Playboy On Her Christmas List Read online

  Him.

  Oh, it would be bliss to be bad.

  Sometimes, all joking and flirting aside, she felt him looking at her and there was a tension between them that Holly was almost convinced wasn’t one-sided. Of course, Daniel was a natural-born flirt, but it wasn’t just that, there was something in his eyes that could flip her stomach like a pancake...

  Egg analogy again, Holly thought to herself, and decided that she must be hungry.

  ‘I’m going to go for my supper break while it’s quiet. I’ll see you later, Kay.’

  ‘You shall,’ Kay said. ‘Oh, wait. I got you a present.’ She smiled at Daniel. ‘I got you one too.’

  Kay was big on presents.

  Silly things, happy things, she passed on what had made her smile. Her charity wasn’t just for the staff, though—there were regular fundraisers held throughout the year on behalf of the homeless.

  Kay took the displaced seriously.

  She took an overfull bag from beneath the bench and handed them both a slim card from a choice of many.

  ‘An Advent calendar!’ Holly beamed.

  ‘I got them at the discount store,’ Kay said, clearly delighted with her purchase. ‘There’s one for everyone.’

  ‘There’s chocolate in here,’ Daniel said, opening up one of the little windows.

  ‘Of course there is. Have you never had an Advent calendar?’ Kay checked.

  ‘Actually, no.’

  ‘It’s December the second so you get to eat two,’ she told him, ‘but after that it’s just one a day.’

  Daniel gave Holly a sideways smile that told her all twenty-five would be eaten the very moment Kay had gone and Holly smiled back as she shook her head. ‘One a day,’ she warned him.

  ‘I’m lousy at self-restraint.’

  Ouch.

  Sometimes, in fact a little too often, he threw out those lines and usually Holly could shrug them off, but it had been getting harder and harder to of late.

  ‘Well, I’ve got excellent self-control,’ Holly replied, and watched the slight questioning rise of one eyebrow.

  They were talking about chocolate, Holly told herself.

  At least where chocolate was concerned she had self-control.

  Where Daniel was concerned it was melting just as fast. It was a good job that he was leaving, Holly decided.

  She had a king-size crush on him and she wasn’t used to them, well, not for a very long time. At twenty-eight, Holly had rather thought that the days of wild dreams and fixating on someone’s every word were long since gone.

  They weren’t.

  Kay was just about to go when Laura, the nurse in charge this evening, came in swiftly.

  ‘Holly—Resus,’ she said. ‘We’ve got a cardiac arrest coming in. Fifty-five-year-old male collapsed at home.’

  Holly nodded and, supper forgotten, she jumped down from the bench and Daniel got down from his stool to go and prepare for the incoming patient.

  ‘I’ll just stay and see if I’m needed...’ Kay offered. And Holly was expecting Laura to, as she usually did, point out that they’d be fine and could more than cope but instead Laura gave Kay a worried look.

  ‘Can I have a quick word, Kay?’ she asked.

  As Laura pulled Kay aside Holly put out an arrest call to alert the medical team to come to Emergency and then started to set up for the incoming patient. Until the team arrived Daniel would be in charge but from working with him she knew that he could more than cope with anything that presented.

  ‘What’s going on?’ Daniel asked, as he taped some syringes to the vial of medication he’d just pulled up in anticipation of the patient’s arrival. He nodded in the direction of Laura and Kay, who were still huddled together and talking.

  ‘I’m not sure.’ Holly frowned. ‘But something is.’

  The alert meant that they had everything ready for the patient, going on the information they had, but just as a blue light flashed in the high windows above, Kay came over and offered more.

  ‘Holly,’ Kay said, and her voice was serious as she pulled on a plastic apron to indicate she would be participating in the resuscitation. ‘The patient is Nora’s husband.’

  Holly swallowed. Nora Hewitt was second in charge to Kay and everyone adored her. More importantly, Paul, Nora’s husband, was the good man behind a great woman. He was often at the department, picking up Nora or bringing in the lunch she had forgotten and had left sitting in the fridge at home. He always had a friendly word for everyone and should have been at the emergency department Christmas party tonight with his wife.

