Playboy On Her Christmas List. Carol Marinelli

a seat there.

      ‘Maybe I am in the mood for Christmas after all.’ Holly smiled, sitting back in the chair and relaxing to the lovely crackle of the fire and inhaling the scent of her drink.

      ‘I want one,’ Daniel admitted.

      ‘Tough.’ Holly smiled and then took a sip, enjoying the burn of the liquor. ‘I don’t really like spirits but my dad loves Scotch so I always keep a bottle at home and every now and then I have one.’

      ‘Well, that’s good to know.’

      ‘What?’

      He smiled and she realised he was perhaps inviting himself to her home for a drink.

      Or had she been inviting him?

      Hmm.

      Holly still didn’t know where this might lead, but it was just so nice to be out in the real world with him and without buzzers and patients and others around. And it was definitely nice to squeeze in five minutes’ pause after work before they headed into the party.

      ‘Do you get on with your parents?’ he asked.

      ‘Very much so.’

      ‘They live...?’ Daniel frowned. He wasn’t sure, though he knew that it was some distance that she often travelled to get home.

      ‘Up north,’ Holly said, and then told him the village where her family lived.

      ‘So how come you’re in London?’

      ‘Because I get on so well with my family.’ Holly smiled. ‘I trained up there and it was all too easy to just live at home... I knew I needed a change.’

      ‘Yet you’re still home a lot?’

      ‘My mum hasn’t been very well.’ Holly said, and decided the night had already been grim enough without going further into it. ‘What about you? Are your family in London?’

      She didn’t know him at all, Daniel realised.

      Holly could have no idea just how refreshing that was. Even before he had started medicine there had been a constant stream of ‘Marcus Chandler’s son’. His father had been head boy at the boarding school Daniel had attended and his record was just as impressive at med school and beyond. Even Kay had made a few comments and had asked if he was any relation to the esteemed Professor Chandler.

      Holly had no idea as to that side of his life.

      ‘Yes.’ Daniel answered the question as to whether his family was in London very simply.

      ‘Do you get on?’

      ‘Nope,’ Daniel said.

      ‘Why?’

      ‘Because my father is an arrogant git,’ he said, and then looked at her Scotch. ‘Given that I’m on soda water tonight, I shan’t be sharing.’

      Holly laughed. ‘What about your mother?’

      ‘She’s dead.’

      Well, that wiped the smile from her face.

      ‘He married again. I’ve got a sister...’

      Daniel refused to call Maddie a half-sister.

      ‘Do you get on with her?’

      ‘I do when I see her. And that reminds me, I must get her a Christmas present before I head off.’

      Holly’s phone buzzed, indicating an incoming text, and she glanced down and saw that it was Anna, asking where they had disappeared to.

      ‘Has our absence been noted?’ Daniel asked.

      ‘It has.’

      The pleasant interlude was over but it had been nice, Holly thought as she drained her drink and then stood. It had been a tiny but very welcome pause before she pushed out a smile and faced the masses.

      He knew it was pointless suggesting that they didn’t go through.

      Holly took her Christmas party as seriously as her decorations.

      ‘Time to be positive...’ Holly said, though she didn’t really feel it. ‘It is Christmas and if ever there was a time for miracles...’

      ‘Please,’ Daniel scorned, pouring a bucket of iced water on that. ‘There’s no such thing as Christmas miracles.’

      ‘Are you always so negative?’ Holly asked as they headed towards the function room.

      ‘Always.’

      The doors swung open and there were a few shouts of ‘Holly!’ but there were a lot more shouts of Daniel’s name! Clearly a lot of women were very glad to see him.

      Anna, of course, leapt to his side and handed him an elaborate-looking cocktail.

      ‘I’m driving,’ he pointed out again.

      ‘It a virgin.’ Anna smiled. ‘I had it prepared just for you.’

      Oh, please. Holly thought she might spit at the suggestive tone, but she refused to be rattled by Anna. Instead, she put on her smile and chatted with friends.

      It was a difficult night. Everyone wanted first-hand information and Holly knew that wasn’t her place to give it. It was up to Nora what she wanted to share and for now Nora wanted upbeat and so that’s what Holly did her best to be, but by ten she was done.

      She looked over and Anna and Daniel were locked in conversation.

      Or rather Anna was conversing and Daniel was locked, given the slight eye roll that he gave her.

      Holly smiled but it was a regretful one because she simply didn’t know how to run wild. How to go over there and be all sparkling and witty and flirt...

      Except, as it turned out, she didn’t have to go over there to flirt. Holly quickly realised that standing in the middle of the room and blatantly staring at the object of your desire seemed to work rather well too!

      Yikes.

      She hadn’t meant that!

      Holly watched as he said something to Anna and Holly realised he was excusing himself and about to make his way over.

      It was time for a quick getaway.

      ‘You’re not going already?’ Trevor, one of the male nurses, asked.

      ‘I am.’ Holly kept up that smile. ‘I’m hitting the shops tomorrow and then...’ She didn’t finish. An absolute novice in the field of sexual adventure, she found her coat and headed outside.

      ‘Leaving?’

      She turned and there was Daniel.

      ‘Yes.’

      ‘Do you want a lift?’

      ‘I’ve just called for a taxi,’ Holly lied.

      ‘It’s no problem.’

      ‘I live miles away.’

      ‘I’ll save you the fare, then.’

      ‘No, thanks.’

      Why? Holly asked herself. Why was she saying no? Because she couldn’t say no to him.

      ‘Come on.’

      He jangled his keys and Holly nodded. Really, it was just a colleague giving her a lift home and it would be bliss not to have to make small talk with a taxi driver or sit in the back as he chatted on his phone.

      Liar, liar.

      They got in his car, and this time she was in the front.

      That’s better, both thought but didn’t say.

      ‘Address?’ he asked, and she gave it to him.

      Daniel typed it into his phone and that took care of that, and then he started the engine.