Chapter 24
Chapter Twenty-Four
May’s entire body was deliciously sore after the wild night with Ace.
Oddly enough, a sober Ace Osprey was more dangerous than a tipsy one.
The edge in him had come out full force, steady and focused, and she hadn’t been prepared for that version of him.
Heat crept up her neck at the memory. She gently rubbed the slight hickey there as she moved exam rooms, the clinic’s hallway humming with fluorescent lights above her.
Lance had already cleaned up after she’d stitched up another fisherman who had taken a lure to the forearm.
It had been a wildly crazy morning of tourists and some locals, the waiting room full of sunburned faces and complaints about stomachaches.
The fishing season always did this. People came in thinking Alaska was a wilderness they could conquer. Alaska disagreed.
“I think there’s a flu going around,” she said to Lance, who was finishing wiping down the counter with a bleach concoction she favored. The scent hung in the air, clean and biting.
“Yeah, I know. My mom has it,” Lance said, turning around and yawning widely. “Has Ivy been in yet?”
“I haven’t seen her,” May said. It was odd. Ivy was never late. Never careless. May glanced toward the small office down the hall where Ivy usually kept her bag tucked beneath the desk. “I called her, but there wasn’t an answer.”
“She looked like she was drinking pretty hard last night when I popped by the bar to fetch the senator’s party to go fishing.” Lance looked tired today, with ruffled hair and wrinkled jeans beneath a black T-shirt.
May leaned against the doorframe for a moment, letting the cool metal press into her shoulder blades. So far there wasn’t anybody who needed her immediate attention. “How did it go, anyway?”
“It was all right.” Lance shrugged. “That guy’s kind of a jerk if you ask me. He’s the only senator I’ve ever met. What a loser.”
May arched a brow. “Oh?”
“He talked about you a lot and asked tons of questions.”
A thin thread of tension pulled through her. She pushed away from the doorframe and slid her hands into the pockets of her lab coat. “What kind of questions?”
“Like he wanted to know all about you and Ace Osprey. How long you’ve been dating. If it’s serious. Who you dated before him.” Lance twisted his lip. “All personal stuff about you.”
May stared at the counter for a beat, at the faint scratch in the laminate she’d meant to fix months ago.
The memory of the night before flickered through her again, Ace’s hands steady, his mouth warm against her skin, the way he’d looked at her afterward.
Dangerous, yes. But not a jerk like the senator.
“Did you tell him anything?” she asked quietly.
Lance snorted. “No. I told him it wasn’t any of his business.”
Good. Still, her stomach chilled. Kyle asking questions about her and Ace didn’t sit right, especially if Kyle was serious about causing problems for the town with Brock as the sheriff. She crossed the room and straightened a stack of gauze that didn’t need straightening.
She checked the clock on the wall. The second hand ticked forward, steady and indifferent. Ivy should’ve been at work by now. May reached for her phone on the counter, debating whether to try calling again.
It was after ten in the morning. The clinic had settled into that mid-morning lull when the early rush was over but lunchtime hadn’t hit yet. “What time did you guys get back from fishing?”
“Around six this morning,” Lance said. “We caught tons of good fish though.”
“Yeah?”
Lance yawned. “I took some home to my mom, but she ain’t feeling good, as I said.”
“Does she need me to come out and see her?”
“Nah. She says it’s just a cold so far, but if there’s a bad bug going around, I may bring her in tomorrow. We’ll see.”
May stepped farther into Exam Room Two, checking the supply drawer out of habit. “You didn’t have to come in this morning. You need sleep, Lance.”
“I’m good. I slept in the plane on the ride back, and I’m young. I’ll head home and take a nap after Ivy gets here,” Lance said.
Ah, to be young again. “I’m sorry you got stuck with Kyle.”
“I can’t believe you dated him, Bruh,” Lance said, shaking his head. “I mean, Ace, I get for sure.”
“Oh yeah?” May asked. “Why’s that?”
Lance’s gaze drifted toward the photograph of Dalika River she had framed and hung on the far wall. “He’s cool.”
May rested her hip against the counter, pretending she wasn’t interested in the answer. “Yeah?”
