Anchorage, Alaska
SLEEP. I NEED SLEEP.
Ruby was exhausted. She’d just flown to a bush camp at the DEW Line and then back again because of an injured tourist who had been mauled by a bear. They had managed to get the tourist out of the bush camp and to Wainwright, but there had been no surgeon there at the time.
So Ruby had done the surgery. She had stabilized the man and then, with a couple members of her team, she’d brought him back down after the surgery. The Air Ambulance wouldn’t have been able to handle it. The man had needed surgery before he could travel. He would have died on the trip in the Medevac.
This was why Ruby loved her job so much. This is what she lived for. Saving lives on the frontier.
Still, she was beat tired, and very thankful for the midnight sun of the summer. Her internal clock was a bit off, and all she wanted to do now was go home and have a rest. She thought it was morning, but she couldn’t be quite certain. And she was pretty sure there was something that she was supposed to do today.
Only she couldn’t remember what.
“Dr. Cloutier. I was just looking for you!”
Ruby groaned inwardly and turned around to see Jessica Atkinson, the hospital director at Seward Memorial, and her voice screeching through the fog of her exhaustion reminded her of what she’d forgotten.
Oh. Right.
It was not that she didn’t like her, but she was just so exhausted, and she’d completely forgotten about today. Today was the day her husband Aran, Jessica’s son, was coming to Anchorage after his honorable discharge.
How could I forget?
She hated herself for forgetting that piece of information. So she plastered on the best, most energetic smile that she could.
She and Aran had been residents together, and when Ruby had had to return to Canada, which had meant giving up all her plans to implement a wilderness trauma team based out of Anchorage, it had been a huge blow. That was when Aran had suggested they get married—so she could stay and finish her work while he enlisted in the Army.
At first Ruby had been against a fake marriage. She hadn’t wanted to endanger her plans or Aran’s career, but Aran had insisted.
So five years ago they’d got married, and a month ago she’d received word that he’d been injured while on a tour of duty and, after a period of recovery in Germany, would be honorably discharged to his home in San Diego.
She hadn’t gone down there because she’d been so busy with her rounds here up north, and she regretted not going. And, judging by the stern look on Jessica’s face now, she should really be regretting her choice. It had been five years since she’d seen Aran. He’d been her friend, or the closest thing she’d had to a friend, and he’d done her a huge favor.
“Jessica, I haven’t seen you in a while. How was your trip to San Diego?” Ruby avoided asking about Aran. She was worried that he was more injured than the initial reports had let on.
“Good, but hot. I much prefer the north.” Jessica hesitated, then said, “I’m hoping you can come to my office. I have to talk to you about something.”
A shudder ran down Ruby’s spine when she saw how uneasy Jessica was. It must be something bad that Jessica wanted to tell her. She had always been pretty good at reading people—it helped when she was dealing with patients, because not everyone told the truth, and helped especially when she was having to deal with people who lived in the bush and didn’t have much trust for people who lived in the city.
Or tourists who got drunk and baited a bear.
And, even though Ruby wanted to tell Jessica no, she couldn’t. Ruby still felt so guilty about not going down to San Diego to see Aran, even though Aran had sent her an email and told her it was okay that she didn’t come. That he didn’t mind and knew her work was important.
She should have ignored that and gone anyway.
“Sure.” Ruby stifled a yawn and fell into step beside Jessica.
“I know you’re tired, Ruby,” Jessica said sympathetically. “I heard that you just got back from Wainwright and brought in a bear attack patient?”
Ruby nodded. “A drunk tourist who thought it would be great to get a close-up selfie with a bear, and a bear who thought, Oh, here’s an easy meal.”
Jessica shook her head and then opened the door to her office. “When will people learn?”
“Never!” Ruby said as she followed Jessica into her office.
“Have a seat.”
Jessica walked around and sat down on the opposite side of the desk and Ruby’s stomach twisted into a knot. The last time she had been in this situation she had learned that her work visa was ending and that she was going to be sent back to Canada.
As much as she loved her home in the Northwest Territories, the government there didn’t have the money or the manpower to fund Ruby’s big aspirations to bring more medical care to the north. Her hope was to one day go back and have the territorial and federal government see what she had done in Alaska. She was getting closer now, but five years ago she hadn’t been ready.
Ruby was having an extreme sense of déjà-vu and she didn’t like it too much. “Jessica, you’re making me a little nervous,” she admitted.
“It’s nothing bad. Well, I don’t think it’s bad...” Jessica trailed off.
“But I’ll think it’s bad?”
“You might not be happy about it. I know how particular you are about your team.”
That wasn’t a good start.
Ruby was particular about her team. Working in extreme weather under difficult circumstances and in difficult terrain took a very special kind of person and Ruby was picky about that.
She stiffened her spine and crossed her arms, bracing herself for the worst. “Okay...”
“As you must know, Aran has been honorably discharged from the Armed Forces after he suffered a leg injury.”
It was a dig at her and Ruby knew that. She deserved it. “Yes. I do know.”
“Aran is your husband,” Jessica reminded her gently.
“I know, Jessica, and I’m sorry I didn’t go down to see him. My work... I had a lot of rounds to finish and...”
Jessica raised her hand. “I get it. I respect it. And Aran understands too. It’s just...this whole fake marriage thing...”
“Has Aran found someone else?”
Ruby knew it was possible. Aran was handsome and charming. If she was a different person she might have fallen for him. Every time he walked into a room she could see the dreamy expressions cross women’s faces.
She was pretty sure she’d had the same wide-eyed look a few times when she’d used to see him, but she’d kept him at a distance. They’d been work friends—nothing more.
And, since she’d been the only female resident he hadn’t slept with during their residency, she had often