The Doctor's Christmas Bride (Lakeside Mountain Rescue 1)

‘Jack.’ Her tone was patient. ‘Since November I’ve been dating other men. Or, at least, I’ve been trying to. It hasn’t been going that well and lately I’ve been asking myself why.’

He looked at her warily. ‘And what has that got to do with me?’

‘Everything.’ She stared at him and sighed. ‘Jack, that first night I went out with David. You hated my dress. You said it was indecent.’

‘It was indecent.’

‘But the other night you wanted me to wear it for you. You didn’t find it indecent then.’

Hot colour touched his cheekbones and he breathed in sharply. ‘That’s different.’

‘You wouldn’t let me invite him in for coffee, you wouldn’t let him drive me home…’ She listed the various incidents and he grew steadily more tense.

‘I never said I didn’t care about you,’ he said stiffly, ‘but just because I don’t want you to marry the wrong man doesn’t mean I love you. You’re reading too much into it, which is a typically female pastime.’

‘Is it?’ She looked at him calmly. ‘Where do you spend most of your free time, Jack? Do you go home?’

‘I have an active social life.’

‘Which basically means that you have sex with different women,’ she said gently, ‘but you don’t spend time with those women, do you, Jack? You have a massive house but you never go there. You spend time with me. In my house. Sitting in my kitchen. Chatting about everything. Being part of my life. And Lizzie’s life.’

‘You’re my friend.’

She nodded. ‘And that’s the best thing about a good marriage. I know because I saw it in my parents’ marriage. In a good marriage you are friends as well as lovers.’

He backed away and stared at her incredulously. ‘You’re proposing to me?’

‘No.’ She held her breath. ‘I’m waiting for you to propose to me, Jack. And then we can spend the rest of our lives having fantastic sex and enjoying the special friendship we’ve always had. And Lizzie gets the daddy she’s always dreamed of.’

He stared at her for a suspended moment and then he grabbed his jacket. ‘No.’ He thrust his arms into the jacket and zipped it up firmly, his jaw set in a hard line. ‘I think you’ve gone mad. For me it was just sex, Blondie—great sex, but just sex.’

‘Jack—’

His eyes blazed into hers. ‘We won’t talk about it again.’

‘Jack!’

‘I’ll go and warm the engine up.’

‘Why are men like mascara?’ Bryony murmured to herself, watching him go with tears in her eyes. ‘Because they run at the first sign of emotion.’

‘I bet Lizzie is excited about Christmas.’ Nicky handed Bryony a syringe and she slowly injected the antibiotic into the patient’s vein.

‘Of course.’ Bryony didn’t look at her. ‘It’s Christmas Eve tomorrow.’

‘What have you bought her?’

‘Oh, you know, all the usual girly things. Stuff for her hair, lots of stuff for her dolls, a new doll that she likes.’

Everything under the sun except the one thing she wanted.

A daddy.

And she still hadn’t confessed to Lizzie that Santa wasn’t going to manage to deliver her the present she wanted this year.

‘Are you all right?’ As they moved away from the patient, Nicky touched her arm. ‘You’re so quiet and you look really pale.’

‘I’m fine, really.’ Bryony gave her a wan smile. ‘Just tired and looking forward to the Christmas break.’