  Instead, he was being raced into Resus on the very edge of death.

  There were the sounds of sobs and tears coming from outside, though Holly could tell that it wasn’t Nora.

  ‘The daughter is very upset,’ the paramedic informed them.

  ‘Anna—’ Kay called for assistance ‘—can you stay with the family?’

  ‘Where’s the team?’ Holly asked in an urgent tone, desperate for them to appear so that Paul could be given the very best chance.

  ‘We’ll be fine,’ Daniel said in his composed deep voice and Holly glanced over at him.

  He was at the head of the resuscitation bed that the paramedics were moving Paul onto and Daniel was his usual mixture of aloof and calm.

  It was everything that was needed now.

  CHAPTER TWO

  ‘ON MY COUNT,’ Daniel said, and Paul was transferred from the ambulance stretcher onto the solid resuscitation bed.

  Everyone was a touch flustered. All the staff knew Nora, including the paramedics, and so this was incredibly personal.

  But not to Daniel.

  He checked the placement of the breathing tube and looked at the monitor once Paul had been transferred to the emergency department equipment. He asked Kay to recommence massage and called for the necessary drugs and did all this as he listened to the handover.

  Apparently things had been rather chaotic back at the house. Paul’s daughter and her boyfriend had become agitated and distressed and had got somewhat in the way.

  ‘He was in the bathroom when he collapsed.’

  ‘Was someone with him?’

  ‘It was hard to get a clear history.’

  Daniel nodded as Holly handed him the drug he had asked for but, aware that everyone was tense and there was the potential for mistakes to be made, he checked and double-checked everything.

  Paul was still in an arrhythmia and not responding to drugs, and though he had been shocked several times both at home and en route they had been unable to revert him to a normal rhythm. Daniel delivered more of the same and then called for the defibrillator to be charged and asked for fresh pads to be placed on Paul’s chest.

  Holly could see that her hands were shaking as she did as asked.

  ‘Is anybody getting a fuller history from the family?’ Daniel checked.

  ‘I’ve sent Anna in to speak with Nora,’ Kay said. ‘I don’t think he has any previous history, though.’

  ‘I want to hear what Nora says.’ Daniel was firm. This was no time for hearsay and Kay nodded as for now they worked on.

  The emergency team started to arrive and gradually took over. Daniel had it all under control so that they were able to get a full handover as he worked on. Kay was massaging Paul’s chest and her face was red and sweating.

  ‘Can you take over, Holly?’ she asked.

  Holly did so. She was slight and really had to put in an effort to deliver effective massage. She glanced up at the clock and then back to Paul. There had been absolutely no response since he had collapsed back at home.

  ‘Step back,’ Mr Dawson, the cardiologist, ordered, and Holly climbed from the bed and once she was safely standing back another shock w
as delivered.

  ‘So he collapsed at five?’ Mr Dawson checked the timeline of events.

  It was now five forty-five...

  Holly could smell burning from the repeated shocks to his body and she looked over at Kay, who looked up at the clock.

  ‘Was he found collapsed?’ Mr Dawson checked.

  ‘We’re just waiting to have that verified,’ Daniel said. The paramedics had been very thorough in their treatment and had done well but there were still some gaps in the history.

  Anna came in then. ‘There’s no previous history and he’s on no medication. Paul was standing in the bathroom, chatting to Nora, when he developed chest pain. Nora sat him on the floor and called for an ambulance. She gave him some aspirin and stayed with him, and a couple of moments later he arrested and she commenced resuscitation straight away.’

  It had been a witnessed arrest, which was incredibly relevant, especially given Nora’s skills. It was now evident that he’d had effective cardiac massage delivered from the very start.

  Not that it seemed to be counting for much.

  ‘Resume massage,’ Mr Dawson ordered, and Holly was about to climb back on the bed when Daniel halted her.

