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CHAPTER ONE

‘HOLLY, PUT THE decorations back. I’ve already told you that there are quite enough already. This is the emergency department, not the children’s ward.’

Holly, dressed in baggy scrubs and weighted down with tinsel and glittery silver snowmen, jumped when she heard Kay’s strong Irish accent and realised that the nurse unit manager was sitting at the nurses’ station.

Caught!

Holly had also thought that locum registrar Daniel Chandler was on his supper break but, no, he was drinking a coffee at the desk. Holly’s blush spread like spilled red wine across her chest as she stood, dripping glitter, and was scolded in front of the very suave Daniel.

‘I thought that you’d gone home,’ Holly admitted to Kay.

‘I know that you did,’ Kay tartly responded, but then she let out a long sigh. ‘I’m staying back to try and sort out the Christmas roster.’

‘But it’s already done.’ Holly frowned. The last thing she wanted were any alterations to the roster—her plans to be with her family over the festive break had been made weeks ago. But Kay had other ideas and proceeded to tell Holly the reasons that things might have to change.

‘Yes, but since then I’ve had two members of staff go on extended sick leave. Thank goodness for Nora, she’s offered to work Christmas night but things are very tight. Now, put the tinsel back where it belongs, please and, when you’ve done that, tie up your hair.’

‘It’s already tied up.’

‘No, Holly, it’s not.’

Holly’s long, curly brown hair always started the shift in a neat ponytail and then proceeded to work its way out of its confines, curl by wild curl.

* * *

As Holly slunk back to the storeroom Daniel found himself smiling.

He’d only been doing locum shifts at The Primary for a couple of months but it was enough to know that Holly Jacobs took her Christmas decorations very seriously. She had been waiting all afternoon for Kay, who was supposed to have finished at four, to go home so that Holly could, as she put it, ‘Christmas the place up’.

The Primary Hospital was a modern, busy, North London teaching hospital. It was very different in character from the prestigious Royal, where Daniel had started as a medical student and worked his way up to Accident and Emergency Registrar.

Working at The Primary was a step down, his father, an esteemed professor of surgery, would say. Certainly, renowned Professor Marcus Chandler could never fathom why his son was doing locum shifts at various hospitals around London when he could have any hours he chose at the Royal.

For Daniel, though, working at The Primary felt, if not a step up, then a step in the right direction. When he had commenced his first shift here Kay had rolled her eyes at the prospect of giving a tour to yet another temporary doctor but had soon realised Daniel was very good at his job.

More importantly, Daniel was really enjoying his work. Here there was no reputation to uphold; instead, he was slowly making his own.

And it had been noticed.

‘You know there’s a consultant’s position coming up,’ Kay said. She stared at the computer as she spoke.

‘I do,’ Daniel responded, and confirmed that he had been approached. ‘I’ve already told Mr Edwards that I’m not interested.’

‘Are we not good enough for you, Daniel?’

‘There was a consultant’s position at the Royal when I left,’ Daniel pointed out. ‘I wasn’t interested then either.’

‘You’re a mystery,’ Kay said, and gave a soft laugh then brushed from the desk some glitter dust that Holly had left in her wake. ‘Holly would have glitter everywhere,’ she tutted. ‘It’s an emergency department, not Santa’s Grotto. People don’t need festivities waved in their face when they come here. This time of year is often hard enough for our patients. I’m already over Christmas and it’s only the second of December.’

‘You’re preaching to the converted,’ Daniel agreed.

‘Are you not a fan of Christmas?’ Kay asked.

‘Nope.’

‘Nor me,’ Kay agreed. ‘It brings out the worst in everyone. You should see this place on Christmas night.’ She got back to the staring at the computer screen, though she carried on chatting with Daniel. ‘Are you going to the emergency department Christmas party tonight?’

‘Nope.’

Kay laughed at his truculent response but then she frowned. ‘How come you’re still here? I thought you were just doing a few locums until your friend got married. The wedding was last week, wasn’t it?’

