by Sarah Morgan
Christmas is coming, but for ER consultant Mac Sullivan it’s just another day. Since losing his wife two years ago, he’s thrown himself into work and has no interest in serious relationships.
Enter Nurse Louisa Young, who brings warmth, sparkle and Christmas into his ER department. The question is: Can she bring it into his life, as well? Louisa’s one Christmas wish is that maybe, just maybe, she can melt the ice that surrounds the gorgeous consultant’s heart…
The Nurse’s Christmas Wish
Sarah Morgan
CONTENTS
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
PROLOGUE
‘YOU’RE going to love me. I’ve solved all your problems.’
‘I don’t have any problems.’ He had hundreds of problems. Mac Sullivan tucked the phone under his ear and carried on sifting through the pile of post he’d scooped from the mat just before the phone had rung. He’d only been at the hospital for two days and yet the door would barely open. Where the hell had it all come from? He turned his attention to the phone call. ‘And if this is the point where you tell me you’ve fixed me up with another blind date then I ought to warn you that I’m leaving the country. If you weren’t my brother I’d have knocked your teeth down your throat before now.’
‘Wouldn’t be the first time,’ Josh said easily, ‘but in this case it would be the wrong move. It’s not a blind date. But I have chosen you a great Christmas present.’
Mac binned the post without opening it and strolled through to the kitchen, the phone still tucked under his ear. He winced at the mess. The remains of a takeaway lay dried up and congealing in foil containers and unwashed dishes were stacked on every available surface.
‘I don’t need a Christmas present, I need a housekeeper,’ he muttered, glancing towards the overflowing bin with something close to desperation. ‘Or a brother who clears up after himself. Why doesn’t someone invent a bin that empties itself?’
‘Last time I looked, ours was emptying itself,’ Josh said mildly, ‘mostly over the kitchen floor. And housekeepers always leave because they fall in love with you. Personally I find you a moody, sarcastic bastard but for some inexplicable reason women seem to find that irresistible. You need to smile more and cut out the brooding, Heathcliffe look and maybe they could concentrate on looking after the house.’
Choosing to ignore his brother’s remarks, Mac flicked on the kettle and hunted in vain for a clean mug. ‘I’m putting in another advert.’
‘It’s Christmas in less than two weeks,’ Josh reminded him. ‘Everyone is shopping and cooking and decorating the house with lights. They don’t want to come and clear up our mess. No, in the short term we’re in trouble. But in the long term, you need to get married again. That would solve everything.’
Married?
Mac closed his eyes and the breath hissed through his teeth. ‘I don’t think so.
He was better off alone.
There was a brief silence on the other end of the phone. ‘You can’t lock yourself away for ever,’ Josh said softly. ‘It’s time to move on.’
‘I have moved on.’
‘So why are you living in that massive house on your own?’
Because he liked being on his own.
Mac opened his eyes and glanced at the mess. ‘Last time I looked, you were living in it with me. And I wish you’d learn to clear up after yourself. This place is a pit.’
‘You’ll miss me when my boathouse is finished,’ Josh said cheerfully, and Mac gave a ghost of a smile as he took a last glance around the kitchen.
‘Will I?’ He strode out of the kitchen and closed the door firmly behind him. The mess depressed him and he was too tired to tackle it. ‘How are things there? Did you transfer the aorta guy to Theatre?’
‘Don’t change the subject. We were talking about you getting married again.’
‘You were talking about that, not me,’ Mac said irritably. Marriage definitely wasn’t on his agenda. ‘Did you get him to Theatre before it ruptured?’
Josh sighed. ‘Yes, but you need to stop thinking about work. You need to ease off and develop different areas of your life. Achieve some balance.’
Mac frowned into the phone. ‘Balance? Have you been reading women’s magazines? And were you working in the A and E department with me last night or not? Did you happen to notice any drunk, abusive patients, brainless drivers and idiots who can’t walk along an icy pavement without breaking a limb? Because they were all out in force. I’m knackered and I need my bed. I don’t have time for balance and I don’t have time for your psychobabble.’
‘I’m not giving you psychobabble, I’m telling you where you’re going wrong with your life.’
‘That’s why you called?’ Mac eyed the mud on the hall floor and exhaled slowly. He was never in the house. How did it get so dirty? ‘To tell me where I’m going wrong with my life? Thanks.’
‘Actually, I called to arrange delivery of your Christmas present. I’ve gone to a lot of effort. It’s important that you’re in.’
Mac checked his reflection in the hall mirror and grimaced. He looked like a bandit. He needed a shave and a sleep, although possibly not in that order. ‘We never bother with Christmas presents.’
It was just one more thing to think about.
‘Well, this year, we’re bothering. Or, at least, I am.’
Mac sighed and made a mental note to buy something useless for his brother. ‘All right, if you want to play Santa, we’ll play Santa. But I hope my stocking is full of bottles.’
‘Alcohol isn’t the answer.’
‘Surely that depends on the question.’
