Christmas With Her Daredevil Doc

Can he convince her to be his Christmas bride?

When Dr. Hayley Clark met Sam Price in Iceland, their holiday romance was unforgettable—and unrepeatable! Sam was the first man to reawaken Hayley after losing her firefighter partner, but she wasn’t ready to risk her heart again, especially with a guy who loves danger!

But when Sam arrives at Hayley’s hospital as the new registrar they’re both shocked and delighted—could their fling become more after all? Only if Hayley can come to trust that her daredevil doc can both heal and protect her heart—forever!

Miracles at Muswell Hill Hospital

Christmas is a time for healing broken hearts!

Medical marvels occur every day at Muswell Hill Hospital—but two friends who work there, Dr Hayley Clark and Dr Danielle (Dani) Owens, are deserving of some special Christmas miracles. Bonded by recent traumatic life events, they’ve helped each other recover with their year-long pact of saying yes to everything!

As Christmas draws near—ready or not—they are about to meet two gorgeous guys who, if they will just let them in, can finally mend their broken hearts!

Hayley and Sam’s story

Christmas with Her Daredevil Doc

Sam and Hayley had one incredible week in Iceland—but when Sam appears for work at Muswell Hill Hospital, they struggle to keep their ‘temporary’ romance in the past. Can their holiday fling become so much more?

And Dani and Alex’s storyM

Their Pregnancy Gift

Alex is determined never to have children—but Danielle is irresistible. And after one night of passion they must face the shocking and wonderful consequences!

Both available now!

Dear Reader,

How do you pick yourself up, dust yourself off and start all over again when your life implodes? That’s partly why my heroine Hayley has a pact with her best friend to have a ‘Year of Saying Yes’—agreeing to opportunities that will make their lives happier. And going to Iceland means that she’s met someone who might just change her life for ever…

But Sam has his own issues to work through—and the way he deals with the fallout from his own life is to take risks to remind himself that he’s still alive and kicking. Which makes him the worst possible man that Hayley can fall for.

How can he teach her to trust that risk-taking won’t lead to another disaster in her life? And how can she teach him to trust that she won’t let him down the way his ex did?

I hope you enjoy their story—and definitely the romance of their wedding!

With love,

Kate Hardy

Christmas with Her Daredevil Doc

Kate Hardy

www.millsandboon.co.uk

KATE HARDY has always loved books, and could read before she went to school. She discovered Mills & Boon books when she was twelve and decided this was what she wanted to do. When she isn’t writing, Kate enjoys reading, cinema, ballroom dancing and the gym. You can contact her via her website: katehardy.com.

To Gerard, Chris and Chloe, who shared Iceland with me and fell in love with it as much as I did.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

Introduction

Dear Reader

Title Page

About the Author

Dedication

PROLOGUE

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

Extract

Copyright

PROLOGUE

HAYLEY DID A double take as her best friend hobbled into the hospital canteen on crutches, with a full-length walking cast up to her right knee.

‘What happened, Dani?’ she asked as Danielle heaved herself into the seat opposite hers and rested the crutches against the wall so they wouldn’t be in the way of anyone else in the canteen. ‘Did you break your ankle?’

‘It’s not quite that bad—it’s a second and third metatarsal stress fracture,’ Danielle said, grimacing.

Hayley frowned. They’d been out to their usual dance aerobics class, two nights ago, and Danielle had seemed fine then. ‘When did it happen?’

‘According to the orthopods, three or four weeks ago, because the fracture shows up on the X-ray and looks as if it’s been trying to heal for some time—but the actual diagnosis was this morning.’ Danielle sighed. ‘I suppose my foot had been aching for a bit.’

And Dani, being Dani, had no doubt ignored it because she was too busy. ‘Why didn’t you say something, the other night?’ Hayley asked. ‘We could’ve missed class to let you rest your foot.’

Danielle flapped a dismissive hand. ‘It was fine.’

Hayley raised an eyebrow. ‘Fine enough for you to be wearing a walking cast right now?’

