Chapter Three
“H ey, sis, how’s it going?”
Deirdre looked up from her office desk. Her younger—but not smaller—brother had arrived early for the Thursday morning seven a.m. district trauma committee meeting. “Busy. The usual. How are the babies doing?”
Mav rolled his eyes as he shrugged out of his labeled navy EMS jacket. “Eating me out of house and home as usual.” He loved those motley sled dogs.
Deirdre did too, though nowadays, she never seemed to have time to take them out for a run.
He continued. “Before you ask, I’m fine to handle this weekend’s guest arrival. There is only one couple coming in, and I don’t have any EMS shifts.” His mouth twisted in a rueful expression. “Not sure what outdoor activities the visitors will want to do. Snow’s melting, mud’s growing. Hope they don’t mind getting a little messy.”
Deirdre nodded as she shoved her heavy-duty XTRATUF boots under her desk. She’d clean the silty wet clumps on the floor before the environmental services staff gave her the stink eye. Ugh. Mud season. Almost as fun as mosquito season, which followed a few months later.
Pivoting in the chair, she slipped on leather pumps appropriate for work. As she stood, Deirdre snagged the black cardigan on the back of her office chair and shrugged it over her beige button-down shirt, all while she glared at her brother.
Going from practical outdoor gear to professional was magical transformation at its finest. “I wasn’t going to grill you about your preparations, Mav. I know you have it handled.”
“Hey, just covering my bases with a micromanaging older sister. Anticipating fifty questions and all.”
“I’m not that bad. Or that much older.” She sputtered. “I want to help out with the lodge, though. Do my part in the business.”
“As long as you can pinch hit when I’m unavailable, come visit the babies from time to time, and help cover the costs of various repairs and improvements, then that’s enough.”
She frowned at the clods of mud her brother was shedding from his black EMS work boots as they exited her office. “With Tuli’s social media boost, bookings are up. It’s nice to see the lodge business moving in the right financial direction for a change.”
“Not like it could have gone much further in the other direction. It’s a relief, though. Mom and Dad would be proud of us.” He rubbed his chin, a mischievous glint in his eye. “Speaking of making Mom and Dad proud…”
Oh, no. Not Mav. She opened her mouth to veer the conversation in a safer direction, but she wasn’t fast enough.
“I heard you saw Dr. Garrett.”
“Calvin? Sure. We ran into each other.”
“Literally, huh.”
Billy. She shook an imaginary fist at the sky. If only that busybody would use his powers for good instead of evil.
Straightening, she laughed the story off like it was no big deal. “Nothing like spilling an entire cup of hot coffee on another person to remind us why we’re friends. Just like old times.”
“Friends?” Poke. “Old times?” Poke, poke.
Mav might be thirty-four—only two years younger than her—but he was a master of pushing her buttons. Deirdre stiffened her spine. She was having none of the teasing by her younger brother.
Stopping dead in her tracks in the empty admin hallway, she crossed her arms. “Friends.” She pinned Mav with what she hoped was her scariest human-resources-about-to-make-a-performance-improvement-plan expression.
“Well, there are worse things to be,” he mumbled.
She didn’t believe his mildly chastened act for a minute. “Come on now, don’t dig for gold that isn’t there. I don’t have time for this. Don’t you have enough going on with your own social life to occupy you?”
“Speaking of digging for gold, no word from that asshole speculator from a month back?”
“Good riddance,” she said. “Oh, hey, did you receive the USGS survey paperwork for us to file?”
He nodded. “Should be here today or tomorrow. I’m not letting anyone else take another swing at our land ever again.” He faced her with a gleam in his eyes and patted his chest. “Did you like how I changed subjects? You thought I was distracted by a new topic, and you were off the hook. Wrong. Now I’m back.”
Damn.
He continued, “Here’s the deal. If I can find time in my busy schedule to court Lee, then you could find time to get out there socially as well.”
“First of all, I’m an administrator here at the hospital. It’s important that I remain professional.”
“Sis, I’m dating Dr. Tipton, and we keep things strictly professional in the workplace.” He grinned from ear to ear. “And strictly un professional outside of the workplace.”
Deirdre clapped her hands over her ears. “No. Please, no. I don’t want to know the details of my brother’s personal life. Dammit to hell, I’m going to have to bleach my eardrums if you keep talking.”
He lifted his chin, as if tempting her with a target. “All I’m saying is, it’s healthy to date. It’s not hard to date. It’s not wrong to date. Dating might be good for you.” Waving the arm that wasn’t holding his jacket, he motioned around them. “Yes, we are in the middle of nowhere. Yes, it’s a small community. But people understand that work and personal lives can overlap. Even the lives of, say, a hospital administrator and an ED doc.”
Meeting and dating someone, she could tolerate that—even with the small-town microscope.
