Playboy On Her Christmas List. Carol Marinelli
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‘do you miss out on your birthday?’
‘No.’ Holly shook her head. ‘My parents always make sure that both are celebrated.’
‘Of course they do, Polly.’
She got the Pollyanna insinuation and gave him a sweet smile. ‘Better than cynical. So,’ she asked, returning to the conversation she had walked in on the tail end of, ‘why didn’t you just fly home for the wedding?’
‘There was the stag night to organise,’ Daniel explained. ‘Actually, there were two of them.’
‘You could have just flown back for a couple of weeks.’ Holly repeated Kay’s assumption but Daniel shook his head.
‘Rupert had a highly strung bride-to-be who was worried that I’d be a no-show if I left the country. She was actually right to be concerned—as I said, when I’m gone, I’m gone.’
Holly didn’t like that.
Daniel had worked quite a few shifts now and she was getting used to having him around.
Or rather she was starting to get used to the feeling that an egg beater had been set at full whisk in the middle of her chest.
Daniel was, for want of a better word, gorgeous.
Yes, yes, he was tall and had thick black hair and a scent that had her toes curl, he had all of that but it was his eyes that had first sent Holly’s world spinning.
Absolute navy.
It was as if the artist had meant to get back and add silvery flecks and little dots of aqua but had forgotten to. Yet he was no unfinished masterpiece. Those eyes were just this delicious navy rimmed with a halo of black and, at first look, Holly had been unable to stop staring. She had wanted to apologise, to explain she was looking for said silver specks and dots of aqua, but instead she had stared.
And so had he.
At green eyes that had appeared startled.
‘Is everything okay?’ he had checked.
‘I have an abdo pain...’ Holly had attempted to explain that she had a patient she would like him to see in Cubicle Four but she had been so flustered that it had come out all wrong. ‘And vomiting.’
‘Then go and lie down and let me take a look at you.’
His voice was snobby, his humour hers, and she had been tempted, almost, to call his bluff and do just that. Instead she had smiled. ‘I’ll see you in Cubicle Four.’
Holly’s abdo pain had turned out to be a twenty-year-old with query appendicitis. Daniel had walked in to where Holly had been holding a bowl for the patient and he had given her a tiny smile to insinuate he had rather hoped she had been lying in wait for him.
‘Pity,’ he’d said.
Yet a little flirt, though huge to Holly, was just a walk in the park for him. He was suave and from what she gathered he dated a lot, and, in truth, neither was the other’s type.
Except...
‘What was the wedding like?’ Holly asked. She was curious to know more about the reason for delaying his trip.
‘Like all weddings are,’ Daniel said, as Holly jumped up and sat on the bench beside where he was trying to write his notes. ‘Long.’
‘What did the bride wear?’ she asked.
‘From memory, a dress,’ Daniel said. ‘Possibly it was white.’
‘I love winter weddings,’ Holly sighed. ‘Especially if it’s snowing.’
‘The church was freezing,’ Daniel told her, and from his voice it was clear that he had a rather less dreamy take on things. ‘And then it poured with rain for the photos.’
‘Who was your plus one?’ Kay asked, without turning her head from the computer screen.
‘I never take a plus one to a wedding.’ Daniel shook his head. ‘Well, I haven’t for a long time. I learnt the hard way that if you bring a date she assumes that it must mean you’re serious. Anyway, I was the best man for this one so all that was expected from me in that department was to get off with the chief bridesmaid.’
‘And did you?’ Kay asked.
‘That would be telling,’ Daniel said. ‘And I never do.’
He looked at Holly then—just an itsy-bitsy look that told her she’d be in very discreet hands.
God, he was forward!
Yet she smiled at the tiny flirt behind Kay’s back.
‘Anyway,’ Daniel continued, ‘I wanted to do the right thing by Rupert. He was very good to me when...’ He didn’t finish, or rather he just didn’t continue with what he had started to say. ‘He’s a very good friend.’
‘So how come you weren’t out on the first flight after the wedding?’ Kay pushed.
‘Just...’ He gave a small shrug and it was there that the conversation ended.
Daniel simply didn’t answer—he did that a lot.
He might be forward with his flirting but when a conversation veered too close to personal he simply halted it.
Daniel got back to his notes and, interlude over, Kay carried on staring at the off duty, but finally she gave in.
‘I’m going home,’ Kay said, and closed up the screen. ‘Daniel, shall we see you again?’
‘I don’t think so,’ he answered.
Locums came and locums went but Kay gave him a smile that told Daniel he would be missed. ‘Well, safe travels,’ she said, and then turned to Holly. ‘I’ll see you tonight at the pub. The night staff should be coming in a little bit early so that the late staff can get to the party at a reasonable time. How are you getting there?’
‘Taxi,’ Holly said. ‘Anna, Laura and I are sharing. Do you want to come with us, Daniel? There’s room for one more.’
‘I’m not going.’
He offered no reason and thankfully he didn’t look up as he spoke because, despite her best efforts, Holly knew her shoulders had briefly slumped, but quickly she righted herself.
Actually, it was good news that he wasn’t coming tonight.
The way Holly felt she was at high risk of doing something very stupid where Daniel Chandler was concerned.
Stupid as well as pointless, given that this was his last shift and that very soon he’d be heading off overseas.
Daniel, she had heard, was very into casual one-night stands. Whereas she was the complete opposite.
With one possible exception.
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.