Danielle sighed. ‘OK, OK. I thought it wasn’t anything major and resting it for a day or two would be enough to sort it out, but it felt a bit worse yesterday so I thought I’d better get it checked out. I was pretty sure my doctor was going to roll his eyes at me and say it was just because I still needed to get used to my new running shoes. Except he sent me for an X-ray instead. And apparently almost everyone with a metatarsal stress fracture says the same thing as I did—they don’t remember doing anything different or they’ve just got new shoes.’

‘Ouch. So how long are you going to have the cast?’ Hayley asked.

‘They said it’ll take between one and three months to heal,’ Danielle said. ‘So it’s crutches this week and then I have to wear the cast and rest my foot as much as possible.’

‘Rest’ wasn’t in Danielle’s vocabulary, Hayley knew. It would drive her best friend crazy to have to sit with her foot up.

‘And they said if I don’t rest it properly and for long enough, I’ll risk making it worse and then I’ll end up needing surgery to fix it—which will take even longer to heal, so obviously I’d rather avoid that.’ Danielle pulled a face. ‘Bang goes finishing my training for that charity run in October. I won’t even be able to walk the course, let alone run it. I’ll have to return all the sponsor money.’

And the run was close to Dani’s heart because she was raising money to buy an MRI scanner for newborns on the maternity unit. ‘Unless the organisers will let me run in your place,’ Hayley said thoughtfully.

Danielle stared at her in surprise. ‘I can’t ask you to do that. You hate running.’

‘Yes, but it’s for a good cause. I can run it for you. Remember, we agreed, this is the Year of Saying Yes. We’ve both had a horrible year.’ Hayley’s own life had imploded just over a year ago, when Evan, her fiancé, had been killed while trying to rescue someone from an industrial fire; and Danielle’s husband Leo had left her unexpectedly for someone else, nine months ago. They’d supported each other through the wreckage of their lives and, the previous month, when Danielle’s decree nisi had come through and the anniversary of Evan’s death had passed, they’d agreed that they’d spend the next year saying yes to every opportunity that came their way. The theory was, it would help them both to move on and live life to the full. Or, as Dani had put it, living well was the best revenge and she wasn’t going to spend the rest of her life crying over someone who didn’t love her any more.

‘We agreed we’d make the most out of life and say yes to every opportunity,’ Haley reminded her. ‘So you have to say yes to me taking your place, and we’ll talk the organisers into bending the rules slightly if they have to. They can’t expect you to run with a broken foot—and surely it’s better to have a substitute so the hospital can keep the sponsor money towards the scanner?’

‘If you’re really sure,’ Danielle said, ‘then thank you.’ She bit her lip. ‘But that’s not the worst bit.’ She dragged in a breath. ‘I’m so sorry, but I’m not going to be able to go to Iceland with you next week. The orthopods tried to sign me off work. I said I can do a lot of my job sitting down—which I can, so don’t argue,’ she said, holding up one hand to stop Hayley protesting. ‘They’ve agreed to let me have the walking cast, provided I agreed to rest my foot as much as possible. But they said that hiking round Iceland for a week is totally out of the question. And, with the kind of walks we were planning to do, there’s no way you could push me round in a chair—not when there’s loads of rough ground, volcanic sand, and a fair bit of clambering about on slippery boulders. It’s just not doable.’

‘Then we’ll talk to the travel agent and reschedule,’ Hayley said.

Danielle shook her head. ‘You wanted to go in the summer so you’d get to see the midnight sun. If we reschedule, then it’ll be another year before we can go away—and you really, really need a break. Especially as you’re taking up your new job in a couple of weeks.’

Her promotion to senior registrar, which was bittersweet because Evan wasn’t here to be pleased that her hard work had paid off. ‘I’m fine,’ Hayley said.

‘This is supposed to be the Year of Saying Yes, remember,’ Danielle said. ‘We said we’d do it so we’d have fun instead of being miserable.’

‘I’m not so sure it’ll be much fun, going to Iceland on my own,’ Hayley said.

‘But you’ll still get to see the whales and the geyser and the glacier—tick all those things off your bucket list. You need a break, Haze. Go and have a wonderful time. And I’ll talk to the travel agent to sort everything out this end.’

‘It’s not fair that you’re missing out,’ Hayley said.

