Joanna Neil - Hot-Shot Doc, Christmas Bride

She scribbled a message for the clerk, who was temporarily away from the desk. As an afterthought, she pulled the folder out of the wastebin and laid it to one side in a wire tray. Some decisions would have to be made regarding the programme before too long—but they could surely wait for the moment? The new boss obviously needed more time to settle in.

She hurried along to the waiting room. ‘Tom,’ she greeted her neighbour, ‘thanks for coming to fetch me. I’m sorry I’ve kept you waiting. I hope I’ve not put you out too much?’

‘Not at all.’ He was a tall man, with dark hair and features that were carved out of life’s experiences—crinkled lines about his blue eyes and a firm jawline that hinted at a rock-steady character. Alison had taken to him from the instant she met him.

He came towards her now, his arms enclosing her in a brief hug. ‘I had to come into town anyway. I ordered a replacement petrol pump for your car, and the spare parts place promised me they would have it in stock by this evening. Of course Jason and Rachel wanted to come with me. They both needed new trousers, so my wife gave me instructions on what to look out for in the local store.’ He frowned. ‘I can’t keep up with them. They’re forever wearing them out at the knees or snagging them on something or other. Nobody ever told me about the downside of having a family. I’ve become a walking money tree, and I feel as though my roots are beginning to wither.’

She gave him a wry smile. ‘It almost makes me glad I’m not a parent.’ She glanced around the room. ‘Where are they, by the way?’

‘They went out to fetch cold drinks from the machine in the main waiting room. I thought I’d better wait here, in case you wondered where I was, but perhaps we’d better go and see what they’re up to. They should have been back by now, and I daren’t imagine what they might get up to left to their own devices for too long.’

‘Good idea,’ she agreed, nodding. The children were eight and nine years old, and full of the joys of life. ‘Knowing Jason and his love of drawing, they could be trying out designs for a new mural by now.’

‘Oh, heaven forbid! Don’t say that, please. I can feel an ulcer starting already.’

She laughed, and they hurried away towards the main waiting room in search of the children. Unfortunately they were nowhere to be seen.

Alison gazed around her in dismay. ‘We’d have seen them if they were heading back to you in the waiting room, wouldn’t we?’

Tom nodded, an anxious look spreading over his face.

‘Can I help in any way?’ Josh came out of the resuscitation room and strode briskly towards them, delivering the words in an equally vigorous, no-nonsense fashion. ‘Are you looking for the children?’

Alison nodded, her heart sinking rapidly. He didn’t look at all content with the way his day was going, and his questions didn’t have the tiniest note of pleasant enquiry about them. Something was definitely wrong. ‘They came in here to fetch cold drinks,’ she said. ‘Do you know where they are?’

‘The last I saw of them they were playing in the courtyard outside the waiting room.’ He looked directly at Tom. ‘There’s still a lot of snow around, and they were trying to slide down the grass verge. Unfortunately Jason slipped on the ice and cut his knee. He’s okay, but I asked one of the nurses to clean it up and put a dressing on it before she brought the pair of them back to you. You’ll find them in Treatment Room Two, over there.’ He waved a hand in the direction of the room, and Tom thanked him and immediately rushed away.

Alison gave Josh a brief, apologetic look. ‘I’m so sorry,’ she said. ‘It’s probably my fault the children went exploring. I arranged to meet Tom at the end of my shift, but I was a little late.’

‘So I gathered,’ he said. ‘Still, I dare say there’s no harm done. If today’s anything to go by, nothing in this place follows a normal pattern, does it?’

He walked away from her, heading over to the desk, where he began rifling through lab test results.

Alison sighed. He was right. This day had been singularly odd—and not just because of the biker invasion, or her car breaking down and Tom and the children coming into the hospital. She had come face to face with her new boss, and she still didn’t have any idea of what kind of man he was. He was full of contradictions, a man of hidden depths. She had no real idea of how she was going to work with him on a day-to-day basis.

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