‘It was.’ Daniel nodded and carried on writing.

He had finished up his role at the Royal at the end of September and had just been killing time until his best friend Rupert’s wedding had taken place. Soon he would be taking a year off. First he would hit the ski slopes in Switzerland and then...well, he’d see what happened when it happened.

‘Why didn’t you just start your travels and fly back for the wedding?’ Kay asked.

‘Oh, no...’ Daniel shook his head. ‘Once I’m gone, I’m gone for good.’

‘That sounds profound!’ Holly was back, minus tinsel and snowmen. Her hair had been scraped back into an even tighter ponytail but was now dotted with glitter. She had a worried expression aimed at Kay because she really needed Christmas off this year.

Holly knew that, if the roster had to be changed, she didn’t really have a leg to stand on—around this time last year her mother had been diagnosed with breast cancer. Then, despite Holly being rostered to work Christmas and New Year, Kay had been wonderful, giving Holly ten days off so that she could have some family time.

The trouble was, a cancer diagnosis didn’t follow a specified timeline with a neat conclusion to signal the end.

The last year had been a fraught one, with Holly taking her little red car up and down the motorway every chance she could and wrestling the off duty around her mother’s treatment. Esther had recently had to have a second round of chemotherapy, and while the news was a whole lot better Esther really wanted her family home for Christmas.

And lately, what Esther wanted, Esther got!

Holly blew out a tense breath. She loved her family dearly but things had been a bit difficult lately, to say the least.

While she hoped that Kay would understand when she came to make the necessary changes Holly needed to be sure. ‘Kay, could I have a word?’

‘If it’s about the Christmas roster, the answer is no. Your request has been noted. And, yes,’ she added. ‘I do know it’s also your birthday.’

‘Were you a Christmas baby, Holly?’ Daniel asked.

‘Why do you think I’m called Holly?’

‘Because you’re so prickly.’

It was a small joke—Holly was the least prickly person. She was happy and sunny and that they could tease each other about such things without having to explain they were joking, well, it was sort of where they were at.

‘So,’ Daniel asked, ‘do you miss out on your birthday?’

‘No.’ Holly shook her head. ‘My parents always make sure that both are celebrated.’

‘Of course they do, Polly.’

She got the Pollyanna insinuation and gave him a sweet smile. ‘Better than cynical. So,’ she asked, returning to the conversation she had walked in on the tail end of, ‘why didn’t you just fly home for the wedding?’

‘There was the stag night to organise,’ Daniel explained. ‘Actually, there were two of them.’

‘You could have just flown back for a couple of weeks.’ Holly repeated Kay’s assumption but Daniel shook his head.

‘Rupert had a highly strung bride-to-be who was worried that I’d be a no-show if I left the country. She was actually right to be concerned—as I said, when I’m gone, I’m gone.’

Holly didn’t like that.

Daniel had worked quite a few shifts now and she was getting used to having him around.

Or rather she was starting to get used to the feeling that an egg beater had been set at full whisk in the middle of her chest.

Daniel was, for want of a better word, gorgeous.

Yes, yes, he was tall and had thick black hair and a scent that had her toes curl, he had all of that but it was his eyes that had first sent Holly’s world spinning.

Absolute navy.

It was as if the artist had meant to get back and add silvery flecks and little dots of aqua but had forgotten to. Yet he was no unfinished masterpiece. Those eyes were just this delicious navy rimmed with a halo of black and, at first look, Holly had been unable to stop staring. She had wanted to apologise, to explain she was looking for said silver specks and dots of aqua, but instead she had stared.

And so had he.

At green eyes that had appeared startled.

‘Is everything okay?’ he had checked.

‘I have an abdo pain...’ Holly had attempted to explain that she had a patient she would like him to see in Cubicle Four but she had been so flustered that it had come out all wrong. ‘And vomiting.’

‘Then go and lie down and let me take a look at you.’

His voice was snobby, his humour hers, and she had been tempted, almost, to call his bluff and do just that. Instead she had smiled. ‘I’ll see you in Cubicle Four.’

