JO’S MEAL WAS quite good, and in the end she did try just a bite of well-done caribou meat, as anything that wasn’t cooked through was a no-no. It was okay, and she would have it again if she had the chance.
After a filling dinner, they both retreated to their separate rooms as they had to get up early for when L’Anse aux Meadows opened. They were going to spend a couple hours there before heading back to Farewell in time to catch the last ferry to Fogo Island.
They checked out of their motel, Henrik grabbed coffee with a quick joke about not having to be subjected to decaf again, and they drove to the historic site as it opened for visitors.
There was a crispness in the late-spring air. The sun was rising but hadn’t burned off the low-lying mists that clung to the mounds and hollows of the ancient Viking settlement hugging the coast of the ocean. Long grasses blew in the gentle breeze.
It was green, and the sky was as blue as the water. There were white caps on the waves, signaling that it was slightly windy out there.
The edge of Canada.
It certainly had that look, and she couldn’t help but wonder what the indigenous people had thought of Viking invaders.
“Amazing,” Jo whispered, as they parked.
Henrik nodded. “It’s indeed impressive. Let’s take a walk.”
They got out of his truck and paid the admission fees so they could walk around the site and the museum that housed artifacts and information about the settlement.
“People only think the Vikings traveled to Europe and Iceland, but really their migration was much farther,” Henrik remarked.
“I read once that there were artifacts found in places like Northern Manitoba and Baffin Island.”
Henrik nodded. “History is one of the things I like. Especially ancient history and seafaring.”
She grinned. “Maybe you should dive for treasure?”
“Well, I used to want to, but honestly I have a huge respect for the ocean. My parents lost their lives to it.” There was a sadness to his voice, and his gaze focused out on the blue ocean. “They went out on my dad’s fishing trawler, and a storm crept up, hard and furious. They were lost.”
Her heart ached for him. “How old were you?”
“Twelve.”
She couldn’t even begin to imagine the pain of losing her parents at that age. Instinctively she reached down to her abdomen, cradling their child.
“I’m sorry.”
“I respect the ocean, and I love it, but I also hate it.” His spine stiffened. “Still, it’s in my blood.”
“I get that. Home, where your roots are, is important.”
A strange expression crossed his face. “Aye. You haven’t said much about your parents. Are they still in—”
“Goderich? No, they retired to Arizona.”
“Arizona? That seems random.”
“They don’t like the winter, and they don’t like humidity, so they opted for Arizona over Florida. I really don’t want to leave Canada either.”
“I have no desire to leave Canada, but my unadventurous attitude has cost me much.”
And she knew he was talking about his former fiancée then. “I think you’re pretty adventurous.”
Henrik cocked an eyebrow. “How so?”
“You say you hate the ocean and are unadventurous, yet you work with the coast guard and head up to the far north. You were out there, during that boating accident, helping to save victims. You’re fixing up an old lighthouse, and you’re willing to take a chance on a stranger.”
Henrik grinned softly and caressed her face. “You’re not a stranger anymore, Jo.”
“Aren’t I?” she asked, her voice catching in her throat, her body trembling in anticipation of another kiss.
“No.” And he took a step closer.
Her heart was racing. She was going to say something more when there was a commotion down by the shore, and a couple of the park rangers went rushing by them.
“What’s wrong?” Henrik asked, one of the rangers dashing by.
“Tourist fell into the ocean, hit their head,” the ranger said.
“I’m a doctor,” Jo said. “He’s a paramedic. Can we help?”
The ranger looked relieved. “Yes, please follow me, but be careful the path is a bit rocky where he climbed down.”
Henrik took her hand, and they followed the ranger down the path, to an out-of-bounds area where tourists weren’t supposed to be.
“This has never happened. These come from aways sometimes are a bit bold,” the ranger murmured.
On the beach a couple other park rangers had managed to retrieve the man from the water, and Jo could see the blood on his head. Once she had her footing, she made her way to the rangers.
