The Nurse's Christmas Wish (The Cornish Consultants)

‘Don’t joke.’ Louisa scrambled to her feet, dragging Hopeful with her. ‘Let’s get him in the car. Quick, Mac.’

‘Louisa.’ Mac tried to keep his tone patient, ‘the dog will be fine. Whatever he’s swallowed will come out again. That dog looks totally healthy. Just a little sick from too much chocolate.’

She bit her lip, her arms still wrapped round the dog. ‘You don’t know that. You’re not a vet.’

Realising that nothing short of a big bill was going to reassure her, Mac gave a sigh and reached for his coat.

‘All right, we’ll go. But you’d better put some clothes on or you’ll shock the vet.’

CHAPTER NINE

THE vet was suitably reassuring. ‘Don’t give him any more chocolate,’ he said as he finished examining Hopeful, ‘and don’t worry about the paper. It will work its way out.’

‘Probably over my carpets,’ Mac said wearily as he proffered his credit card again.

They walked back to the car, leading a chastened Hopeful.

‘There, darling,’ Louisa said gently, ‘you sit in the back.’

‘And if you’re sick in my car, you’re going back in the ditch,’ Mac muttered, and Louisa smiled at him.

‘I know you don’t mean that.’

Mac slid into the driver’s seat next to her. ‘Louisa, that dog has cost me a fortune! Vet’s bills are outrageous. Do you realise how much I just paid him for the privilege of being told not to give him any more chocolate? Chocolate that I didn’t want him to eat in the first place.’

Louisa chuckled. The truth was she was grateful to Hopeful for offering a distraction.

When she’d woken that morning and found Mac gone, she’d felt as though she’d been showered with cold water. Nothing had prepared her for waking up alone.

The night they’d spent together had been intense, frantic, passionate and totally honest.

He’d held nothing back from her. And she’d held nothing back from him.

So she hadn’t expected the chill she’d experienced when she’d walked into the kitchen.

It was like going from the tropics to the Arctic without a suitable change of clothes.

How could he be prepared to walk away from what they’d shared? How could he pretend that it had meant nothing?

Louisa bit her lip and stared out of the window. Anything rather than look at him. It was time to accept some truths. She had to accept that, for Mac, no one would ever replace his wife. Clearly she had left a gap that no one could ever fill, she thought miserably, watching as the snowy countryside flashed past.

And one night of passion, however breathtaking, wasn’t going to change that.

She could force him to accept people into his life, but she couldn’t force him to accept her into his heart.

* * *

Christmas Eve turned out to be the busiest day of the year in the A and E department.

Louisa found herself working alongside Josh as they struggled to cope with the steady influx of patients.

‘Fifty-year-old man coming in with chest pain,’ she called out to him as she replaced the receiver of the ambulance hotline. ‘They’ll be here in five minutes. Shall I see if there’s room in Resus?’

Josh shook his head. ‘Mac’s already in there with two patients and there’s an RTA coming in—the guy will be safer in one of the side rooms where the equipment hasn’t been stripped. Let’s get an ECG ready and prepare some drugs. And run through an IV.’

Louisa nodded, seeing the sense in what he was saying. They were still working on two patients in Resus and they hadn’t yet had time to restock the equipment.

‘So much for spending the day eating mince pies and singing Christmas carols,’ she said dryly, and Josh looked at her.