Eggnog and Candy Canes: A Blueberry Springs Christmas Novella (7 page)

Nash positioned himself over the patient, his focus narrowing in on the operation he was about to perform.

“Sorry,” Katie said to him, “I’ll be back in a flash.” She left the room and once again repeated her scrubbing up and glove changing routine.

He was waiting, scalpel in hand, when she returned. She fell into an easy rhythm across from him, her earlier emotions washed away by purpose. Save the patient.

The body beneath Nash’s deft fingers was no longer her father. This was a job. A project. A puzzle to fix and sort. A wrong to right.

She didn’t flinch as Nash’s scalpel opened the skin. She clamped, dabbed, suctioned, passed tools, and when she could afford the slight distraction, watched in awe as Nash, concentration turning his expressive blue eyes intensely bright, worked steadily and with a confidence that turned her on. Totally inappropriate. To be scoping out a surgeon, getting a bit flirty on the inside, when her father’s life was in the man’s hands.

But you didn’t get to choose who you fell in lust with, did you?

Chapter 4

“I really think we should celebrate New Year’s Eve more,” Harvey said, his voice still groggy and hoarse from the anesthestic.

“Why is that?” Katie asked. The operation had been a success and they were in the recovery room, monitoring his vitals and ensuring all was well, and continued that way. Her fifty-eight-year-old father was stable, yet a tad loopy.

“You could dress in a diaper. Get one of those horns with the streamers, and drink champagne.”

“I think it’s been done.”

“Let’s join them!” He pulled himself up, his balance off.

“Careful.” Katie gently encouraged him to reposition himself on his back. “You’ll hurt yourself.”

Her father’s eyes widened. “Did Dr. Leham mistake me for a piece of paper? Did he put staples in me?” He dropped the back of his hand across his forehead with a dramatic flourish. “Why didn’t you
stop
him?”

“You only have internal sutures, Dad. Nothing to worry about. They dissolve.”

“But staples? How do you remove them? You can’t reach inside and unclip them like a bundle of papers. I’ll be setting off the metal detectors in airports. Subject to strip searches. I’ll never be able to leave the country. What if they rust?”

And there was the father she knew. Not listening, and worrying over mostly nothing. Okay, pretty much nothing at all.

“Dad, you don’t have staples. And besides, you don’t fly anywhere. Have you ever even been in a plane?”

“Once.” His eyes closed.

“Are you okay?” Her attention flicked to the monitors. All normal.

“It was ages ago. Your mother and I…” His voice took on a dreamy tone.

“How’s he doing?” Nash asked from the doorway.

“A bit, um…”

“Trippy?” he suggested with a smile.

“Yeah.” She glanced at their patient. He was snoring. Okay, then. Still groggy as well. She made a tick on her chart.

“He was awake for a bit?”

“He was.”

“Coherent?”

“I’d say mostly. Yes.”

Nash’s warm hand rested on her shoulder for a moment and Katie couldn’t help but wish he’d let it linger. “You did well in there.”

“Thanks.”
Tell me more.

“It couldn’t have been easy, but you were solid. I knew you would be.” Another shoulder squeeze. She felt like a puppy begging for more treats.

“Thanks for helping him,” she replied.

“Of course.”

“Still snowing out there?”

“Roads are closed. Amy was saying Benny overheard people in his restaurant saying they probably won’t open for another twenty-four hours.”

“So we’re stranded.”

He flashed her a brief smile. “No Christmas dinner for you.”

“I have snowshoes.”

“The visibility is nil.” He stood straighter, his face stern.

Katie glanced at her father. She expected protectiveness from him, not Nash. But wow. It was flattering.

She stood taller in turn. “Maybe I have snow goggles.”

His eyes narrowed. “You’re teasing me.”

“A little. I don’t have snowshoes.”

He was so close. His eyes were so blue. She wanted to kiss him, and could tell he wanted to kiss her, too. Their desire was surging in the space between them, building as they breathed each other in. If they touched, sparks would fly.

She wanted to lean in, taste him.

“And so that’s how I ended up flying a plane,” her father said matter-of-factly.

Katie drifted back to reality, then jumped away from Nash. She had practically been kissing him, ignoring her ailing father, and was likely sporting a starry-eyed, drooling expression.

