The Magic of Christmas

Lara grinned. ‘I’ll call your girlfriend now and with any luck she’ll arrive in time to hear what the orthopods have to say about you.’

Christian watched as she walked out of the room.

‘That nurse is gorgeous,’ Eddie said dreamily. ‘Is she married? Because I’m going to be looking for a new girlfriend once my current model gets wind of what I’ve done.’

Christian felt a sudden rush of heated anger envelop him. ‘I don’t think she’s married.’ Why did he care if another man was interested in Lara? It wasn’t as if he was in a position to have a relationship with her. He didn’t want to risk shattering his children’s fragile sense of security.

He walked back into the main area of the ED and immediately bumped into Lara. He reached out a hand to steady her, wondering why fate was so intent on tormenting him. Why couldn’t he have bumped into Jane or Fran?

‘Sorry. I wasn’t looking where I was going.’ He released her immediately and noticed her take a step backwards.

So it wasn’t just him, then.

‘I just called Eddie’s girlfriend. She’s on her way in. She sounded immensely irritated to think he was here.’ Her mouth curved into a smile but her eyes were shadowed and tired. ‘Do you think we should call Security? He might need protection.’

Christian studied her delicate bone structure and the tiny freckles that dusted her nose. Eddie was right. She was beautiful. He wondered why she was tired. Was looking after the house and the girls too much for her?

Or was she lying awake at night, suffering as he was?

‘Eddie expressed an interest in your marital status.’

Lara lifted a hand. ‘Oh, no.’ She shook her head. ‘I can see his flaws without even going on a date. He obviously drinks too much and his spatial awareness must be pretty poor if he couldn’t judge the distance to the ground. Disaster. If we went out for dinner, I’d strangle him before we reached the end of the first course.’

‘Has any man ever come close to meeting your impossibly high standards?’

Why had he asked that question?

She was obviously wondering the same thing because the laughter in her eyes faded and she looked away, clearly self-conscious. ‘No. Absolutely not. Never.’

A tense silence followed her statement and Christian felt the slow throb of his heartbeat. ‘Lara—’

‘I forgot to mention,’ she interrupted him quickly, her tone unnaturally bright, ‘both the girls want to go to sleepovers tomorrow night. It’s with friends that they’ve played with before so I’m assuming that’s all right with you. I’ll send in a bag for them and they can go straight from school. It’s quite convenient, actually, because we have a bit of a staffing crisis on the nursing front and I’ve promised Jane that I’ll do a night shift.’

Christian felt an immediate rush of tension. ‘I’m doing a night shift, too.’

Something flickered in her eyes. ‘Oh. Right. Well, that’s—that’s…’

‘That’s what?’

She gave a funny twisted smile. ‘Another test of self-control?’

Christian felt a hot flame of lust burn through his body. ‘It will be fine. We’ll both be working.’

‘Of course we will. Just make sure there’s no mistletoe.’ She backed away from him. ‘Well, I’ll just go and break the news to Eddie that his girlfriend is on her way. Judging from her tone of voice, he might want to try and run away on two broken feet.’

* * *

Another heavy fall of snow brought chaos to the roads and the night was frantically busy.

‘Why don’t people just go to bed when it gets dark?’ Lara said desperately as she called the medical ward to try and hasten the transfer of two patients so that they could make room in the department.

‘This is why we don’t usually work nights,’ Jane said, juggling a pile of X-rays. ‘There’s never any chance to rest. Ambulance Control just rang. They’re bringing in a young guy who’s been stabbed. Can you go into Resus?’

‘My favourite place.’

‘I don’t know why you’re complaining.’ Jane tucked the X-rays under her arm. ‘Pretty soon you’ll be sunning yourself in Sydney and this will all be a distant memory.’

‘Yes.’ Why did that option no longer sound exciting? She wanted to see her brother, but as for the rest of it…