t at ease when he thought about the taste of her lips or how she’d felt pressed up against him.
He finished with the last log and then set the ax into the wood block. He scooped up all the pieces he’d chopped and carried them inside.
Ruby was puttering around in the kitchen and listening to Queen. A smile tugged at the corner of his lips as he watched her dance. She was so sexy. Everything about her made him want her more. No other woman had ever gotten to him like this.
All that worry he’d been feeling fizzled away as he watched her.
She spun around and crimson bloomed in her cheeks when she saw him standing there, watching her.
“Queen?” he said quizzically as she pulled down a frying pan.
“Yeah, it’s Queen. You don’t like Queen?” she asked, ignoring the fact that he’d caught her awkward dancing.
“Sure—I just never would’ve pegged you for a fan.”
“And what’s a Queen fan supposed to look like?” she teased.
“You’ve got me. I don’t know. I just never would have thought you were one.”
“I love the immortal Freddie. Plus, I like listening to them when I cook.”
“What’re you cooking?” he asked.
“Scrambled eggs. Want some?”
“Sure.”
Aran slowly knelt down. He was a bit stiff, but he managed to hide the pain he was feeling from Ruby because she was distracted by making breakfast. He stacked the logs neatly.
“Well, at least I now know what you wear to bed and that you listen to Queen while you cook.”
She glanced over her shoulder as she cracked eggs into the frying pan. “And what music do you like?”
“Country.”
“I like that too.”
“You’re an eclectic music listener, are you?”
“Yeah, I like what I like and it’s all over the board. But I only listen to certain music at certain times. Like rock or metal while I cook—but metal from the seventies. And when I drive it’s usually The Hip.”
“Yeah... I’m just a country fan. I don’t mind Queen, though.”
“Good, because I’m not turning it off.”
She finished scrambling the eggs while Aran washed his hands and sat down at the kitchen island. She dished out a plate of scrambled eggs and he poured himself a cup of coffee.
“Thanks,” he said as he sat down to eat his eggs.
“Thanks for the morning wood.”
He almost choked on his eggs. “What?”
She flushed pink and groaned. “Oh, Creator! That’s not what I meant at all.”
He chuckled. “That’s okay. I understand what you meant and it was no problem.”
“We have got to get over this awkwardness. I mean, we’re friends, right?”
“Yeah, sure.”
Only he didn’t think of her as a friend. And he really didn’t want to think of her as a friend. He wanted to think of her as more than that, only he couldn’t let himself. It wasn’t fair to her. There was nothing he could give her.
“I’m going to get ready for the day. I want to get to the hospital and help Dr. Franklin plan before he gets agitated that I’m not there.”
“Sounds good. I’ll be waiting.”
Aran watched her disappear up the stairs and finished his breakfast in silence. He had to pull himself together. They could be friends and they could work together. Nothing more.
There couldn’t be anything more between them.
* * *
She was kicking herself for saying that.
Thanks for the morning wood? How could you be so silly?
It had taken her off-guard to wake up to the sound of wood being cut, and when she’d gone downstairs to see a shirtless Aran cutting up firewood it had made her think about a lot of inappropriate things.
He might have an injury, but he was still a strong man. A capable man. Not the man she’d thought he was when they’d first met. The arrogant playboy
who’d got on her nerves but whom she’d never been able to shake. This man—he belonged here. It was as if he fit right in with her life and that thought scared her. There was no room in her life for anyone but herself and Chinook.
Oh, really?
She jumped into the shower and heard the ax again. She looked out the small window and watched him out there again as the water ran over her. Her blood heated and she turned the cold water on, hoping it would clear her head of all the naughty thoughts of Aran running through her mind.
Thoughts of him scooping her up in his arms and carrying her to the bed...of herself running her hands over his chest and tasting his kisses again.
She cranked the cold water up some more, hoping it would work.
It didn’t.
* * *
“Dr. Franklin, you’re taking the team and getting set up in Unalaska. Dr. Atkinson and I will bring the rest of the supplies and meet you there by the end of the day.” Ruby went down her check list for the meeting. “Do you have your flight plan?”
“Yes.” Dr. Franklin pulled out the printout of the plan he had submitted.
Ruby looked it over. “Going a little bit out of the way?”
“The weather system is bringing a low, which is strange for this time of year. I want to avoid it if at all possible. I flew planes through the Aleutian Islands long before I became a doctor,” said Dr. Franklin. “I want to get there and set up in the emergency shelter before the storm hits.”
“Okay—well, you have your team. You’re taking John and Lindsey. I’ll file a flight plan to join you later. When you arrive tell me what you need and I’ll bring it along with me.”
Dr. Franklin nodded. “Sure thing, Dr. Cloutier.”
“Okay, let’s get this done, then.”
Franklin, John and Lindsey got up to start work. Ruby had to stay behind and finish her rotation on the trauma floor. They would arrive before the storm made landfall.
Aran had sat quietly in the meeting not saying much. He looked a little tired and she wasn’t surprised, since he’d told her that he hadn’t slept much the night before. Not that she’d slept much either, knowing he was having nightmares, and she couldn’t stop thinking about this morning, with him at the wood pile.
Once the others had left her office she sat down on the edge of her desk. “You okay?”
“What?” he asked, as if he had been zoning out.
“You look like you’re ready to fall asleep.”
“Yeah, I feel like I could sleep.” He scrubbed his hand over his face.
“Why don’t you have a rest in the on-call room? I need you with your wits about you when we head to Unalaska.”
Aran pursed his lips together, much as his mother did when she was about to deliver bad news or when she was unhappy or worried. “I don’t know if I should go.”
“What do you mean?” Ruby asked, confused.
