The difference was that if and when that daydidcome, I would make sure I never made the same mistake again. Ipromised myself that next time I’d try. Because wondering ‘what if’ is far worse than putting yourself out there and getting shot down.
That’s what I continue to tell myself anyway.
Chapter 1
Blair
What the hell have I done.
What kind of smart, successful, independent woman puts her life on hold to travel thousands of miles across the continent on the advice of a psychic off the internet?
Me, apparently.
It started six weeks ago during a rare Saturday wine night with my two best friends, Alex and Cate. We’ve been as thick as thieves since meeting at college in Boston. We even call ourselves the ABC’s.
They’re my calm in the hectic storm that is my life–what I have of one, anyway–and I wouldn’t be where I am without them. Literally, it seems, since it was them that dared me to get an online tarot reading from a woman called Starchild.Did I mention the wine?
Since I was feeling a little free and easy–a rare feat for me given I work eighty-hour weeks more often than not–I figured why not…
Little did I know, that choice somehow led me to accept my beloved uncle’s offer to cover his long service leave at a district hospital in Timber Falls, Alaska. It’s a small mountain townwith a desperate need for more health services,especiallyin my specialty area of cardiology and respiratory medicine.
Now I’ve made a six-month commitment to work as an attending physician in his place. While I’m there, I’ll also work on identifying the most needed services and coming up with a plan for how to implement them alongside the head of the hospital, Tabitha. The goal is to reduce the need for patients to travel hundreds of miles to the city.
At first it sounded like a lot of work, something I knew I needed like a hole in the head given my current overloaded schedule. But Uncle George assured me there would be no eighty-hour weeks required and I found myself accepting his offer without question.
To say that Alex and Cate were all for me taking this sabbatical-of-sorts is an understatement.
Especiallyafter the psychic told me that there would be a fresh start on the horizon and it would give me a much-needed new outlook on my life.
Parking up at a lookout on the outskirts of my new home for the next six months, I wonder what my time here might bring.
As if they have a sixth sense, my phone rings with an incoming call, ‘Alex’ flashing on the screen.
“Are your ears burning?” I ask by way of a greeting.
“Why, yes. Yes, they are,” Alex replies with a laugh. “Ormaybe I got a notification that you’d stopped outside of town and wanted to check you hadn’t been attacked by a rogue moose or something.”
I splutter out a laugh. “Is that even a thing?”
“Oh my gosh, yes. As soon as you decided you were moving to middle of nowhere, Alaska, I did a search for all the dangerous animals you might encounter. And a Mama Moose was right up there, especially when she feels threatened.”Wow, I guess you learn something new every day.
I quickly take in my surroundings, catching sight of a one-legged duck with his butt in the air in a nearby pond. “The only living being I can see around me right now is a duck and I don’t think it’s going to attack me. So, I think I’m good for now.”
“I’ve heard they can be vicious little things when they want to be. Just keep an eye on that waterbird,” she replies seriously.
“How much mischief can it really cause?”
“Remember those books I tried to get you to read? There’s a duck in there that brings havoc to all of those around him,” she informs me.
“Was it possessed?”
“Nope. He’s just a menace. It’s OK, though. He’s a lovable brat. You should read them since you’re visiting the Last Frontier. Maybe you’ll find a mountain man to call your own while you’re living there.”
I roll my eyes. “I’m here for six months, A. That’s all. That’s not exactly conducive to starting a worthwhile–let alone long term–relationship when it would start with a finish date.”
“Starchilddidsay that you’d get a new outlook on life. Maybe that includes a handsome, rugged stranger who wears plaid with his painted-on jeans and boots who likes throwing gorgeous women over his shoulder and taking them back to his log cabin on the mountain.”
“That’s oddly specific,” I reply.
