LITMIR.BIZ

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THREE

      “YOU GO DOWN the hill,” Mira said. “I need to stay here.”

      “I can help.”

      “Just do as I say.” Her tone was a little more impatient this time.

      He didn’t care. “No can do. I’m a doctor.”

      Mira gave him a sharp look. “Yeah, well, so am I. I’m the concierge doctor for the lodge.”

      His heart stalled for a second, and he stared, fumbling a bit as he tried to remain upright. “I thought you were a ski instructor.”

      “Pizza it, Jack, if you want to stop.”

      He forced his mind back to what she was saying, using his skis to form a barricade and coming to a halt beside the still-screaming girl.

      “What’s your specialty?” She nudged him aside so she could get to their patients, sinking to her knees in the snow to look at the unconscious teen. She laid a hand on the panicked girl’s shoulder, and like magic she quieted.

      He was still struggling to process the fact that he was up on the slopes with a doctor, of all things. “I’m in sports medicine.”

      Mira’s eyes widened when he mentioned the name of the team.

      “The Hawks? Are you kidding me?” She gave him another quick glance. “What are you doing skiing, then? Isn’t this your busiest time of year?”

      No way was he going to tell her he’d been sent off to recuperate. Especially not knowing what he did now. “I’m taking a short break.”

      Speaking of breaks, they might have a bad one on their hands here. The teen hadn’t seemed to fall hard enough to do any real damage, at least it hadn’t looked that way, but the human body was a strange animal.

      “Let me check her arm.” Carefully unzipping the girl’s jacket enough that he could slide his hand down the limb, he found the fracture immediately. Although the bone wasn’t protruding from her skin—a good thing—it was pressed right against it. A little more force and it would have come through. The edge felt jagged, though, so it could still break through, if they weren’t careful.

      The girl was also out cold.

      Mira spoke softly to the uninjured girl, while Jack focused on the friend.

      “She’s still breathing,” he said. “Can you get her vitals, while I check her head?” He clicked his boots out of his skis, just like Mira had shown him, and then slid around until he was kneeling beside her shoulder.

      Mira nodded, pressing her fingers against the girl’s right wrist, while Jack carefully undid the strap to her helmet. He checked it for cracks before running his fingers over her hair, looking for obvious signs of trauma. Her white beanie cap, which had probably been pulled down to hide the unfashionable headgear, lay a short distance away, knocked off by the impact. He couldn’t feel any bumps, but he knew that didn’t necessarily mean anything. Peeling apart her eyelids one at a time and wishing he had his medical kit, he peered at them to judge pupil size. Equal, and they reacted to light in a way that appeared normal.

      Two guys who were evidently with the ski patrol slid to a halt beside them, asking Mira what she had.

      “Broken arm at least.” She glanced at Jack.

      “No contusions on her head that I can see, but I want to stabilize her neck and back just in case.”

      Her friend stifled a sob. “Is she going to be okay? I wasn’t trying to knock her down. I was trying to get my ski loose before I fell. Instead, I made us both fall.”

      Mira reached over and squeezed her hand, giving the two men a warning look when one of them started to say something. “Of course you didn’t. Where are your parents?”

      “At—at the lodge. They said we could come ski, but that we had to stick to the easy slopes.”

      Smart parents.

      “And you did what they asked,” Mira said. “What’s your name?”

      “Sandy. And that’s Marilyn.”

      “Okay, Sandy, if you’ll go with Hans and help him locate your parents, we’ll take care of your friend.” Mira stood and helped the girl to her feet, waiting until she’d stopped swaying before saying anything. “Does anything hurt?”

      “No. I’m okay.”

      “Do you feel well enough to ski to the bottom?”

      “I—I think so.”

      The man she’d called Hans patted the terrified girl on the shoulder and gave her an encouraging nod. Then they slowly made their way down the slope, while the other guy went in search of a stretcher and called in the accident, telling the instructors and employees at the top to hold everyone right where they were.

      Jack glanced at her. “At least they were wearing helmets. Let’s hope she’s out because of the pain and not anything else.”

      “My da … er … the lodge requires all minors to use helmets on the slopes. Her pulse is steady. If we’re lucky, she just fainted.” She reached her fingers out and smoothed back her hair. “The EMS guys are pretty familiar with the routine up here, they should have something to stabilize her arm.”

      “I’m beginning to think surfing is a hell of a lot safer.”

      One curved brow went up. “I can think of a few things that make me think differently. At least you can’t drown on a ski slope.”

      Maybe not, but when her brown eyes met his, looking all soft and warm as she kept her hand protectively on the injured girl’s head, he thought it was possible to drown in something other than the ocean.

      He shook away the thought.

      She’s a doctor, Jack. Not someone you want to play around with.

      He was glad when a pair of emergency service guys came clomping down the hill, heavy-duty boots making easy work out of the packed snow.

      After a quick rundown of her vitals and injuries and explaining what they’d seen, one of the paramedics asked where the girl’s parents were.

      “We sent her friend and a member of the ski patrol to find them.”

      In short order, the pair had immobilized the teen’s injured arm and done their own assessment of her injuries, coming to the same conclusions as he and Mira had. Then they stabilized her neck and removed her skis before loading her onto a blue stretcher with a metal pull bar attached to it. The girl started to come to, moaning as her eyes fluttered open.

      Mira leaned close and whispered to her.

      The sight made a pang go through his chest. If he and Paula had had any kids, is that how she would’ve looked as she comforted them?

      Not the time, Jack.

      He cleared his throat. “They’re going to pull her down the hill?”

      “That’s the safest way. It’s hard to keep your balance on the snow, if you haven’t noticed.” The right side of her mouth curved slightly, as if she was fighting a smile.

      “Oh, I noticed all right.” In fact, he was having a little trouble keeping his balance right now, and it had nothing to do with skiing. He felt like the wind had been knocked from his lungs the second he’d realized she was a doctor. He was still struggling to catch his breath fifteen minutes later.

      She stood and went over to retrieve the girl’s hat and skis. “I’ll bring these down with me,” she told the men. “Hopefully they’ve located her folks. I want to be on hand if something changes.”

      “Sure thing, Mira.” One of the medical workers threw her a quick smile.

      It seemed everyone knew her around these parts.

      The

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