CHAPTER FOUR

Juliette walked out of the bar with Mateo. It’d been fun to be included and spend the evening with the friend group. She glanced around the parking lot. “Where’s your truck?” Mateo’s fire-engine red truck was hard to miss.

“At home. I only live a few blocks away so I walked.”

“Come to think of it, I never see your truck here.”

He shrugged. “My brother-in-law was killed by a drunk driver when I was a teenager. He and my sister had twin boys and overnight she became a single mom. It had an impact. If I’m having a drink, I don’t drive.”

“Oh, that’s horrible. I’m so sorry for your family. How’s your sister now?”

“Good. She’s remarried, and Greg is a good man. The boys graduate high school this year.”

He stopped her in the glow of a light post.

The night was cold and their breath frosted the air.

He had a way of looking at her that made her feel like she was all he saw. The warning voice in her head telling her she didn’t want to be part of the Mateo Reynoso harem was getting dimmer because she simply wasn’t seeing it.

Maybe she’d misjudged him. He was friendly, but like with Cyndi, it seemed he kept things casual. That said, she’d distinctly heard reference to a girlfriend when he’d been brought to the ER, and cheaters were the worst.

Frustrated with herself, she asked, “Do you want a ride home? Is your butt okay if you sit in a car?”

“I’m fine. Thank god the stitches are coming out tomorrow. But yeah, I’d like a ride.”

They crossed to her Subaru, and she used the fob to unlock the doors. Pulling out of the parking lot, he directed her to turn off Main and onto a quiet street with older ranch-style homes. When she parked in his driveway, they sat quietly.

“Tell me why you don’t like to be called doc.”

She gave him a startled look. “Because I’m not a doctor.” The light from his stoop shone in his eyes.

“Understood, but there’s something more there.”

She bit off a sigh. “It’s a thing in my family. My parents, my brother, they’re not only doctors, they’re highly successful and at the top of their fields. My brother, Oliver, is a brilliant surgeon and recently took a position at Stanford, where he’ll teach as well as practice medicine.”

She gazed out the windshield. “We’re from San Diego and my father has been chief of surgery and my mom’s been head of oncology at a medical center there for the past decade. Recently, they’ve been lured to the East Coast where, like Oliver, they’ll have academic as well as medical posts.”

“Impressive, but I don’t see that being the direction you wanted.”

“No, and no matter how hard they push me, I still don’t want it. For Conrad and Barbara Kirk, having a daughter who’s a lowly PA is embarrassing. They say I’m undervaluing myself and not reaching my full potential.

“Mom called this afternoon with the goal of persuading me to move east with them. She assured me with her and Dad’s status, they can get me into the med school where they’ll be teaching. I’d have to take the MCAT, but I’ll be accepted. Nepotism at its finest.”

“What does your brother say.”

“Fuck ’em.”

Mateo gave a bark of laughter. “He’s on your side.”

“A hundred percent. He pursued medicine to the level he has because it’s all he ever wanted. He knows I love being a PA and wants me to be happy. He helps run interference with our parents.”

“That’s good. I’m glad you have an ally. I’ll stop calling you ‘doc.’”

His understanding, as much as his thumb rubbing over her palm, made her feel warm inside. She liked sitting in the shadowed light and talking with him.

“Why Sisters?”

She studied him. “Why all the questions?”

“I want to know you before I convince you to get naked with me.”

She laughed. “That’s direct.”

“Why Sisters?” he repeated.

“I went to Camp Tioga. It’s not far from here. I went every summer from age ten and became a counselor when I was in college. Some of my best friends are from there. I fell in love with the Sierras, so when a position came available at the clinic, I applied.”

Something in her expression must’ve given her away because his hand tightened around hers and he said, “There’s more.”

She sighed. “I guess I was also looking for community. I want to live someplace where people care about each other. Sisters feels like that to me.”

“Sisters has its problems like all places, but at its core are amazing people who look out for one another.”

“I’m glad I ended up here.”

“I’m glad too.” He laced their fingers together.

“Did you go to camp?”

“Yeah, in San Diego.”

“Really? What kind of camp?”

“A camp for Fire Explorers. You know, kids who want to be firefighters. We stayed in dorms at a university and learned CPR and first aid and basic firefighting techniques. All cool enough, but the best part was surfing lessons and snorkeling. It was pretty great.”

He raised a hand and tugged her hairpins free, then pulled off the band of her ponytail.

“You’ve got a thing for my hair.”

“Got that right.”

She could feel her hair spring out in corkscrews around her head. “Now you’ve gone and set the beast free.”

“I love your hair.”

“You’re not the one who has to deal with it. I’ve been thinking about getting a Brazilian blowout.”

“A Brazilian what?”

Not sure how they got on the topic of hair treatment, she replied anyway, “It’s a way of smoothing out the curls that’s not as harsh as having it chemically straightened.”

