by Amy Ruttan
“Yep.” Mike nodded.
“I won’t be long.” Henry opened the door and pulled his coat tight as a blast of cold wind blew down from the mountain against him.
He slammed the door and Dr. Brown paused, but didn’t drop her hold on the sign. The biting wind helped him to keep a straight face. So that was something.
“Dr. Brown?” he asked, stepping closer.
All he could see were two brilliant green eyes, staring back at him over a thick scarf that was wound around her face and under a knit beanie that was jammed on the top of her head.
“Yes?”
“I’m Dr. Baker. We were supposed to have a meeting at AGMH.”
She rolled her eyes. “I don’t need a meeting with the governor’s son on my day off. I have more important things to do.”
“What? Being the only one marching in the middle of a snowstorm campaigning against a new hospital?”
Those green eyes narrowed. “Exactly. Although, this is hardly a snowstorm.”
“You do know that I sit on the board of directors for AGMH. I am technically your boss.” He shivered against another blast of bitterly cold wind.
“Yes, but I’m not on call. I’m not on duty today, and the last time I checked it was my right to demonstrate wherever I want. So if you’ll excuse me...” She hoisted the sign up further and continued her march.
She wasn’t wrong, but he was annoyed just the same. This was not going to be easy.
“What’re you hoping to accomplish?” he shouted over the wind.
She turned and looked back at him. “Are you willing to discuss terms?”
No.
That wasn’t his position, but right now he wanted to get out of the cold and have a rational meeting. His father had made it clear he didn’t want attention drawn to this situation. That’s all he had to do. Get her to stop this, and he could go back to his life in Los Angeles.
What life?
“Sure,” Henry agreed, lying through his teeth.
There was nothing really to discuss. He was going to tell her to end her foolish protest or find somewhere else to work. It was as simple as that.
Dr. Brown lowered her sign. “Fine. I’ll go with you, and we can talk about this and see if we can come to some kind of resolution.”
“I’m giving you a drive?” he questioned as she marched past him toward the car.
“I walked here. My house isn’t far. We can go there if you’d like, but I figured you’d want to discuss things in the boardroom in the hospital. You know, exert power over your lackeys.”
What was her problem?
And now he understood why Mike was laughing and why his father was in such a tizzy and hadn’t wanted to deal with Dr. Brown himself.
Rock. Meet hard place.
“Fine,” he said through gritted teeth. “We’ll go to the hospital.”
She nodded. “You know, you really should be wearing a thicker coat. This is winter, after all.”
Henry clenched his fists.
Maybe this wasn’t going to be easy at all. He climbed into the back of the car while Mike helped Dr. Brown wrestle her sign into the trunk and then held the door open for her as she slid in.
She was still wearing her hat and scarf.
“You have the heat cranked in here,” she remarked.
“As you said. It’s winter.”
Dr. Brown pulled off her hat and a cascade of red hair tumbled out. He could hear the electric shock of static electricity, and some of her hair stood on end.
Then she unwound the scarf from around her face, and he was in absolute awe when he laid eyes on her.
Henry didn’t know quite what he’d been expecting, but he knew it hadn’t been someone so young. The Dr. Kiera Brown he’d been briefed on was not the person he thought she’d be.
He had expected a surgeon more around his father’s age, given her lists of accomplishments. Not this gorgeous, vibrant woman sitting in front of him.
Not someone so beautiful.
There was a zing of something, a spark that warmed his blood, even in the bitter cold. Something he hadn’t felt in a long time.
He’d been attracted to other women since Michelle, but it had been nothing like what he was feeling now. And that unnerved him.
“What?” she asked, noticing him staring at her.
“Your hair is standing on end.” Which wasn’t untrue. It was, and it was something he could focus on instead of her lips. Or instead of wondering how soft her hair was or how she tasted.
Pull yourself together.
She made a face and shrugged her shoulders. She pulled off her mitts and ran her slender fingers through her hair trying to tame it, but it just seemed to make it worse.
“So you’re the governor’s son,” she said, pulling back her hair and tying it.
“And you’re the thorn in my father’s side,” he remarked.
When Dr. Brown smiled, there was a glint of amusement in her eyes that Henry could only describe as mischievous. “I am, indeed.”
He was in trouble.
Big trouble.
* * *
Kiera had known that Governor Baker was sending in his son to deal with her today, and she didn’t care. That wasn’t going to stop her from her mission.
The board of directors and shareholders of Aspen Grace Memorial Hospital were threatening to tear it down and replace it with an elite facility that would cater only to the wealthy who came to ski and frolic in a winter playground, which was all very well, but what about the rest of the people in Aspen?
Those who lived here year-round.
Those who couldn’t afford the prices of the wealthy?
Lives were in jeopardy.
And she knew firsthand what a lack of medical care could do, especially when someone couldn’t afford it.