‘We can plan something else when my foot’s healed,’ Danielle said. ‘We could maybe go to Vienna in November for the Christmas markets. We can eat lots of gingerbread and drink the best hot chocolate in the world.’

‘Maybe,’ Hayley said.

‘Definitely,’ Danielle insisted. ‘And you can send me a ton of photos from Iceland.’ She smiled. ‘If I were you, I’d stock up on the fun now—if you were serious about running that charity race for me, you’ll be in strict training for the next two months.’

‘Two and a half months, less my week in Iceland,’ Hayley pointed out.

‘The couch to 10K running programme is supposed to take about twelve weeks,’ Danielle said thoughtfully, ‘but you do dance aerobics twice a week, so you’re not really starting from couch level.’

Hayley did dance aerobics simply because Dani had pushed her into it two weeks after Evan’s funeral, making her leave her flat instead of hiding within the four walls and wishing that her fiancé had never, ever become a firefighter. And Hayley had to admit that the combination of the music and the movement had made her feel better, if only for a little while. For the same reason, she’d forced Dani to keep coming to the class with her after Leo had walked out on her.

‘OK. You sort out the training programme and I’ll do it.’

‘You,’ Danielle said, reaching over to squeeze her hand, ‘are the best friend ever.’

‘No, that would be you,’ Hayley said. ‘And you can sit still while I sort out some lunch for you. Even you can’t juggle a tray and hot coffee with crutches.’

‘Try me?’ Danielle said.

‘Behave,’ Hayley ordered with a grin.

‘Yes, ma’am. And you’re right—I can’t hold coffee with crutches,’ Danielle admitted, and fished in her purse for some money. ‘Thanks, Haze. Just grab the first sandwich you come to—I don’t mind what it is.’ She paused. ‘So you promise me you won’t cancel the trip?’

‘It’s the Year of Saying Yes,’ Hayley said. ‘So I’ll go.’ Even though a solo trip felt daunting, Hayley knew that her best friend was right. She did need a break. And maybe ticking some things off her bucket list would help her move on.

She’d always miss Evan, but she knew he wouldn’t have wanted her to spend the rest of her life on her own. So she was going to say yes. And, in accordance with their agreement, she was going to date the next man who asked her out.

CHAPTER ONE

THE LAND OF the Midnight Sun. Hayley had been stunned by the sheer quality of the light from the moment she’d arrived at the airport; everything seemed brighter in Reykjavik.

Evan would’ve loved this, she thought with a pang. Especially the whale-watching trip she’d chosen to do this morning. Now the boat was out in the middle of the open sea, the temperature had dropped quite sharply, but the sun was bright and she leaned against the railing at the side of the boat, listening to the guide and trying to spot the tiny puffins with their bright orange beaks.

‘There are lots of birds just above the water ahead of us, and that often indicates cetacean activity—they’ll be picking up bits of fish the whales have left behind,’ the guide said. And then, a couple of minutes later, she called, ‘Spout at nine o’clock!’

Hayley could actually see the spout of warm, moist air blown up by the whale; to her amazement, it really was like you saw in TV documentaries. A perfect misty funnel.

‘And here’s our minke!’ the guide said.

The ship drew to a standstill, and Hayley could see just the dark back of the whale, like a slight hump above the surface of the sea. And then a fin appeared, bright white against the sea and the sky, almost as if the whale was waving to them.

This was magical.

She took a few shots on her camera, hoping they’d come out. And then, to her sheer joy, the whale breached, its snout coming up out of the water and then its body performing a perfect arc, revealing its white belly before the whale splashed back into the sea.

She’d never seen anything so awe-inspiring. The whale’s snout came up again, and then a fin; then she saw the divided end of the tail as the whale dived down again.

‘I’m sure you could all see the flukes then—that’s the whale’s tail—and this usually indicates that the whale’s diving more deeply,’ the guide said. ‘So we’re going to move on.’

This was a truly humbling experience, Hayley thought; it made her feel glad to be alive.

But then, a few minutes later, the guide called, ‘Do we have a doctor on board?’