“Good god, why would you do that? Why is it women with straight hair want to curl it, and women with curly hair want it straightened? I guess that applies to dudes too, but your hair is beautiful as it is.” In the dim light she could barely make out his crooked grin. “I’m kind of obsessed with it.”

His expression turned serious. Suddenly the inside of the car felt overly warm and she thought she should roll down a window.

He raised his gaze to hers and the heat ratcheted up higher, and she wondered if she could be burned alive with just a look.

With a hand cupped lightly behind her neck, he brought his head closer. He paused and she knew he was giving her a chance to back away. Suddenly she was tired of being cautious, tired of not knowing if he kissed as well as she thought he would. Tired of wondering if the spark she felt between them would burn hot or fizzle out and die.

Leaning in to him, she kissed him. The sizzle of electric shock had her jerking back, eyes wide. “What was that?”

His grin flashed. “That, sweetheart, was chemistry.”

Then his mouth was on hers and she had the same buzzing reaction, but this time she didn’t let go.

His lips moved over hers, his hand moving inside her coat to stroke along her rib cage, the other spearing into the curls he liked so much.

Their tongues tangled, and she absorbed the taste of the whiskey he’d drunk earlier in the evening. She wanted more whiskey flavor, more chemistry, more Mateo.

She grabbed the front of his coat and yanked him closer.

He gave a shaky laugh.

“I could develop an addiction to your mouth. Don’t stop kissing me,” she growled.

He obliged, his mouth moving over hers with focused intensity. Fireworks sparkled behind her eyelids. When they finally broke apart, he leaned back against the car door, breathing heavily.

The spark between them fizzling out and dying was no longer a worry.

He scrubbed a hand over his face. “I feel like a teenager making out in the car. I’d ask you to come in, but as much as I’d like that, I think we both need to process.”

She stared out the windshield. “Okay.”

“Hey, look at me.” When she did, he went on. “I don’t want a casual hookup. Not with you. I want more than that, and I don’t want to mess it up. I’ll call you in the morning.”

Would he say that if he had a girlfriend? Suddenly tired of it, she opened her mouth to ask him, but he was already out of the car. Circling the hood, he tapped on her window.

When she lowered the glass, he leaned in and caught her lips in another kiss that forced all other thoughts from her mind.

She was in deep trouble, and wasn’t even sure she wanted to be rescued.

***

Glad to be working days, Juliette climbed the stairs to her apartment, weighted down by grocery bags she’d been determined to carry in one trip. The front Mateo had warned could bring heavy rain was on track to hit their part of the Sierras head on. Storms typically dumped their rain on the western slopes where Sisters was located and, because of the rain shadow effect, left the eastern side of the mountains much drier.

The wind coming ahead of the front whipped her hair, today contained by a wide headband. Pine needles rained down from a giant tree towering over the building’s two stories.

Recently, she’d been weighing whether to find somewhere else to live. Maybe she should make the leap and buy a house, something small with a yard. She’d like to get a dog.

With her door locked behind her, she turned on the oven and put away the groceries in her tiny kitchen. A gust of wind shook the windows.

The small apartment complex was right on Main Street, and her unit was on the street side so traffic noise was an issue. She shared a wall with Winston, which wouldn’t be a problem except that during the summer he habitually smoked weed on his side of their adjoining balconies, which meant if she wanted to use her balcony, she could expect the overpowering skunky smell.

Cooler temperatures had forced Winston inside, and now the odor came through the vents.

With the oven up to temp she slipped in a spinach and feta quiche she’d picked up at the store. She’d have enough time to take a shower while her dinner warmed.

One good thing about the apartment: she never ran out of hot water.

Lathering her hair while steam billowed, she reviewed the back-to-back-to-back appointments she’d had with the Triad. Emery’d experienced no more bleeding, so Juliette felt she was safe there. Delaney had some serious contractions going on, but they were Braxton Hicks, and thus unproductive.

Juliette rinsed the shampoo and applied conditioner.

Cam’s pregnancy had been easygoing. She’d managed to avoid the nausea the others had contended with, and nothing unusual had come up.

Due dates were stacked up for the week ahead, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. A schedule the babies weren’t likely to abide by. The only thing Juliette had concerns about was the weather causing problems. As long as all the team members were on hand, everything would be okay. But Doctor Tran lived down the mountain in Sacramento, and Anayah lived a half-hour drive away in Grass Valley.

A loud cracking sound came from outside. The wind had grown even more ferocious, and she was a little worried it could peel the roof off the apartment building.

She’d stepped out of the shower with a towel wrapped around her torso, and bent forward to wrap another towel around her hair.

The creaking sounded louder. She stood straight, clutching the towel, the hairs on her neck prickling.

Then a tremendous crash shook the building and she pitched backward. The entire wall of her shower disappeared as a giant tree branch ripped the wall open.

The curtain rod, tile, and debris from the tree went flying. Juliette felt herself falling and her head smashing into something solid.

With a groan she dropped into darkness.