“A typhoon? Getting stuck somewhere with you for a couple of days?” Aran said. “We haven’t talked about the kiss since it happened and I don’t like this awkwardness.”
A blush crept up her neck. “It won’t be like Whitehead, Aran. Franklin, John and Lindsey will all be there. And Unalaska is bigger than Whitehead—there are other small communities surrounding it and people will be coming to the storm shelter. I need you up there. I need all hands on deck.”
“Well, if that’s the case...”
“It’ll be fine. We’re not going to do that again. We’re not going to...”
She couldn’t even bring herself to say it—because she wanted to kiss him again. Even though she knew it was a bad idea, she still wanted it.
She wanted more from him.
She might not have had a lot of relationships, or anything meaningful, but he was the first man she really desired. The first man who had stirred something deep down inside her.
Still, she couldn’t let herself give in to temptation. She’d promised herself that. The kiss had been a one-time thing. It had been done in order to break the tension between them and that was it.
“We could be doing medical procedures. It won’t be—”
“Yeah,” he said cutting her off. “You’re right. We have to stop being so awkward around each other.”
“Exactly.”
They had been doing fine until that kiss. Perhaps this was karma’s way of paying her back for this deceitful marriage?
“So what do you need me to do?” he asked.
She handed him a sheet. “Get the medical supplies ready. I’m doing a first round of those patients who are still in the emergency room. Then the surgical patients and then I’m free.”
Aran nodded. “I’ll get these ready for you.”
“Meet me down in the ambulance pod in three hours. An ambulance will take us and the supplies to the airport in no time. I’m going to file a flight plan now and then do my rounds.”
“All right. I’ll see you then.”
Aran left the office, and once he did she was finally able to relax a bit after thinking about him and her in Whitehead.
She had to get better control over herself. She wasn’t doing a very good job.
When she’d woken up that morning to Dr. Franklin’s email, she had not expected to find Aran outside chopping wood. She had watched him from the kitchen while her coffee had been brewing.
She’d been completely mesmerized by the way he moved. How easily he had split the wood. How Alaska seemed to suit him, even if he did insist that he much preferred the south. It was as if he belonged with her.
And all she’d been able to think about was how he’d made her feel. How she’d wanted to continue that kiss. How she’d wanted to lose control over him.
She hated the way he affected her so much.
Maybe you should’ve sent him with Dr. Franklin?
The problem was that Dr. Franklin didn’t completely trust Aran. None of the team did. It was better that Aran came with her. He was still on probation.
Ruby had no doubt that after this mission the other team members would see what a valuable asset he was to the team and then they would all feel comfortable working with him. They would trust him.
In order to make a team like hers work there had to be a high level of trust. If there was no trust then it was doomed to fail from the start.
The team had to believe there was complete trust between her and Aran—which there was. But Aran and her were married. Married couples were intimate, not awkward around each other. At least all the married couples she knew...
* * *
Aran did exactly what was needed and got all the supplies. Ruby’s rounds took longer because an accident came in. Someone had collided with a moose on the highway and she was called in to emergency surgery.
When she got out she saw Dr. Franklin had landed in Unalaska and had forwarded a list of supplies he needed. It was a lot more than they’d thought. Apparently the last shipment of the most vital medical supplies hadn’t come in on time. So she spent an hour trying to collect everything from the list that she could, so they could prepare for the typhoon when it made landfall.
Aran was loading up the rig when she arrived.
“You’re late,” he said.
“Emergency trauma came in. Someone hit a moose on the highway. And then Dr. Franklin sent his list and it turns out that Unalaska needs some more supplies.” She lifted one of the kits into the back of the rig. “I then had to adjust our departure time because we’re leaving later. I just hope the weather holds.”
“Me too.”
They finished loading and then got into the back. The ambulance driver raced them to the airport with the sirens blaring. Ruby was glad of that, because right now it was a race to get to Unalaska before the typhoon hit.
Her plane was ready and waiting and Aran and the ambulance driver helped her load up. She could see
dark clouds far across the horizon. Anchorage was supposed to get the tail end of the storm. It would be heavy rainfall and some wind, but nothing compared to Unalaska and the rest of the most westerly tip of the Aleutian Islands. When the Bering Sea became stormy it became a dangerous place.
Once the plane was loaded she prepared for take-off and was given clearance right away, because her flight was considered an emergency. It was a smooth takeoff, but it wasn’t long before she realized that they hadn’t beaten the storm and she was flying straight into it. The turbulence became wicked.
“I think we’ll have to turn back,” she shouted into her microphone.
“I think you’re right,” Aran responded.
He looked a little pale as the wind jostled the plane around. He was nervous and she couldn’t blame him—she was nervous too.
She made her course correction and had just started to turn and head back to Anchorage when the engine light came on.
Oh, Creator. No.
“What’s wrong?” Aran asked when he noticed the flashing lights and alarms.
“I lost an engine. I’m going to have to make an emergency landing. There’s an old town not far from here that has an old airstrip.”
“What do you mean, an old town?” he asked, and she could hear the panic in his voice.
“No one lives there anymore, but there are buildings and a runway. It’s used in emergency situations like this. It’ll be okay,” she reassured him. “We’re fine. We’re just going to land. Hang on.”
After a few tense moments Ruby caught sight of the airfield that was always maintained. The town was an old ghost town, but often bush pilots that had been chartered by hunting outfits used this airstrip to drop off guides who would take parties into the wilderness to hunt. Especially in the summer.
She turned her plane sideways and made a tight crab landing on the gravel strip that ran alongside a riverbank. Her plane sputtered as she made the landing and then came to a halt, with the other engine giving up and starting to smoke.
Ruby breathed a sigh of relief—and then cursed under her breath as she climbed out of the plane and went to look at the engine. She could see a leak and she cursed again.