Читать книгу Craving Her Rough Diamond Doc - Amalie Berlin - Страница 9

THE PROSPECT OF six months in rural Appalachia pinched like a noose around Imogen Donally’s neck. Three months—four, tops—was how long she liked to stay anywhere. Six months may as well be six years.

Amanda was the only person she’d even consider such a request from, and then only because she hadn’t seen her in a couple of years and Amanda’s need was great. Her pregnancy had started smoothly, but a week ago there had been an incident and now Imogen’s best friend—her only long-standing friend—was on bed rest for her entire third trimester. Single motherhood was hard enough without those kinds of complications. She needed help. In that perspective, six months wasn’t so long, right? Less time than gestation…

She took a deep breath and engaged all-terrain on her four-wheel drive, eyeing the deeply trenched gravel drive supposedly leading to the forested mountain home of Dr. Wyatt Beechum, Amanda’s cousin and boss—owner of a modern medical oddity: his family practice was housed on a bus.

This looked like the right place. Unless the hand-painted numbers nailed to a tree meant something other than the street address. Amanda’s directions were written in her usual wandering fashion: mentioning every landmark along the way. Mile markers on the road. The number of bridges she’d cross. And Imogen’s personal favorite—indications of where things used to be. As if Imogen had any clue where things used to be around there. She wasn’t even sure she could find things where they were currently located.

And yet, when asked for the insights into Wyatt that Imogen needed to plan her approach with him, the usually talkative Amanda had been tight-lipped. Recently returned home for his father’s funeral after years and years away. Lost his mother and brother when he was young. The traveling clinic was in danger of losing funding. Sad stuff, but not very telling. None of it especially helpful. So it came down to charm and playing it by ear. Her plan was simple: find the doctor; charm the doctor; and get him to let her cover Amanda’s maternity leave.

He needed a nurse to help keep his two-person traveling practice going, so he should be happy to agree. Easy-peasy. Just as soon as she drove up this creepy, dirty, graveled incline into a dense forest.

She reached for her phone. No signal. No double-checking the location with Amanda.

This dark forest drive was probably quite normal for the area. Every new place required a certain amount of adjustment. She just needed to acclimatize. Nothing scary waited at the other end. No crazy hillbillies with too much moonshine and chainsaws awaited her. Just a man. A normal man. A doctor, she hoped. She could handle one measly doctor. No problem.

She got a run at the incline. Better she stalk him here than at work. The car bounced up the path, now and then hitting potholes large enough to jar the fragile glass mementos packed in the back. Not hard enough to break them. They were okay. Not that any sane person should be so attached to cheap trinkets.

Six months from now, she’d get back on the road and life would return to normal. Any time she stopped moving too long, someone expected her to stay forever. Imogen couldn’t do forever. Besides, that wasn’t going to happen this time. She and Amanda had lived together all through college, and they had both survived parting. If only the world had more Amandas.

Dr. Earp, as she’d come to think of him, should be glad she was willing to head down to Banjoland to help out. Excellent nurses available on twelve hours’ notice were hard to come by.

A shiny black pickup sat in front of an old blue school bus with curtained windows. Someone lived here, or was here at least. Beyond it, she could see the beginning stages of a cabin. It was only a few logs high, but connected to a beautiful riverstone chimney.

Praying the rise in elevation had given her a signal, she reached for her cellphone again. She’d even take one stupid bar. Was it too much to ask for enough connection to send a text? Apparently.

She killed the engine, checked her hair to make sure she looked fairly presentable, and climbed out. Behind the cabin, lying parallel to one another up the slope, were several long straight trees. As she rounded the bus, a man came into view, looking all sorts of rugged and manly. Black hair, disheveled and longer than the white-collar type she had been expecting. Worn blue jeans. Work boots. White T-shirt. Handsome. And tall. Very tall. With safety goggles.

Which was when she noticed the chainsaw.

The man jerked the cord to send the blade whirling and angled it into one of the logs. Wood chips flew everywhere as he made a series of shallow cuts, and Imogen went unnoticed. Must be the safety goggles obstructing his vision.