“I’m Dr. York. I can help,” she said. “I need you to be careful in case there’s trauma to the spine.”
The rangers nodded as Henrik was helping the other ranger lay out a tarp and gather supplies until the summoned paramedics could get there. The man’s wife was crying.
“He was with our daughter. She’s not here,” the woman screamed.
“There’s someone else in the water?” Henrik asked.
The hysterical woman nodded. “She’s only eighteen.”
Henrik was peeling off his leather jacket, his shoes, socks and jeans.
“What’re you doing?” Jo asked.
“Going in after her. The water is calm here. I’ll find her,” Henrik stated. He pulled off his flannel shirt, holding it between his teeth as he swam out. She knew he was going use it as a sling to hold the girl.
Jo’s heart was racing, worrying about him. The water was calm, but she knew there were things like undertows and sea life.
He’s done this before. He said so himself.
Only, she had a hard time calming that inner dialogue. The one that kept thinking about how she’d lost David and she couldn’t lose Henrik. Not when she was just getting to know him. Their baby needed him.
So do you.
Josephine shook those anxieties away, as the park rangers laid out the patient, and ignored the fact that Henrik was swimming out to find a missing girl. What she had to do was check on the girl’s father. She pulled on gloves from the first-aid kit that the park rangers had.
He was bleeding badly.
Jo knelt down beside him and assessed his airway, breathing and consciousness. There was an open wound at the base of his skull and bruising under his eyes. He had hit his head hard, on what Jo could only assume was rocks.
She checked his eyes, and there was no pupillary reaction from his right eye, which meant there was trauma and bleeding in the brain.
His Glasgow Coma Scale rating was a three, at best, which was severe. He was breathing, for now.
What he needed was pressure relieved.
“Do you have a drill? For maintenance work perhaps?” Jo asked.
The park ranger who’d guided them to the shore frowned. “Yes. In the ATV. What do you need it for?”
“How long until the ambulance gets here?”
“An hour,” the ranger said.
Jo worried her bottom lip. “We need to make sure his cervical spine is stabilized, and I may need that drill to make burr holes and relieve pressure or he won’t make it to the hospital.”
“I’ll get it.” The ranger disappeared and returned with the drill.
Jo pulled out the antiseptic and began to clean the drill bit and the patient’s head.
There was a shout, and she turned to see Henrik carrying the girl out of the water. The other two rangers went to help him.
“How is she?” Jo called over her shoulder.
“Starting CPR,” Henrik shouted back.
She turned to the ranger that was still with her, one that looked a bit nervous now. “You going to be okay to help me?”
He nodded. “I’m just doing this for the summer. I’m saving up for medical school.”
“Good. As I just said, we’re going to do some burr holes to relieve pressure. It’ll allow the pooling blood to drain. What I need you to do is hold the head still. Think you can do that for me?”
“Yes, Dr. York. I can.”
Jo was relieved as she started the drill. She could hear the ambulance coming, but this man needed the emergency field surgery if he was going to make it to the airfield to be airlifted to St. John’s.
It had been some time since she’d done burr holes. Usually, in the hospital, a neurosurgeon would be on hand to do it, but at least she had done it before. She took a deep breath, made an incision and then made her first hole.
She repeated the process a couple more times. The last hole was created, and the man groaned.
Which was a good sign.
The paramedics came rushing over.
“Patient was pulled from the water. Unconscious with a Glasgow Coma Scale of three. Cranial pressure was building so I made four burr holes to relieve the pressure. If you have mannitol, I suggest dosing him with that before you airlift him to St. John’s. There is an open wound to the base of the skull, so add in some antibiotics. I don’t know how long he was in the water.”
The paramedic nodded. “Thank you, Doctor.”
Jo stepped back as the paramedics secured the patient to a backboard and inserted an IV. She cleaned off the drill and handed it back to the ranger.
“Thank you,” Josephine said, “for the steady hands.”
