The Doctor's Christmas Homecoming, page 22
“You cannot be serious.” Tilly was incredulous. “You’re actually offering to come home with me for Christmas and pretend to be my boyfriend?”
“We could make it work,” he said. “It might even be fun. What do you say?”
Harry’s smile stretched into a cheeky grin. It made Tilly imagine what this man had been like as a kid. A happy, mischievous little boy who probably got away with almost anything because he’d been born with the ability to charm those around him and make the world feel like a better place.
Her father deserved to feel like that. Especially at Christmastime.
A tiny shiver ran down Tilly’s spine as she thought of that heat Harry had conjured up from nowhere with just the touch of his hands and the tone of his voice. And for a heartbeat, it had made Tilly remember a time when she’d believed that dreams could come true.
And...maybe it would be nice to feel like that again. Even if it was just a pretense. Even if it was only for Christmas.
“I’ll think about it,” she said.
Dear Reader,
My family always went on our annual summer camping holiday to Central Otago in the South Island of New Zealand just after Christmas, so there’s a very strong connection for me between the seasonal celebrations and this favorite part of my country. I have, however, been lucky enough to have spent many Christmases on the other side of the world, and (just whispering here) I secretly prefer a winter Christmas, so I have great sympathy for my hero in The Doctor’s Christmas Homecoming, Harry, who thinks that Christmas in the middle of summer is totally wrong.
Harry can’t wait to get back to his native Ireland to try to find what’s missing from his life, but he’s in for a very unexpected change of heart when he finds himself in Tilly’s world in Central Otago, where you can get sunburned on Christmas Day but traditions are strangely familiar and the real spirit of Christmas is all around you.
Merry Christmas, Kiwi-style! I very much hope that this story is a small extra gift for you.
With love,
Alison xx
The Doctor’s Christmas Homecoming
Alison Roberts
Alison Roberts has been lucky enough to live in the south of France for several years recently but is now back in her home country of New Zealand. She is also lucky enough to write for the Harlequin Medical Romance line. A primary school teacher in a former life, she later became a qualified paramedic. She loves to travel and dance, drink champagne, and spend time with her daughter and her friends. Alison Roberts is the author of over one hundred books!
Books by Alison Roberts
Harlequin Medical Romance
Two Tails Animal Refuge
The Vet’s Unexpected Family
Royal Christmas at Seattle General
Falling for the Secret Prince
Unlocking the Rebel’s Heart
Stolen Nights with the Single Dad
Christmas Miracle at the Castle
Miracle Baby, Miracle Family
A Paramedic to Change Her Life
One Weekend in Prague
Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com for more titles.
Praise for Alison Roberts
“Ms. Roberts has delivered a delightful read in this book where the chemistry between this couple was strong from the moment they meet... The romance was heart-warming.”
—Harlequin Junkie on Melting the Trauma Doc’s Heart
Contents
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
EPILOGUE
EXCERPT FROM A MISTLETOE KISS IN MANHATTAN BY TRACI DOUGLASS
CHAPTER ONE
‘THAT SHOULDN’T HAVE HAPPENED. It was so unprofessional. I’m really sorry...’
Big blue eyes were filling with tears and Dr Matilda Dawson felt her heart sink another notch as she pulled a handful of tissues from the box and held them out. Night shift in a busy big city emergency department could be a challenge at any time. In the final run-up to Christmas, at the peak of silly season, it could be absolute chaos.
Everything had been under control until now—apart from having been unable to return a second missed call from her father, which was enough to make Tilly wonder if something had gone wrong with the plan for her to spend Christmas Day with her only family member. An opportunity to make a quick call had been ambushed, however, when Tilly had observed a junior nurse struggling to cope with the relatively simple task of taking an ECG on a patient who’d come in with chest pain.
Tilly had had no choice but to divert another nurse to do the ECG and whisk a clearly very unhappy young staff member into this office space to find out what the problem was. They couldn’t afford to have people on the front line who were distracted enough to be unable to function efficiently.
‘I’ll pull myself together.’ The nurse, Charlotte, blew her nose and then sniffed decisively. ‘Honestly, this is stupid. I’m twenty-one. It’s not as if I haven’t been dumped before but...’
Oh, no... Tilly could see someone over Charlotte’s shoulder, walking past the open door of this office. Someone who was smiling at her. The someone who’d apparently just broken Charlotte’s heart.
‘Merry almost Christmas,’ he said, in that adorable Irish accent that would have captured any woman’s attention if, inexplicably, the smile hadn’t already done the trick.
Tilly glared at him. This is your fault, was the silent message. You should be ashamed of yourself, Harry Doyle.
‘This is entirely my fault,’ Charlotte said, as if Tilly had spoken aloud. Her voice was wobbling as she turned her head to see Harry’s back. ‘He told me, right from the start. He said he’d go to the concert I had an extra ticket for but it would only be as a friend. It wasn’t a date or anything. But it felt like a date... And I really thought he might be the one...you know?’
