Page 47 of Prognosis Christmas Baby

Not anymore.

‘Go home, get some sleep,’ he whispered against her lips, dragging his mouth away and planting a soft kiss on her forehead before turning away and heading to his car.

Maggie watched him open his door, get in, start it up and drive away, all the time her heart breaking. How was she ever going to watch him walk away for good?

––––––––

‘What are you wearingto the ball?’ Linda asked a few days later as she came round at the start of the late shift to check on how each of her staff members were getting on with their patients. Maggie had been allocated Toby again. She’d developed a real rapport with his parents and a definite soft spot for the little battler.

‘Oh, damn!’ Maggie slapped herself on the forehead. ‘I’ve forgotten all about it.’ To be fair to herself, she did have quite a bit on her mind and the tickets had been purchased in August.

‘I bought myself this swanky little number with a corset-style bodice. Phil’s gonna drool all night when he sees it.’

Maggie laughed at her friend. The Christmas Eve ball was not only the highlight of the hospital calendar but the highlight of Linda and Phil’s calendar too. Linda’s parents took the kids to Carols by Candlelight on the Brisbane River while Linda and Phil lived it up for one night of the year.

Of course, they felt like hell at six a.m. when six children landed on their bed demanding to open their presents from Santa.

‘I guess I’ll need to go shopping for something.’

‘Da.’ Linda bugged her eyes at Maggie. ‘Only seventeen more sleeps.’

Maggie laughed again. ‘You’re incorrigible.’

‘Are you counting down sleeps to Christmas or shopping days remaining?’ Nash enquired as he stopped by Maggie’s bedside to deliver Toby’s latest blood-gas results.

Linda shook her head. ‘Neither. Sleeps until the ball,’ she informed Nash. ‘Although it does help that the kids’ Christmas countdown happens to coincide. You are coming, I hope?’

Maggie threw a quick prayer into the ether. Nash in chinos and Levi’s was hard enough to ignore. Nash in a tux?

Now, that would be a magnificent sight indeed.

‘I bought my ticket in August,’ he confirmed, ‘but I’ve got a morning shift Christmas Day so I’m not sure if it’s wise.’

Maggie held her breath. Maybe he wouldn’t come?

‘Oh, you poor old man,’ Linda teased. ‘Can’t party all night and work the next day anymore?’

Nash grinned, responding to Linda’s well-intentioned banter but conscious of Maggie growing stiller and stiller beside him. ‘Well, I am thirty now.’

‘Oh, right. Hey, Maggie’s going and she’s working the next day. She’s got a whole decade on you.’

Maggie winced. She caught Nash’s furtive look at her and wished the floor would open and swallow her. She didn’t need Linda’s reminder of just how idiotic she’d been to think she could play with fire and not get burned.

‘I’ve got to face six children after about two hours’ sleep,’ Linda continued, oblivious to the currents churning around her. ‘And then cook for twenty-six people coming to my house for Christmas dinner. So don’t give me any of your paltry excuses.’

Nash winced, horrified just listening to Linda’s Christmas line-up. ‘Well, in that case...’

‘Good. You can sit at our table,’ Linda said patting him on the shoulder. ‘Unless you’re bringing a partner?’

Maggie swallowed. Oh, God, he wouldn’t, would he?

Nash caught Maggie’s sudden pallor. ‘Nope,’ he hastened to assure Linda. ‘Just me.’

Maggie breathed again. She couldn’t have sat at the same table with him while some other woman fawned over him.

‘It’s settled, then.’

‘Are you sure?’ Nash asked, flicking a brief glance at Maggie, pleased to see her cheeks pinking up again, before returning his attention to Linda. ‘I don’t want to kick anyone off.’

---