Holly’s abdo pain had turned out to be a twenty-year-old with query appendicitis. Daniel had walked in to where Holly had been holding a bowl for the patient and he had given her a tiny smile to insinuate he had rather hoped she had been lying in wait for him.

‘Pity,’ he’d said.

Yet a little flirt, though huge to Holly, was just a walk in the park for him. He was suave and from what she gathered he dated a lot, and, in truth, neither was the other’s type.

Except...

‘What was the wedding like?’ Holly asked. She was curious to know more about the reason for delaying his trip.

‘Like all weddings are,’ Daniel said, as Holly jumped up and sat on the bench beside where he was trying to write his notes. ‘Long.’

‘What did the bride wear?’ she asked.

‘From memory, a dress,’ Daniel said. ‘Possibly it was white.’

‘I love winter weddings,’ Holly sighed. ‘Especially if it’s snowing.’

‘The church was freezing,’ Daniel told her, and from his voice it was clear that he had a rather less dreamy take on things. ‘And then it poured with rain for the photos.’

‘Who was your plus one?’ Kay asked, without turning her head from the computer screen.

‘I never take a plus one to a wedding.’ Daniel shook his head. ‘Well, I haven’t for a long time. I learnt the hard way that if you bring a date she assumes that it must mean you’re serious. Anyway, I was the best man for this one so all that was expected from me in that department was to get off with the chief bridesmaid.’

‘And did you?’ Kay asked.

‘That would be telling,’ Daniel said. ‘And I never do.’

He looked at Holly then—just an itsy-bitsy look that told her she’d be in very discreet hands.

God, he was forward!

Yet she smiled at the tiny flirt behind Kay’s back.

‘Anyway,’ Daniel continued, ‘I wanted to do the right thing by Rupert. He was very good to me when...’ He didn’t finish, or rather he just didn’t continue with what he had started to say. ‘He’s a very good friend.’

‘So how come you weren’t out on the first flight after the wedding?’ Kay pushed.

‘Just...’ He gave a small shrug and it was there that the conversation ended.

Daniel simply didn’t answer—he did that a lot.

He might be forward with his flirting but when a conversation veered too close to personal he simply halted it.

Daniel got back to his notes and, interlude over, Kay carried on staring at the off duty, but finally she gave in.

‘I’m going home,’ Kay said, and closed up the screen. ‘Daniel, shall we see you again?’

‘I don’t think so,’ he answered.

Locums came and locums went but Kay gave him a smile that told Daniel he would be missed. ‘Well, safe travels,’ she said, and then turned to Holly. ‘I’ll see you tonight at the pub. The night staff should be coming in a little bit early so that the late staff can get to the party at a reasonable time. How are you getting there?’

‘Taxi,’ Holly said. ‘Anna, Laura and I are sharing. Do you want to come with us, Daniel? There’s room for one more.’

‘I’m not going.’

He offered no reason and thankfully he didn’t look up as he spoke because, despite her best efforts, Holly knew her shoulders had briefly slumped, but quickly she righted herself.

Actually, it was good news that he wasn’t coming tonight.

The way Holly felt she was at high risk of doing something very stupid where Daniel Chandler was concerned.

Stupid as well as pointless, given that this was his last shift and that very soon he’d be heading off overseas.

Daniel, she had heard, was very into casual one-night stands. Whereas she was the complete opposite.

With one possible exception.

Him.

Oh, it would be bliss to be bad.

Sometimes, all joking and flirting aside, she felt him looking at her and there was a tension between them that Holly was almost convinced wasn’t one-sided. Of course, Daniel was a natural-born flirt, but it wasn’t just that, there was something in his eyes that could flip her stomach like a pancake...

Egg analogy again, Holly thought to herself, and decided that she must be hungry.

‘I’m going to go for my supper break while it’s quiet. I’ll see you later, Kay.’

‘You shall,’ Kay said. ‘Oh, wait. I got you a present.’ She smiled at Daniel. ‘I got you one too.’