Her heart skipped a beat. When a tour guide put out that kind of call, it could mean a true emergency, and right now they were almost an hour’s sail away from Reykjavik. She had no idea how the emergency services worked here. Would they send out a helicopter to the ship, or would the tour guide have to cut the trip short and they’d have to sail straight back to the city?

She made her way to the guide’s post. ‘I’m Hayley Clark, a doctor from England. Can I help?’

‘My husband’s having an asthma attack,’ an American woman said, looking anxious and wringing her hands. ‘And we don’t have his inhaler with us.’

Just as well she worked in the emergency department, Hayley thought. ‘Can you put out a call to see if anyone has a reliever inhaler we could borrow, please?’ she asked the guide. ‘Even a preventer inhaler would help.’

‘Will do,’ the guide said.

She turned to the woman. ‘Would you like to take me to your husband? My name’s Hayley and I work in the emergency department of a London hospital.’

‘I’m Lulu Adams and thank God you’re on board,’ the woman said, leading her towards the next deck down. ‘I can’t believe Milton’s having an attack out here. Normally it’s pollen and cat hair that sets him off.’

‘Cold can set off asthma, too, and the air’s quite cool out here,’ Hayley said, ‘so it’s always a good idea to keep a reliever inhaler with you—even if you don’t think you’re going to come across your usual triggers. Does your husband take his preventer inhaler regularly?’

‘He’s a man. You can’t tell him anything,’ the woman said with a sigh.

So this was probably an attack that had been brewing for a while, Hayley thought, with a patient who didn’t bother taking his preventer inhaler that often. Milton Adams’s doctor definitely needed to talk to him about the importance of asthma control. She just hoped she could keep him stable until they managed to get some proper bronchodilator medication for him. ‘Does he have any other medical conditions?’ she asked.

‘Just the asthma.’

Which was tricky enough to deal with, by the sound of things. ‘OK. Thanks.’

* * *

Do we have a doctor on board?

There were maybe a couple of hundred other people on the boat. The chances were, Sam was the only doctor. Plus this would be a test. Had he done the right thing in accepting the job at a London hospital, or had his experience in Manchester soured his love affair with medicine to the point where he really didn’t want to go back to it?

He made his way to the bridge to talk to the guide, and on the way he heard her ask if anyone had an asthma inhaler that another passenger could borrow.

‘My name’s Sam Price, and I’m an emergency doctor from England. It sounds as if you have a passenger who’s having an asthma attack and doesn’t have an inhaler. Can I help?’ he asked.

‘There’s another doctor gone to see him already, if you want to join her,’ the guide said. ‘You’ll see her on the deck below. She’s wearing a yellow raincoat.’

‘OK. Thanks. Has anyone come up with an inhaler?’

‘Not yet, but I’m going to put another call out,’ she said.

Asthma attacks could be tricky. If nothing else, Sam thought, he could help calm down whoever was with the patient, so the other doctor could get on with treating the patient. He headed down to the next deck, and saw a woman wearing a yellow raincoat. She was talking to a man who was clearly panicking and wheezing, and the woman with them was wringing her hands and looking equally panicky.

‘Hello. I’m Sam Price, and I’m an emergency doctor,’ he said as he joined them. ‘Can I help?’

‘Hayley Clark—also an emergency doctor, from London,’ the woman in the yellow raincoat said.

He noticed how blue her eyes were—like an Icelandic summer sky—and her sun-streaked blonde hair was caught back at the nape of her neck, with soft tendrils framing a perfect oval face.

What the hell was he doing, noticing the colour of her eyes when there was a sick patient who needed their attention? Besides, even if he was looking for a relationship—which he wasn’t, after Lynda—she was probably already spoken for. Cross with himself for getting distracted, he paid attention to what she was saying.

‘This is Milton Adams and his wife Lulu,’ Hayley continued. ‘He doesn’t have his reliever or preventer inhaler with him, and we think the cold air probably brought on his asthma attack. He doesn’t have any other medical conditions.’

‘The guide’s putting out a second call to see if anyone on board has an inhaler with them,’ Sam said. ‘But even if there isn’t anyone, we can help you, Mr Adams.’

The man continued to wheeze, fighting for air, clearly panicked by the tightness in his chest.