Not emotionally ready to approach a big mountain man with a chainsaw, Imogen occupied herself by checking her presentability again in the dusty bus windows—which seemed more important now that she’d seen this broad-shouldered man with a chainsaw. Streaks of pink in her pale blonde hair stood out like beacons. Out of place. Oh, well, maybe it’d make her exotic. And after the hot contractor told her where she could find Wyatt, he could take her out for drinks and help her pass the next six months.

And maybe he could also explain to her why she could see a bed and old console television between the gaps in the bus curtains.

The outrageously loud buzzing quit, drawing Imogen’s attention back to the rugged outdoorsman. “Hello?”

No answer. Instead, he took his shirt off, balled it up and used the wad of material to brush from his corded bronze arms the tree shrapnel he’d created with the chainsaw.

Probably not Wyatt. That tall, broad-shouldered man with the back of a chiseled god could not be him. The only doctors she’d seen with their shirts off had been pasty and usually somewhat pigeon-chested. The profession didn’t naturally lend itself to buffness. Probably why she always ended up with the rough-and-tumble lot. They looked good, and were rarely given to the deep, soul-baring conversations you started building forever on. Imogen knew that road. Dead end. Full of potholes. Kind of like the road on which she’d just driven up the mountain.

She started up the incline, which got his attention. Their eyes met through the scratched plastic protecting his eyes. That probably should’ve made the experience less exhilarating, but Imogen found herself smiling like an idiot and resisting the urge to toss her hair and add extra wiggle to her walk. “I’m looking for Dr. Wyatt…something. You’re not Wyatt, are you?”

He extracted earplugs and stuffed them into his back pocket. “What do you want?”

Well, that was a crappy greeting. But that’s okay. With those shoulders, Tall, Dark and Cranky could work for her. “I’m looking for Wyatt Beechum…B. E. E. C. H….Actually, I don’t know how it’s spelled.”

He dropped the now still chainsaw to his side, letting it dangle as he impatiently spelled “Beauchamp” for her then repeated, “What do you want?” Hot contractor had bad people skills.

And might not be the contractor.

“I don’t think that’s right. That’s all…French and whatever. This is like the tree, maybe? Beechum.”

“That’s how it’s said around here,” Likely Wyatt muttered. “Guess no one saw fit to modify the spelling.”

“Oh. Well, I’m Imogen, a friend of Amanda’s.” She stuck out one hand and approached, ready to shake and be friendly.

“I know. My cousin is a picture hoarder. Has you in several on her walls.” He looked at her hand, but didn’t shake it. Which was better than being chainsawed at least—which might be the only way she’d feel less welcome. She could only pray his bedside manner was better.

“I’m going to assume you’re Wyatt and not another cousin lurking about.” On the plus side, working with him would give her plenty of time to convince him to show her the sights. And anything else he wanted. He was taciturn enough that he didn’t seem inclined to long talks about his hopes, dreams, and future two point five children. She could just pretend he was mute as long as his shirt was off.

“I told her this morning you should’ve called before wasting the gas.”

“Okay.” Her nose wrinkled and she paused, needing a mental kick to get her back on the reason for her visit. “You filled the position already?”

“No, but you can’t help me.”

“I’m a good nurse.” She started with business, seeking common ground.

“Amanda said as much. But you can’t be her replacement.”

“Her temporary replacement.” Imogen corrected that first, still smiling, though now with effort. “If you know I’m a good nurse, and your usual nurse recommended me, why do you say I can’t help you?”

He pulled off the goggles and laid them on the log he’d just notched. “No offense, but Amanda has the respect of the people we care for, and no matter how good you are at your job they won’t trust you and won’t be as open as we need them to be to get the best care.”

“Seems a little last century to me. You’re afraid I can’t take care of people because they speak with a different accent than I do?” She smiled, trying to cajole him. “I can do the accent if that’s seriously your hang-up.”

