Hell, and if she was ever to have a one-night stand again, she would call the shots—she would climb out of bed, get dressed and walk off without a word. The thought made Holy smirk.
Next year, though.
Right now she knew she had to feel this pain. She had Daniel’s present swathed in bubble wrap on the passenger seat and she knew that this year Boxing Day would more like Box of Tissues Day!
Holly got to the hospital and parked, then unloaded all the food her mother had prepared for the night staff. There was rather a lot! She staggered again through the car park and was under the bright lights of the ambulance bay when she heard her name being called.
‘Holly!’
A gruff voice had her turn around and she saw a little group standing around a wheelchair.
Holly made her way over, and as she did so a delighted smile split her face. There was Albert, sitting in the wheelchair with a drip attached to a pole and wearing a heavy Christmas jumper and a woolly hat.
She hardly recognised him.
‘What are you doing, sitting out here with pneumonia?’ Holly both scolded and smiled as she spoke.
‘The nurses on the ward said the same,’ Albert admitted, ‘but it’s too stuffy up there.’
‘He wanted to come out for some air,’ the elder woman explained. ‘I’m Dianne, his niece.’
‘It’s lovely to meet you.’
‘This is Emily,’ Albert proudly introduced his family. ‘She’s both my great-niece and god-daughter. They brought me in some Christmas dinner and Emily has made me these.’ He opened a tin and showed some beautifully decorated mince pies. ‘Take one for your break,’ Albert offered.
‘I think Holly’s got enough food to be going on with,’ Dianne said when she saw Holly hesitate.
Usually she didn’t accept food from patients and Dianne was right, more mince pies were the very last thing she needed. But, Holly guessed, it must be rather nice for Albert who had spent the last years begging to have food to give some.
‘I’ll have it on my break,’ Holly said. ‘If you could just...’
Dianne laughed and selected a pie and added it to the mountain of food that Holly carried.
‘I’d better get inside,’ she said to the little family. ‘Happy Christmas!’
‘And to you, Holly.’
‘You made it.’ Kay beamed as Holly came in. ‘And you’re early!’
‘Someone can go home,’ Holly offered, because the staff had done the same for her on the Christmas party night.
‘Well, I’ll send Anna home. Laura isn’t getting here till later so I’m hanging around till then. I have to say, though, for Christmas night it’s pretty quiet. Maybe, for once, everyone’s behaving.’
Holly had worked a couple and maybe there were jinxing themselves by admitting it, but it actually was quiet. Christmas night was often the busiest with feuding families as well as too much food and alcohol combined. Also there was sometimes the very sick who had held on for that special day.
But, yes, tonight was quiet—at least it was in Emergency, though Kay soon told her that it was otherwise elsewhere.
‘Theatre is busy and Maternity is steaming.’
‘Who’s on tonight?’ Holly asked, and they glanced up at the doctors’ board and saw that Daniel Chandler was down to work in Emergency tonight.
‘We’ve got...’ Kay frowned. ‘That can’t be right, he’s left.’
‘No,’ Anna called out. ‘We had to ring everyone but Daniel agreed to work it.’
And Holly blinked.
She couldn’t do this.
She could not keep saying goodbye.
Or, worse than that, she could not keep getting her hopes up because that was what she repeatedly did.
Well, not any more, they were done.
No way would Boxing Day be spent in his bed.
Two-Strikes-and-You’re-Out Dr Chandler.
He came in then, carrying boxes and food and with a mince pie on top of it all. Unshaven and gorgeous, he gave her a smile.
‘Take your stuff around to the staffroom,’ Kay told them, though for Holly it was a rather awkward walk.
‘I see you have a mince pie.’ Holly said, determined to keep this about the patients rather than them. ‘Is that one of Albert’s?’
‘It is,’ Daniel said, and told her he’d been outside chatting with them too. ‘The family’s moving to the country and apparently there’s a little cottage on the grounds. Albert and Dianne both happily admit they’d kill each other under the same roof, but if he has the cottage he can have his privacy and they can keep an eye—’
‘He’s going to live there?’
‘Yep,’ Daniel said as they arrived at the staffroom and started to unload all the food. ‘Great, isn’t it?’
It truly was.
‘Why have you brought in a popcorn-maker?’ Holly asked.
‘Don’t you like popcorn?’
‘I love popcorn.’
‘Then I shall make you some later.’
Holly said nothing, she just headed to the changing room and arrived at the nurses’ station a few minutes later in her scrubs and wearng her Christmas earrings.
Everyone was gathered, even Daniel.
‘Happy birthday, Holly...’ the call went up!
Kay went into her bottomless bag and pulled out a parcel. ‘That’s from all of us. We were going to do you a cake but...’
‘I’ve had a lot of cake today!’
‘We’ll do cake next year,’ Kay said. ‘For your thirtieth.’
Holly groaned. ‘Please, don’t remind me! Anyway, I’m not working next year, I’m putting in my request now.’
‘Did your mother tell you to do that?’ Kay asked.
‘I shan’t be at my mother’s on my thirtieth.’ Holly smiled sweetly. ‘I’ll be getting drunk and having anonymous sex with a stranger.’
