Mistletoe Magic
‘Crys, it really isn’t funny,’ Molly told her disgruntledly. She was relieved that Crys had known the truth all along, but utterly bemused by her friend’s reaction to knowing what conclusion Gideon had come to concerning Molly’s presence in Crys and James’s apartment that morning.
‘No, it really isn’t,’ Crys agreed, sobering slightly. ‘You and Gideon are incredible, do you know that?’ She stood up. ‘You think he’s in love with me—which he most definitely is not,’ she added firmly as Molly would have spoken. ‘And Gideon thinks you had an affair with James—which you most definitely did not. You know, for two very intelligent people, you’ve both been incredibly stupid.’
‘Thanks!’ Molly grimaced, not sure she agreed with Crys’s summing up of the situation at all.
‘You’re welcome,’ Crys assured her dryly. ‘Not completely stupid, of course,’ she continued conversationally. ‘Somewhere amongst all this confusion the two of you have managed to fall in love with each other anyway, so I suppose I can forgive you.’
‘Gideon isn’t in love with me,’ she cut in dismissively.
‘Oh, yes—he is,’ Crys said with certainty. ‘Who do you think sent me up here because you were so upset? Who do you think is even now pacing up and down my kitchen wearing out the flagstones as he waits for me to go back downstairs and reassure him that you’re okay?’
Molly swallowed hard, suddenly still, a slight hope beginning to burn somewhere deep inside her. ‘Gideon…?’ she said hopefully.
‘The one and only.’ Crys nodded, pulling her to her feet. ‘Come downstairs with me—’
‘I can’t!’ Molly resisted, jerkily shaking her head. ‘I really can’t, Crys,’ she added, as her friend gave her a look of reproof. ‘What if you’re wrong?’
‘I’m not,’ Crys assured her.
‘But if you are?’
‘I’m not,’ her friend repeated firmly. ‘Although maybe the kitchen isn’t quite the place for…’ She paused, obviously thinking. ‘Okay.’ She nodded as she came to a decision. ‘You stay here and I’ll send Gideon up—’
‘He won’t come,’ Molly told her with certainty.
‘We’ll see,’ Crys murmured speculatively. ‘Just don’t stay up here together all afternoon—otherwise, knowing Sam, he’s likely to come looking for the two of you and demand that Gideon make an honest woman of you!’ She grinned.
Molly frowned. ‘I wish you would stop making a joke out of all this, Crys.’
‘Can I be chief bridesmaid?’ Crys asked conversationally. ‘I’ve never been a bridesmaid, you know, and—’
‘Oh, go away!’ Molly told her irritably.
‘I’m going,’ her friend assured her. ‘But no attempting to climb down the drainpipe after I’ve gone,’ she warned on her way out of the room. ‘You won’t look a very elegant bride with your leg in plaster!’ She grinned again as she made her parting shot.
Molly gave an exasperated shake of her head once she was alone, thinking that Crys was turning into as much of a tease as Sam.
Although that didn’t change the fact that even now Crys was probably down in the kitchen talking to Gideon.
Was Crys right? Would Gideon come up here to see her once he had spoken to Crys?
She would have the answer to that question in the next few minutes.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
‘CRYS said that you’re feeling a little better…?’
Molly’s heart leapt as she turned to see Gideon standing hesitantly in the bedroom doorway, his face guarded, the expression in his deep blue eyes wary.
She swallowed hard before speaking. ‘Er—yes, I’m feeling better.’ She nodded. ‘I—I’m sorry I shouted at you. Before.’
Wonderful, Molly, she inwardly chided herself; she sounded like a tongue-tied idiot.
But that was probably because she felt like a tongue-tied idiot!
Just because Gideon was here, as Crys had said he would be, that did not mean anything more than that he wanted to apologize for upsetting her concerning not telling her earlier about Rachel Gibson.
‘Perfectly understandable in the circumstances,’ he allowed abruptly. ‘It was arrogant of me to ask Sam not to tell you.’
Arrogant, yes—but it could also have another interpretation… ‘Why did you do it, Gideon?’ she prompted.
He drew in a harsh breath. ‘I—do you think I could come in?’ He grimaced. ‘It’s a little—public, standing out here in the hallway.’
Considering that besides themselves only David had a bedroom on this floor of the house, and he was probably still in conversation with the others downstairs, she wouldn’t exactly have called it ‘public’. But if Gideon wanted to come into her bedroom…
‘Please do,’ she invited, standing awkwardly in front of the window as he entered the room and closed the door quietly behind him, her hands twisting tightly together as she eyed him warily.
