Beth Carpenter - Sweet Home Alaska

He’d known she lived in Alaska. In fact, Volta was the main reason he was here. A local health organization had commissioned help from DEMA to study the quality of prenatal care in the rural areas of the state and give recommendations on how it could be improved. Ordinarily, Scott chose assignments where he could work directly with the people who needed medical care, but he’d volunteered for this assessment project in Alaska because he wanted to see Volta one more time.

He’d tried to forget her. After all, he was the one who broke it off. Few marriages survived the sort of life he’d chosen, and with his background, he was a particularly bad risk. Just like his father, Scott was the sort of man who focused on a job and forgot to eat and sleep and spend time with his family. Volta deserved so much better than that.

Once he realized their relationship was beginning to feel serious, he’d pulled the plug, and he’d never seen Volta again.

Scott’s life had turned out exactly the way he’d planned. He’d been with DEMA for ten years now, one of only a handful of full-time doctors ready to go wherever and whenever he was needed. Most of their medical staff consisted of volunteers who took a week or two off from their regular practices to volunteer with DEMA, but Scott worked year-round delivering babies and performing surgeries. And yet, even after all this time, Volta still appeared in his dreams.

He smiled to himself. She’d never liked the name her electrician dad had given her, but it suited her, with her electric-blue eyes and high-wattage smile. Not to mention the way his skin used to tingle when she touched him.

He’d figured he would go to Alaska, get a good start on the assignment and then take a day or two off and find Volta. Once she looked him in the eye and told him she’d moved on and was happy, her memory would quit haunting him. At least, that was the plan.

But instead, she’d just walked into the room while he was in the middle of a delivery. In a tiny clinic in a tiny village in an enormous state. Volta. He followed her into the waiting room, quietly shutting the door behind him. She turned back to look at him, her bright blue eyes focused on his face. So many things he wanted to tell her. So many questions. What was she doing in emergency response instead of physical therapy? Did she ever think about their time together in Hawaii? Was she happy?

In fact, he didn’t ask any questions at all. Instead, he opened his arms. After only the slightest hesitation, she rushed into them. And suddenly it was years ago, he was holding Volta in his arms, and for a moment, all was right with the world.

* * *

VOLTA CLOSED HER EYES, her cheek nestling into that familiar hollow between his shoulder and his chest, just as though it hadn’t been years since she’d last held him. She breathed in the clean scent of citrus from his aftershave. It felt so good. But she couldn’t do this. Eleven years ago, he’d broken her heart. She’d worked hard to recover, and now she had her dream job and a wonderful daughter. Scott didn’t belong in her life.

She stepped away and looked up with what she hoped was a simple smile. “Scott. What in the world are you doing here?”

“I’m on assignment with DEMA. I’m studying prenatal care in rural Alaska, but when Lori went into labor, Daniel asked me to take over the delivery. What are you doing in Sparks?”

“Doing my job. I’m a flight paramedic for Puffin Medical Transport, based in Anchorage.”

“When did you go into emergency response? Last I knew, your plan was physical therapy.”

Volta shrugged. “Plans change.”

“You enjoy your job as a paramedic?”

“I really do.”

“I’m glad. So, tell me about yourself. What have you been up to for the past few years?”

“Oh, the usual. Work mostly. Nothing like what you’ve been doing with DEMA. I saw in the last newsletter that you were in the Caribbean during that tropical storm last month.”

“You follow DEMA?”

“Um, sure. They do good work.” She wasn’t going to admit that she was from time to time looking for news of him.

“You know, you used to talk about seeing the world, and your skills could be invaluable to DEMA. If you were interested—”

“No,” she said, too quickly. She smiled to cover her nervousness. “I’m settled here in Alaska. My family is here.”

“You’re married?”

“Not anymore.” At his questioning look, she added, “I’m a widow. How about you? Are you married?” she asked, trying to avoid that awkward conversation where people felt compelled to ask about the details of her husband’s death.

He shook his head. “Never in one place long enough.” He paused. “But that goes with the job.”

At least he’d been honest about that. An insecure part of her had always wondered if his explanation of how he couldn’t maintain a relationship with his job was just an excuse to brush her off. She’d met Scott when he was still a resident, working in a hospital in Hawaii. She was going to college then, studying kinesiology, with plans to become a physical therapist. They’d met, oddly enough, at the botanical gardens in downtown Honolulu. Oddly because neither of them was in the habit of taking off from their busy schedules for things like walking through gardens.

But Volta had hardly left her dorm room for three days, working on a research paper. She’d turned it in and decided to spend the afternoon outdoors among the tropical flowers. Scott was there, de-stressing after a rough day at the hospital. They’d fallen into conversation under a plumeria tree, which led to dinner, which led to more dates. They both knew it was only temporary. Volta was a sophomore, after all, and Scott would join DEMA as a traveling doctor once his residency was finished.

But Volta’s heart failed to get the message. She fell hard for Scott Willingham, and from the tender way he treated her, she thought he loved her, too. Despite knowing his plans, Volta came to believe that love would triumph, that somehow they would find a way to be together. She was wrong.

Toward the end of the semester, he’d called it quits. He said it wasn’t fair to lead her on, that he wasn’t the kind of man who could balance work and marriage, especially in his sort of career. Devastated, she’d limped through her finals and then dropped out of college and gone home. To Alaska. Where she belonged.

Where she’d never expected to run into Scott. “Is it everything you thought it would be? Working for DEMA, I mean?”

“Yes and no. I love being able to help the people who need me most, but sometimes it’s a finger in the dike. And I never stay anywhere long enough to get to know my patients. It can be lonely. But I feel like we do a lot of good, not only in emergency situations but in setting up programs for ongoing improvements in health care.”

“DEMA doesn’t usually work within the US, does it?”

“Not to give medical care, but I’m here as a consultant. Have you heard of Leo Travert?”

“The billionaire aviation guy in Oregon who died last year?”

“Yes. He got his start in Alaska, as a bush pilot.”

“I heard that somewhere. But what does that have to do with you?”

“Well, when Travert lived in rural Alaska, his wife died in childbirth, due to complications that might have been avoided if she’d had better access to prenatal care.”

“How sad.”

“Yes. But in his will, he left a great deal of money to start a foundation with a mission to improve prenatal care in rural Alaska.”

“That’s great news.” Anything they could do to make medical care more accessible was a step forward. In many of the villages, medical services consisted only of a volunteer health aide.