Kay puffed out her cheeks and tutted but everyone else laughed, even Daniel, and she was proud of herself indeed.
She would get over him.
Holly just had to get through tonight.
She opened her present and found it was a gorgeous jumper that she’d seen online a while ago. She had shown it to Anna, but it hadn’t been available in her size.
Yes, she had very good friends.
She read her card and even Nora had taken the time to sign it.
‘How’s Paul?’ Holly asked.
‘He’s fantastic. He even remembered where he’d hidden Nora’s present.’ Kay beamed. ‘It was in with the lentils.’
‘Well, thank God he came out of his coma to remember.’
‘It’s an eternity ring. No doubt she’ll be down later to show it off to all the night staff...’ And then her voice trailed off and she looked at Daniel. ‘Are you wearing lip gloss?’ Kay frowned.
‘I am.’
‘I can’t keep up these days, I have to admit. Men wearing make-up...’
‘I like it,’ Daniel said. ‘It keeps my lips soft, supple and kissable.’
There was something different about him that Holly couldn’t put her finger on.
He wasn’t at all aloof, he was lighter, funnier and now a part of the team, but it was more than that.
It was as if Daniel had become Daniel.
And, even more so, she wanted him.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
‘HAPPY CHRISTMAS, HOLLY.’
With just an hour left of the big day, and only a couple of patients trickling through, he found her standing at the nurses’ station, pulling up some antibiotics that weren’t even due yet, and he said what he wished he had said this morning.
Holly was very glad that he hadn’t wished her a happy Christmas then, only because she’d have flung it back at
him and said he’d ruined it.
Twenty-three hours into Christmas Day she was ready to hear it.
‘Thank you.’ She smiled. ‘And to you.’
It had been a happy Christmas, Holly thought as she tapped the little air bubbles out of the syringe.
Despite the tears to come and the hurt yet to heal, it had still somehow managed to be the best Christmas and birthday she’d ever known.
‘Was Santa good to you?’ he asked.
‘He was,’ Holly said, wishing he would leave her alone, because it was hard to chat and play friends, but she tried. ‘And Secret Santa was very good to me.’ She looked into those absolute navy eyes, and there was still no silver, no little aqua dots, and she knew she loved him. ‘Though he went way over budget...’
‘Count yourself lucky. I got a lip balm.’
‘The crème de la crème of lip balms,’ Holly corrected him.
‘Was I to think of you when I applied it?’ Daniel asked, and it was he now who looked for a deeper meaning.
‘No.’ She shook her head. ‘It was my I-am-so-over-you present. A bit nicer than I’d have got for others but certainly not in the chocolate stocking category.’
‘What’s wrong with a chocolate stocking?’ Kay asked as she bustled in to get her bag and finally go home.
‘Nothing,’ Holly said.
In fact, a chocolate stocking was a whole lot less confusing than Daniel, and his romantic gifts and come-to-bed eyes, followed by the silent treatment the morning after.
Aaggh!
She wanted to scream but she didn’t and no way, no way would she ask what was in the letter.
‘Did you get any presents, Daniel?’ Kay asked.
‘I got a wallet from my father and stepmother,’ Daniel said, ‘and a popcorn-maker from my sister. We had a good day.’
‘You stayed for dinner?’ Holly frowned.
‘I did.’
‘Don’t you get on?’ Kay asked.
‘Not really,’ Daniel said. ‘Though it’s my stepmum that’s the problem at the moment. Still, I do have a young sister...’
‘How old is she?’
‘Five,’ Daniel said.
‘And so how old is your stepmother?’ Kay exclaimed in her less-than-tactful way.
‘Twenty-seven.’
‘Dear God!’ Kay was stunned. ‘That would be hard.’
‘Actually,’ Daniel said, picking up a file for the next patient, ‘it’s not. Much to Amelia’s disappointment.’
Holly and Kay looked at each other as Daniel went to walk off. Holly could not believe he was finally being open about it, and as for Kay...
No, she wasn’t subtle and she was also very, very shrewd.
‘Did she come on to you, Daniel?’
Holly held her breath, wondering what his reaction would be.
‘Last year.’ Daniel nodded.
‘And did you respond in kind?’
‘Kay!’ Holly admonished. Kay just went too far at times and Daniel clearly agreed because he turned around.
‘No, I did not!’ Daniel was all snobby and angry but it would seem Kay wasn’t being nosey, she was just being very, very honest.
‘I did!’ She went purple in the face. ‘Why do you think I work every Christmas? I’m trying to keep away from Eamon’s twin?’
She was Irish, she was funny and it was Christmas night.
‘One year his fecking mother made the same jumper and gave it to them for Christmas and so they were both wearing it...’
Holly watched a smile inch over Daniel’s face as Kay proceeded to tell her story in the way only the Irish could.
‘Well, I had everyone at the Christmas table, they were all getting on with their starters, and, given I had to get things ready, I ate mine quickly. I went into the kitchen to sort out the main course. I was taking the foil off the turkey and then Eamon came up behind me and he pinched my bottom and then we had a kiss, as you do...’
‘Indeed,’ Daniel said.
