Free Eggnog and Candy Canes: A Blueberry Springs Christmas Novella by Jean Oram Page A

detached.” She lifted the arm that had the IV. “Do you know how to unplug one of these things?”
    Jen shook her head.
    “Where’s the bird?” Katie asked, nudging Nash toward Jen.
    “It’s in the lobby on a heat vent.”
    “Let’s go take a look.” Nash guided Jen out of the room, leaving Katie to face Mary Alice once again.
    “A bird, huh? The world has gone crazy,” Katie said, turning to her. The woman collapsed into a chair. “Are you okay?”
    Mary Alice closed her eyes, her jaw tight. She was fighting it. Hard.
    “I’m so sorry.” Katie sat beside her.
    “Not your fault. This is life. Do what we will with it. Time is limited. Cherish each moment. Eat your dessert first. Sing every song like nobody is watching. Or dance to it or whatever the stupid expression is.” She placed her hands on her thighs and stood. “Let’s get your father home.”
    “Mary Alice…”
    “Nash said it would be okay.”
    “I’m pretty sure he didn’t. Dad’s barely even out of recovery.”
    “I wasn’t talking about your father.” Mary Alice jerked her snowsuit to straighten it. “Live a little, Katie. Jam-pack your days with something worthwhile that makes you smile. I’m tired of you holding back.” Her voice was loud enough to wake Harvey. “You hear me? There is a perfectly good man kissing you like you are the only thing that can save his world, and you’re standing here acting as though this is the life you want and the life you chose. Not to step on your toes, Harvey—” Mary Alice addressed the man, who was awake and interested “—but you chose her career, she didn’t. You’re good at it, Katie, but don’t let that be the reason you stay in it. You hear me? Make your move.”
    “Katie is a good nurse,” her father said.
    “Mary Alice, you are going through a very emotional time—”
    “Shut your yap. You know nothing .” She yanked the IV out of Harvey’s arm and he flinched, his face wrinkled in pain. Katie snatched a roll of gauze off a nearby stainless steel trolley and pressed it to the bleeding wound.
    “You need to leave,” she snapped. “Now!”
    Mary Alice pointed a finger at her. “You pursue that man, you hear me?”
    “Do it, Katie,” her father said, his tone resigned.
    “You’re loopy from the anesthetic and don’t know what you’re talking about.” Katie’s throat was tight with tears.
    Mary Alice went nose to nose with her. “Nash didn’t come back just to say hi to old patients, or return a favor. He hoofed it out here when he heard you were single and would be on bare-bones shifts.”
    “You’re…” What? Crazy? Imagining things? Telling me exactly what I long to hear?
    “He’s here for you,” Mary Alice said with special emphasis.
    “Balderdash.”
    “That’s rather romantic,” her father said.
    “He’s here for you,” Mary Alice repeated. “So the question is, what are you going to do about it?”

Chapter 5

    What was she going to do about Nash? Her hands were sweating, her mind a mess. What if Mary Alice was wrong?
    The woman was never wrong. What if she was right ?
    She had a connection with Nash that Katie hadn’t expected. What if…
    Don’t think. That’s all she had to do. Just shove all thoughts regarding Nash into the corner of her mind, along with being an interior decorator and Will ever asking her…no. In the corner. Now stay there.
    Good. Great. It was Christmas. Be cheery.
    She smoothed her ponytail, peeked down the quiet corridor, then shut the door to her father’s new room. She’d convinced Mary Alice that Harvey would perk up if she got him a cup of coffee, sending the woman to the cafeteria while she rolled her father into a room close enough to the nursing station that she could keep an eye on him. For good measure, she’d locked him to the bed.
    He was asleep again and anyone trying to jailbreak him was bad news for his life expectancy. Full stop. She was doing what security would do if they actually had hauled