Maxence growled, “Andrea Catherine Clark is a highly skilled medical professional, and she will be accompanying us—”
Alfonso suddenly seemed far more interested in the proceedings. “We’ve never taken a person of the female persuasion on any of these trips before.”
Dree shriveled in her chair. “I don’t want to cause trouble.”
“No trouble at all,” Batsa told her, seeming to pat the air with his hands.
Isaak heaved a sigh and said, “Thank God.” He shot a guilty glance at Maxence. “I mean, thank the Lord our God and all that is holy, or whatever.”
Alfonso was grinning at Dree. “It will be very nice to have you along for the trip.”
Father Booker’s expression softened. “A woman is always welcome on our missions. The price of a good woman is far beyond rubies, and I find that missions that include women are more efficient and the scope more wide-ranging than missions that only include men.”
Maxence said, “If anyone has a problem with this, we can speak privately.”
Isaak leaned toward where Dree was sitting as if he were trying to whisper something privately to her. “These charity trips tend to be sausage fests. These guys are all assholes.”
Alfonso echoed the sentiment, “Assholes.”
Isaak continued, “I’m delighted you’re coming on the trip. Maybe these jerks won’t act like hyenas.”
Dree looked a little bit more hopeful, her blond eyebrows raised and a smile playing on her lips. “Is it really okay with all of you guys?”
The room filled with male laughter.
Maxence considered punching each one of the other guys in turn.
“Is it okay?” Isaak repeated. “It’s more than okay! It’s brilliant!”
Alfonso nodded enthusiastically.
Father Booker said, “I thank you for your dedication and your spirit.”
Batsa said, “It is very nice to have a woman along. I am supposed to buy a sari and Nepali prayer flags for my wife, and I would very much like your input.”
“I really don’t know that much about saris or fashion or anything,” Dree said.
Batsa continued, “When we are camping out, I will cook dahl and pakoras and anything else that you want. My mother taught me to cook very well because she thought I would never find a wife, because I had only an English literature degree. You will like my food.”
Dree looked up at Maxence with wide eyes, like she needed rescue.
Maxence said, “Dree has kindly consented to fill in the role of a medical professional because our assigned person dropped out at the last minute. Everyone needs to behave professionally and with great restraint.” He added with a growl from the depths of his black heart, “You assholes stay away from her.”
The other guys all laughed again, and from their easy laughter, Maxence surmised they thought he was joking.
Yes, he probably needed to allow them to think that.
Maxence joined in the laughter, even though he did not feel any particular mirth at the situation of these four men eyeballing Dree Clark.
After a moment, Maxence had had enough of the men attemptingbanterwith Dree, and he pulled out his tablet and said, “There are a few things we need to go over before we leave tomorrow morning.”
Dree fished a pad of paper and a pen from her purse, clicked the ballpoint, and prepared to take notes. She looked up at him again with her gorgeous eyes, sparkling in the winter sunlight.
Maxence thought he would drown.
Instead, he sat down on the hearth in front of the fireplace and said, “The goal of this mission is to identify sites and best practices so we may build small neonatal intensive care units as micro-clinic units in the Jumla countryside. Essentially, there will be an incubator and some medical supplies. Over half of the premature babies in this area die before they can reach medical attention because the hospitals are so far away. Transportation is often unavailable, and the journey can take up to four days on foot. Small NICU’s that are much closer would enable some of these infants to survive.”
Alfonso also had out a computer tablet and was swiping with a stylus and thumbing notes into it. He announced, “In addition to being an engineer, I own a medical device company. I will be designing and my company will manufacture micro-NICU units for these miniature clinics. We will provide these units to the charity at substantially less than the cost to build them, though we are not able to donate them outright.”