Her best friend, Mandy, the only family she had in the world, had been working for a nonprofit organization as a nurse. She didn’t have insurance, and when an accident left her paralyzed from the waist down all she could afford was an HMO who had botched her surgery. Kiera swore then and there that she would help those who couldn’t afford proper medical care. Just like her late mother.
Her mother had been addicted to drugs and unable to get the help she needed, and Kiera didn’t really remember her. Just snippets.
The only thing she recalled vividly was fear.
Her father, unable to cope with his own addiction had tried to be there for her, but more often than not she had been alone.
Scared.
Hungry.
Until one day her father had abandoned her in a diner in Colorado Springs.
Kiera swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat. She didn’t want to think about her parents.
Or her father.
Or the fact she hoped he’d come back one day.
It wasn’t logical.
What was logical was saving the hospital. She had to be strong. She couldn’t get emotional in front of the governor’s son.
She had to be strong. The clinic was all that mattered.
She might be a surgeon in the emergency department, but she gave as much spare time as she could to the free clinic that had started only because she had demanded it. She helped people like her parents and others that couldn’t afford health care.
That made her happy.
It kept her busy.
Now, because of greedy bureaucrats, everything was threatened.
Aspen Grace Memorial Hospital was in danger and she was the only person trying to save it. She wasn’t unfamiliar with fighting the good fight.
She’d done marches on Washington.
She’d stood up for the rights of people who were marginalized, as much as she could. And she’d taken a minor in social justice at college.
; The biggest problem was getting more people on board with saving Aspen Grace Memorial, and it frustrated her. She didn’t have the best people skills, and she had a hard time trusting, but she wasn’t going to let that stop her.
The chief of surgery was on her side, to an extent, but she was the only one out there in her free time picketing, handing out flyers and attending planning meetings at city hall. Yesterday, she’d been down in the dumps thinking that it wasn’t working. Today she felt better now that she was sitting next to Governor Baker’s son.
She was getting noticed.
This was the traction she needed.
Do you think all this protesting is wise? Mandy had asked, wheeling herself up to the dining room table where Kiera was working on her sign.
I think so. It’s worth it. They want to shut down Aspen Grace Memorial and build some expensive, private hospital. Only the wealthy tourists will be able to afford medical care there.
There are other hospitals, Mandy had stated gently.
With the death of Aspen Grace Memorial comes the death of the free clinic. None of the other hospitals have our free clinic.
Mandy had sighed. I get that you’re doing this for me. You don’t have to.
It’s not just for you.
Mandy’s expression had softened. Your mom?
And your dad. She brushed a tear away. It’s not right. He helped others and no one helped him. He couldn’t afford to keep up his practice and pay for his cancer treatments.
He never did tell me he was so sick, Mandy had said sadly.
He didn’t want to burden us.
I would’ve helped him, Mandy whispered.
So would I.
That had touched Kiera’s nerve. It was guilt. Kiera had been off working in Denver. At a hospital that had paid her a lot of money. Growing up poor, growing up in the system, the money had blinded her.
She didn’t have so much time for Mandy or Wilfred back then. All that had mattered was work and money.
Mandy had been her only family and vice versa. Mandy had stayed in Aspen where they grew up, in her late father’s home. She had worked as a nurse and was going to start work with Doctors Without Borders. Until the accident. Until the gunshot that had paralyzed her.
If Kiera had been there, she could’ve had Mandy sent to Denver or to a neurosurgeon who could’ve done a better job than the HMO did and maybe, just maybe, Mandy would be walking still. If she had been there, she would have paid for better care for Wilfred.
Kiera hadn’t been there because she’d been greedy and working in Denver.
And for that, yeah, she felt guilt.
He didn’t tell either of us, Mandy had said. He was stubborn. Don’t feel guilty. Although you never listen to me.
Kiera had smiled and Mandy had taken her hand.
This isn’t guilt, Kiera had said quickly. This is the right thing to do.
Kiera shook the memory from her head. It made her emotional. Again that pesky lump formed in her throat, and she was quick to swallow it down and get control of her emotions again.
You’re strong. Remember that.
Mandy would be impressed that she’d gotten attention from the governor. Even though it actually wasn’t Governor Baker himself, it was his son.
Still, it was something.
She’d gotten under the shareholders’ skins.
The only thing she hadn’t counted on was how handsome Dr. Baker actually was. She had imagined someone different. Like those rich stuffed-shirt bureaucrats she usually dealt with. It had taken her by surprise to see him standing there. Her heart had skipped a beat and her blood had heated.
He made her nervous.
He made her feel naked and exposed, which was unsettling. She didn’t like attention. And she had a hard time with feelings of attraction.
She’d suffered enough broken hearts from people who had abandoned her in her life. She usually just locked those feelings away.
It was safer.
She was better off on her own.
Are you?
When Kiera glanced at him, he was looking at her, which sent a shiver, a zing of something down her spine.
