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cheekbones, her eyes, the way her hair fell across her cheek. He couldn’t tear his eyes away from her. His first break, his first crush, about ten years too late. That’s all it was, a crush on a woman who was everything he wasn’t. Free and easy. And self-sufficient. So self-sufficient she didn’t need anybody. Except for the whole town. Or did they need her more than she needed them?
    There was something about her that made him aware of every move she made. Whether it was her hands on the controls or her head bent over the pot of soup. Every gesture fascinated him, every word she spoke intrigued him. For a moment there in the truck he thought he might kiss her. She thought about it, too. He knew she did. She wore her thoughts on her face and her heart on her sleeve. But he’d caught himself in time. He still wanted to kiss her. He wanted to tangle his fingers in her red-gold hair. Just winding a tendril around his finger had only made him want more. Much more. He also wanted to know more about her. He wanted to know everything.
    Good thing he was leaving tomorrow. His life was planned. The job, the career. Even the wife.
    “I’d do almost anything,” she said in answer to his question. “I, uh, look Matt, you’re welcome to stay here tonight. In fact, you don’t have a lot of choices. It’s the guest room or the couch,” she said firmly.
    She might blush, she might stutter, she might be uneasy, but she’d put him in his place. Whatever he was feeling for her, she wanted no part of. But if it was true, there was no man in her life, it was adamned shame and a waste of a remarkable woman. Why, he wanted to ask. Why not?
    “Fortunately some of my dad’s clothes are still in boxes waiting to be given away. Jackets, sweaters, pants, even boots, something ought to fit you. Just in case…” She glanced out the window where, given the dusk and the fog, it was hard to see more than a few yards.
    “Which reminds me,” he said. “I have to call the ship and let my parents know I won’t be back tonight. I also might call a surgeon I know in San Francisco, to get his advice about your friend Donny. And to make sure I’m doing the right thing.”
    “The phone’s in the living room.” She led the way to a wood paneled room with a huge leather couch, a large stone fireplace where a fire was laid, a fur rug in front of it and native blankets hanging on the walls. It looked like a ski lodge. The kind of place to curl up with a good book or a good woman. He watched Carrie bend over to light the fire, noticed the sweet curve of her hip in her jumpsuit, and a sharp stab of desire flooded his body.
    Well, what harm did it do to fantasize about a woman he would never see again after tomorrow? What harm to fantasize about a different life, a simple life here in the Alaska bush, where men were men and women, at least one woman, looked like something off the cover of Country Life or Aviation magazine or maybe even Vogue? Where evenings like this were spent in simple and basic pursuits… He told himself not to go there, that the fantasy was getting out of hand.
    Carrie fanned the flames of the fire and stood up.She gave him a look as if she knew what he was thinking and those thoughts disturbed her. Could she possibly be thinking the same thing? Forget that. She’d brought him here for one reason and one reason alone. He had no right to hit on her.
    She took a deep breath. “I’m going upstairs to shower and change,” she said.
    Matt nodded and watched her walk up the stairs. Her red hair bounced against her shoulders. Despite her fatigue, she exuded energy. He wished he could tap it and bottle it and sell it to his patients. Hell, what he really wanted was to keep it for himself.
    He sat in a large leather recliner chair, called Information and got the number of an old family friend who was well established in neurosurgery in San Francisco. Luckily Jay was on call. He got him on his cell phone and was able to explain