But the worst-case scenario? Breaking up? Deirdre didn’t have enough of a stiff upper lip to face the town’s dissection of the emotional fallout. Too many times in her painful past, she had suppressed raw emotions while presenting the veneer of nothing to see here . No way would she risk that pain of public assessment again.
“Mav, you’ve made a lot of assumptions.” Walking slowly toward the meeting room with him keeping pace, she said, “Listen, Calvin walked away from Yukon Valley and from Elijah’s and my friendship years ago. The only time he came back was when Elijah’s impending death forced him to return. Now he’s here because of his parents, then he’s gone again.”
Mav bumped her shoulder with his. “In the meantime, you could still have fun, right?”
First of all, the thought of having that sort of fun again? The idea hit her like a kick to the gut. Her husband had died five years ago, and he’d been ill for a year before that. Basic math demonstrated that it had been a long time since she had had that kind of fun.
Taking matters into her own hands, so to speak, worked, but it only got a gal so far.
She and Calvin having fun? She gulped and tried to ignore a hot zing of excitement that arrowed straight down to her… fun… center.
Nope. Not having this conversation right now. Not thinking those thoughts right now.
Deirdre spun and stretched to as close to her five-foot, six-inch frame as she possibly could, wishing that her laser glare could burn the smirk off of Mav’s face. “You seem like a busy guy, what with being EMS director and running a tourist business. Not much time for anything else.”
“Um.” His light brown eyebrows drew together.
“So why don’t you focus on Mav’s life, and I’ll work on Deirdre’s life. Got it?”
“But—”
“Got. It.” She maintained eye contact as she put her hand on the door handle.
He dropped his shoulders, defeated. “Sis, you’re kind of scary. You know that, right?”
Deirdre growled at him, opened the door, and flounced into the meeting room. She stumbled mid-flounce, rocking back on her heels.
Calvin sat on the other side of the rectangular table in his ubiquitous scrubs and what appeared to be the freshly washed Patagonia vest. He shuffled the pages of the meeting minutes on the wood laminate tabletop and shot her a brief smile that froze as her leftover glare at Mav caused collateral damage to all in attendance.
Deirdre sucked in a deep breath and pasted what she hoped was a neutral, pleasant, and professional expression on her face. She pulled out a chair, planted her feet flat on the floor, and consciously unclenched her hands, resting them on the boardroom table. There, all better.
Mav took a seat at the head of the table and winked at Deirdre, triggering another prickle of irritation down her spine.
If fratricide wasn’t a crime, Deirdre would have committed it multiple times over by now.
“Not enough coffee this morning,” she mumbled. Someone snorted. Probably Mav. “Let’s get started on our agenda.” She shook off the equilibrium-shifting surprise of Calvin’s presence.
Of course he was here. Given that he was the only emergency medicine physician on staff, albeit temporarily, he would have been asked to participate on the trauma committee. His insight and experience could be valuable to the group’s work of continuously improving the emergency health needs of the community.
Deirdre asked each person to introduce themselves. The emergency department nurse manager, the CEO, and the chief of staff Dr. Burmeister, all greeted Calvin.
Tulimak Sampson, fire chief for the Yukon Valley service district and part-time deli employee at Three Bears, rolled through the door not missing a beat. He greeted everyone as he sat down and introduced himself to Calvin. “Nice to see you again, Doc.”
“Again?” Calvin said.
“You were a big shot high school senior when I was in third grade. Surprised you don’t remember me. I was scrawny and pestered everyone .” Tuli paused while several chuckles died down. “Any objection to being part of my various social media campaigns? I know, I know.” He waved toward the group, pursed his lips, and intoned, “Not in the hospital unless authorized by the public relations department.” He closed one eye and looked at the ceiling. “Do we have one of those departments?”
“I think Deirdre is that department,” Calvin deadpanned.
Tuli made a face. “Uh-oh.”
Calvin pulled his head back. “What’s this about the social media campaigns?”
Mav gestured. “Tuli here is single-handedly putting Yukon Valley on the map and boosting tourism. He’s doing it by going viral.”
“Viral? Hopefully, it’s not contagious,” Calvin said with a half-smile that made Deirdre’s heart stutter.
“Only in a wholesome way.” Tuli took his phone and buffed it on his fire department uniform dark button-down shirt before stowing it in his chest pocket. “I’m not aware of any public health risk from my Instagram account.” He shot a sideways look at Deirdre. “No patient information is ever shared in anything I do.”
“I don’t understand the social media angle,” Calvin said.
Deirdre pointed to Tuli. “This guy leveraged every single follower on his social media accounts to save our family’s lodge.”
“Wow,” Calvin replied. “That’s impressive. How’s that involve the hospital?”
“We’re in need of more medical staff, and Tuli has the attention of thousands of adventurous social media fans, some of whom work in healthcare.” Anna Smits, the fifty-something CEO, steepled her fingers and shot the team an avid and calculating expression that was best labeled Strategic Recruitment Planning.
