“Oh.” She shrugged one shoulder. “Just PPL. When I was seventeen.”
“There’s nothingjustabout a private pilot license, Jannie.”
“My brothers would disagree.”
Something in her tone caused an unpleasant stir in Nick’s gut. “Would they?”
“Yeah.” Her smile didn’t reach her eyes. “They flyjets, you see.”
The mere notion of her feeling less than made his jaw tighten. “And you’re a doctor.” He was silent for a beat. “What made you choose medicine?”
“My brothers hated going for checkups. I never wanted to leave the doctor’s office. When they got hurt, I’d fix them up. It became my thing. In fact, I almost set the house on fire playing doctor.”
“Well.” He grinned. “This story, I need to hear.”
“I hid in the closet with my grandfather’s lighter and a doll. It was abig doll, almost as big as I was. I thought it would be a good idea to use the lighter to look in her ears.”
Nick chuckled. “Oh, no.”
“I closed the door. It was dark and worked great until I set her hair on fire.”
“Damn.”
“Yeah. I threw her down, ran to my mom, and told her what I’d done. Thank God she got there fast, grabbed her by the leg, and ran to the bathroom to throw her in the tub. I’ll never forget the hissing noise and steam when Mom turned on the water. That curly plastic hair ended up looking like a tar helmet.”
Nick chuckled. Jannie, cute little fire starter. Why didn’t that surprise him? “Must have smelled, too.”
“Oh, it stunk up the entire floor. It was a miracle that nothing else caught fire. And just my luck, my brothers came home from school to that. They called me Pyro for months.”
Nick laughed. “Never a dull moment at your house, I’ll bet.”
“Never. There were times when it was utter chaos with those guys.”
“It must have been hard at times to be the only girl.”
“Not really. I gave as good as I got. Sometimes more, and I got away with it. It did get bad as we grew older, and girls began to chase them. They were relentless. It got annoying. Especially when my brothers became licensed pilots. I heard ‘comefly with me’ so many times, I lost count.” She rolled her eyes. “They all thought they were so original.”
Nick chuckled. “I would’ve loved to have a sibling.”
“And I would have given anything to be an only child.”
He shook his head. “I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.”
You eventually end up alone.
She cast him a long look. He met her gaze, and she must have seen something in his expression because she nodded slowly, compassion evident in her eyes.
He needed to change the subject, pronto. Nick cleared his throat. “So, what did your dad and brothers say when you told them you wanted to be a doctor?”
“Adam was disappointed.”
“He went to UND, right?”
“Right.”
“What major?”
“Commercial aviation and a BS in aeronautics.”
