Playboy On Her Christmas List by Carol Marinelli

Author:Carol Marinelli
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin Enterprises, Australia Pty Ltd
Published: 2016-09-24T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINE

DANIEL WORKED THROUGH the afternoon and at two he took a call from the acute medical unit.

‘What time did Albert Marlesford’s family say that they’d be here?’

‘His niece had some shopping to do,’ Daniel explained.

‘I told him that she must be busy and to stop fretting.’

Daniel ended the call and told his cynical self to be quiet.

Of course Dianne would be in, he had spoken to her himself.

He was worried for the old boy, though.

‘Shouldn’t you be off?’ Kay checked a while later, and Daniel glanced at the time.

‘I should be and I am,’ Daniel said. ‘And this time it’s for good. It’s been an absolutely pleasure to work with you Kay.’

It really had been.

So much so that once he’d got his head sorted out, Daniel was wondering if, maybe a year or so from now, he’d be back—and not as a locum. But there was too much going on in his mind right now to voice very tentative thoughts.

And neither would it be fair to Holly to say he was considering returning someday.

‘Don’t forget your present,’ Kay reminded him.

He went to the tree and there was a little parcel wrapped in silver with a curly bow. If Holly had rigged the Secret Santa so that he would get her name then presumably she had chosen a present for him.

He checked the attached card and saw her loopy handwriting.

‘Open it,’ Kay said.

‘Later.’

He didn’t go straight to the car; instead, he took his cynical self up to the acute medical unit and found that Albert’s relatives still hadn’t arrived.

Albert was comfortable, they said.

Sleeping.

And that was surely better than the streets but for a moment there Daniel had entered a world where families reunited.

After that he walked out to the car. It was already starting to get dark and he really should press on. Yet he sat for a moment in the driver’s seat and wondered what she had bought and what had been written on the card but, rather than find out now, Daniel put it in his glove box. This journey had the potential to be awkward enough, without finding out that she’d bought him a little Holly & Daniel snow globe or...

Well, he didn’t possess much imagination in the romantic Christmas present department. Still, he would guess that if she was that upset about the stocking, well, there was going to be something rather special for him in that silver parcel.

He’d open it tomorrow, Daniel decided. He’d open it when she was safely home.

Safely, because he liked her.

More than he cared to admit to himself and certainly more than he dared to admit to Holly.

Of course she was confused, because so too was he. For the best part of a year Daniel had been planning for this trip and desperate to get away.

Now, though, it felt as if there were more and more reasons to stay.

* * *

Daniel pulled up outside her flat and did his best not to recall chasing her up the concrete stairs, and as he knocked on the door he tried not to remember them falling through it.

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