“Don’t try to do the accent.” He leveled a stern look at her, as if he could stare the words into her with those dark eyes. “You’re an outsider. You’ll never be someone they’ll identify with. I can’t use you.”

To buy time to think, Imogen walked the short distance to inspect the cabin walls. “You’re local. Can’t they just talk to you as a trustworthy insider, and I’ll follow your lead?”

“I’ve been gone a while. They’re not sure what to think of me yet.”

She tried a different tactic. “That’s not the bus, is it?” That ancient wreck wouldn’t inspire anyone to come and get healthy in it.

He didn’t say anything, just gave her another wilting look, then went about maneuvering the first log of the line.

“Good.” This really wasn’t working out the way she’d pictured, and she dearly wished he’d put his shirt back on. She never had trouble making friends. Everyone had some kind of common ground, the trouble was finding it. “Do you need help with that?”

“No.” He grunted the word more than spoke it, but, then, he was obviously exerting himself, wrestling a log to the cabin walls. The muscles across his shoulders and down his back bunched, momentarily wiping her mind of anything clever to say. “I don’t need anyone’s help with the cabin.” He didn’t stop working to talk, though he may have been slowed down by it.

“Go visit Amanda, your trip doesn’t need to be wasted.”

“Later.” She walked up the embankment as he continued with his logs. Once she stopped the lusty staring, some cognitive function returned. “Do you think you could put your shirt back on? Wouldn’t want you to lose a nipple in a tragic log-rolling accident.” She failed to suppress her natural cheekiness. Impulse control: sometimes she had it, sometimes she didn’t.

He smiled up at her—his first smile since she’d arrived—and immediately lost his balance, nearly falling. It took skill to regain his footing and keep the log from getting away from him.

Okay, she was cute. He didn’t want to like this pink-haired woman. Couldn’t afford to like her. Liking her would make him more likely to grant her request, and he needed to make all practice-based decisions with a clear head. He’d had his fill of do-gooder city doctors as a kid when Josh had been sick, and he’d sooner close the practice than have it turn into a professional pit stop for condescending outsiders. No matter how cute.

“I’ve been doing fine without the running commentary so far.” He’d also been doing fine without shapely tanned legs drawing his eye away from his work. Doing better, really. He changed position so she stood between him and the old blue bus. He never liked looking that direction, and the change made it easier to pay attention to what he was doing rather than to her legs.

“Okay.” Up until now, she’d been mostly good-humored about his refusal, but her continued presence said she wasn’t the type to go down without a fight. Strange that she and Amanda were such good friends—they couldn’t have been more different.

“I can see you want to get back to work,” Imogen said to his back, “so I feel obligated to point out that you can get rid of me very simply. Say you’ll let me work the next few months, and I’ll leave you to play with your big-boy building logs in whatever state of dress you like.”

She didn’t talk like a nurse. They were usually a little more cautious and obliging than this one. She really didn’t like being told no. That was tough. “Find a job in Piketon if you’re sticking around.” He got the log close to the cabin then used rope to muscle it into position.

“They don’t need me in Piketon. Like it or not, you do.” she moved into his line of sight again and propped her hands on her hips, looking more confident and at home on his mountain than she had any right to. “You can’t run your practice by yourself, and Amanda’s made it clear how uncertain its future is. Funding in jeopardy and all that business. She wants her job back when she’s able, and that means there needs to be a job for her to go back to.”

The cuteness was starting to wear off.

Wyatt dropped the rope and looked at her, keeping the bus at his back. Winter would be here before he knew it, and the cabin needed to be roofed before then or he might be staying in the blasted bus. That couldn’t happen, and wouldn’t if she’d go away. “Kicking up a fuss won’t win me over. Glad you came to help Amanda out, but you aren’t working for me.”

He briefly considered paying her to leave, anything to make her stop looking at the bus. Damn, that thing needed to be gone.

The fingers on her hips dug in and she looked from his chest to his neck, to his eyes, then off to the side. She was tall. Tall enough that even with his height and the additional elevation where he stood, she still came up to his chin. Must scrape six foot, this one. For some reason it pleased him to find her struggling with where to look at him.