Gideon gave a strained smile obviously as uncomfortable as she was.
‘I—’ Molly hesitated, shaking her head, not really sure where to begin. Or what she was actually beginning!
Gideon drew in a harsh breath. ‘Will it help the—the situation if I tell you that I’m not in love with Crys?’ he bit out abruptly. ‘That I never have been.’
Molly felt a sinking sensation in her stomach. Okay, so he wasn’t in love with Crys, but that didn’t mean he was in love with her.
She bit her lip painfully to stop it trembling. ‘I was never in love with James, either,’ she told him huskily. ‘And I certainly didn’t have an affair with him,’ she added firmly.
‘I know that.’
She nodded. ‘Crys will have told you—’
‘No,’ Gideon cut in determinedly. ‘Crys didn’t tell me anything.’
Her eyes widened. ‘But—’
‘She didn’t have to,’ he continued evenly. ‘Molly, I know that I owe you an apology for—for the things I’ve said to you over the last few days.’ He gave a self-disgusted shake of his head, thrusting his hands into his pockets. ‘I saw you in James’s apartment that morning and I—’
‘Drew your own conclusions?’ she finished heavily.
Gideon shook his head. ‘No, that isn’t what happened at all.’ He gave another strained smile. ‘I looked at you that morning, your hair all tousled, your face sleepy, your long legs bare beneath that ridiculous shirt, and I—’ He drew in a harsh breath. ‘You were the most beautiful woman I had ever seen!’ he told her gruffly.
Molly’s eyes widened incredulously. ‘I looked awful! My hair was a mess, my face all puffy, and James’s shirt was the only thing I could find to pull on when I needed to go to the bathroom. You can’t possibly have… Did you really think me beautiful?’ She looked at him dazedly.
‘Really.’ Gideon nodded self-derisively. ‘But it appeared you belonged to my brother,’ he added hardly.
‘But I didn’t,’ Molly told him exasperatedly. ‘I never did. How many times do I have to tell you that?’
‘You don’t,’ he assured her heavily. ‘You see, it made no difference; I fell in love with you anyway that morning—’
‘You couldn’t have done!’ Molly gasped disbelievingly.
‘Oh, yes, I could.’ Gideon nodded. ‘And I spent the next few months telling myself what a fool I was—that just being attracted to you was dangerous, that falling in love with you was an act of madness, that it would be better for everyone if I just forgot I had ever seen you. I almost succeeded in believing that, too.’ His mouth twisted ruefully. ‘Until I saw you again the morning of the christening…’
‘You were so horrible to me,’ Molly reminded him breathlessly, that faint glow of hope she had known when talking to Crys now starting to explode inside her.
Had Gideon really just told her that he had fallen in love with her more than three years ago?
‘I know,’ he accepted flatly. ‘Deliberately so. I simply couldn’t believe that I still felt the same way about you, that those years might just as well not have been. Your relationship with James, what the knowledge of it might do to Crys—’ He gave a self-disgusted shake of his head. ‘In spite of all that I was still in love with you.’
Molly gave a pained frown. ‘But you said just now that you believed me when I said I didn’t have an affair with James…?’
‘No.’ He sighed. ‘What I actually said was that I know you didn’t have an affair with him. And I know that because over the last few days I’ve come to know you, Molly. You’re not only the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen, you are also the kindest, most compassionate woman I’ve ever known. Your loyalty to Crys and Sam is unmistakable, your love for them, too. Your compassion for David is only to be admired. And as for your gentle caring for Peter… Molly, you would never have allowed yourself to have an affair with James even if you had been in love with him!’
‘No,’ she acknowledged. ‘But I wasn’t in love with him. I did think myself in love with someone else, though,’ she hurried on, as Gideon would have spoken. ‘A man separated from his wife. The night before you saw me at the apartment he had gone back to her,’ she confided evenly. ‘Not my finest hour.’ She grimaced.
‘But don’t you see, Molly? It doesn’t matter,’ Gideon said forcefully. ‘Unless you’re still in love with him, of course,’ he added uncertainly.
Uncertain? Gideon? It certainly wasn’t a feeling that Molly would normally have equated with him!
But hadn’t he just told her that he had fallen in love with her at first sight? That he’d only had to see her again over three years later to know that he still loved her?