Surely her dad had noticed?

Nope. He was staring at the blood-oxygen monitor, holding his breath to make the numbers change.

“Dad, stop that!”

“I want 100 percent, but it’s too hard. I’m trying for zero.” He
 
muttered a curse. “You made me breathe, Katie doll.”

“Breathing is good. You want high numbers. Zero would make Mom very angry.”

“Is she here?” He perked up like a boy expecting Santa.

“She managed to get back home to check on her turkey—only she can do that, apparently. And it sounds as though she’s snowed in now. A lot has come down.”

Her father tossed the blanket off his legs, eyes lolling back in his head at the sudden effort. “I need to go shovel for her!”

“No.” Katie gently pressed him back into bed. “You can’t go anywhere.”

“But…” He pouted, then glared at Nash, who was watching from the doorway. “You—” he pointed a finger “—said I could go home after I got this dang-blasted thing out!”

“I said maybe. The day is still young, Mr. Reiter.” Nash flashed a smile and hightailed it from the room.

Katie wished she could, too. Maybe follow him, then trap him in a broom closet for a little post-op shakedown. Because honestly? What was up with getting snowed in at work on Christmas Day and having your father around like a chaperone, when you could be getting it on with the most eligible man in town?

* * *

“Katie, could I speak to you for a moment?” Nash stood in the doorway to the continuing care area, where she was checking on the residents. The gleam in his eyes had her up and across the room before she remembered to act cool.

Way too late for that now.

“Yes?”

He pulled her into the hall, double-checking to make sure nobody was listening. Katie almost laughed. There were no secrets in Blueberry Springs. For example, everyone had known Beth was pregnant almost before the mom-to-be did. They had known Devon’s sister Mandy loved her best friend Frankie and that it was just a matter of time before they hit the sack and created magic. And everyone knew Jen Kulak, the local guide, hadn’t burned down the forest. Oh, and Amber—daughter of one of Benny’s long-standing waitresses, Gloria—had a new boyfriend who was away a suspicious amount of time. Not that Amber, who was gaga for the guy, seemed to see anything odd in that.

“You know how you were talking outside your parents’ place last night about—”

Katie leaped on him, finger pressed to his lips. “Shh!” She glanced up and down the hall, then dragged Nash off, seeking somewhere more private.

More private, more private…where was that? The place was dead, but there was nowhere exactly private. Staff room? Amy could walk in. Operating room? Trey was cleaning it. ER? Someone might come in needing medical help. There was nowhere. Nowhere inside. She hip-checked the ER’s side door and pushed, using it like a plow. The snow had piled up so much that even with the entry’s mini overhang the drifts were blocking the way.

“You don’t think people will be suspicious of us out in a snowstorm?” Nash shouted, above the wind howling through the doorway.

Shards of ice and snow stung her cheeks. Wow! When had all this blown in? Not too long ago there had been beautiful, fat flakes blocking out the midday sun. Now it was a raging midafternoon blizzard.

Katie pushed Nash back indoors. Well, mostly she hurtled back to his side, seeing as he’d been too smart to come out in the first place. He brushed the snow from her shoulders and smoothed her hair. “Cold enough for you?”

“Shut up,” she muttered. “This is as private as it is going to get.”

He sighed, his posture sagging in defeat. “Fine. I was talking to my friend Monica.” He lowered his voice as Katie shushed him. “And she says you can intern for her in Dakota. However long you need to figure out decorating. She does residential as well as businesses. Homes, hotels, building lobbies, you name it.”

“You called her on Christmas Day?” Who was this woman to him?

“Yes.”

“Did you at least wish her a wonderful Christmas before asking a favor?”

“She’s Jewish.”

“I can’t really afford to be an intern, but thank you for asking her.”

“She would pay you well.”

Katie couldn’t meet his eyes. She hadn’t shared her dream with anyone because she knew they’d then expect her to seize the day, make it happen, then skip off into the tastefully decorated sunset. All the while adding commentary on why she wasn’t doing this, that or the other thing faster and better. Everyone would become an expert on her life, her career. But how could she make a living, picking out the right curtains to make a space feel homey? Who would pay for that sort of thing in Blueberry Springs? She’d have to leave everything: her hometown, her friends, her family, as well as a perfectly okay job.

