Wish Upon a Star

‘Sweets.’ But he didn’t quite meet her eyes and an instinct made her step closer to the trolley.

‘Luke.’ She kept her voice gentle. ‘Did you swallow the sweets or did you hide them?’ She saw something in his eyes and her conviction grew. ‘No one is going to be angry with you, sweetheart,’ she said softly. ‘But we need to know the truth. Are they in your pockets?’

There was a long silence and then Luke nodded, his eyes huge. ‘I was keeping them for later.’

Ignoring the gasp that came from his mother, Christy held out her hand to the little boy. ‘Show me.’

After a moment’s hesitation, Luke dug a hand into his pocket and pulled out a handful of tablets, now covered in fluff and bits of sweet paper. He dropped them into Christy’s palm and she counted them quickly.

‘Eight,’ she said in a calm voice. ‘They’re all here, Alessandro. If Mrs Kennet hasn’t missed a single tablet, that makes this a full bottle.’

The paediatrician breathed a sigh of relief and backed out of the room and the mother started to scold Luke, but Christy interrupted her quickly.

‘Good boy, Luke,’ she said firmly. ‘Good boy for telling the truth.’

‘But why didn’t he tell us sooner?’ Mrs Kennet asked, a baffled expression on her face, and Luke dipped his head.

‘You were yelling and screaming and then the ambulance came and that was really cool with the light and the bell thing…’

Christy glanced at Alessandro and saw the gleam of amusement in his eyes. And relief. He was thinking of Ben, too, she thought, and her stomach twisted with love. He was a wonderful father.

They discharged Luke with a sharp lecture about the danger of swallowing things that weren’t meant for him and Christy gave the mother a leaflet on preventing accidents in the home.

‘Wow!’ Billy’s eyes were filled with admiration as he looked at her. ‘I was just about to try and take blood from that child and I wasn’t looking forward to it. What made you susp

ect that he hadn’t swallowed them? It would never even have occurred to me.’

‘Mother’s instinct,’ Christy said dryly, as she briskly tidied up the room ready for the next patient. ‘Children often do unexpected things and his mother made that comment about hiding things.’ She turned to Alessandro as Billy left the room. ‘Do you remember Ben going through a phase of hiding everything?’

‘Only too well.’ Alessandro reached for the jacket that he’d abandoned. ‘I seem to remember that he took my bleeper for twenty-four hours once.’

Christy grinned. ‘I found it at the bottom of the laundry basket underneath a week’s worth of dirty washing.’

Alessandro gave a nod and his eyes were warm. ‘You did well,’ he said softly. ‘Extremely well. Were it not for you, that child would now be undergoing some very unpleasant tests.’

‘Well, they certainly would have put him off swallowing tablets that didn’t belong to him.’

‘You’re an excellent A and E nurse,’ Alessandro said quietly. ‘I’d forgotten just how good and for that I apologise. It is where you are at your best and you should certainly not be wasting your talents anywhere else. You should come back.’

She stared at him for a long moment, her breath trapped in her lungs. What exactly was he saying? Come back to A and E or come back to him?

Their eyes locked and Christy felt warmth spread inside her. It was still there, she told herself. That special bond that had always existed between them. It hadn’t died.

‘Alessandro?’ Katya’s slender frame appeared round the door. Her hair was fastened on top of her head but several strands fell softly over her eyes, giving her a sleepy, sexy appearance.

‘I’m going home now, but I’ll see you at the Snow Ball tomorrow night. You owe me a dance.’

Christy felt the special warmth inside her evaporate, to be replaced by a block of ice.

Was that why he wanted to go to the Christmas party? Because Katya was going?

Telling herself that she was being paranoid, Christy turned her attention back to the state of the room, trying not to listen to Alessandro’s response.

It didn’t matter what he thought of Katya, she reminded herself, because she was going to buy a killer dress and remind him exactly what it was that he was missing.

CHAPTER SEVEN

‘IT’S freezing today,’ Christy turned round and looked at the children who were safely strapped into the back of the car as Alessandro drove the short distance to the forest. ‘Did you two remember gloves and hats?’