  ‘Hold on a moment.’ He had his fingers in Paul’s groin to feel for a femoral pulse. ‘He’s got a pulse.’

  And then, better than any music, better than any other sound in the world really, the monitor started to deliver bleeps.

  Two at first, followed by a long pause, then a run of three and then sinus rhythm kicked in and there was the beep-beep-beep of a rapid heart rate and suddenly there was hope.

  It was tainted, though.

  Paul had been down for some considerable time. The cardiologists were going through his ECG tracings and deciding whether to take him straight up to ICU or directly to the catheter lab to see exactly what had occurred. The hope was that they could dissolve the blockage and open up the blocked vessels in Paul’s heart and minimise damage to the heart muscle.

  ‘I’ll go up with him,’ Kay said, as she gathered up the necessary equipment for the urgent transfer. ‘Daniel, can you go and speak with Nora and explain that Mr Dawson is busy with Paul but he’ll be in to get the consent...’ Her voice trailed off. ‘You know the drill.’

  ‘I do.’

  ‘I forget how experienced you are.’

  ‘That’s fine,’ Daniel responded with ease, but then he asserted himself—not just with Kay but also with the cardiologist who would like Paul up in the lab, preferably ten minutes ago. ‘First of all, though, we need to bring in his wife.’

  ‘Time is of the essence,’ Mr Dawson said.

  ‘I’m sure she’ll understand that.’

  Nora must have been getting ready for the party and chatting to Paul as she did so, with no idea as to what was about to come. One of her eyes was made up with glittery eye shadow and the other was not.

  Seeing someone so visibly shaken who was always so together and strong, but doing her best to hold it together, had Holly on the edge of tears.

  ‘He’s going to go up very soon,’ Holly told Nora quietly, once Mr Dawson had obtained her consent and explained that they’d be moving him to the catheter lab. Holly watched as Nora took one of Paul’s hands and held it in both of hers as if trying to warm it.

  ‘He was telling me he’d just hidden my Christmas present.’ Nora looked at Paul as she spoke. ‘Please, don’t leave me,’ she asked him, and then, looking at Holly, said, ‘I knew the day I met him that he was the one. He took a couple of weeks to get used to the idea...’

  Holly didn’t know what to say.

  What was there to say to add to a love that had lasted for more than thirty years?

  And so instead of saying the right thing, Holly found herself wearing her nervous smile.

  Thankfully, Nora knew her well enough not to take offence.

  ‘I just need a minute alone with him,’ Nora said.

  Holly nodded as Anna popped her head around the curtain. ‘Nora, your daughter wants to come in.’

  ‘No.’ Nora was firm. ‘She’s too upset and she’d just distress him.’

  Kay nodded her head and called for Holly to come the other side of the curtain, leaving Nora with Paul and the anaesthetist. Holly had turned up the volume on the monitors so that the staff could move in quickly if there was any change.

  And they listened as Nora told her husband she loved him and to stay strong and that she’d be waiting for him once the procedure was done, and she did it all in a voice that did not waver, just in case Paul could hear.

  Holly knew that voice only too well.

  She could remember her mother going in for surgery and, because Holly was the only remotely medical person in the family, all questions had been aimed at her. All decisions had been run by Holly too and it had felt overwhelming. Her father had asked her to come with them up to Theatre. When he had started to break down it had been Holly who had stepped in. Holly had concentrated on keeping her smile in place while trying to ignore the fact that her mother was so very weak and frail from the chemotherapy and doing her best not to reveal that she wasn’t terrified for her.

  ‘What do you think?’ Kay asked Daniel, and Holly looked at his grim face.

  ‘They’re giving him every chance.’ His response was noncommittal but for Holly it said enough—he didn’t think things looked good.

  * * *

  The quiet start had turned into a very busy shift and it didn’t relent.

  Holly felt all shaken but there was no time to sit down and reflect on what had happened. There was no pause button in Emergency, especially when you needed one.

  Just as Paul left, another critically ill patient came in.