She moistened dry lips. ‘No, I’m not still in love with him, Gideon,’ she told him quietly. ‘How could I be when I’m in love with you?’ she added almost shyly.
His eyed widened, emotion blazing in those dark blue depths. He took a step towards her, then stopped, hesitating.
Molly was the one to take the two last steps that took her into his arms; in fact she almost threw herself into them, her arms about his waist as she held him tightly to her. ‘I love you, Gideon,’ she told him forcefully. ‘I love you so much.’
His hands moved up to cup either side of her face. ‘Will you marry me?’ he asked emotionally. ‘Will you? I swear I’ll love you until the day I die!’ He looked down at her intently. ‘Molly, I only wanted to protect you by not telling you about Rachel Gibson. I’ve never thought of you as less than you are, and I never will,’ he promised. ‘I just want to protect and love you for the rest of our lives!’
‘Yes,’ Molly accepted chokingly, wanting to laugh and cry at the same time. ‘Oh, yes, Gideon, I’ll marry you!’
As he moved to kiss her with infinite gentleness, with all of the love he felt for her in that loving caress, Molly knew that she had at last found the man she truly loved, and who truly loved her.
‘You look adorable,’ Gideon assured her lovingly. ‘Although I’m not sure it was a good idea for me to suggest you put on one of David’s shirts.’ He frowned darkly. ‘It just makes me want to throw you on the bed and make love to you!’
Molly laughed huskily. ‘Not here, darling.’ She looked around pointedly at the crowded studio, at the director and technicians all on the Bailey set, and David already in the bed, waiting for her to supposedly appear out of an adjoining bathroom.
‘Later, then,’ he promised gruffly.
‘Later,’ Molly echoed throatily.
The two of them had been married for three months now. Crys had got her wish to be chief bridesmaid, with Sam acting as Gideon’s best man.
It had been three months of pure happiness as far as Molly and Gideon were concerned. The two of them were working together a lot of the time, too, as Gideon had turned out to be the new designer of all the sets for the Bailey series. Neatly answering Molly’s question of how an actor, David, and an interior designer, Gideon, could possibly have met before they had all spent Christmas together.
But it was because of Gideon’s involvement with the new Bailey series that he had been able to have some input into the nude scene that had been mentioned over Christmas. Knowing of Molly’s aversion to it—and having certain objections of his own concerning his wife appearing nude on public television—he had come up with the suggestion of Molly undressing off-set and coming back wearing David’s shirt.
The fact that he had made the suggestion at all, so reminiscent of the first time they had met, told Molly how unimportant all that had been. If she had needed any reassuring. Which, after three ecstatic months as Gideon’s wife, she most certainly didn’t.
‘Actually—’ she leaned into Gideon ‘—I think it’s as well that I do this scene now. Another couple of months and I won’t be able to.’
Gideon looked down at her concernedly. ‘Why not? Molly, what’s wrong?’ His arms moved about her protectively.
‘Absolutely nothing.’ She laughed reassuringly. ‘But it’s going to be interesting seeing Sam cope with introducing a pregnant girlfriend for Bailey,’ she added teasingly, gazing lovingly into her husband’s face as the importance of what she had just said slowly dawned on him.
‘Molly…?’ he finally gasped, his arms tightening about her as he stared down at her disbelievingly.
Molly snuggled into the warmth of his chest. ‘In about seven months’ time Peter is going to have a little cousin,’ she confirmed huskily. Her happiness was overwhelming at the knowledge that she carried their child.
‘I—you—how…?’ Gideon was obviously having trouble speaking at all, but his eyes glowed brightly with love as he looked down at her.
‘You know very well how,’ Molly teased him huskily. ‘And, yes, it was you and I.’ She nodded happily. ‘Isn’t it wonderful?’
‘Wonderful,’ he confirmed, slightly dazedly. ‘Oh, Molly, I do love you,’ he told her intensely.
‘And I love you,’ she assured him seriously. ‘All my life,’ she promised.
‘All my life,’ Gideon echoed forcefully, before his mouth claimed hers in a kiss of infinite sweetness.
‘I hate to interrupt,’ David called out dryly several minutes later, ‘but I’m in danger of genuinely falling asleep if you don’t soon make your entrance, Molly.’
Gideon raised his head to grin down at her ruefully. ‘I think your presence is required, my love.’
