One Great Christmas Love Story (MyHeartChannel Christmas Romance)

by Kaylee Baldwin

  Their meeting ended, and Holly headed distractedly toward Francis’s room. She entered to find him asleep. She tried to be quiet as she came beside him, but his eyes fluttered open anyway.

  “Still in the ICU,” he said, his voice scratchy.

  “You’ll be here for at least another day,” she said, looking more closely at him. She didn’t like his coloring. She’d checked on him earlier that morning, and he seemed to be looking worse.

  She turned to the nurse in his room and ordered some blood work, then decided to adjust one of his meds as well. “I want the results as soon as you get them.”

  “No filming today?” Francis asked.

  “Not today. I need you to get a little better.”

  “But what if I don’t?” he asked, sounding frustrated.

  “We’re going to do everything we can to make sure you’re okay.”

  He took her hand that was resting on the side of his bed and gave it a gentle squeeze as if he were comforting her. Her mind whirled back again to sitting beside Dallon’s bedside, begging the doctors to help him to wake up. Even as a doctor, knowing more than most patients ever would about what was going on with their loved one, she’d still hoped for someone to perform a miracle.

  “I’ll come by later,” she promised, backing out of the room, needing to be out as images of Dallon’s peaceful face, so oblivious to the struggle for life inside of him, came back to her. She left, heading quickly down the hallway and out the doors to breathe cold air deep into her lungs.

  She started to walk toward her car, startled when she felt someone sidle up beside her.

  “What’s wrong?” Jack asked, his voice gruff.

  She realized then she had tears on her cheeks. She wiped the moisture away. “A patient. I can’t talk about it.”

  He nodded in understanding. There were plenty of times they couldn’t talk about their patients unless they were consulting together. She’d lost several patients over the years, and they had always managed to affect her in one way or another. They hadn’t lost Francis yet, it was true, but she could see the signs that he was struggling. She hoped the new meds would help, but she was afraid to hope for a miracle.

  “And I have to get Christmas trees for the party.”

  “How many?”

  “Thirty.”

  Jack let out a low whistle in response. He walked her to her car, a silent, steady presence.

  “This is a tough week,” he said. He held the door open for her while she slipped inside, the space around her feeling distant, separated.

  She knew it was a coping mechanism to help with the pain, and she welcomed it. She’d been in this space for months after Dallon’s death, and this was always the toughest time of year to get through without giving into that numbness again.

  “Come with me and Shiloh tomorrow night. We’re going to the tree lot. You can talk to the people there about ordering trees.”

  Exhaustion overwhelmed her at the thought. That meant she’d have to leave her house, enter a Christmassy area.

  She paused at the Scrooge-ish thought, stunned to realize that she’d gone weeks without being down on Christmas. She’d gone ice skating and decorated with Christmas cookies, and not once did her usual antipathy toward Christmas cross her mind. In fact, she’d enjoyed the activities as much as she might have before the accident.

  Was she finally healing? Or maybe doing those things with Jack made the difference. She pushed the unsettling thoughts aside to visit another time, when she wasn’t so mentally exhausted. Regardless, Jack prized his time alone with his daughter, and Holly wasn’t going to step in. Especially not tonight. “Thank you, Jack, but that’s your and Shiloh’s time.”

  “Shiloh loves you,” he said. “I know she’d think it’s great if you came.”

  “I’ll think about it,” she said, even though she was definitely going to say no.

  He nodded, probably already knowing she was going to turn him down. “Sure you don’t want to talk about it?” Jack asked.

  “No.” She was pushing him away, building back walls that had been knocked down, but she needed to. She was in self-preservation mode. “Are you free Tuesday for another date?”

  Jack frowned. “Maybe we should take a break from this.”

  “One more,” she insisted.

  He sighed. He’d always had a hard time saying no to her, which she knew full well she was taking advantage of right now. “Fine. Send me her contact info so I can search her, though.”

  “No need this time,” she told him. “It’s Megan. Remember her?”

  “The one with the brother?”

  “Yeah. I’ve got to work that day, so let’s plan on meeting at the little cafe by my house.”

  Jack’s jaw clenched, but he nodded. Holly got in her car and pulled out before he could change his mind. This was good. Jack and Megan would go on a date, she’d film another episode, and life would move on, like it always managed to do.

  Chapter 22

  Holly stood in the tree lot, glancing down at her watch every few seconds. It was taking considerably longer to order a bunch of trees than she’d thought it would. Turned out that most tree lots didn’t automatically have a delivery service set up for orders of that size.

  “I needed to be somewhere about five minutes ago,” she said, hopping from foot to foot to remain warm. Her breath came out as puffs of mist in front of her, and she scooted closer to the standing heater.

  “I understand,” the man said, tilting his phone away from his ear. “This may take a while longer, though. Do you want to come back in a bit and we’ll finish the transaction then?”

  She didn’t want to draw this out longer than it needed to be, but yes, if the numbness in her toes wasn’t indication enough that it was time to go, then the mental picture she had of Jack and Megan sitting awkwardly together at a table was. “About an hour?” she asked. That should be long enough to get Jack and Megan onto good footing—and hopefully get some good footage as well.

