Winners Read Online Free Page B

Jessie put away the empty bags, and Jimmy went upstairs. “I was dead to the world.”
    “It’s fine, you had a rough night last night.” She could see that he was exhausted.
    “It was a little dicey,” he admitted, as he poured himself a cup of coffee and sat down at the kitchen table. “I had a nasty compound fracture, an eighty-seven-year-old woman with a broken hip, a perforated appendix, and a woman who delivered twins at thirty-two weeks. We almost lost one of them, but the neonatal guys worked a miracle and saved him, and then the mom hemorrhaged and almost bled out, and they saved her too. And there were only two anesthesiologists on last night—two of the others were on vacation, and three were sick, so we couldn’t call anyone in. Crazy night.” It often was for him, but she knew he loved what he did.
    “My phone must be out of order. I managed to get through a whole day without being called in for an emergency today. It was nice.” She smiled at him, and bent to kiss him where he sat as he put an arm around her waist. She still had the same slim figure she’d had when she met him, even after four kids. She had long blond hair she wore in a braid most of the time, big blue eyes, and a dusting of freckles, which made her look like a kid.
    “What’s on the agenda for tonight? Any chance we can drop the troops off at their friends’ and steal a night of romance without Chris and Adam threatening to kill each other, or Heather needing a ride?” he asked hopefully, and she laughed.
    “Not a chance. Heather’s going to the movies with friends, and I said I’d drop her off. I think Chris has a date. Adam is spending the night at Parker’s house, and we have to get him there. And I promised to take Jimmy bowling. You can come with us if you want. I’ve been promising him all week, and I didn’t have the heart to postpone it again.”
    “Terrific,” he said with a rueful smile. “I was hoping you’d suggest we go bowling.” He pulled her onto his lap for a kiss just as her cell phone rang.
    “Dr. Matthews,” she said, as she pulled her mouth away from Tim’s. It was her official voice, but she was smiling at him, and she could see on her BlackBerry that it was Ben. They had shared an office for the past ten years, since Tim had convinced her to move to Tahoe after Adam was born. They had lived in Palo Alto before that, and she had just joined a group at Stanford Hospital, and leaving it had been a sacrifice for her. But she did it for Tim and her kids, even knowing that she wouldn’t have the same professional opportunities at Squaw Valley that she did at a teaching hospital like Stanford, but she liked their life here now. Tim was happy, and it was great for the kids. And her work was interesting even here. Her specialty was spinal cord injuries, and she had several challenging cases every year. She and Tim had both gone to medical school at Harvard and done their residencies at Stanford. And they both loved the healthy country life at Lake Tahoe. Tim was always happiest outdoors, more so than Jessie, who missed the city a little. But they went to San Francisco occasionally for a weekend.
    Tim saw her frowning as she listened to Ben, and she glanced over at Tim with a look of surprise. “I heard the sirens, but I figured it was a car accident in the bad weather. I’ve been so busy, I haven’t turned the radio on all day.” And then she listened to him again, and asked a number of questions. Tim could tell it was a spinal cord case, and he could see an evening of bowling alone with his youngest son in his immediate future. She looked serious when she ended the call, after promising she’d get there as soon as she could. She stood up and looked at Tim then, with a shocked expression.
    “A chairlift cable broke today. I don’t know how I missed hearing about that. Several deaths, a number of injuries. Ben has a seventeen-year-old girl with hypothermia and an SCI. He needs me to come in,”