“You’re not even going to give me a chance?” Her body language screamed discomfort, but she wasn’t backing down. Something else he didn’t want to like about her.

Maybe if she stuck around, in a couple weeks—after he hired someone—he’d visit and make amends. No matter how bad a fit, anyone who’d drop everything to run to the side of a friend in need deserved respect at least. “There’s no chance of this working.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I do, actually. I’ve seen this scenario play out many times when out-of-town medical professionals with good intentions come to help the backwoods mountain folk. I know you mean well…” Even when they’d spoken jargon they’d mistakenly assumed a child wouldn’t understand, he’d known they’d meant well. And he’d known how sick his brother had been. Good intentions never saved anyone.

“I do mean well.” She pushed her hands into her hair, dragging it back from her face as she finally looked back to his eyes. “Give me a chance. If I fail, fire me spectacularly and smooth over any feathers I inadvertently ruffle. I can give you references. I have more accreditations than you’d believe. I’ve worked in all kinds of different places. I can adapt.”

He shook his head once more and his answer finally took. With much muttering to herself, she stomped off down the hill. There wasn’t much he could make out, but the word “ass” came through loud and clear.

Probably fair. He heard the car door slam and the engine roar to life, and glimpsed her purple car before losing it in a cloud of dust that told him She was tearing down his mountain faster than was safe.

Purple four-by-four. Pink hair. She should work in some upscale cosmetic surgery center, not in a mobile clinic traveling through the neediest, most remote communities in the Appalachians. Sure, she might spend a couple weeks there doing charity work, especially if there was a mine explosion or some natural disaster, but she’d always go home before long.

Imogen definitely wouldn’t fit in, and she couldn’t even if she tried.

It was too bad. She looked fun to play with. At least, when she stopped talking.

Finding a place to turn around took forever. It was a good half hour before Imogen made it back up the fool’s mountain. She shouldn’t have let him run her off. Failure was not an option.

She marched straight for Wyatt and the look he gave her was a mixture of irritation and surprise. But his shirt was back on, thank God. It helped her keep the steam she’d built up in her aborted departure.

He opened his mouth to say something. She shushed him preemptively. “You just listen. I’m going to help you today. The only way you’re getting me off this mountain is by calling the cops. I’ll wear you down. I’m like…” She blanked, blinked, and hurried past it. “Something that wears people down.” Analogy failure wouldn’t stop her either. Imogen waved her gloves at him.

“Got my tire-changing gloves. Put on my boots.” She turned her foot out to show him those too. “If at the end of the day you can still say I’ll be no help, I’ll leave you alone.” And just as she got to the end of her tirade the analogy crystallized and she blurted out, “Water! I’m water. I’m so water, and I can move mountains if I keep at it. And you’re just like a mountain. All tall…and unmoving.”

“Okay, Water. It’s a nice offer, but—”

“But I can’t help you. You said that already,” Imogen cut in, trying to keep the shoulder-tensing frustration out of her voice. “Do you always make snap judgments about people?”

“I listen to my instincts.”

“And your instinct says?” She gestured impatiently for him to spit it out.

“Friendly. Cute. Unreliable. Insubstantial.”

Maybe she gestured too impatiently.

“Insubstantial? Good grief.” She retrieved a hairband from her pocket with such a rough touch it snapped her knuckles, the sharp sting wrecking her impulse-control efforts. People usually kept their masks polite, but Wyatt came at it backwards. If his mask was this surly and unpleasant, did it hide something worse?

Focus. His opinion only mattered as far as it affected her ability to cover Amanda’s leave. In six months she’d be gone and he wouldn’t matter anymore.

“Okay, give me a chance to prove I’m substantial enough to get the job done and then—as much as I think it’s ridiculous for a man to play with chainsaws all by himself in an area with no cellphone coverage—I’ll leave you in peace at the site of your future, accidental amputation.” Okay, so maybe she should’ve been trying harder to keep the frustration out of her words and been less worried about her tone.