‘I think David is just a little full of himself after his weekend away; apparently he drove up to Yorkshire at the weekend and took Diana Chisholm out to dinner,’ she told her husband speculatively.
‘That’s good news.’ Gideon smiled.
‘Isn’t it?’ She grinned up at him. ‘Maybe we’re going to have another wedding in the “family” soon.’
Gideon’s smile turned to an indulgent chuckle. ‘You’re getting as bad as Crys with your matchmaking.’
Molly reached up to gently touch his cheek. ‘Maybe because, like Crys, I want everyone else to be as happy as we are,’ she told him seriously.
Gideon shook his head. ‘They couldn’t possibly be,’ he said with certainty.
No, she didn’t think they could. She had never known such happiness, such contentment, as she had found being Gideon’s wife.
‘Molly!’ David called out complainingly.
‘I have to go.’ She grimaced ruefully.
Gideon nodded. ‘We’ll celebrate our good news later.’
‘We could go to Crystal’s,’ she agreed happily; Crys’s restaurant was one of the most exclusive in London, but Gerry, the manager, always managed to find a table for ‘family’.
Gideon’s smile became intimate. ‘I wasn’t thinking of going out.’
‘Even better,’ Molly agreed instantly, feeling a glow deep inside her at the promise in Gideon’s gaze.
‘Molly, if you don’t get in here in the next ten seconds I’m going to come and get you.’ David warned.
‘Later,’ Molly told Gideon as she hurriedly turned to leave.
‘Always,’ he called after her.
What a wonderful, lovely word!
CAROL MARINELLI finds writing a bio rather like writing her new year’s resolutions. oh, she’d love to say that since she wrote the last one, she now goes to the gym regularly and doesn’t stop for coffee and cake and a gossip afterwards; that she’s incredibly organised and writes for a few productive hours a day after tidying her immaculate house and a brisk walk with the dog.
The reality is, Carol spends an inordinate amount of time daydreaming about dark, brooding men and exotic places (research) which doesn’t leave too much time for the gym, housework or anything that comes in between and her most productive writing hours happen to be in the middle of the night, which leaves her in a constant state of bewildered exhaustion.
originally from england, Carol now lives in Melbourne, australia. She adores going back to the uK for a visit—actually, she adores going anywhere for a visit—and constantly (expensively) strives to overcome her fear of flying. She has three gorgeous children who are growing up so fast (too fast—they’ve just worked out that she lies about her age!) and keep her busy with a never-ending round of homework, sport and friends coming over.
A nurse and a writer, Carol writes for Mills & Boon® Modern™ and Medical™ lines and is passionate about both. She loves the fast-paced, busy setting of a modern hospital, but every now and then admits it’s bliss to escape to the glamorous, alluring world of her Modern™ heroes and heroines. a bit like her real life, actually!
Chapter One
‘HEY!’
Coming out of his office, chatting away to a rather pretty, rather blonde physiotherapist, Consultant Paediatrician Nick Watson was flattened against the wall as Eden Hadley rushed past, visibly upset.
Visibly, because Eden was incapable of hiding her emotions. Along with wearing her heart on her sleeve, her expressive face told anyone who cared to look exactly what she was thinking, and right now it didn’t take a degree in psychology to work out that she was far from happy. Her pretty full mouth was set in a grim line and her dark brown eyes flashed angrily as Nick caught her arm to halt her progress. Her long, dark, chocolate curls fell out of her loose ponytail as she swung around to confront him.
‘Just leave it, Nick,’ Eden said through gritted teeth.
‘Leave what?’ Nick frowned, gesturing for her to wait as he said goodbye to the physiotherapist. ‘Thanks for that, Amber, it’s been very helpful.’
‘Any time, Nick. Call me if you need to discuss Rory’s ambulation programme further.’ Amber smiled and Eden felt her already gritted teeth starting to grind as the tall slender physio continued talking, completely unfazed by Eden’s presence. ‘In fact, call me anyway—I’ll look forward to it.’
‘Well, she certainly knows how to get her message across!’ Eden bristled as Amber waltzed off, her back impossibly straight, flicking her blonde hair as she did so.
‘She was just being friendly.’ Nick laughed. ‘Just what is it that you have against physios?’
‘Their glowing health,’ Eden moaned. ‘Their toned bodies and white smiles. I could go on for ever. I haven’t yet met one with a single vice. You just know that they’ll be tucking into a cottage cheese salad for lunch, know for a fact that they don’t smoke.’