‘It was quite a kiss actually,’ Kay elaborated, ‘but I told him that I needed to get on with dinner and that I’d deal with him better later and I gave it a little squeeze...’
And Holly laughed as Daniel’s eyes popped a little.
‘Then I walked through with the turkey and there was Eamon, sitting where I’d left him, and his brother was walking behind me... I knew I’d just got off with my husband’s twin.’
They laughed so much!
Just laughed and laughed because somehow all families had their dramas and tales, all families were a little crazy.
Especially at Christmas.
‘Did you tell Eamon?’ Holly asked, when she had remembered how to breathe.
‘Of course not,’ Kay said. ‘I mean...’ She stopped talking in mid-sentence and looked over Holly’s shoulder, and Kay’s expression was so stunned that both Daniel and Holly turned around to see what had halted Kay in her tracks. ‘Louise!’
It was Kay’s daughter, accompanied by a very nervous-looking young man whose arm she was clinging onto.
‘I was going to call you from Maternity...’ Louise started to explain to her mother and then stopped as clearly another contraction hit. ‘I don’t think I’m going to get there.’
And Kay, the most competent, the most experienced, the utter glue of the department and, Holly guessed, her family too, just stood there not moving, like a tree in the middle of a field.
‘Come on, Holly.’ It was Daniel who moved.
He went over, shook the man’s hand and found out his name—Gilbert—and then he guided Louise into a cubicle and Holly followed them all in. ‘Let’s help you up onto the trolley...’ Daniel started, but Louise held onto the metal edges for dear life and started to bear down.
‘Why don’t we let the maternity department know?’ Daniel suggested.
‘I just have,’ Kay said. She was present now, though not fully recovered from the shock of her daughter’s arrival, but her voice was very deliberately steady and calm. ‘They’ll send someone just as soon as they’re able to.’
Kay had brought in a delivery pack and Holly and Daniel were getting Louise up onto the gurney as she spoke on. ‘They’re very busy up there and, given we’ve got a registrar and,’ she added, ‘I’m also a midwife...’
‘We’ll be fine,’ Daniel said in his composed, deep voice just as he had the night Paul had come in.
And he was calm, though not so aloof now, for he gave Kay’s shoulder a little squeeze.
It was everything that was needed now.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
‘WE’LL BE MORE than fine,’ Kay said as she rallied. ‘Now, Louise—’ she was as direct as ever ‘—do you want me to wait outside? Just say if it’s awkward for you to have your mother here.’
‘No-o-o-o!’ Louise shouted as another contraction took over and she clutched both her mother and her partner’s arms and bore down.
Holly was very quickly opening up the delivery pack.
This baby really was in a hurry to be born!
‘When did the contractions start?’ Holly asked.
‘Only an hour or so ago,’ Gilbert answered. ‘Though she’s felt a bit off all day.’
‘Why didn’t you say when I called?’ Kay asked.
‘She didn’t want you to worry, given how busy it is at Christmas,’ Gilbert said, ‘and we thought it would take ages.’ He was trying to take in the speed of it all.
So was Holly—the head was almost out.
‘Louise,’ Daniel said. ‘A big push, please.’
He was very polite as he made his request and Louise went from red to purple as she complied and then she made a request of her own. ‘Can my mum deliver my baby?’ she asked.
‘I think that would be rather wonderful,’ Daniel agreed. When Kay came round, Holly watched as Daniel gave Kay’s shoulder not one squeeze but two.
The first was to say, I’m here beside you, because for Kay this was the most important delivery of her life.
The second squeeze told her that she’d got this all under control—a midwife, a mother, a fabulous nurse, Kay was about to deliver her own grandchild.
And she coached her daughter well and soon a little head with dark hair was out and, with this push, the baby would be here.
‘Oh...’ Kay guided her grandbaby out into the world and delivered the vigorous bundle up onto Louise’s stomach.
Daniel was there so he could step in if Kay became overwhelmed but it was simply a very beautiful birth.
‘A girl,’ Louise cried. ‘Gilbert, we’ve got a little girl!’
He was a very proud father and Daniel handed Gilbert the scissors so he could cut the cord as the tiny little girl started to cry.
Holly was close to tears herself.
All births were beautiful but this one felt especially so.
And yet Holly felt sad.
‘You have a visitor...’ Laura popped her head around the curtain.
Eamon was there to take his wife home and when Louise called for him to come and meet his granddaughter he got the surprise of his life.
Holly knew she couldn’t hold it together any more and when the midwife arrived from Maternity she slipped out and went and hid in the dark small theatre to let a few tears trickle out.
She had never felt so happy and sad at the same time.
She not only loved him, she really liked Daniel too, and she didn’t want him to be gone. She didn’t want to have to get over him!
So she sat and decided to have a little Holly pity party and for ten minutes she sat there, but just as she was going to sneak out to sort out her face she heard his voice.
‘Holly?’
She was too tired to even jump.
He didn’t turn on the lights and she didn’t turn her face to where he stood at the door.
‘You have a namesake—they’re going to call the baby Holly.’
‘That’s nice.’
‘You forgot to do something today and so did I.’
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