“No.” Wyatt stepped over the stumpy wall and made for the logs again. “And no standing within fifty feet of the cabin.”

“You should wear gloves. Don’t you know doctors are supposed to have soft hands?” She thrust her gloves at him, refusing to abide by his fifty-foot decree. “Want mine? They aren’t seeing any use now.”

“I’m fine.”

With a grunt and a shake of her head Imogen dragged the gloves on and followed him. “I’ll help you by dragging the logs to the cabin, and you won’t have to wait so long to run your beloved chainsaw. Give me the rope.”

“No.”

Hadn’t the man figured out yet that she wasn’t going to leave until he said yes?

“It’s hard work. You’ll hurt yourself,” Wyatt added.

“The last place I worked was at a pediatrics unit.” She dropped her gloved hands to her hips, instantly aware of how stiff the gloves were. “Want to know what I learned there?”

“No.”

“Too bad! I’m telling you anyway.” Ass.

“You really don’t like being told no, do you?”

Wyatt actually chuckled a little then, but it was the kind of mirthless, superior man noise she noticed happening at those times the little woman tried to do man’s work—like learning to change spark plugs. Or move logs. Having drinks and passing the time with this man no longer sounded like much fun.

In fact, the urge to hurt him nearly overwhelmed her already limping impulse control. “I learned that if you want something and you’re told no, you should do other stuff that they don’t want you to do. Worse stuff. Until they reconsider your first, sensible request. Or you should just keep asking until they give up from exhaustion.”

He tied the rope around the notched end of the log and straightened, giving her a weird, almost amused look. “How often that work for you?”

“I’d say about three out of four times. People don’t like confrontation.” She amended, “Most people.”

“There’s nothing you can do on the mountain that will bother me enough to change my mind.” He looked at her a long moment then turned, pulling the rope over one shoulder to drag the former tree down to his cabin.

The man clearly had no idea how annoying she could be if she set her mind to it. She almost regretted him putting his shirt back on. Pine cones and prickly seedpods from the sycamores would be great for proving to him and his stupid amazing back how irritating she could be.

Imogen followed, barely resisting the urge to pelt him with prickly tree bits, her mind in a mad scramble for another way to handle him. Amanda didn’t want someone getting comfy in her job while she was away, and Imogen was the pit bull she’d chosen to turn loose on the problem.

But maybe she’d set this up wrong from the start when she’d made it sound like a request. He was under the illusion she was the one who would eventually give up from exhaustion. Or maybe firm but sensible would work where bratty and frustrated had failed.

“Please?” Please should help, at least a little. “I’m invested in this working,” She tried to keep her voice as level as possible—no easy task considering she was one of the people who generally avoided confrontation. Confrontation meant getting involved in subjects that caused big feelings and crossed lines she didn’t like to cross. “Give me a chance to prove myself. Or say yes. I’ll leave and see you tomorrow for work, Dr. Beechum.”

“So…” Wyatt looked her fully in the eyes, somehow making her feel short for once. A little intimidated. That’s the reason people liked to avoid confrontation. Uncomfortable. “Your offer to help move logs is to annoy me into saying yes to hiring you for the practice?”

“Um, no. Maybe that’s how it looks, but offering to help was not to annoy you.” Imogen rubbed her head with the still stiff rawhide glove. “That was a different plan to make you say yes. That plan involved showing you that I’m a quick learner.” She began ticking off fingers as she talked herself up, but the gloves were so stiff her ticking lost the pizzazz she’d hoped to muster. “I’m determined to make it work. I’ll work very hard to make it come out well for everyone, including your patients, Amanda, and even you.”

Wyatt looked at the gloves and back to Imogen’s face. Nice face, even all pink and angry like that. Her help—anyone’s help, really—was the last thing he wanted. If Josh had survived, they’d have been rebuilding together. As the last Beauchamp standing, the responsibility was his alone.