‘Yeah...’ Tilly’s tone was a little grim. She knew. ‘Why did it feel like a date?’ she asked cautiously. ‘He didn’t try and—’
‘Oh, no,’ Charlotte said hurriedly, shaking her head. ‘Not at all. He didn’t even try to kiss me goodnight afterwards.’
She sounded deeply disappointed and Tilly felt suddenly weary. Was Charlotte so innocent she didn’t realise that making herself so available could have had a very different outcome? One that could haunt her for years to come?
‘You must have been aware that he’s been out with almost every single woman in this hospital, and that’s quite an achievement when he’s only been here for a few months.’
Okay, so that was a bit of an exaggeration, but Tilly had had him pegged from the moment she’d been introduced to him and had been the recipient of that smile, along with a gleam that could only be described as flirtatious in those distinctive, smoky grey-blue eyes. Harry Doyle might have come with very good professional references but, on a personal level, he was a player. A good-looking Irish rogue who could use his not inconsiderable charm to rule the world and everyone in it.
Apart from Tilly, of course.
‘I know. But then you think that it might be different this time. That you might be the one they’ve been looking for all along.’ Charlotte took a deep breath. ‘Sorry,’ she said again. ‘I’m fine, really. It won’t be a problem. I need to get back to my patients.’
Tilly could see her scanning the department as they walked towards the central hub. Bright red and green cardboard letters stuck to the front of the desk welcomed patients with the seasonal Maori greeting of Meri Kirihimete and there was a tiny, unobtrusive Christmas tree on one end of the counter, wrapped in silver tinsel with a star on top. There were two ambulance crews waiting for the triage nurse to decide where the new patients could go and some junior doctors and medical students were focused on computer screens to check past medical records or look for X-ray or laboratory results.
A cleaner, wearing a cheerful Santa hat, was mopping the floor nearby and a technician was humming a Christmas carol as he pushed a trolley past. Tilly could see that Harry was standing beside the patient who’d required the detailed ECG as part of the process of investigating whether his chest pain might be a symptom of a heart attack.
Charlotte had seen Harry as well and Tilly could almost feel her brushing off her earlier despair. She was smiling now. Almost beaming, in fact, as she caught Tilly’s gaze.
‘It’s Christmas,’ she said, as if she realised her dramatic mood change might need an explanation. ‘And you never know... Miracles can happen.’
* * *
Harry could see Charlotte coming towards him from the corner of his eye but he didn’t look away from his patient.
‘Can you describe this pain for me?’
‘It was like being kicked by a horse. Right here.’ The man put his hand over the left side of his chest.
‘So it came on suddenly? What were you doing?’
‘I had a crate of beer in the basement. Couple of dozen. I was bringing them in to put in the fridge because we’ve got a barbecue tomorrow, but I had to stop when I was only halfway up the steps. I couldn’t breathe, Doc, and then it hit me. Wham... My missus had to call an ambulance because I couldn’t move, the pain was so bad I felt sick and I got all sweaty, but they got there really fast.’
Harry nodded. Telling the emergency services that a middle-aged man had severe chest pain, nausea and sweating would get an ambulance on the way very quickly. The paramedics had taken an ECG that was normal, however, and a repeat one done when he’d arrived in the department didn’t show any abnormalities. The patient report form the paramedic team had completed stated no medical history of any cardiac or other major health problems either.
Charlotte came into the cubicle with an apologetic smile. ‘I’m so sorry I had to dash off like that, Gerald,’ she said. ‘But I’m back now and I’m going to take very good care of you.’
‘Thanks, darlin’.’ Gerald was grinning at the pretty blonde nurse. ‘I’m feeling better already.’
His smile vanished, however, when Harry put his hands on his chest wall to examine him. ‘Ouch...that really hurts.’
Harry could feel Charlotte’s gaze on him. She was poised to follow any direction he might give to administer painkillers. Or to deal with a cardiac arrest? She was so young and eager. And it was disconcertingly obvious that she had a bit of a crush on him.
‘Can you take a deep breath?’ he asked Gerald.
The intake of breath was interrupted by a sharp groan.
‘Too painful?’
Gerald nodded, his face still crumpled in agony. Charlotte put her hand on his shoulder. ‘It’s okay,’ she told him. ‘We’re going to look after you.’
‘It might not feel like it, but it’s good news that the pain gets worse with a deep breath,’ Harry said. ‘Along with your normal test results, we can be confident that you’re not having the heart attack you thought you were having. You’ve pulled one of your intercostal muscles—the ones that go between your ribs and make up the chest wall. It’ll be sore for a few days so you’ll need to avoid any strenuous activity. I’ll write you a script for some anti-inflammatories.’
He could feel Charlotte’s gaze following him as he went to print out a prescription and sign a discharge summary. ‘You were lucky enough to get the best doctor we’ve got,’ he heard her tell Gerald. ‘Isn’t he wonderful?’