  “We’ll be here,” the man said before turning back to his phone conversation.

  Holly stomped her feet as she crossed the snow-filled street and headed for the cafe around the corner. When it came in sight, a cute wooden sign in the shape of a teacup dangling in front of the entrance, she sighed in relief. She could almost feel the warmth already filling her.

  She peered in the window while a family stopped in front of her to pick up something one of their children had dropped. She scanned the room, her eyes alighting on Jack’s familiar profile. She’d almost skimmed right past him because he was laughing. When was the last time she’d seen Jack laugh in public?

  Megan sat across from him, animatedly talking, her face expressive and her hands moving around in wide gestures. They both paused as the waitress set their drinks down, and then she continued on again, Jack’s slight smile remaining on her.

  Okay. This was good. She was not walking into the disaster she thought she might be. And Megan had showed up. That alone felt like a small miracle.

  Then why do you feel so annoyed right now?

  She made her inner voice shut up. The real question was, Why are you still standing out here?

  She pushed the door open and came inside the cafe, immediately welcoming the warmth that filled her. She headed to the counter to place her order, hoping Jack or Megan would notice her, but so far they hadn’t.

  A handsome man came in only a minute after her and stood beside her in line. “Have you been here before?”

  It took Holly a moment to realize the man was talking to her. She turned to get a better look at him: tall with curly blond hair, wearing a suit that looked like it had been tailor-made to fit him. “I have,” she answered.

  “What’s good?”

  “Depends on what you’re in the mood for.” She turned toward the menu. She got the same thing every time she came here: a white chocolate raspberry croissant with hot chocolate. In fact, it had been so long since she’d ordered something differen
t, she didn’t know if she could actually give any recommendations with confidence.

  “Food,” he smiled, showing off his pearly white teeth. “I haven’t eaten since breakfast.”

  “Well, in that case, I’ve heard their sandwiches are amazing. I always get the desserts, so I’m not much help.”

  “Dessert sounds fantastic,” he said.

  It was her turn to order, and after she did, she peered over at Jack and Megan again. Still no indication that they’d seen her standing there.

  “What can we get you?” the woman asked, and Holly hurriedly stood aside, realizing that they’d already set her order in front of her.

  “The same thing she got,” she heard the man say before she walked away with her food toward Jack’s table. It took all the way up until she slid out the chair next to Jack before they noticed her.

  “Sorry I’m so late,” she said.

  “It was no problem,” Megan said before Jack could answer. “I was just telling Jack about some of my students’ antics over the years.”

  “Makes me relieved I went into the profession I did.”

  “Hey, I’m sure you’ve seen grosser things than I have.”

  “Maybe, but not all over my shoes.”

  They both laughed at that, and Holly was left with the impression that she’d missed a story or something that had now become an inside joke.

  She tried to smile and tore off a piece of her croissant so she’d have something to do with her hands.

  “Oh, there’s Donovan!”

  Holly turned to see the man who had stood behind her in line walking over.

  Megan turned to Holly with a hesitant expression. “I hope you don’t mind, but I invited my brother along as well. He still doesn’t want to be on the show, but I convinced him to meet you, at least.”

  “Oh,” Holly said faintly. There was nothing like being ambushed with a blind date, especially when the other person had to be “convinced” to come.

  “Hi, Megan.” Donovan sat at the table and turned to Holly with his hand outstretched. “And you must be Holly.”

  Holly shook his hand.

  “I’m Jack.” All hint of the former humor was gone from his voice.

  They nodded at each other, and there was a beat of awkward silence while they all took a drink or ate a bite of their food. Holly knew it was her turn to jump in and explain how the date and filming was going to be structured, but she found herself reluctant to do so.

  This is silly, Holly. The whole reason everyone is here is because of the show. “So how we’ll start—”

  “Megan says you’re a—”

  Both Holly and Donovan stopped talking. Again there was uncomfortable silence, and Donovan motioned for her to go first.

  “Okay. I’m thinking I’ll get some footage of the two of you meeting; even though you’ve already met before, the audience doesn’t know that. And then we’ll take a short walk down the street and stop to listen to the carolers before you two hop on the horse-drawn carriage I’ve reserved for you.”

  They had less than an hour to do all of that, but Holly didn’t want the video to have a rushed feeling about it. The more organic, the better—false first meetings aside. All the weird feelings swirling through her right now would fade the second she turned the camera on and fell into her One Great Love Story persona.

  Donovan worked on his croissant, while Jack and Megan followed Holly’s instructions to go to the front of the cafe.

  Holly turned the camera on, having only Jack in the frame. “I’m here at my local bakery with Jack, getting ready to meet his third blind date. I don’t know, Jack; do you think this one is going to show up?”

  He looked at her, an amused twinkle in his eye. “I’m feeling pretty good about those odds.”

  “Well, let’s hope so, because I think the whole series would have to end if you got stood up one more time.”

