The cot in the corner of the station taunted him with flashbacks of their first night together. Her soft, silky body so ready for him... He hardened slightly at the thought. Damn, it was going to be a hell of a long three weeks. Everywhere he looked, he was reminded of her.

Sitting at the desk, he reached for his cell.

Thinking about you, he texted.

He knew not to expect an immediate reply, but five minutes later, he still got a twisting knot in his gut. She’d said her life was busy. He was going to have to have patience. But alone in the room all morning, waiting for an emergency call or a text from Erika had him seriously on edge. Tiffany and several other team members had invited him to help them decorate the Search and Rescue Christmas parade float, but he’d declined, and the sound of the Puppy Orchestra barking “Jingle Bells” drifting through the station walls was driving him insane.

There would be no escaping the sights and sounds of Christmas here in Wild River, and that sucked. Hard. Christmas was not a season for the lonely hearted.

When the door to the station opened an hour later and Tyler walked in, Reed had never been so grateful to see the guy. Anything to take his mind off Erika. “Hey, man.”

“Hey.”

“Heard your girl went back to Anchorage yesterday.”

So much for taking his mind off it.

“Too bad. She would have made a great team member... I still can’t believe she had the balls to do that tracheotomy right there on the mountainside.”

Three days later and it was still all the crew was talking about. It had definitely spurred the conversation about having a trained medical professional on the crew. While they were all trained in CPR and first aid, that hiker would have died without Erika.

Tyler let out a low whistle. “You got yourself a good one, man.”

Reed nodded, checking his phone. Nothing. He knew she was a good one. The best, even. The problem was, he already felt her slipping away.

* * *

IT WAS AFTER 2:00 a.m. when Erika finally locked her office door behind her and collapsed on her cot. Two surgeries and a four-hour meeting with her clinical trial team had her brain fried. She couldn’t understand it. This was the same pace she’d been keeping before her vacation, so why did it feel nearly impossible to keep up now?

This was why a break was a bad idea.

She felt so out of the loop with the trials. Despite Darren withdrawing his request for a transfer, her father had moved him to Dr. Connolly and she’d been assigned a new intern while she was away. She couldn’t remember the young female doctor’s name if her life depended on it, and her coffee never tasted the same. She missed Darren.