“You really are like erosion.” Exceptional at wearing things down. Absolutely relentless. “If it will make you shut up, go ahead. You won’t make it ten minutes, but move the logs if you’re able.” She wouldn’t be any help. Letting her wear herself out on a log might just get her out of his hair.

He grabbed the chainsaw and safety gear. Before starting it, he watched how she did with her first log. Stubborn woman. No way in hell was she going to get that thing moving without hurting herself.

The rawhide gloves she’d been bandying about looked to have never seen use. Still stiff and not a mark on them. She flexed her fingers a couple times to get them bending then mimicked what she’d seen him do earlier: turn, rope over the shoulder, then lean forward to pull. A few aborted tries and she choked up on the rope, which lifted the end enough to actually get it moving. Stronger than she looked, and smart.

The shorts were impractical for that kind of labor, but it let him see her legs flex from her calves all the way up to a plump little rear. Hard to look away from. Since he’d come home, Wyatt had resisted all the local attempts to fix him up. But now, with Imogen’s legs and rear distracting him…Swearing off dating since he’d come home might not have been the best decision.

Shake it off. Get back to work.

Imogen worked as long as she could. But even taking a break after every log, her whole body still hurt. Her shoulders screamed the loudest, like a foghorn warning her away from the dangers ahead. She had a new appreciation for packhorses and whatever farm animals had to do this in the olden days—before she’d been around to make stupid points about being a hard worker.

She flopped onto the ground where Wyatt marked more logs to cut, sprawling gracelessly on her back. “Okay. I admit it, this was a dumb idea.”

Wyatt chuckled, and it sounded like honest amusement this time. “They’re heavier than you’d think.”

“And I…” Her voice cracked. She swallowed and tried again. “Can’t remember what I was going to say.”

He pulled a watch from his pocket. “You’ve been at it a few hours. I need to make a call. Think you can make it to the ridge?”

“You want me to climb the mountain with you?” Oh, sure, now he wanted her to go somewhere with him. Now that she couldn’t move.

“Yes.”

For once he didn’t say no. If he were a puppy, Imogen would give him a treat. More yeses was what she wanted to encourage in him. Plus, hard workers didn’t lie down on the job, though they might ask for help to get up. She lifted one hand toward him. “If I fall, just cover me with leaves or something suitably survival-oriented.”

His hand was large and warm, and were she not exhausted, Imogen would’ve sworn her skin buzzed where his touched it. Distracting, and probably due to her poor, overworked hands having to grip that rope so hard for so long. Even if the universe was dead set on punishing her for her stubbornness, at least Wyatt seemed to have softened to her a little. Enough to be cordial, if nothing else.

Once she was upright, he released her hand, waited for her to get a drink, then started up the steep incline. A shorter stride and a slower pace said he was waiting for her to keep up, probably another nod to cordiality. The air no longer crackled with irritation, and Imogen wanted to keep it that way. She tried to move faster than she actually wanted to move: zero miles per hour.

When she resorted to using the trees to slingshot herself further up the incline, Wyatt backtracked and took her by the hand to haul her the rest of the way up the hillside. “Not in the mood to chase you down the hill when you start rolling, or to carry you to the hospital when you fall and crack your head open.”

“So gallant,” Imogen murmured, but she held fast to his hand—grateful not only for the assistance but for the distraction his touch provided. The sensation wasn’t buzzing, though it had a kind of vibration to it. It was more like an energy she couldn’t identify. Waves of tingly awareness raced up her arm and to distant, interesting parts of her body. Parts that now demanded more attention than her screaming muscles. If he could keep this Helpful Polite mask on, she might revisit that drink idea.

“Big step.” Wyatt dragged her attention back to climbing then took both of her hands in his and hauled her the remaining few feet, past the tree line to the grassy ridge.

When she was steady, he released her, fished out his cellphone and strolled a short distance away, leaving her to take in the view.

Imogen folded back onto the ground, her eyes tracing the contours of the rolling green hills that spread out in front of her. “Okay, the view was worth the hike on screaming limbs.”