Tilly Dawson didn’t think so. She was glaring at him as he paused by the central desk to deal with his paperwork. She hadn’t been that thrilled to see him when he’d greeted her earlier, come to think of it. Was it because he was filling in for a friend and she hadn’t expected to have to work with him? Or was it just that, for some reason, she really didn’t like him? He’d long since given up trying to charm this colleague and, given her cool, controlled demeanour, he hadn’t been surprised to discover she had the nickname of being the ‘Ice Queen’. They had managed to avoid working closely together so far but he’d been in this department at the same time often enough and he couldn’t remember ever seeing Matilda Dawson smile with any real warmth. Or hearing her laugh, come to think of it.
Somehow, her lack of friendliness seemed more undeserved tonight. It was only a couple of days until Christmas, for heaven’s sake—the universal time for goodwill and kindness—and they had the rest of a night shift to get through together. It was after midnight already and he could hear a very inebriated patient shouting from one end of the department, a small child shrieking from another corner and there was more than one phone ringing. A flashing light was a signal that a radio call needed to be answered from an incoming ambulance, which usually meant that a serious case was on the way. It was shaping up to be a long night and Harry did not need any extra tension from feeling like he’d done something wrong.
So he smiled at Tilly. One of his best smiles. ‘How’s it going?’
She didn’t smile back. ‘It’s fine,’ she said. ‘Or it will be, if you don’t upset any more of our nurses.’
Harry’s smile evaporated. ‘I have no idea what you’re talking about.’
Except...she’d been talking to Charlotte when he’d walked past earlier and the young nurse had been clutching a handful of tissues. He’d wondered at the time if Charlotte had been upset by a patient death or that perhaps she was being reprimanded for a failure to follow a strict protocol that he could be sure Tilly would have spotted instantly, but maybe he’d been miles off the mark.
And maybe it had been a bad idea to go to that concert the other evening, but Charlotte had told him it was a departmental group outing that she just happened to have an extra ticket for. He’d thought it was odd they hadn’t come across anyone they knew in the mosh pit, but the music and dancing had been great fun and he’d made it crystal clear before he’d accepted that invitation and again at the end of the evening that it hadn’t been any kind of a date. Hadn’t he?
If Tilly could see his silent question, she wasn’t about to answer it. She simply turned away to speak to the nurse who had picked up the ambulance call.
‘Post cardiac arrest case en route,’ he heard the nurse say. ‘ETA three minutes. Fifty-six-year-old male who’s in sinus bradycardia but still being ventilated. I’ll get the catheter lab on standby.’
Harry looked at the growing list of patients that had been allocated to him. The sore throat in one of the curtained cubicles had been waiting a while now. He picked up the patient file from the desk as Tilly moved swiftly away towards a resuscitation area where she would be continuing treatment for someone lucky enough to have beaten the odds and survived a cardiac arrest. So far. Way more exciting than a sore throat, that was for sure.
Not that he was going to waste any mental energy feeling envious of others having a more interesting challenge. Or feeling hard done by because someone disliked him for no obvious reason. It reminded him of some of the more miserable moments of his childhood, when he’d had to change schools as his mother moved them yet again in search of a cheaper rental or a better job. He might have learned that making people laugh or feel good was a quick way to make friends but he’d also learned that there were some people who weren’t going to like you no matter how hard you tried and it didn’t really matter because you could just move on and make a fresh start.
Harry Doyle was thirty-six and he’d lost count of the number of fresh starts he’d made in his life so far. He’d been in New Zealand for a good three months now but, as much as he loved the country and its people, it felt increasingly as if there was something missing from his life. It might already be time to think about moving on again.
Somewhere a bit closer to home, he decided as he introduced himself to an eighteen-year-old who had come to the city to spend Christmas with friends. It looked as if Talia had come from a summer beach party with the shorts she was wearing along with an oversized singlet over a bikini top. Harry added a condition to that decision to move on before he pushed it aside to focus on his patient. His next destination needed to be back in the northern hemisphere. Celebrating Christmas in the middle of summer felt so wrong it might be a big part of the reason he was feeling as if something needed fixing in his life.
Something was also clearly wrong with the throat he found himself peering at moments later. The ominous spots on the red and swollen tissue of the throat and tonsils, combined with the fever and painfully enlarged lymph nodes of his patient suggested a strep infection and, with a young Pasifika patient, he knew the risk was greater of it becoming something more serious like rheumatic fever. Starting antibiotics had to be a priority.
‘We’ll do a rapid antigen test for strep throat, Talia. If it’s positive we’ll start you on a ten-day course of antibiotics. Are you allergic to any medications, like penicillin?’
Talia shook her head. ‘Don’t think so.’
‘Have you got a nurse looking after you?’
She nodded this time. ‘She went to find me an ice block. She said it might help make it easier to swallow.’
It was Charlotte who arrived with the fruit-flavoured frozen snack. Her face lit up when she saw Harry.
‘I was just looking for you,’ she exclaimed. ‘Gerald’s waiting for his discharge form so he can go home. Someone else was asking where you were too.’ She smiled at him. ‘You’re popular tonight.’