He had dark brown eyes that seemed to see right through any kind of facade, and that was unnerving. He had perfectly coifed hair and he was incredibly tall. She pegged him at six foot three, minimum, and she was five foot nine. The way he looked at her made her sweaty and anxious.
Like when she stood out in a crowd. She always hated that. She preferred to stay out of the limelight. It was how she had learned to survive bouncing from place to place after her mother died and her dad had tried to stay clean and keep a job.
Only he never could.
She tried to blend in, be unseen so he wouldn’t get angry at her. And when she was in the system, with other kids, she had remained quiet and hidden. It was easier.
At school and at work, she stayed in the background so people would never use her or hurt her. She knew how to survive.
The one time she had let someone in she’d fallen head over heels in love with Brent.
They had been colleagues and then something more.
She had never before let any man into her heart.
And then he had crushed it.
He had cheated on her and left her.
Abandoned her.
She’d learned her lesson then.
Never again.
Still, the way Dr. Henry Baker looked at her, like he saw her. He made her tremble with something she had never felt before.
Why are you thinking about how handsome he is? Get control of yourself.
Henry was the kind of guy she used to date before she found out that the men she typically dated didn’t really care for the same things she did. The respectable kind of guy that would never fail you or abandon you didn’t seem to exist.
She had thought dating men like Dr. Henry Baker, who were educated, would mean they would be interested in the same issues she was. She didn’t want a man like her father, who had abandoned her and was only interested in partying.
She’d been sorely mistaken.
Men like Henry couldn’t be trusted, either. Brent had taught her that.
When she had left her high-paying job for Aspen, she had expected Brent to follow her, take up the causes she was so passionate about. Instead, he took up with someone else. Someone younger.
Someone who had adored him and hung on to his every word.
It had hurt, and she had become disillusioned with men, but she wasn’t going to give up on helping others. Her foster father, the only decent man she had ever known, had taught her that.
Men like Dr. Henry Baker were usually embarrassed by her marches on Washington and her need to be involved in helping those less fortunate, but Kiera was undaunted, so she just stopped dating and focused her time on taking care of Mandy, Mandy’s grumpy cat, Sif, and saving lives.
That’s what gave her the ultimate fulfillment.
Did it?
Henry was all wrong for her. He’d be like Brent, not interested in the things she was. Only she couldn’t remember having such a strong physical pull toward Brent.
She hated the way her body was reacting being around Henry.
She hated imagining what it would be like to run her hands through the dark brown curls that had just a touch of gray at the sides.
To nibble that strong jawline.
You just met him!
She shook the thoughts away. They’d just lead to trouble and she didn’t want trouble.
Yes, you do.
It depended on the trouble and it had been some time since she had felt anything other than numbness. Kiera knew then and there she had to put some distance between her and Henry.
She had to focus.
“So, I’m looking forward to hearing
what your father has to say about AGMH and the status of the free clinic. You’re obviously here to negotiate.”
His eyes narrowed. “No. I’m not here to negotiate.”
“What?” she asked, annoyed. “You said that you were. That’s why I left the construction site. You wanted to talk to me about terms.”
“This isn’t some kind of union disagreement. You were alone out there.”
“So? If you’re not willing to discuss things with me, then you need to stop the car and I’ll walk back.” She picked up her beanie and jammed it on her head.
He rolled his eyes. “I do want to talk with you, Dr. Brown, but I’m not here to negotiate anything.”
She’d heard enough. She was fuming and with the way her cheeks were suddenly hot, she knew they were bright red with anger. That always happened when she got mad. People might mistake it for humiliation, but, really, she was just furious.
“Mike, can you stop the car?” she asked. She knew the governor’s personal driver well as he lived in Aspen, and whenever the governor was there, Mike wasn’t far behind.
“Sure thing, Dr. Brown.” Mike flipped on his turn signal to pull over.
“Mike, don’t stop the car,” Henry ordered.
“Mike, stop the car.” Kiera glared at Henry.
“I have to stop the car, Dr. Baker. You don’t live here, and I don’t want to be on the bad side of the best surgeon in Aspen,” Mike said. “I’ve got to listen to her.”
Henry snorted. “Best surgeon?”
If she was a teapot or some kind of cartoon-like character, Kiera was pretty sure there would be steam shooting out of her ears.
Privileged much? Who did this guy think he was?
The car pulled over and she glared at Dr. Baker. “Thank you for the interesting ride, but I think I’ll head back to continue what I was doing.”
“No, wait.” Henry rolled his eyes and reached out, leaning over her and grabbing her hand to keep it from opening the door. His hand was strong and warm on her cold skin. His body, pressed against her, caused her heart to skip a beat. It caused a rush of something, and this time her cheeks heated for another reason. One she didn’t find particularly comfortable.
“Why should I stay here? What’s the point? You already told me you weren’t interested in listening to me, so why shouldn’t I go?”