Josh chuckled. ‘You’re supposed to be a respectable doctor,’ he reminded him sternly, his voice suddenly muffled as he broke off to issue some instructions to someone who was passing,
Mac eyed his reflection. ‘I am a respectable doctor.’
Even if he didn’t look like one.
‘Well, just make sure you’re in to answer the door because it can’t be left on the doorstep.’ There was a yawn in his brother’s voice. ‘I’ll still be stuck here up to my armpits in broken bones and hacking coughs. I should have been a GP.’
‘Then you would have seen a hundred patients a day with nothing wrong with them. Are you serious about this?’ Mac shook his head in exasperation as he contemplated the possibilities. ‘You’ve seriously bought me a Christmas present?’
‘Yeah.’ His brother’s voice was a mocking drawl. ‘It’s the festive season, just in case you hadn’t noticed. And knowing you, I’m sure you hadn’t. To you, Christmas is just another day of work.’
‘Fortunately for my patients.’ Matt strolled through to his enormous living room. His enormous, empty living room. It was devoid of all evidence of Christmas. The long French windows faced the sea, providing him with a perfect view of wild surf, thrashed into a furious frenzy by winter winds and bitter cold. Most people preferred to sample the delights of the Cornish coast in the summer but he’d always preferred it in the winter. In the summer it belonged to the tourists, the hordes of visitors who arrived with buckets and spades and giggling children, covering the beach outside his back door. And then the weather cooled and they departed, leaving him to enjoy the best part of the year with other committed locals. To some it would have seemed stark and lonely but he loved the wildness. And he had no intention of adding tinsel just because it happened to be two weeks before Christmas. It was just something e
lse to clear up.
‘In case you’ve forgotten, this isn’t exactly my favourite time of year.’ He stared out at the ocean, realising that it had been weeks since he’d even found time to windsurf. Maybe his brother was right. Maybe he was working too hard.
‘I know this isn’t your best time of year, Mac.’ His brother’s voice softened slightly. ‘But it’s been two years since Melissa died and Santa’s missed you. Get back on the horse, bro. It’s time.’
Time for what?
Mac’s fingers tightened on the phone. ‘I appreciate the thought.’ His voice was rough. ‘But I like my life the way it is.’
Busy.
‘All you do is work, but my present is going to change all that. I’ve got to go.’ Josh suddenly sounded harassed and Mac heard the sound of an ambulance siren and voices in the background. ‘What’s the matter with our department? The tourists have gone home and we’re still inundated in A and E. We need to do some accident prevention work around here. Stop people driving too fast on narrow Cornish roads when it’s icy.’
‘It keeps us busy.’ And he liked to be busy. Work was his life. Work was his saviour. ‘What’s happening about the nursing situation?’
‘All sorted. She starts on Monday.’
Mac frowned. ‘Who starts?’
‘The new A and E nurse. She’s a whiz. You’ll love her. And now I’ve got to go. Lives to save. Nurses to impress. Talk to you later. Merry Christmas.’ The phone went dead and Mac gave a sigh and replaced the handset.
He could just imagine what his brother was facing. They were so understaffed at the moment that the situation was becoming almost dangerous. As the consultant in charge of the department, he’d put his case to the hospital authorities on several occasions, but nothing had been done and the arguments were always the same. No more budget. And no staff willing to bury themselves in the depths of Cornwall, particularly in the winter.
Which meant that Christmas was going to be busy.
Exactly the way he liked it.
CHAPTER ONE
IT WAS her perfect house.
And there was no one home.
Louisa tried the doorbell again and cuddled her long wool coat around her to keep out the freezing wind. It had started snowing again and soft flakes settled on the ground and clung to her tumbling dark hair. She’d only stepped out of her car a few minutes before and already her fingers were freezing and she couldn’t feel her toes.
If she was going to spend Christmas here, she needed more clothes.
She gave a shiver and pressed the bell again, this time keeping her finger on it for much longer. Someone had to be there. Josh had assured her that his brother would be at home. That he was expecting her.
Giving up on the bell, she took a step backwards and looked at the huge white house. It was gorgeous. The sort of house she’d dreamed about as a child. The sort of house that should have been full of kids and dogs and laughter. She stared, wistfully. On the ground floor, huge glass windows faced out to sea across a wide deck, piled with drifted snow. A large, rambling garden stretched all the way down to the sand dunes, wild and neglected.
It was a house with a story to tell. And today there were no signs of life.
Remembering everything that Josh had told her about his brother and why he hated Christmas, Louisa stared anxiously at the house.
Just how much did Mac Sullivan hate Christmas?
Did he hate it enough to—to...?
She gazed up at the huge windows and bit her lip. Christmas was a bad time of year for lots of people, even without tragedy in their lives. What if he was lying in there, an empty bottle of tablets by the side of his bed? Maybe he’d left a note—
No.
She shook herself and wished her imagination wasn’t quite so lively. He was probably just watching TV or something. He probably couldn’t hear the doorbell.
Wishing she’d worn a thermal vest under her jumper, Louisa walked up to the window and peered inside, hoping to see signs of life.
She’d been told to arrive at lunchtime and this was lunchtime.