Tuli puffed out his chest. “It’s all in a day’s work.” He paused. “Hey, Mav, when am I getting a kickback for my efforts with the lodge? I should charge for my influencer services.”
“Anyway.” Deirdre shook her head as everyone laughed. “Now it’s really time for us to start our meeting.” Papers rustled and pens clicked as the group dove into the agenda items.
What should’ve been a boring meeting about statistics, case types, utilization trends, and budget was made more interesting by Calvin’s presence. He was the only emergency medicine specialized physician that currently worked at this hospital. The family physicians, including chief of staff Dr. Paul Burmeister, normally covered the ED when they were on call for the hospital. Given that they sometimes had to juggle laboring patients, clinic hours, and hospital admissions with stepping away to care for ED patients, the family docs were only too happy to have extra ED support for the next few months.
Deirdre studied the puffy bags under Dr. Burmeister’s eyes. Everyone worked way too hard at this hospital. All of the physicians and the staff oftentimes pushed their limits in terms of fatigue and skill. The hospital could hire several more physicians yet still keep everyone busy.
As the local EMS director, Mav finished out the meeting with his report. One ambulance needed repairs. EMS was also looking for more staff to fill shifts so that the current complement of medics didn’t have to work overtime. Or worse, to keep shifts from going uncovered.
What surprised her in the report was Mav’s mention that he might step back from EMS duties if the lodge’s business continued to grow. She hadn’t realized that he was thinking about it.
Good for him. Like Deirdre, Mav had buried himself in work when their parents had died. It was easier than dealing with grief. She knew how avoidance worked. After his efforts over the past few years, he had the local EMS service running smoothly and now the family lodge business was coming along.
What went unspoken was the other reason he wanted more personal time.
Deirdre was secretly jealous that her brother felt confident enough to set work boundaries and prioritize his personal life and his girlfriend, Lee. Deirdre glanced at Calvin across the table, and he gave her a quick wink. Heat flooded her chest.
If Deirdre truly had an exciting and meaningful personal life, or a family, or hobbies, would she throw herself into her job as much as she did right now? Maybe not, especially if that personal life occurred with one particular person. Her mouth went dry. Moot point.
This was her job. These people were her colleagues. She would continue giving 110 percent and also remain professional, regardless of how much of a tempting vision of a rich life that her brother’s example painted. Regardless of… any other potential temptations.
The meeting shifted to the Breakup Festival and staffing the hospice dunking booth. Anna asked for volunteers, but Deirdre kept quiet and rubbed her sweaty palms on her pants. Her pulse pounded in her head.
Water, ice breaking. Falling into the frigid water, even for a good cause and even with safety measures in place, was a no-go. A cold shiver worked its way into her bones. She couldn’t breathe. Her ears buzzed.
Breathe. Push it back. Breathe.
That damned cold wave of grief drowned her at the worst possible times.
Once she had a grip on her emotions, she glanced at Mav. He clearly had guessed why she had clammed up.
“They’re still having the Breakup Festival?” Calvin’s calm, mellow voice unfroze her.
She sat up straight and met his eyes, his expression thoughtful as he studied her, as if she needed a lifeline to draw her out of her watery grief.
Tuli piped up, “Yeah, and if you are quick about it, you can still place your bid for the exact time the ice breaks.”
The absolute last thing Deirdre wanted to do was guess when the damned ice would break.
He continued, “Bidding closes in a few days. The pot is up around fifteen thousand dollars!”
“That’s tempting.” Calvin gave a deep belly laugh, and Deirdre couldn’t help but smile in response. “I do have student loans to pay off.”
Anna leaned forward, almost wolverine-like in her focused expression. “I would be remiss in my job duties if I didn’t mention that there is a state funded student loan repayment program available for physicians. Every year you practice in an underserved area in Alaska, you get a chunk of your debt subtracted.”
Deirdre stared at the paper in front of her like she was cramming for a test. She peeked up at Calvin, who had a thoughtful expression on his face. Calvin here full-time? No way could she avoid him forever.
“Thanks for mentioning it, Anna. I’ll keep that in mind, although my plans are to return to Seattle.”
“I’m sure Bruce and Aggie would love for you to stick around,” Anna said, not giving up. “You’d have a job here.”
Deirdre tapped the table with her pen. “Are you ever not recruiting, Anna?”
The CEO primly tucked her shoulder-length gray hair back behind an ear. “I take any opportunity that presents itself. You never know when and where you might find great physicians.”
Calvin shifted in his seat as silence descended on the room.
“Anyway,” Deirdre jumped in, “let’s finish with any new agenda items. Our hour is nearly up.”
As they finished out the meeting, Calvin met Deirdre’s eyes and mouthed, thank you .