Their Christmas Dream Come True by Kate Hardy

Author:Kate Hardy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2013-11-27T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHT

NOVEMBER slid into December, the dark days of the year. The days Natalie always found hardest. The hospital was gearing up for Christmas—the tree in the reception area was decked with tinsel and baubles and coloured lights; there were cards from colleagues and past patients on the notice-board; the pictures of Santas and snowmen drawn by the older children were pinned up on the boards by their beds; and there were mince pies and chocolates and Christmas biscuits in the staff kitchen—but Natalie really couldn’t get into the spirit of things.

She’d joined in the ward’s ‘Secret Santa’ and, to her relief, she’d drawn Ruth’s name out of the hat—if she’d picked Kit’s, it would have been too much. Fran had also talked her into going for a Christmas drink with some of the staff before going to the hospital social club revue. But that was as much as Natalie could manage. That, and a forced smile as people wished her a merry Christmas.

Christmas hadn’t been merry for a long, long time.

Probably never would be again.

And as the days dragged on towards the day of the year she really hated, she grew quieter and quieter. She wanted to be on her own. Just quiet and thinking, and wishing things were different.

Kit knew Natalie had booked the day off. It stood to reason: today was a day when she wouldn’t want to be around anyone. But she’d been so withdrawn lately, her face pale and pinched. And he was worried about her.

He rapped on Lenox’s door and glanced through the window. At the consultant’s nod, he walked in and closed the door behind him. ‘Hi. Can I ask a huge favour, please?’

Lenox lifted an eyebrow. ‘You want to swap your Christmas duty?’

Kit smiled. ‘No, no, that’s fine. I don’t mind working at Christmas.’ It was better than sitting on his own in a rented flat. And much, much better than heading south and spending the day with his family, following old traditions yet feeling out of place. Kit was the only one of his siblings who wasn’t married with children—even though he’d actually been the first of the four to get married and the first to have a baby. Catching the occasional glances from his brothers, the looks that said, there but for the grace of God—it hurt like hell. The way his sisters-in-law tried to share their children with him, make him feel part of the family, encouraged the kids to make a fuss of their special uncle…Oh, he hated it.

He made the effort, always played nice, made a point of playing games with them and making sure he could talk to them about whatever the in thing was. But inside his heart always ached. Because it wasn’t the same as doing it with his own child. And seeing his nephews and nieces was too much of a reminder of what he’d lost. What he hadn’t had the chance to do. Like little ghosts of what Ethan might have been like at that age.

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