Kay was big on presents.

Silly things, happy things, she passed on what had made her smile. Her charity wasn’t just for the staff, though—there were regular fundraisers held throughout the year on behalf of the homeless.

Kay took the displaced seriously.

She took an overfull bag from beneath the bench and handed them both a slim card from a choice of many.

‘An Advent calendar!’ Holly beamed.

‘I got them at the discount store,’ Kay said, clearly delighted with her purchase. ‘There’s one for everyone.’

‘There’s chocolate in here,’ Daniel said, opening up one of the little windows.

‘Of course there is. Have you never had an Advent calendar?’ Kay checked.

‘Actually, no.’

‘It’s December the second so you get to eat two,’ she told him, ‘but after that it’s just one a day.’

Daniel gave Holly a sideways smile that told her all twenty-five would be eaten the very moment Kay had gone and Holly smiled back as she shook her head. ‘One a day,’ she warned him.

‘I’m lousy at self-restraint.’

Ouch.

Sometimes, in fact a little too often, he threw out those lines and usually Holly could shrug them off, but it had been getting harder and harder to of late.

‘Well, I’ve got excellent self-control,’ Holly replied, and watched the slight questioning rise of one eyebrow.

They were talking about chocolate, Holly told herself.

At least where chocolate was concerned she had self-control.

Where Daniel was concerned it was melting just as fast. It was a good job that he was leaving, Holly decided.

She had a king-size crush on him and she wasn’t used to them, well, not for a very long time. At twenty-eight, Holly had rather thought that the days of wild dreams and fixating on someone’s every word were long since gone.

They weren’t.

Kay was just about to go when Laura, the nurse in charge this evening, came in swiftly.

‘Holly—Resus,’ she said. ‘We’ve got a cardiac arrest coming in. Fifty-five-year-old male collapsed at home.’

Holly nodded and, supper forgotten, she jumped down from the bench and Daniel got down from his stool to go and prepare for the incoming patient.

‘I’ll just stay and see if I’m needed...’ Kay offered. And Holly was expecting Laura to, as she usually did, point out that they’d be fine and could more than cope but instead Laura gave Kay a worried look.

‘Can I have a quick word, Kay?’ she asked.

As Laura pulled Kay aside Holly put out an arrest call to alert the medical team to come to Emergency and then started to set up for the incoming patient. Until the team arrived Daniel would be in charge but from working with him she knew that he could more than cope with anything that presented.

‘What’s going on?’ Daniel asked, as he taped some syringes to the vial of medication he’d just pulled up in anticipation of the patient’s arrival. He nodded in the direction of Laura and Kay, who were still huddled together and talking.

‘I’m not sure.’ Holly frowned. ‘But something is.’

The alert meant that they had everything ready for the patient, going on the information they had, but just as a blue light flashed in the high windows above, Kay came over and offered more.

‘Holly,’ Kay said, and her voice was serious as she pulled on a plastic apron to indicate she would be participating in the resuscitation. ‘The patient is Nora’s husband.’

Holly swallowed. Nora Hewitt was second in charge to Kay and everyone adored her. More importantly, Paul, Nora’s husband, was the good man behind a great woman. He was often at the department, picking up Nora or bringing in the lunch she had forgotten and had left sitting in the fridge at home. He always had a friendly word for everyone and should have been at the emergency department Christmas party tonight with his wife.

Instead, he was being raced into Resus on the very edge of death.

There were the sounds of sobs and tears coming from outside, though Holly could tell that it wasn’t Nora.

‘The daughter is very upset,’ the paramedic informed them.

‘Anna—’ Kay called for assistance ‘—can you stay with the family?’

‘Where’s the team?’ Holly asked in an urgent tone, desperate for them to appear so that Paul could be given the very best chance.

‘We’ll be fine,’ Daniel said in his composed deep voice and Holly glanced over at him.

He was at the head of the resuscitation bed that the paramedics were moving Paul onto and Daniel was his usual mixture of aloof and calm.

It was everything that was needed now.