“Thank you, Dr. York,” the ranger said. “We’re so glad you were visiting today.”
Jo turned to see Henrik wrapped in a blanket and the girl being loaded onto a gurney. She was coughing still, but she was alive. Jo made her way over to Henrik, who was shivering.
“We need to get you warm,” Jo said, gently.
“I would like that.”
“I think we’ll reserve the rooms for another night and go back to Fogo tomorrow. I’ll make the calls, and I’ll drive us back.”
Henrik nodded and scooped up his clothes. “I just need a couple hours to get warm.”
“I think we’ve had enough excitement for today. We’ll go back, have some warm soup for lunch and relax. Besides, the RCMP will be coming by to see us for a report, I’m sure.”
She would drive to Farewell herself, but she was feeling pretty tired. This was not how she’d pictured her morning going.
Back at the motel, the only room left was the honeymoon suite, but she didn’t care. Henrik needed to have a hot shower and curl up in bed.
She could handle one night with him in the same room.
She was positive.
Henrik was still shivering. He had worn jeans and couldn’t pull them back on wet, and he had lost his shirt out in the water. Like he had been taught when he’d first started learning about sea rescues, you took your shirt for a drowning victim to grasp at a bit of distance, instead of them scratching or punching you or pulling you underwater in panic.
It might seem foolish to take off clothes and run into a bitterly cold ocean, but his jeans and jacket would’ve weighed him down.
When they got back to the motel, he was taken aback when Jo told him there was only one room left. He would have argued, but he was just too cold, and he needed to get warm again.
He just followed her into the room and when she flicked on the lights, he rolled his eyes at the gaudy, Viking-themed honeymoon suite they had been landed with for the night. Including the heart-shaped bed and Jacuzzi in the corner.
“Oh, dear,” she said, her voice laced with trepidation. “I had no idea.”
“It’s a warm, clean room,” he said. “It’s what we need.”
“Right.” She shut the door. “I’ll go to the front desk and ask for more blankets. You have a warm shower, and I’ll be right back.”
Henrik nodded as he made his way to the bathroom.
He wanted to wash the ocean off him.
More like he wanted to scrub it away. It was a battle every time, but it was one he willingly faced to save lives.
Still, washing it off him was a way to put his worries behind him for that particular day.
Rescuing someone from the ocean was common for him during tourist season and with his training. When his instinct to save lives kicked in, he could drown out that fear, the anger at the ocean for taking away his parents. He could lock away the trauma he felt and just get the job done.
A way to conquer his fear head-on.
So when he’d found that girl floating in the water, he’d done his work. Wrapped his shirt around her and brought her to shore. He’d ignored the sharp, numbing pain of the frigid water.
All that mattered was saving the life.
Adrenaline kicked in to help bring her back to shore and pump the water out of her lungs. He’d felt a smug satisfaction of winning when she’d coughed up the water and gasped for breath. After she was okay, that’s when he’d realized that he had become hypothermic, and all that stuff he usually locked away came rushing back.
He wasn’t even sure who’d wrapped the blanket around him, because after the paramedics came to assist him and he had the blanket, he took a look at Jo. He saw the drill and he knew what she was doing on that beach.
And he was amazed by it all.
Amazed at her skill and ability and calm confidence.
She was beautiful, smart and kind. She was basically everything that he’d always dreamed of when it came to getting married and starting a family. It was what he thought he’d had when he was in love with Melissa, but that was a long time ago now.
He’d changed.
Have you?
Henrik turned off the shower and wrapped himself up in a towel. He crept out of the bathroom and as much as he wanted to put his clothes on, he was still shivering and suffering from some effects of hypothermia.
Clothes wouldn’t help.
He clambered into the bed and pulled up the blanket. Jo entered the hotel room, and he was glad to see she had extra blankets with her.
“The soup is being brought to us,” she told him.
“Great.”
Jo spread out the blankets for him and leaned over. He caught the scent of her hair. She glanced at him.
