‘A dragon making fire.’ Daniel lifted an eyebrow. ‘That’s a new one. What do you think, Oliver? Are you feeling dragon-like this morning?’
Oliver looked doubtful. ‘I don’t know.’
‘Imagine that you are going to blow the biggest, hottest fire.’ Stella stood up quickly and, using a tissue, pressed on the side of his nose that wasn’t obstructed. ‘Now, breathe in deeply and when I say go, you blow as hard as you can through your nose. OK. Go!’
Oliver blew until his face turned scarlet and the bead flew out of his nose and landed on the floor.
Daniel grinned. ‘For someone who doesn’t know how to blow his nose, that was pretty impressive. You no longer have any excuse for using your sleeve.’
The boy’s mother breathed a sigh of relief. ‘Thank you so much. I was terrified that we might actually have to stay in hospital and my husband couldn’t cook a turkey if his life depended on it.’ Still muttering profuse thanks, she ushered Oliver out of the room and Daniel looked at Stella.
‘I didn’t know that you were an expert on dragons.’
Was it her imagination or did his eyes seem bluer this morning? And his smile sexier? It was just because she knew that, in a few more weeks, she wasn’t going to be seeing him again. Her brain was storing all the details. ‘I don’t know much about dragons,’ she confessed, ‘but I’m well trained in useful children’s skills, like nose-blowing.’
‘Yes…’ He was watching her with a curious expression in his eyes. ‘When it comes to handling children, you’re a pretty useful person to have around.’
And that was how he saw her now, wasn’t it?
As a colleague.
‘Hey, you two.’ The receptionist stuck her head round the door. ‘Everything is set up in the coffee room. Secret Santa time.’
Secret Santa?
Stella’s heart plummeted.
Oh, God, she was supposed to be cheerful and festive and all she wanted to do was slink home and hide under the duvet.
‘Secret Santa. The moment we’ve all been waiting for.’ Daniel was so good humoured that Stella felt even worse. Normally he was dour and bleak at Christmas. It was a difficult time of year for him. But today—today was different.
He seemed light-hearted.
As if everything had changed in his life.
Perhaps he’d heard that she was thinking of leaving and was relieved.
She was astonished by how much that possibility upset her.
Suddenly the challenge of looking as though she was enjoying herself seemed like too much, but she knew that if she didn’t join in there would be questions. And she’d spoil other people’s fun and she had no wish to do that.
Hoping that she could keep up the act long enou
gh not to disgrace herself, Stella joined the rest of the staff in the coffee room, which was dominated by a ridiculously large tree.
Her low mood seemed to be in direct contrast to everyone else’s happiness. She tried not to think about the fact that everyone else had families waiting for them at home.
She tried not to think about Daniel.
There was much laughter as presents were exchanged and Stella dutifully handed hers over to the radiographer whose name had been on the piece of paper that Ellie had handed her.
Not wanting to draw attention to herself, she helped herself to a mince pie and nibbled one side, trying to look as though she was enjoying herself. And then she glanced towards Daniel and caught him looking at her.
For a moment they just stared at each other, allowing the conversation to wash over and around them. And then finally Daniel dragged his eyes from hers and focused on the nurse who was talking to him.
As everyone lifted a glass of orange juice in a toast, Stella mumbled, ‘Merry Christmas,’ and the sudden stinging in the back of her throat caught her by surprise.
So this was it, then.