The living room was elegantly furnished with large white sofas set on a rich wooden floor, but the room had a formal feel that suggested that no one actually sat on the sofas. The cushions were plumped and smooth, like something prepared for a photographic shoot for an upmarket magazine.
It didn’t look lived in.
She frowned thoughtfully. A house like this was meant to be a home and this didn’t look like any home she’d ever imagined. Especially not at Christmas. A room like that should be filled with holly and presents and a massive tree.
Did Mac Sullivan have no one to buy presents for?
Had he shut everyone out since his wife had died?
Blowing on her fingers to warm them, Louisa gazed up at the upstairs windows but they were all firmly shut.
Worry started to gnaw at her brain again and she gave a shiver and mentally listed the options. She could stand still and wait for someone to turn up, but that could take for ever and would be of no help at all if he was really in trouble. Or she could give up on the whole idea and drive back to London, but that would mean being unemployed. And being on her own at Christmas. Not to mention letting Josh down when she’d promised she’d step in and help.
And, anyway, she couldn’t possibly leave before she knew that Mac was all right.
Which meant finding another way into the house so that she could check that he wasn’t lying in a heap somewhere.
Deciding that living in rural Cornwall meant being resourceful, she picked her way through the snow to the back of the house and immediately saw the open window.
Her eyes narrowed as she measured the space. Just large enough for her to wriggle through.
It had been a while since she’d used a window to gain access to a building but in this case it seemed like the only option. And she was expected so it could hardly be classed as breaking and entering, could it?
* * *
Mac heard the muffled thud the moment he switched off the shower. Someone was in the house.
He was being burgled.
Questioning the sense of tackling a burglar half-naked, he grabbed a towel from the heated rail and looped it round his hips before padding barefoot onto the landing to investigate.
There was another clatter and he winced. Whoever it was didn’t have a great future as a burglar.
Probably someone who knew he was a doctor and thought he might keep drugs on the premises. Some crazed addict looking for a fix?
His dark hair was wet from the shower and he raked it out of his eyes with an impatient hand before reaching for a hammer that he’d used a few days before to put up a shelf.
His dark eyes gleamed with anticipation and he walked softly downstairs, his feet leaving damp marks on the carpet. As he reached the bottom, he wondered whether it was better to take the man by surprise or make a din and warn him of his presence.
In the end he went for the surprise option. Growing up with a brother, he’d never been afraid of the physical. He was six feet two and he had a black belt in judo. He was pretty confident that he could take most people, even dressed only in a towel.
The noise came from the visitors’ toilet and Mac’s mouth tightened as he recalled the number of occasions he’d asked Nicola, the last and most determined of his housekeepers, to sort out a lock for that window. It hadn’t closed for months but it was one of the many things that she hadn’t managed to fix before she’d walked out on him. Once he’d made it clear that he wasn’t interested in a relationship it had appeared that she was no longer interested in working for him.
And his house was falling apart. He spent too long at the hospital to do more than the most basic maintenance and this house needed far more than basic.
And now he was paying the price.
Shifting his weight to prepare for a fight, Mac pushed open the door to the toilet and pounced, his weight taking the other person down hard. ‘Don’t move!’
Registering a distinctly feminine voice, Mac gave a grunt and shifted his weight slightly, his hands grasping hers firmly and holding them above her head. He didn’t intend to drop his guard just because his intruder was a woman.
He stared down into the widest, brownest eyes he’d ever seen and felt something stir inside him. She was soft and yielding under him and she smelt like a dream. Clouds of dark hair dusted with snow framed a perfect heart-shaped face and her soft cheeks were pink from the cold. And she was laughing.
‘OK, muscle man—are you going to lie on top of me all day?’ She sounded slightly breathless as she gazed up at him, her smile almost as wide as her face, ‘because I ought to warn you that you’re making it jolly hard for me to breathe.’
He rolled away from her, thinking that she looked nothing like a burglar.
She looked like something straight out of a bad boy’s dream.
Reminding himself that he wasn’t interested in becoming involved with a woman, especially one who had just wriggled through his toilet window, he frowned down at her.
‘What the hell are you doing, climbing through my window? You were looking for a doctor?’
‘Well, in a manner of speaking, I was looking for a doctor, yes.’ She struggled to sit upright, her long legs going in different directions like a foal who still hadn’t quite got the hang of standing. ‘But I’m not a patient. Or at least I wasn’t until you landed on top of me. Now I’m not so sure. I think there’s a distinct possibility that I’m injured. Possibly seriously. Were you planning to use that hammer on me?’
‘Only if you proved to be especially violent,’ Mac said dryly, placing the hammer on the window-seat and holding out a hand to help her up. Her skirt had ridden up almost to her bottom and he found his attention snagged by her legs. She had fabulous legs. ‘Do you always climb through windows when you’re looking for a doctor?’
‘Never before. But I was worried that you might be lying unconscious at the top of the stairs, unable to call for help. I thought you might need rescuing.’ She reached out and took his hand and he pulled her to her feet, surprised to find that she wasn’t as tall as he’d thought. Obviously most of her was leg.