The Best Of The Year - Medical Romance. Carol Marinelli
worse.
She glanced up to see if Robert was still there. He was. Watching over the proceedings with a brooding expression. No time to worry about that now. “Robert, can you go find one of the girls’ chaperones—?”
“Th-there aren’t any.” Stacy bit her lip. “A friend got us some driver’s licenses. We came on our own.”
Another layer of shock pressed down on her chest. “None of your parents know you’re here? How many of you are there?”
“Five.” She turned her head away. “Th-they think we’re at a training camp.”
This was bad. Very bad. That meant there were no “permission to treat” forms on file. No adults to give verbal permission. “Are you all the same age?”
Stacy nodded. “We skipped school yesterday. We’re planning to go back tomorrow. But m-my boyfriend called to break up with me a few hours ago.” She closed her eyes again. “So stupid. I thought it would change things.”
Change things? As in her boyfriend might decide he didn’t want to break up with her if he heard she’d tried to jump from a ski-lift?
Although on the one hand that made no sense, at least the girl seemed to acknowledge she shouldn’t have done whatever it was.
She motioned to Jack to wait. He frowned, but stopped with the second splint still a few inches from the teen’s leg.
“What’s your phone number, honey?” They needed to get in touch with her parents...or someone. Soon.
Stacy gave it to her, and Mira wrote it in the snow with her gloved finger. “You aren’t going to tell them about any of this, are you?”
Any of this. The girls’ secret little trip to the mountains? Or Stacy’s fall?
“They’re going to be happy you’re safe.” It was the only answer she could give at the moment that wouldn’t upset her. Because, yes, the parents needed to know, as did the authorities. Especially if she really had attempted suicide. Although Mira hoped she was reading the girl right and that it had been a bid for attention from her boyfriend. Either way, she needed counseling.
“Do you think so?”
“Yes.” That was what was important right now.
She underlined the digits she’d written in the snow then fixed her attention on Robert. “Can you read that?”
He nodded.
“See if you can find the rest of her group. And get a hold of her parents.”
“Okay.” He hesitated. “After this, we need to talk.”
“Just find her parents. Nothing else matters right now.”
Out of the corner of her eye she saw Jack’s hands tighten on the splint and wondered what he was thinking. What she’d said was true. Nothing else mattered right now, except for treating their patient. She took a deep breath and murmured to the girl, laying a hand on her forehead, “Jack has to finish securing your leg. Are you ready?”
The EMS guys were already trudging up the slope, one pulling a stretcher, while the other one carried a medical kit.
“Yes.”
She nodded at Jack then looked at Stacy. “Keep your eyes on mine. It’ll be over with in just a minute.”
Behind her came the sound of something sliding on the snow. The splint as it went under her leg.
Stacy’s head went back and she cried out, the hoarse scream rising along with the level of pain. Mira’s eyes watered, despite the number of times she’d worked on injuries like this. But never on a minor who was up here all alone. Or one who’d decided being without her boyfriend had called for drastic—and very possibly permanent—measures. Mira smoothed the girl’s hair as she settled into wrenching sobs once again.
She herself had made a drastic change, in the form of a resolution, because of what had happened with Robert. But never in her darkest moments had she thought of ending her life.
“Done.” Jack’s low word made her draw a relieved breath.
“The worst is over, Stacy.” At least physically. Any other treatment would happen with pain medication at the hospital. But once her parents found out what the teen had done, the emotional pain would begin—along with healing, hopefully. The resort was required to report any suspected suicide attempts, which meant Stacy would receive a psychological evaluation at some point. She hoped the girl got the help she desperately needed.
The paramedics arrived, and Jack explained the situation while Mira stayed with the girl, talking to her. Jack had hoped to get her down to the hotel where it was warm, but at least this way she’d only have to be moved once.
The rescue workers secured Stacy’s neck in case there were other injuries and gently slid her from the snow onto the rescue stretcher. Up on skids, the lightweight plastic frame would stabilize her back and keep Stacy off the snow, while allowing it to be pulled rather than carried, like a traditional stretcher.
Mira snapped her skis back on and spoke in a low voice to Jack. “I need to go down and see about the other girls. I think we’ll need to call in child services.”
Jack nodded. “I’ll go with her to the hospital.” He moved over to Mira and slid his fingers beneath her chin. He had gloves on—he must have rented them, because she was wearing his. “And then I’m going to come knocking on your door. And you’re going to tell me exactly why I have the number five attached to me wherever I go. And what it means.”
With that he was gone. Back at Stacy’s side, helping fill the workers in on what he’d done and what he suspected.
Leaving Mira to ski the rest of the way down the hill and wonder exactly how she was going to tell him that he was man number five in a long line of men. And hope he’d understand why she now had to move on to number six.
A RESOLUTION.
Jack wasn’t sure he’d heard her correctly. “What kind of resolution?”
In Mira’s hotel room, he listened as she told him about what she and the blonde had decided to do for their New Year’s resolutions.
“So...” His jaw hardened to stone. After five hours of sitting at the hospital while Stacy’s parents drove up from Aspen to be with her, this wasn’t what he’d expected to hear. “Sleeping with me was just part of some...hilarious New Year’s prank.”
“Oh, it was no prank.” Her eyes skipped away from his. “And what happened between us wasn’t supposed to happen at all.”
Seated on her bed, clutching some kind of weird stuffed animal, he felt like he’d been sucker-punched, landing in some crazy dream sequence. One that was almost worse than his periodic nightmares.
“So you’re only planning on dating twenty-five men. Not sleeping with every single one of them.”
“Correction. I wasn’t going to sleep with any of them.”
Jack wasn’t sure if he should be pleased she’d made an exception in his case or insulted. “Maybe I would have been better off going with Mrs. Botox last week. It would have been a whole lot less complicated.”
A flash of what might have been hurt swept through her eyes before she blinked it away. “Maybe you should have.”
Hell. This was not how he’d wanted this talk to go down. But never in his wildest imaginings had he thought she’d gone out with him as part of some cockamamie scheme to date as many men as possible over the course of a year.
“Why did you decide on this for your resolution?”
“I was hurt. I didn’t want to get