“The green light on the horizon. What is that?” Something was gnawing away at her that she should know.
“It’s the Norðurljós, the northern lights. Have you never seen them?”
“No,” Betty said, excitedly craning her neck to look at them. “I live in New York City and there are so many lights there. You can barely see the stars. I also grew up in southern Tennessee. Not exactly close to the sixtieth parallel, but they’ve always been on my bucket list.”
She smiled as she watched the green lights just beyond the horizon. They flickered, but just barely and the light was fading.
“It’s hard to see them here. They’re stronger around midnight and you can see them much more clearly outside the city. They must be really strong tonight for us to see a glimpse of them here.”
“I would love to see them properly one night.” The words slipped out of her mouth before she had a chance to stop them.
“Would you? Well, I can drive you to a great spot I know if you want.”
Warmth flushed her cheeks. She hadn’t meant to fish for a date from him.
“You don’t have to.”
“Do you have a car?” he asked.
“No.”
“Then I’ll take you. I don’t mind.” He parked his SUV. “You are my responsibility.”
“I’m not a child. I’m going to rent a car to get around. You took me out to get food. I think your job is done. I’ve settled in.”
“I will drive you.”
Betty got out of the SUV and shut the door. “I’m a grown woman, a talented surgeon and I’ve been taking care of myself for a long time.”
“Why are you so defensive?” Axel asked.
“I don’t need anyone to help me.” She was being defensive, but she didn’t want help. Iceland was her chance to prove herself.
To whom? Thomas? He doesn’t care.
She shook that thought away. No, she wasn’t going to let all these self-doubts take over. She wasn’t going to let Thomas ruin this.
She would use the distance. She needed to get over him.
To get over the hold he had on her.
“I’m sorry,” she said, wincing as she gripped her travel mug. “I’m just used to doing things on my own.”
“I get that,” he said. “Same with me.”
“Good.” She stared up at him. He really was the most handsome man she’d ever seen. It was almost classical. As if he were a Viking hero.
Like Beowulf.
And right now, she felt like a complete Grendel.
“Let’s go,” he said. “Or we’ll be late and I don’t like being late.”
She nodded and followed him into the hospital.
Great way to alienate yourself from your coworkers, Betty.
This was going to be a long, long first day.
* * *
Axel glanced up from where he was charting to see Betty bending over a patient with her stethoscope and listening to the patient’s chest. Her blonde hair was tied back and the aquamarine of her scrubs suited her.
Look away.
Only he couldn’t tear his gaze from her.
She had spirit. Even if that spirit grated on his nerves, Axel couldn’t help but admire her for that. The day he’d spent with her had made him forget all the stress he usually bore on his shoulders.
He’d enjoyed the simplicity of buying groceries and sharing a laugh, the adult companionship aspect of it.
That was, until she’d suggested walking along the beach. That was when it had all gone sideways and he was still angry at himself for the way he’d treated her. This was why he didn’t get involved with anyone and why he kept to himself.
“She seems to be fitting in well.”
Axel tore his gaze from Betty and glanced at his father, who was suddenly standing across from him, looking formidable in his white lab coat and expensive suit. He didn’t see eye to eye with his father on many things, including the expensive tastes his father had.
His father had never understood Axel and Calder’s need to go to sea. He saw it as them wasting their medical training by serving in the tactical navy. Patrolling the coast of Iceland and providing emergency medical services at sea.
After the accident, his father had taken the opportunity to point out that if Calder and Axel had listened to him in the first place and pursued “proper” medical positions, Calder wouldn’t be dead.
“First Eira’s mother dies of cancer when she’s an infant and now her father is lost at sea. Now Eira is an orphan. Calder never should have died.”
His father’s pained words still haunted him and he knew that Eira thought the same things too. He could see it in her eyes when she was mourning Calder. Or when she thought about the mother she never knew.
Axel was all Eira had now. An uncle who knew nothing about raising a teenaged girl.
“Yes,” Axel replied. He was hoping that would be the end of the conversation, because, even though it had been two years since Calder died, it was still hard. To know that his father had loved Calder more and wished that Calder had been the one to survive.
I wish that too. It would be easier than bearing this burden.
“Did you give her my apologies about not being able to pick her up at Keflavik?” his father asked.
“I did. I told her that you were busy.”
His father was always busy.
“Thank you,” his father said stiffly. “I would’ve gone, but...”
“I know you were too busy, Father. Eira and I both know how busy you are.”
It was a dig. His father barely came to see Eira.
His father’s eyes narrowed. “I take my work very seriously, which is why I’m Chief of Surgery here.”
Axel shut the chart and set it down on the counter of the nursing station where he’d been working. He took a step closer to his father. “I take my work seriously too. I’m saving lives!”
“Except for one.” The words his father spoke stung Axel, because he couldn’t save Calder and his father could never forgive him for that. His father took a step back and straightened his lab coat. “I should go and make my introductions. She seems to be done with the patient for now.”
“Yes. Do that,” Axel said, annoyed with his father’s stubbornness as he watched him cross the triage area and introduce himself to Betty.
Axel’s head pounded and he turned on his heel, walking away.
His father was so stubborn. If his mother were still alive... He let that thought trail off because he knew his mother would never have survived losing Calder, the favored son.
Calder was the favorite, whereas Axel had always been the screw-up.
Calder had been the only one to love and support him when he was growing up and then messing up his life. It was why Axel had wanted to go into the tactical navy. It was why he’d wanted to be a naval surgeon like his brother. His plan had never been to work in a hospital.
Of course, his plan hadn’t included losing his brother and almost drowning.
Axel stepped