Really, they needed to get him away from the cold air that had triggered the attack and into a warm place. But, given the state of his breathing right now and the fact that he was quite overweight, no way would Mr Adams be able to cope with the steep stairs to go back inside the ship. First, Sam thought, they needed to get Mr Adams stabilised so he was calm, and breathing more slowly. Anxiety released cortisol in the body, constricting the bronchial tubes even further, and panicking that you couldn’t breathe caused a vicious circle: it tightened the chest muscles, which made it harder to breathe, which in turn made the patient panic more and then the chest muscles tightened even further.

‘Mr Adams, can you sit up straight for us?’ Sam asked. ‘It’ll help you breathe more easily, because bending over constricts your breathing.’

Milton Adams continued gasping, but to Sam’s relief, he did as he was told.

‘I’m going to loosen your tie and undo the button of your collar,’ Hayley said, ‘because that’s also going to help you breathe more easily. Is that all right?’

The man nodded.

‘I told him he ought to bring his inhaler. I told him,’ Mrs Adams said, almost in tears.

Hayley reached over and squeezed her hand. ‘Mrs Adams—can we call you Lulu?’ At the woman’s nod, she continued, ‘I know how worried you are about your husband, but right now I really need you to do an important job for me and count. Can you do that for me?’

‘Yes,’ Mrs Adams said, her voice slightly quavery.

Brilliant management, Sam thought—she’d acknowledged the woman’s fears and distracted her by making her feel useful. What Hayley had just said about counting told him that she’d intended to use the same method he would’ve used.

‘Mr Adams—can we call you Milton?’ At the man’s nod, Sam continued, ‘We want you to try to take some really long, deep breaths for us. I know right now it’s scary, but I promise we can make you feel better. I want you to breathe in through your nose for a count of four and out through your mouth for a count of six. Can you do that for us?’

Mr Adams nodded, still fighting for breath.

‘Can you count for us now, Lulu?’ Hayley asked. ‘Four in, then six out. Count with me for the first set so we can get the rhythm right together. One, two, three, four...’

Mrs Adams joined in with counting.

Sam took the older man’s hand to reassure him. ‘OK. Breathe in—now out.’ Breathing to the counts would slow Milton’s breathing down, making it easier for him.

‘Purse your lips as you breathe out, Milton,’ Hayley said. ‘That helps to slow your breathing and keeps your airways open. That’s it. Keep going. You’re both doing really great.’

Mr Adams was still wheezing, but his colour was improving. ‘Can you place one hand on your stomach, Milton, just below your ribcage?’ Sam asked. ‘Then, when you breathe in, focus on pulling down into your stomach. Use your stomach muscles to help you push out,’ he said. ‘It’s called diaphragmatic breathing and it will really help you take deep, slow breaths.’

Eventually, Mr Adams’s breathing pattern settled and he seemed noticeably calmer.

Sam caught Hayley’s eye. ‘Shall we all go downstairs, so we’re away from the cold air?’

She nodded. ‘And we can ask the crew if they’ll sort out a bowl of hot water and lend us a towel.’

‘Good call,’ he said. They could make a tent with the towel and the bowl of hot water, and then Milton Adams could breathe in the moist air to help him recover.

Everyone else on board was on the upper decks by the railings, watching what sounded like a couple of whales playing in the water, so it made their passage down the stairs a bit easier—even if they were missing out on all the fun. They supported Milton Adams down the steep staircase to the inner deck, but he was wheezing badly again by the time they’d got him sitting down by a table.

‘Could you get your husband a cup of coffee from the bar, please?’ Hayley asked Mrs Adams.

‘He doesn’t like coffee,’ Mrs Adams said. ‘Or tea. Only hot chocolate.’

‘Maybe make the coffee milky and sweet?’ Hayley suggested. ‘The chemical structure of coffee is similar to theophylline, which is in most asthma medications, so a hot cup of coffee can help with wheezing, shortness of breath and chest tightness. Plus the warmth of the liquid will help break up the phlegm and mucus, making breathing easier.’

‘I’ll drink the coffee,’ Mr Adams wheezed.

‘Great. Are you OK to sit with Milton while I sort out a towel and hot water?’ Hayley asked Sam.