  Kay handed Paul over to the care of the catheter lab staff but, given she was officially off duty, remained with Nora in the waiting room there. Holly was so busy that she had forgotten completely she was going out tonight and frowned when she saw that it was eight and that the night staff were starting to arrive.

  ‘What are you doing here?’ Holly asked.

  ‘So you can leave early for the Christmas party.’ Gloria grinned and then saw Holly’s serious face. ‘What is it?’

  And there was no point in not telling the arriving staff—one look at the admissions board and they would see the truth for themselves.

  ‘Nora’s husband was brought in...’

  As she brought the night staff up to speed Holly admitted that she had changed her mind about going to the party tonight, but Kay had other ideas. She had popped down to Emergency for that very reason, in fact, and called Holly round to her office.

  ‘I need you to give the landlord the cash we’ve been collecting,’ Kay said. They’d all been putting into the collection for a few weeks. ‘Holly, I know the last thing you feel like is partying but word is already getting out about Paul. Nora’s daughter has put it up on social media and honestly...’ Kay let out a long sigh. ‘Nora wants the party to go ahead. She thinks if it’s called off now it means that we’ve given up on Paul.’

  Holly nodded. ‘How is he doing?’

  ‘He’s over on Intensive Care. He’s in an induced coma and really we shan’t know for a few days. Oh, I don’t know, Holly, I don’t have a very good feeling about it. He was down for a long time.’

  ‘Less than an hour,’ Holly pointed out.

  ‘I know but...’

  Kay looked as if she was about to cry and Holly had no idea what to say so she offered the only thing she knew might help. ‘Do you want a cup of tea?’

  Kay laughed the simplicity of Holly’s solution and then she let out a little sob. ‘I do,’ she admitted. ‘A quick one and then I’ll head back up there. Have one with me?’

  Holly brought in a tray as Kay got the envelope from the safe.

 
‘I’d better not lose it,’ Holly said, peering inside.

  ‘You’d better not!’ Kay barked, and then closed her eyes and leant back in her chair. ‘It’s nice to relax for five minutes.’

  ‘Did you call Eamon and let him know?’ Holly asked, referring to Kay’s husband.

  ‘I did. He’s going to come and get me when I’m ready but I think I should stay awhile. Poor Nora. Honestly, that family of hers...’ Kay rolled her eyes. ‘Do you know? Her daughter asked what was going to happen for dinner! Does she not know how a bloody vending machine works? Fancy bothering her mother with that?’

  ‘And fancy bothering you with this,’ Daniel said, as he knocked on the half-open door.

  ‘What do you want?’ Kay asked. But as Daniel came in, though he gave Kay a smile, he then looked at Holly as he spoke.

  ‘All the night staff are here but Laura is having no luck getting a taxi. The wait is an hour at best. I said that I could drop you all off at the end of my shift, which is right about now.’

  ‘Then you’d better get ready,’ Kay said, moving to stand. ‘And I’d better get back up to Nora.’

  ‘Finish your tea,’ Holly suggested, and thought of the times she had sat with her own family, waiting for news, and how utterly exhausting it was. ‘Have a few moments to yourself.’

  ‘I might just do that,’ Kay agreed. ‘You’re not on tomorrow, are you?’

  ‘No, I’m off now till Monday, but I’ll call in the morning and see how Paul’s doing and—’ Her voice halted abruptly as Holly stopped herself from saying what she had been about to—fancy bothering Kay with a stupid thing like the off duty while Paul was so sick, but Nora had been the one practically keeping the off duty running over the Christmas break.

  It could wait, Holly knew that, and felt guilty for even considering raising it now.

  So instead of worrying about tomorrow, or the next, or the next, she went into the changing room and had the quickest shower ever. There was just time for a dart under the jets and a quick soap and rinse then she dried herself and pulled on her little black dress.

  ‘That’s nice,’ Anna said as Holly came out. Anna was hogging the one tiny mirror and applying eyeliner, while looking stunning in a very slinky, very red dress. ‘You always look good in that.’