‘Neither do you,’ Nick pointed out, and then shook his head. ‘Let’s not change the subject. This is my ward, Eden, and if there’s a problem I need to know about it.’
‘There isn’t a problem,’ Eden insisted. ‘At least, not any more.’
‘Eden, you’ve lost me.’
Taking a deep breath, she finally faced him. ‘Donna just called an impromptu meeting to discuss the revised Christmas roster.’
‘Oh.’
Instantly his eyes glazed over. The nursing roster was way down on Nick Watson’s list of priorities. So long as his precious patients were happy then so was he. But, Eden reminded herself, Nick was the one who’d stopped her, who had demanded that she tell him what was wrong, and Nick who had insisted that she voice her problem. And voice it she would.
Loudly!
‘This will be my second Christmas on this ward,’ Eden choked. ‘And now it seems I’ll have to work night shifts for both! Donna’s been hounding me to use up my annual leave as I’ve got five weeks owing. I was supposed to be having a full week off, given that last year…’ The spitfire that was raging was doused a touch as Eden realised the inappropriateness of this conversation, but Nick, with a very noticeable edge to his voice, quickly filled her in.
‘You had to work over the Christmas and New Year period because of what happened to Teaghan…’
Damn! She didn’t say it, but the word spat like a hot chip between them. Eden slammed her forehead with her hand, wishing she could take it all back, wishing that Nick hadn’t chosen that particular moment to come out of his office and demand to know what the problem was.
Eden had been so angry she’d chosen to take her fifteen-minute coffee-break away from the ward in an attempt to cool down before she said something she’d surely regret, but unfortunately she had done just that. The tragic events that had taken place the previous December hadn’t just affected Eden’s off-duty roster—the whole ward had gone into numb shock when Teaghan Camm, Associate Charge Nurse and fiancée to Nick Watson, had driven home after a night shift and apparently fallen asleep at the wheel. She’d suffered injuries so severe that she hadn’t even made it into the emergency resuscitation room.
Eden could still recall that morning as if it had happened only yesterday.
As the nurse in charge that morning, it had been she, Eden, who had taken the call from Emergency. She had heard how the vibrant young woman, who had left the ward only an hour or so before now lay dead a few floors below. It had been Eden who had located Tea-ghan’s personal file and relayed her parents’ telephone number to Sharon, the nurse supervisor who had been with Teaghan in Emergency. She could still hear Sharon’s devastated voice as she’d asked Eden whether she wanted her to come up and tell the staff.
‘I’ll do it,’ Eden had said, not wanting to but knowing Sharon should be there to wait for Teaghan’s parents to arrive.
‘What about…?’ Sharon had hesitated and Eden had been too stunned, too shocked to fill in the gap, just screwed her eyes closed as Sharon had stumbled on. ‘Nick has to hear this privately, Eden.’
‘I’ll tell him first, away from everyone else.’
‘Perhaps I should send up Brad, the emergency consultant,’ Sharon suggested. ‘Maybe another doctor should be the one to tell him—although whoever it is who breaks the news, it’s not going to change the outcome.’
Looking out of her office, Eden had seen one of the porters stopping to talk to the ward domestic, her shocked expression telling Eden that the unpalatable news had already started filtering its way through. She had seen Nick at a patient’s bedside, sharing a joke with the child’s mother, utterly oblivious to the fact that in the same building at that very moment, his young fiancée had lain dead.
‘I think I’d better tell him now.’ Eden swallowed hard. ‘The news just hit the ward. I don’t want him to hear this on the floor. Send Brad up, though. I’m sure Nick will have a lot of questions.’
It was among the hardest things she had ever done in her life. As a senior nurse on a busy paediatric ward, Eden had seen more than her fair share of tragedy, had sat more times than she wanted to remember with devastated parents as terrible news had been broken, had even delivered it herself when the occasion had merited it, but to survive she managed to retain some degree of professional detachment. Though tears were sometimes shed, they were always controlled. She constantly reminded herself that, as much as she was hurting, it was worse, far, far worse for the parents, and the last thing they needed was an overly emotional nurse.
But this was personal.
Very personal.
She hadn’t particularly liked Teaghan, had never taken to the rather loud, over-confident woman, but she’d never in a million years have wished this on her, and Eden was realistic enough to realise that her own judgement of the woman was probably tainted. Tainted by the fact that she, along with every other woman at the Royal, was just a tiny bit in love with Nick Watson.