“I mean, yeah, he’s had trouble getting back up in a plane, but we all know he will at some point. For now, he helps out around town, and I don’t know.” Lance pursed his lips, obviously giving it some thought. “It seems like he gets in fights a lot, but not really.”
“What do you mean, not really?” she asked, curious.
Lance grinned. “People mess with him, and he usually takes them down pretty quick without hurting anybody. On purpose. If you ask me, I think he really could.”
May had noticed that the night before when he’d easily handled poor Brad. There’d been control there. Precision with just enough force to end it.
She’d already called the station earlier and found out that Brock had taken Brad up to a family member’s place in the mountains. Once again, she wished Brad would let her find a rehab place for him, but it appeared he just wasn’t ready.
“Though I bet Ace will end up in the sky flying soon,” Lance said.
The clinic felt too quiet again. “I think Ace will fly again, too.” May believed that. The thought of him grounded forever didn’t fit.
“There’s more to Ace than just flying and helping out the town with wood, anyway,” Lance said.
She looked at him. “Yeah?”
“All of the Ospreys are pretty cool, but Ace just has a way of making people feel comfortable and safe, you know?” Lance noted.
May didn’t answer right away. Comfortable and safe. Those weren’t small things. “That’s true.”
“I mean, that’s why all the widows ask for his help. How many cords of wood do you think he’s already chopped?” Lance asked.
“Just this year? I couldn’t count how many,” she chuckled.
“I think they pay him in cookies.” She had found that endearing, if she was honest. The image of Ace hauling logs, sleeves shoved up, accepting a tin of oatmeal raisin in exchange fit him better than some of the other stories that followed his name.
She looked down at her phone. No calls. No texts.
Where the heck was Ivy? Enough was enough.
She’d let thoughts of Ace distract her long enough already, and she couldn’t concentrate now. “I’m getting worried about Ivy.”
“Me, too,” Lance agreed, his dark eyes somber.
The morning had been so busy May hadn’t really had time to think about it. Now the quiet pressed in, and she had to find her friend.
“Do you want me to go out to her place?” Lance asked.
Concern ticked through May. “She has to be okay,” she said, more to herself than to him.
“I’m sure you’re right that she partied pretty hard last night.
She was drinking margaritas.” Still, she dialed Ivy again and held the phone to her ear.
It rang and then went to voicemail. Screw it.
“Do you mind heading out there? It’s quiet here, and I could spare you for a while. ”
“Sure,” Lance said easily. “If you want, I can pop by Hittie’s and get us some snacks on my way back. She’s got new muffins.”
“All right. Just put it on the clinic’s account. I’ll pay for it.”
He grinned. “I was hoping you’d say that.”
“I know,” she said, trying to keep the levity. “I’m going to check on Nate and Annie’s baby and then discharge them.”
“Oh yeah. Did they ever name her?” Lance loped toward the door. “Last I heard she didn’t have a name.”
“Yeah, they named her Elsa.”
“Elsa from Frozen? I guess we live in the area for it.” Lance rolled a mint around in his mouth. He paused in the doorway. “You want kids, Doc?”
May blinked. She was used to his subject changes, but that one caught her off guard. “Yeah. Someday. Don’t you?”
“I guess. Not right now.”
“You’re young and have tons of time,” she said. The hallway felt longer than usual as she stepped into it, her shoes whispering against the tile. She might as well walk with him to the door. “Have you settled on plans after you finish college?”
“That’s a few years away, probably. I’d like to go on tour with my band,” he said. “But my mom’s not really on board with that, considering I’m studying business. I may open my own here in town.”
May glanced at her phone again. Still nothing from Ivy. The silence felt louder now. “You could do both, couldn’t you?” Man, she was going to miss him.
He considered it. “Yeah. I guess.”
They reached the door and she opened it for him. “Drive carefully.”
“All right. I’ll call you as soon as I yank Ivy out of bed. I bet she’s just hungover.”
“Thanks. I appreciate it,” May said, unable to shake the unease creeping higher inside her.
She waited until he drove away before heading toward the shared door with the hospital, anxious to see that cute baby again.
She moved into the hospital and walked down a sparkling clean hallway, pausing near the hospital room door where Annie rested with her baby.
A soft murmur drifted from inside. Life. Small and fragile and stubborn.
Hopefully Ivy was just really late getting to work. That had to be it.