“You’re grinning, but your lips are still kind of blue.”
“You know what the best way to heat up someone is?” He waggled his eyebrows, which made her chuckle.
“I will climb into bed with you, but I’m keeping my clothes on.”
“It’s a heart-shaped bed,” he teased.
“It was the only room available,” she said dryly as she slid in next to him, grabbing the remote from the nightstand.
“You’re going to watch television?”
“Yes. I didn’t bring a book, and I don’t have my crochet, so we’re going to veg and watch some mystery shows.”
“Mystery?”
“Yes.” She scrolled through the channels. “I know a certain show is on at this time—reruns—but they’re fun. It’s a historical detective series. He’s quirky and smart.”
She found the show that she wanted to watch, and he lay back as she snuggled against him. He had no real interest in the show that was on, but he was happy to be here, with her in bed with him.
“I’d heat up even faster if you were naked,” he murmured, as he playfully ran his thumb in a circle on her shoulder.
Jo sat up and glared at him, with a smile tugging at the corner of her lips. “I’m not getting naked.”
He chuckled. “Shame.”
“If we were in the wilderness, then, yes, I would, but we’re in a warm room. You’ve had a hot shower and there are blankets. You’ll be fine”
“I’m naked.”
Jo snorted. “What?”
“I was only following basic safety protocols in situations like this.”
She laughed. “It’s a good thing I trust you.”
It warmed his heart. “You do?”
“Of course.” She smiled gently. “I can’t think of why at this moment, though...”
Then she sighed, pulling off her damp jeans but leaving her oversize sweater on. He let his gaze drift over her shapely long legs, and his blood heated.
Jo snuggled up against him. “Hmm, you are still cold.”
“See? I told you.”
She leaned her head against his shoulder, and he drank in the scent of her, reveling in this moment of her tucked up against him. It felt right.
There was a knock at the door. She got up and hastily pulled on a pair of sweatpants before she answered it, taking the bag from a waiter who’d delivered their lunch from Thor’s Place. She tipped the man and shut the door.
“Soup,” she announced.
“Soup in a bag?” he teased, but he really didn’t want soup. He’d rather she came back to bed instead, but this was less tempting and therefore better in the long run, he supposed.
“They’re in cups with lids.”
“What kind?” he asked, propping himself up on his elbow.
“Clam chowder for you. Not for me, though. I just got plain chicken noodle and some crackers.” Josephine set down the bag at the little dinette table that was in the room.
“Toss me my overnight bag, and I’ll get dressed,” he said.
She grabbed his bag and threw it to him before turning her back to him. Henrik pulled on his clothes and made his way over to the table.
“Feeling warmer?” Jo asked.
“Much. All kidding aside, thanks for helping me back there.”
“Anytime. You were amazing diving in and saving that girl.” She handed him a spoon.
“You were awesome with that girl’s father. Was it my eyes playing tricks, or were you actually doing brain surgery on that beach?”
“Burr holes. Hardly brain surgery.”
“Burr holes is neurosurgery. That’s impressive.”
“It’s not like I was clipping an aneurysm or something,” she said.
“You took a drill and put holes in a man’s head. On a beach. I think that’s something worth celebrating. It probably saved his life.”
Jo blushed, that pink tingeing her beautiful cheeks. “I’m sorry we’re here for another night.”
“I’m sorry too, but thank you again for taking care of me and getting the room sorted.”
“You’re welcome.”
After their soup they sat back on the bed and watched television. Not saying anything. Jo curled up next to him and fell asleep on his arm so it was pinned down, but he didn’t mind at all.
He should mind. This was not somewhere he thought he’d be again, feeling vulnerable and cozy with a woman, but it felt so right. It felt good and easy with Jo. And he couldn’t recall feeling like this with Melissa.
Ever.
What was so different about Jo?
Whatever it was, he didn’t care in this moment, but he was worried for his heart when she finally left him.
He was worried about the inevitable and how much it would sting.