at one end of a large, gleaming wooden bar, and Nora was shaking hands with Benjamin Lawson, the proprietor, who seemed to be quite friendly with Sawyer. “Nice to meet you, Benjamin.”
“We’re glad you’re here, Dr. Walsh. Call me Law. Nobody calls me Benjamin.”
Should she tell him to call her Nora, too? It was an odd thing, living and working in a small community. She didn’t know yet who she was going to be friends with. In the city, if she was friends with someone, she would never treat them. But as the only doctor in town, she supposed she didn’t have that luxury.
“Glad you’re here, but I am annoyed you stole Amber from me.” His twinkling eyes telegraphed that he was kidding.
“She seems like she’s bound for great things. I’ll be lucky if I can hold on to her for the two years I plan to be here. So technically, I think life stole Amber from you.” Nora smiled to show she was teasing, too.
Screw it. She was just going to go with her gut here. So what if she had to perform a testicular cancer screening on this guy at some point? She would worry about that later. “And you call me Nora.”
“Well, kidding aside, we are truly glad you’re here, Nora.”
“Everyone keeps saying that. You all must really miss Dr. Baker.” The clinic had been closed for almost a year, but it seemed that its former owner loomed large in town.
Sawyer answered as Law was hailed by another customer. “We miss having a doctor, anyway.”
“But not him specifically? Hmm. The plot thickens.”
“Dr. Baker was fine, but from the town cop to the town doctor, he was a bit old-school.”
“What does that mean?”
“He refused to face the fact that we have a fentanyl problem, for one.”
“Ah. You’re not alone there, unfortunately.” The emergency room back in Toronto had been well acquainted with that problem.
“Right. And I get that it’s a wider public health problem. It’s not like I expected Doc Baker to single-handedly solve it, but just last week we had a kid OD on some kind of street cocktail. Thankfully, the paramedics arrived in time to save him, but honestly, it didn’t look good there for a while, and I could use some advice on naloxone. Should my officers and I be carrying it, do you think? Dr. Baker told me not to open the force to potential legal liability, but I’m not sure that’s right. I can’t keep just standing there doing nothing.” His voice had risen, and he rolled his eyes. “Sorry. I’m getting intense.”
“No, it’s worth getting intense over. My first reaction is yes you should be carrying it, but let me look into it some more and get back to you.” She’d read a bit about police forces across the country debating whether officers should carry the overdose-reversing drug. But there might be legal and liability issues she wasn’t aware of. “And that’s not me blowing you off,” she added. “I’ve never had to think about the intersection of medicine and law enforcement. So give me a couple weeks to do a little research, and we can put our heads together?”
He smiled. “I’d appreciate that.”
“You said a few things? What else?”
Sawyer glanced over his shoulder. Someone was approaching. She followed his gaze.
Aquaman.
He was wearing jeans and a weathered gray T-shirt, and he had his hair in a messy bun.
“Hey,” Sawyer said. Jake gave a slight nod. Sawyer was sitting on the last stool on the long side of the bar, and Jake took the next stool over, the first on the short side, putting them at a ninety-degree angle from each other. “You know Dr. Walsh.”
Nora gave a little wave. “Yeah, Jake turns out to be a talented birth attendant.” Also, is he or is he not some kind of man-god hybrid? Asking out of scientific curiosity.
Sawyer chuckled, and Law showed up and set a beer in front of Jake. Jake remained silent.
Sawyer turned back to Nora. “We have meth, too. There are some dealers in town. Though it hasn’t been quite as prevalent since a lab was busted in Grand View last year. But I’m not sure how long the reprieve will last.”
“Oh. Right.” She had assumed that since Jake had arrived, the professional confab would come to an end, at least temporarily. “Fentanyl and meth. Got it.”
“I have one more for you, though maybe less dramatic: measles.”
“Yes, I read about the outbreak around here, and I know it’s a growing problem