“Thought it was a good reward.”

He sounded distracted. She glanced his way and watched him scowl at the phone in his hand. “Trouble?”

“Need a new one…” He tapped the screen a few more times and shook his head.

“Want mine? It’s the toughest of cellphones. Waterproof. Easy to use. When you can get a signal, that is.”

“Why do you have a waterproof cell?”

“Sometimes I get caught in the rain with the top off my car.”

He shook his head, but the small smile made it less judgmental. With her phone in his hand, he took a few steps away to make his call.

She should definitely take a picture when he got done. Also maybe take a picture of him and his whole chiseled-muscles thing. Hard. He was probably hard all over. If only he was less mentally hard. Short-sighted. Narrow-minded…

He was probably thinking the same thing about her. Which was fine. If it got her what she needed, he could think what he liked. She already had a friend, and one was plenty. The last thing she needed was to impress another member of Amanda’s family and have them start comparing notes on her. Or conspiring to make her stay.

He kept his voice low, but she could hear the tension in it as he spoke.

“So you have to climb a mountain to use a cellphone around here. Sort of negates the convenience factor.” Talking to herself, another sign she was tired, crazy, or that maybe it was time to give up. As she gazed over the scenic panorama, she caught a glimpse of something white in her peripheral vision. On a flat spot inside the trees down the ridge sat lots of big white blocks placed in a rectangle. She waited for him to hand back her phone and asked, “Did you start building up here first?”

“No…” He didn’t need to look where she was pointing to know what had roused her curiosity: the barrier wall surrounding the old family graveyard. She didn’t need to go there. Best leave that undisturbed. She disturbed enough on the mountain without turning her loose on the dead too. “That’s not a house foundation. You had enough of the view?”

“Picture, then I’m done.”

Having confirmed the agency couldn’t get a suitable replacement by tomorrow, he’d best consider whether or not to brave the week alone or give her the shot at the job she repeatedly demanded.

Wyatt waited at the trees for her to get the photo and rejoin him. Her feet dragged—not nearly as much bounce in her step as when she’d haughtily stormed his mountain—but she didn’t look so close to dropping as she had when he’d hauled her with him up the climb. “Need help?”

“No, I’m better.” Betterish, maybe. She stuffed her phone into her pocket and took the kind of deep breath a person did when about to attempt something requiring concentration.

He helped her off the first ledge-like step anyway, then let go. A few steps down and he turned to look back at her, needing reassurance she wasn’t going to fall after he’d worked her like a mule all afternoon. Her own fault, too stubborn to stop when it had got to be too much, but he’d feel bad if she got hurt because he’d let her exhaust herself. He’d never thought she’d actually pose a threat to his rule about the cabin or he’d just have put the earplugs back in. Why hadn’t that occurred to him earlier?

Was this what it would be like to let her work for him? Someone he’d always needed to keep an eye on wouldn’t be much help. As nurses were always in demand, it made them hard to get on short notice. Amanda’s opinion of Imogen counted for something, but he had to wonder if part of her support was just friendship or knowing how fast Imogen would be available. But in his experience, annoying and stubborn were easier to suffer than superior and condescending. Having her work for him might even make him look good enough by comparison that he’d become the one the patients opened up to, rather than his nurse.

His shoulder cracked against a tree, forcing him to look where he was going again. “If you need help, say something.”

“I will,” she called, her voice labored and breathy.

No, she wouldn’t. She’d set her mind on proving she could work herself half to death and suffer no ill-effects. Who could deny Wonder Woman a job?

Maybe he’d been a little premature on the insubstantial label. She was substantial enough to fight for what she wanted.

“I’m fine. It’s a little easier going down. You just have to kind of control your fall by using the trees. They’re like nature’s speed bumps.”

It was the nature’s speed bumps bit that got him. He laughed out loud, surprising himself, and lost his footing. The second time one of her quips had cost him his balance. His legs shot out from under him, and he did precisely what he’d been worried she’d do.

He fell down the mountain.