Free The M.D. Courts His Nurse by Meagan McKinney Page A

Too, Hazel’s cowboys were intensely loyal, and it would have been simple for one of them to have deflated Rick’s tire in the parking lot.
    And evidently the canny old matchmaker hadn’t emptied her bag of tricks just yet.
    The splendid spring day waiting for her outside after work was a tonic to Rebecca’s mood. The short drive fromMystery to her apartment near Valley General took her across some of the prettiest country in the valley. The area’s magnificent silver spruces were swollen with new sap and budding into leaf, the meadows and pastures dotted with bright-red Indian paintbrush.
    At one point she passed the outlying pastures of the Lazy M. She backed her foot off the gas pedal, slowing down to watch a six-year-old sorrel stud Hazel had named King Solomon.
    Drunk on spring sunshine, the stallion raced along beside her in the huge pasture. His muscular quarters gleamed with the power and length of his stride; the breathtaking speed increased as the bunched muscles contracted and released like tightly wound springs exploding, thrusting and again thrusting, powerful and forceful….
    Again she saw John Saville athletically leaping out of his roadster, again she felt his hand brushing her calf with charged force….
    Rebecca realized she was breathing more quickly, her heart thumping loudly in her ears.
    â€œGirl,” she muttered out loud, “forget about that disaster with Rick Collins. You do need another date.”
    There was a certain growing priority that she needed to take care of, and that wasn’t about to happen without an eligible guy. Not necessarily Mr. Right. Maybe Mr. Right-Now would do.
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    Feeling like a confirmed old maid already, Rebecca passed an uneventful evening reading and then watching an old Bogart movie on cable until bedtime. Not too long after she opened out the studio couch into her bed and fell asleep, the telephone on the end table startled her awake.
    â€œHuh?’ was all she could manage when she first answered the phone, speaking through clinging cobwebs ofsleep. The ruby-red numerals on the digital clock showed it was just past 2:00 a.m.
    â€œBecky, hon, wake up, it’s Lois. There’s been a terrible accident.”
    Lois’s words had the force of cold water in the face.
    Rebecca shot up to a sitting position, suddenly wide awake.
    An accident. She thought instantly of her father, who spent most of his life driving. The consummate travelling salesman. Then logic assured her that that news would not be coming from Lois. No sooner did the fear pass, however, when another possibility seemed to make her blood turn in her veins: Hazel.
    â€œDo you have any idea,” Lois pressed on before she could ask her anything, “where Dr. Saville might be?”
    â€œIsn’t he at home? But how would I—Lois, what happened?”
    â€œOh, Becky, it sounds just awful. A crowded bus lost its brakes on the interstate. It overturned on the western slope of Copper Mountain and went over the embankment.”
    â€œCopper Mountain.” Ice encased Rebecca’s spine. “Lois, that stretch is almost all cliffs, not just an embankment.”
    â€œWe’ve been monitoring it at home on Merrill’s police-band radio. It’s pure chaos right now, Becky. There are several fatalities and a whole lot of serious injuries. Trouble is it’s impossible to get to the seriously wounded until a special evacuation team with the right equipment can arrive from Fort Mackenzie.”
    Rebecca, trapping the cordless phone between her ear and her shoulder to free her hands, was already hurriedly stepping into a pair of jeans.
    â€œState troopers have been able to lower two doctors and a nurse from Lutheran Hospital down on ropes,” Lois continued. “They’ve set up a triage, but they still desperately need surgeons to do emergency intervention for a few of the badly injured who can’t hold out much longer. Just to