Within a few minutes, she had drifted off to sleep. She might not be at a place where they could discuss long-term plans. He understood. But she hadn’t saidnever.
Lee had given him her body and her trust.
Mav would protect that gift with everything he had in the hopes that she might one day give him her heart.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Lee’s head itchedwith the eerie feeling that someone was watching her. She opened one eye.
A gray muzzle and two soulful eyes peered at her over the edge of the bed. Kenai sat with her chin propped on the mattress.
She leaned over and petted the dog. “You’re a sweetie.” Rolling onto her back, she felt the mattress next to her. A slight warmth remained, which meant Maverick had been up for a while.
Light filtered into the bedroom. Still daylight. Hard to tell the exact time. She turned and glanced at the bedside clock. 1:50 p.m. Wow, she’d slept that long?
Taking jerks down a peg must have knocked the stuffing out of her.
No, amazing sex with a rugged Alaskan had worn her out. She’d gladly do it again. Lee stretched with a satisfied groan. The soreness in her hips reminded her of each skin-to-skin moment with Maverick.
Was this real? She checked in with her innermost self, making sure this wasn’t some kind of rebound after her divorce. A reaction. Too soon?
There wasn’t a standard amount of time from the end of one relationship and the beginning of another. Like,ding, three months later, good to go. Or six months, or a year. Truth be told, her relationship with Preston was over several years ago.
Her OB fellowship attending had another saying.Life is what happens when you’re making plans.
Lee had wanted to run away from her life in Georgia. To reorganize her life. To learn to trust herself again. To reset her financial situation and confidently stand on her own two feet, independent and secure in her choices. She had made plans, but in the middle of all of those plans, her life had just… happened.
Yukon Valley with all the challenges of this frontier hospital had happened.
Maverick had happened.
A low whuff and thethunksof a tail against hardwood floor drew her attention.
A group of five sled dogs that stole her heart also happened. None of these events were in the locums job description.
She held her hand out to Kenai for another doggy lick.
Lee stretched one more time, tensing from her toes all the way up to her head. She rolled over and hugged the pillow. She was so satisfied. So happy.
So torn.
She could see a future with Maverick. She trusted him to support her. She wanted to support him. It was true that she was falling in love with him.
Lee also needed to make a good decision for her own future, which involved her financial security. Her future. She had always assumed she’d go back to northeast Georgia after she financially sorted out her life.
Hadn’t planned on actually liking it here.
Actually liking someone here.
Then getting a better offer that would take pressure off her financial situation.
A better offer. She buried her face in the pillow.
Better for her heart or better for her life?
*
She could hearMaverick’s low voice in the great room as he talked on the phone. She pulled her clothes on and quietly opened the bedroom door.