All she wanted was to be happy. Was that too much to ask?

It probably wasn’t, seeing as Nash was here to lift her onto the stepping stone between where she was and where she wanted to be.

The problem was, something like this would change her entire life.

“You could stay with me, or Monica, until you found a place. Take your time and add some experience, build a client base and then go out on your own.”

“Quit pushing me,” she whispered. This was just like with Beth. Nash had tried to make her into something she wasn’t. And now he was trying to change Katie—make her become a decorator. And even though it was her dream to change careers, there were a lot of good reasons why Katie hadn’t made that change on her own—and finding a place to intern wasn’t one of them. Nash only saw the end result and not the hitches along the way. If she followed the path to decorating she would change herself as well as her entire life, and, frankly, she wasn’t sure she was ready for that.

“I’m sorry.” Nash pulled her close, hugging her with one arm. “I took it too far, too fast, didn’t I? Grabbed your idea and ran with it, forgetting it was yours.”

She nodded reluctantly. Now she felt like a big baby. He was trying to help and she was afraid to face change.

“Nursing isn’t really that bad,” she said.

“I didn’t mean to scare you off.”

“You didn’t scare me off.” Was this man a mind reader? Holy moly. She scooted out from under his arm. “And for your information, you don’t determine me or my life.”

“You should do this, Katie.” He’d taken her slipping away to his advantage and faced her, grasping her arms. “You have what it takes.”

“From what I’ve heard, I’m a good nurse, too.”

“But does it still do it for you? Does it make you want to get out of bed each morning? Is it all you think about? Can you hardly wait to dive into each and every day? Do you lose yourself in it?”

“What about you? I thought your big dream was administration?”

He let go. “Beth told me I’d miss my patients, and she was right. I do.” His expression clouded. “I’ve made many mistakes in my life, but you won’t know if this is your real dream unless you chase it. What if there is something better out there for you?”

“Look, I’ve given it a lot of thought. It won’t work, okay? It was only Mom’s eggnog talking.” Katie crossed her arms and backed down the hallway. “So let’s drop it. It never happened.”

“It wasn’t the eggnog.”

“You don’t know squat.” Katie hurried away, ticked that Nash was pursuing her.

“I know plenty and I know you aren’t happy.” He snagged her arm, turning her to him, his free hand at her jaw. He tipped her head up, his eyes serious. It was just like in her romance novels.

She got it now. To have someone care enough to chase you down when you were upset. To not care if you got mad at them, because they needed to see you. To understand you. To show that you weren’t alone.

Too bad it was Nash. A man who would be leaving in less than twenty-four hours.

“You need things your life isn’t giving you, Katie.” He lowered his mouth to hers and she sagged against him, knowing he could give her so many things. So many things.

But so many problems, too.

She pushed him away.

“What do you want from me, Nash? Am I just your new pet project?”

“No, Katie. You are the woman I’ve always needed.”

Okay, she was going to swoon. He’d better be ready to catch her, because it was happening in three, two, one…

No, she was
not
going to swoon. He was totally the wrong guy, even though he was perfect in so many ways.

All the ways in which he wasn’t perfect? He was trying to take over her life, as he had with Beth. He was leaving town tomorrow. He was Beth’s ex. Katie’s brother’s arch rival. Her own nemesis. And he was a controlling perfectionist.

In other words, he was Nash.

She launched herself at him, banging him against the wall of the hospital hallway, her lips moving in a flurry over his warm skin. He lifted her up—man, he was strong—and turned so her spine was against the wall, her butt riding the narrow railing that ran along the corridor. His back was warm under her hands and his buttocks were a most excellent blend of firm and soft. Her body was tingling and she never wanted to let go.

“Well now,” said a familiar voice, and Katie fell off the railing as Nash stepped back in surprise. She crashed against him, cheeks burning.

“Mary Alice,” she croaked. “There’s a blizzard out there.”

The woman harrumphed, sending her large bosom lifting under her black snowmobile suit. “Give me some credit, kid.” She brushed the skin near Katie’s mouth. “You have some of Nash’s tonsils on your cheek.”

He laughed and Katie sent him a glare.