held, her cousin had made the criticism rather loudly last night over dinner that, because of it, Maryann might be a little bit unfair to her employer when she called him The Ice Man. Everyone deserved a chance to prove himself, her cousin said; maybe Maryann needed to get to know him better. Besides, no boss was perfect.
Which reminded Maryann, if she wanted to keep him as her boss, she needed to warn him about these women, and quickly.
“Let me go see how long the doctor will be,” she announced casually as she started toward the back exam room. There was a good-size window on the side wall. It was a bit of a drop to the ground, but Alex was in excellent physical shape. At least the fancy women had gotten that much right.
If she hadn’t been looking straight at the door, Maryann wouldn’t have seen the knob turn. She formed her lips and called out, “Nooo.”
But it was too late. Her voice came out thin and the door opened anyway. Johnny Short walked out with his mother. Both of them looked surprised at the crowded waiting room.
“Isn’t he cute?” a brunette with diamond clips in her hair and gold chains on her ankles said, as she stood up and beamed at the wide-eyed little boy. She tugged on her V-neck sweater, which only made more skin show. “Aren’t you a sweetie?”
The diamond woman took a step toward the boy before his mother put up a hand to stop her. “He’s only six and his ear hurts. He’s not used to women like—” Mrs. Short stopped and pursed her lips. “Well, let’s just say, most of the women around here wear sweaters to keep their necks warm. This is Alaska, after all, not Las Vegas. It might be September on the calendar, but we’re already feeling the nip of winter. Besides, we’re a small, decent town.”
Maryann half-expected the fancy women to be offended, but it was clear they weren’t even listening to Mrs. Short. They had all stood by now and were arching their backs and puffing up their hair as they stared at him.
Alex stood in the open door of the exam room. The sunlight streamed through the window behind him and made him look bronzed. Maryann blinked. How had that happened? He was wearing the same white lab coat with a stethoscope hanging around his neck that he’d been wearing all day. But he looked different. Maybe because of the angle of the light behind him the lab coat suddenly showed that his shoulders were satisfyingly broad. His dark hair was ruffled and his blue eyes were fringed with black lashes. If it weren’t for the look of dawning horror on his clean-shaven face, he could have graced the cover of GQ magazine. It would have all been comical if Maryann didn’t feel called upon to do something to rescue him.
He cleared his throat and the women looked like they would swoon.
She looked at the salivating women staring at him. So, the man was good-looking. Well, okay, more than good-looking. That didn’t mean he was a rock star or anything.
“What’s wrong?” Alex finally asked. “Is someone hurt?”
He sounded so suspicious that she had to smile. Maybe he didn’t realize how great he looked standing there.
“Careful. They’re all—” Maryann started, but she was too late. The women had broken rank and were rushing toward Alex, waving their hands in the air. There was only one thing to do, she decided, as she put her fingers to her lips and gave a shrill referee whistle.
There was a moment of absolute silence. Even Alex looked stunned.
Maryann gave a decisive nod. She had taken a self-defense class in high school and the whistle was all she had mastered, but today it was enough. “First, Mrs. Short, you take Johnny out on the porch. I’ll be out in a second to give him his lollipop—he likes lime, doesn’t he? We’ll set up a follow-up appointment. Everyone else sit back down, except for the doctor, of course.”
She was almost surprised when everyone obeyed her.
“These women say they need to see you.” Maryann waited for the Shorts to leave the room before raising her eyes to Alex. “For medical reasons.”
The doctor nodded and turned to the seated women. He looked stern enough to make Maryann glad she wasn’t one of the fancy women.
“I’m a pediatrician. You’ll have to go down the street to Dr. Logan’s office. He’s the general doctor in town.” And then, as though he wasn’t sure they understood, Alex added. “I only take children as patients.”
“I already told them that—” Maryann started, but she was ignored.
“My feet haven’t grown much since I was a girl.” Delilah stood up and moved a step closer to Alex, before taking his arm. “And it hurts to walk. Really, feet are feet. It doesn’t matter if I’m a child or not. Men always tell me I have such nice-looking ankles.”
Delilah stood on her toes so her ankles showed to their best advantage. “What do you think, Doctor?”
Maryann watched the thundercloud settle on Alex’s face. He didn’t say anything though.
The waif woman sitting in the corner looked up. “Dr. Logan’s office is closed this morning.” Her voice managed to sound pitiful and sultry at the same time. “There’s no place else to go. I need something for all these mosquito bites.”
Alex removed Delilah’s hands from his arm as he glanced over at the small pink dots on the other woman’s arm.
“Baking soda,” he said in a curt voice and then looked around. “Just to be sure, are any of you really injured? Or having a heart attack? Even an asthma attack? We’ll take an emergency, but that’s all. The rest of you will have to see Dr. Logan instead. If he’s not there, call later and make an appointment.”
The chatter started up. It was impossible to sort out what everyone was saying.
Alex turned and looked at Maryann. “Have them fill out medical forms just in case. And find out if that one woman is allergic to insect bites. Then come back to the exam room. We need to talk.”
“Yes, sir.” Maryann resisted the impulse to salute. She was in trouble enough as it was. He probably expected she should have locked the door when she saw the women coming.
Alex had no sooner turned to go back to the room when Maryann heard footsteps running up to the porch. She recognized a medical emergency when she heard one and wasn’t surprised when Alex turned around to face the door.
“Everybody sit down. Clear some space. We have a patient coming in.” Alex said as he headed toward the door. At times like this he blessed the workmen who had made the new doorway and the ramp outside both sturdy and wide.
He’d been through this drill often enough up here, he thought to himself. A siren never announced an emergency as it did back in Los Angeles; here it was the thump of the heavy boots the men wore. The faster the footsteps were coming up the steps to his porch, the worse the problem. The most serious injuries came by the steps and not the ramp; it was in recovery that the patient used a wheelchair. Alex had the door open before the men outside could touch it.
“It’s Timmy Fields,” the man standing in front said as he pushed his cap back on his forehead and looked behind him to where two other burly men in flannel shirts were carrying the boy. They were all breathing hard and the boy was moaning.
“Easy now,” Alex said when he saw how they were carrying his patient. Every spring he gave a first aid emergency course and showed people how to transport injured hikers, but it never seemed like the right people came. Next time he was going to go down to one of the bars and give his demonstration there. Oh—he stopped. He’d be gone by then. He’d have to leave a note for the next doctor. Or maybe Dr. Logan would do it, although people didn’t tend to bring him the emergency cases since he lived a mile from town and most problems seemed to happen after the clinics were closed.
“Lay him down here.” Alex put his hand on the gurney Maryann had just wheeled over to him.
“Thanks,” he said to her as she stepped back so the men would have enough room. Maryann always knew what to do without