  “You could rename it ‘Dr. Unlucky in Love.’”

  “Tempting,” she said, rolling her eyes so only Jack could see it.

  She motioned for Megan, who had stepped outside for filming, to come in. Her cheeks were pink from the few minutes she’d been out in the cold, and her bright blue eyes looked even more striking in this light than they had at their table. She unwound her scarf and waved at Holly.

  “You must be Megan,” she said. “Okay, viewers, I have a confession. I’ve met Megan before, so when she reached out to me to see if she could have a chance with Jack, I immediately responded that I thought it would be a fantastic idea.”

  “I’m really excited.” Megan’s gaze drifted toward Jack, and he took the cue to step into the picture and introduce himself. He reached down to hug her, and Holly couldn’t help but notice that Megan was the perfect height for his taller stature.

  “It’s nice to see you,” Jack said.

  “You too,” Megan said. “I’ve been looking forward to this date all week.”

  Before Jack could respond, Holly jumped into say, “And I’ve got some fantastic things planned for you.”

  She followed them to the table, where Donovan had made himself scarce. She scanned the room, finding him at a corner table. He winked and held out his mostly eaten croissant like he was giving her a toast.

  She set her tripod up quickly and told Jack and Megan to have a normal conversation.

  “So how was your day?” Megan asked, sounding a little stiff. She looked at Holly as if for approval.

  “Good. Yours?”

  “Good.”

  They both paused and looked at Holly for help.

  “You guys were talking great before now! What happened?”

  “The camera,” Jack said.

  “Stop. You’ve been in front of the camera for the last couple of weeks and haven’t had any problems.”

  “It feels weird to have an audience,” Megan said.

  “Try not to think about all the viewers. If you say something you don’t like, tell me, and I’ll edit it out.”

  “That’s great,” she said. “But I also mean you.”

  “You feel awkward because I’m here?” Holly knew that Megan hadn’t meant the words to be personal, but they sure felt like it.

  “Kind of,” Jack said, the agreement feeling like a punch. Jack could say anything in front of Holly, ever. He knew that. But if her hovering was the problem, then she’d give them space.

  “Okay,” she said, knowing she sounded as flummoxed as she felt. “I’ll go sit with Donovan, then.”

  She hoped one or both of them would insist that she stay, but neither did. She grabbed her croissant and insulated cup from their table and walked toward Donovan.

  “Giving them some alone time?” Donovan said when she sat down across from him, turning her chair so she was facing the couple in question.

  “Something like that. They don’t feel comfortable talking with me there.”

  “Can you blame them?”

  A little bit. But she shrugged off the lingering feelings of hurt. If Jack fell in love, that was all that mattered, not that she couldn’t be there for every second of it. Besides, she’d watch the footage later when she was editing.

  “So tell me about yourself,” Donovan said.

  “What would you like to know?” It took some effort for Holly to drag her gaze away from Jack and Megan, who seemed to be talking no problem now that she’d walked away.

  “Megan says you’re a doctor.”

  “Yes, I’m a cardiologist.”

  “Did you always want to go into that field of medicine?”

  She shook her head. “I’ve wanted to be a doctor since I was in high school and my sister had to be rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery on her appendix. For the longest time, I thought I wanted to be an ER doctor, but I did a cardiology rotation and fell absolutely in love with it.”

  “How’s your sister now?”

  “Appendix-free and healthy.” She smiled. She hadn’t kept in close contact with her sister for a few years—not since
she’d pushed everyone away after Dallon’s death. It was probably time to give her a call, though, to catch up and wish her merry Christmas. “She has three kids and lives in New Mexico.”

  His eyebrows lifted. “Quite different there from here.”

  “She’s a teacher out there,” she explained. “But we grew up in Denver, and after medical school, wanted to move close to home.”

  “We?” he asked.

  She hadn’t even realized she’d said that. “My late husband. He was a doctor as well. Actually, all three of us went to medical school together: me, Dallon, and Jack.”

  “Jack.” Donovan leaned back in his chair and folded his arms. “Tell me more about him, since he’s going to be dating my sister and all.”

  She stopped herself from correcting him, just in time, that they weren’t really dating. Because that was the goal, and hopefully it worked out. “Jack? Jack is fantastic.” She tore off another chunk of her croissant and popped it into her mouth. “He’s the kind of person who you want to see good things happen to, which is in part why I decided to run with this show idea. You know how it started, right?”

  Donovan nodded slowly. “Some harebrained idea of my sisters.”

  “It was a brilliant idea,” she corrected. “My views have skyrocketed, and several episodes have gone viral. I donate all the proceedings of my show to the foundation my late husband started to help underprivileged people receive medical care, and this has been huge.”

  She heard laughter and glanced over again at Megan and Jack to catch them both smiling at each other. They were definitely hitting it off.

  “Sounds like an admirable pursuit,” Donovan said, bringing her back to him.

  “What about you?” she asked. “I’m sorry to say that I don’t know much about you.”

  “Except that my sister thinks we should get married.”

  Holly gave him a startled laugh. “Yeah, except for that part.”