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“I’m sorry I called you all those horrible names.”
“You didn’t call me that many names.”
“In my head, I did,” I admitted. “A lot. Really bad ones.”>Nick whooped when I pulled the scarf from my head. “Hey, Anna!” He jumped up from his burrow to throw his arms around me. Halfway through his enthusiastic hug, he seemed to remember that I hadn’t welcomed this sort of casual snuggling during my time in the valley. Before he could retreat, I gave him a little squeeze, making those baby-blue eyes of his crinkle with pleasure.
“I’m so glad you’re back. When you took off like that, you scared a lot of people. Are you OK? Was there some sort of emergency? Maggie’s been beside herself.”
I snorted. “Oh, I’m sure she has.”
Nick’s lips quirked. “No, really, Anna, she’s—well, I don’t want to interfere in pack business. But you need to stop by her office and talk to her.”
“I will, just as soon as I—” I stopped myself, suddenly reluctant to talk about Caleb, just in case he hadn’t returned to the valley after all. “Settle in.”
I saw a faint wince flicker across Nick’s features. “Yeah . . . you need to go see Maggie.”
“That was cryptic and unhelpful. Thank you, Dr. Thatcher,” I told him. “Are you coming with me into town?”
Nick shook his head vehemently. “I’ll stay here, where it’s safe.”
“Thanks a lot,” I told him, making him laugh.
Leonard and I slid into town with a flourish in front of the clinic. I never thought I’d be so happy to see a collection of weather-beaten buildings in the middle of nowhere. But I was practically giddy as Leonard untied my bags from the back of the snowmobile. I handed him his cabbie fee (a prescription to treat several different rashes) and called out my thanks before I jogged down the main drag through the village. Leonard waved me off and started the journey back to Grundy, where he could proudly boast to the local ladies that he was disease-free (for now).
I searched for any sign of Caleb on the street, but I couldn’t even spot his truck. Mixed in among the more weather-beaten houses were newer homes, constructed over the summer after a smaller pack merged into Maggie’s group. There were too many families and not enough housing. Now that the neat little one-story homes were finished, the pack had invested some money in renovating the older buildings, including the community center and the clinic.
Nick had funded the expansion out of his own pocket. Maggie and most of the pack had objected, but he ignored them. You would never have guessed it from his “nerd armor,” but Nick was loaded from his involvement in developing Guild of Dominion, an online role-playing game to which he contributed character designs and story lines from his extensive mythological studies. He was pretty unpretentious about the money. In fact, I was pretty sure he had T-shirts that were older than some of my patients. But when he could put his extensive funds toward something good, it made him happy, which was the mark of a good man first, rich man second, in my book.
As the alpha-slash-mayor-slash-sheriff of the village, Maggie kept an office in the large all-purpose building that served as the community center. I made my way down the street, running over the speech I’d prepared in my head. Maggie had always been a bit of a puzzle for me. She was among the younger wolves of the pack, but others followed her without question. She was a good person but about as cuddly as sandpaper, preferring hunting and fighting for the pack to the more maternal roles embraced by the other females. She didn’t have time or patience for bullshit, which I respected. Ultimately, she was going to be wicked pissed at me for leaving without notice, but she would know it would be easier to take me back than to try to initiate a new doctor into the ways of the pack.
So I had a little bit of clout on my side . . . but that didn’t make me feel any better when I walked through the front door and found Maggie frowning over the village checkbook.
She looked up, and rather than looking surprised or angry, her face went completely wooden. I swallowed a little lead weight in my throat. A calm Maggie was a truly scary Maggie.
“I heard you might be showing up,” she said, the corners of her mouth tugging southward.
I offered a nervous little smile. “I heard something about a medical position being available at your village clinic.”
“Normally, I would tell you to go screw yourself,” she said sternly, glaring at me over the top of her checkbook. “But I happen to need a doctor, and you’re less irritating than most of the medical people I know.” Before I could respond, Maggie stood and pulled her flannel shirt away from her compact frame to reveal a small but definite swelling of her abdomen.
“You’re pregnant,” I said, my mouth hanging open a little.
“Well, I’m happy to see your fancy degree isn’t wasted,” she deadpanned.
I held her jacket open to get a better look, gratified when she didn’t swat my hands away. “How many weeks?”
She smirked at me. “Isn’t it your job to figure that out?”
“Come to the clinic in an hour, and we’ll do an exam. I need to go home, get cleaned up.”
“That might be a problem. Tom and his family are living in your house now.”
My mouth fell completely open this time. “You gave away my house?”
Maggie threw up her hands. “We’re still in a bit of a housing crunch. The only reason we kept Caleb’s dad’s house open was that we knew Caleb was coming back this winter. We couldn’t just wait around for you to decide you were coming back. Tom’s family needed the space.”
“Great, so I’ll be sleeping in the clinic, then.”
“I don’t think that will be necessary. You can stay with Caleb,” she said in her no-nonsense voice. “Once you bat those baby blues at him and he forgives you way too easily.” Well, I’d never expected Maggie to take my side in the argument.
