“I thought so.” He nodded at her surprise. Then he voiced the thought that had been in his head for days now. “Yeah, it caught me off guard too, but I’m actually thinking of moving back. I’ve missed connections, and I have a lot of them here. More than I wanted to remember.”
She looked across the outdoor patio to the lake just beyond, dark and beautiful. “I can see why you’d want to stay here.”
“And you?” he asked.
She slowly shook her head. “I’m not really a one place sort of girl.”
Then right now would have to do. Assuming, of course, she was feeling the same. And though he could tell by her body language that at least a part of her was, he knew she hadn’t even come close to deciding on him as something she couldn’t be without.
Real or otherwise.
It began to snow, lightly at first, but by the time they laughingly gobbled up the last of their s’mores and walked out front, it was coming down pretty good.
Jane stepped out from the protective cover of the awning and tipped her face up to the falling flakes. “I never get tired of snow. It’s got such potential to do serious damage, and yet it’s so beautiful.”
He thought maybe that could describe Jane too. “Where’s your car?”
“Oh, I walked.”
“Let me drive you home,” he said, reaching for her hand.
“I’m okay. I like to walk.”
But she held on to his hand and he smiled. “Then let me walk you home.”
She met his gaze, her head dusted with powdery snowflakes, a few more on her lashes and her cheeks, making them rosy. “Then you’d just have to walk back here to get your car.”
“I don’t mind.”
“There you go hiding your faults again, seeming too good to be true.”
“Jane,” he said on a rough laugh, “I can promise you I’m not too good to be true.”
She studied him for a long beat, while he did his damnedest to look like something she couldn’t live without. “A ride home would be nice, thank you,” she finally said softly.
He followed her directions to an older neighborhood about four blocks up on the hill from the lake. Homes here had been built decades ago, were close together, and were mostly not renovated. He stopped before two old Victorians that shared a driveway.
“We’re on the left,” Jane said.
Levi had never been to Mateo’s. Mateo had bought this house after Levi had moved to San Francisco, but it suited him. The front yard was good sized, with two huge pine trees, all of it covered with snow. Levi turned off the engine and started to get out of the car.
Hand on the door handle, Jane looked over at him, startled. “What are you doing?”
“Walking you to your door.”
“That’s hardly necessary.”
He got out of the car anyway and met her at the front of the car. “Cute place.”
“It’s a full house this season.” She was silent on the way to the door, then turned to him on the porch. She looked at his mouth. “You should know, pretend first dates don’t come with a kiss.”
This had him smiling. “But you’re thinking about it.”
She laughed. It was a good laugh. “I’m not inviting you in, Levi.”
“I know.”
“Do you? Because we’re pretending for your family. The people in my life don’t need to know about you.”
“Ouch. And I thought you told me you didn’t have anyone in your life.”
“Fine. I have my landlord and aforementioned roommate.”
The front door swung open. A pretty blond smiled out at him. “Charlotte,” she said. “Landlord and aforementioned friend, though I’m amending what she said to add I’m also her best friend. And her family.”
Levi recognized the protectiveness and appreciated it. “Nice to meet you.” He slid Jane a smile. “Seems we have plenty of reasons for a second date.” Then he started to walk back to his car.
“Hey,” she called.
He turned back to find her standing there on the porch, lit by the glow of a single-bulb light. “What’s the first reason?” she asked.
He smiled. “That kiss you want.”
And when she didn’t deny this, he smiled all the way home.
Chapter 13
It wasn’t a real workday until someone yelled at Jane. It could be a doctor, a patient, whoever. It always happened at some point, and it was the least favorite part of her job. Today it was a belligerent patient named Jason Wells. “Your wounds are deep,” she told him. “They need to be cleaned out or you risk infection.”
“Get the hell out of my face and get me my phone!”
Jane took a deep breath for patience—which didn’t come—but stepped back from the thirty-year-old, who’d purposely gone snowboarding off trail—not permitted here at High Alpine—and had hit a tree.
With his face.
Working on the front lines of patient care meant interacting with the general public, and one thing she could count on was that pain brought out the worst in people.
She’d been attempting to irrigate the worst of the guy’s cuts so he could get stitched up, but he wasn’t having it. Bleeding profusely from several places, and all he wanted was his phone. “Phones aren’t allowed in the treatment rooms, sir.”
“The hell with that.” He struggled to sit up. Probably because his wrist was broken, but he didn’t want anyone touching that either. “Help me up, I’m outta here.”
His buddy, who’d dragged Jason into the clinic twenty minutes ago, appeared through the privacy curtain. “Dude, I can hear you yelling at her from the waiting room. Calm down, she’s just trying to help you.”
Oh boy. Never in the history of ever has telling someone to calm down worked.
“I don’t need medical attention.” Finally managing to sit up, Jason swung out with his uninjured arm, nailing the tray, scattering the medical supplies across the room.
Mateo, who was the doctor on staff for the day, having been sent over on loan from the hospital when the scheduled doctor hadn’t been able to get to work, also appeared in the doorway. “Jane.” He gave her a chin nudge indicating he wanted her to move farther back, out of Jason’s reach.
Before she could, Jason’s friend pushed past her and . . . punched Jason in the face.
Jason fell back, unconscious, and his friend looked at Mateo and Jane. “Sorry about the mess he made, but you should be able to treat him now.”
And so went Jane’s day. There were many things she loved about being a nurse. Helping people, sure. But it wasn’t completely altruistic. She somehow felt better about herself when she was taking care of others. It wasn’t easy to explain, so she rarely tried.
But another big draw was that she never had the same day twice. Take today. After Jason had gotten punched out by his buddy, they’d had to call the police, but it turned out that Jason had only recently come home from Afghanistan, and after three tours of duty for the good old US of A, was suffering from debilitating PTSD. His friend had truly just been trying to help.
Nope, never a dull day . . .
She took a late lunch break on the deck of High Alpine’s lunch lodge and watched the skiers hurl themselves down the mountain. Her thoughts quickly drifted to her date with Levi the night before. Correction: pretend date, and though she was a whole lot curious about the kiss he’d mentioned, she knew it was a dangerous proposition to go there.