Playboy On Her Christmas List. Carol Marinelli

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      ‘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.

       CHAPTER TWO

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