One Season And Dynasties Collection

Cassidy just wasn’t sure. And finding the letters and photographs made her even less sure. She’d thought she’d known everything about her gran. Turned out she hadn’t. And now she’d no way of picking up those lost strands of her life.

She heaved a sigh and looked out over the garden again. She was going to have to sort this out for herself.

30 November

Brad came rushing into the restaurant ten minutes late, with his tie skewed to one side and his top button still undone. ‘I’m so sorry,’ he gasped as he sat down opposite her. ‘There was a last-minute admission just before I left, and Luca was at a cardiac arrest so I couldn’t leave.’

Cassidy gave him a smile and lifted her glass of wine towards him. ‘No worries, Brad, I started without you.’

He reached over and pulled the bottle of wine from the cooler at the side of the table and filled his glass. She leaned across the table. ‘Here, let me,’ she said as her deft fingers did up his top button and straightened his tie.

She didn’t care that he’d been late. His conscientiousness at work was one of the reasons she liked him so much.

He raised his glass to her. ‘Cheers.’ The glasses clinked together and Cassidy relaxed back into her chair.

Brad ducked under the table. ‘Here, I bought you something.’ He handed a plastic bag over to Cassidy.

She raised her eyebrows. ‘Did you wrap it yourself?’ she quipped.

‘Ha, ha. Just look and see what it is.’

Cassidy peeked inside the plastic bag and gingerly put her hand inside—all she could see was a mixture of red and green felt. She pulled out her present and felt a mixture of surprise and a tiny bit of disappointment. It was an advent calendar, the fabric kind with pockets for each of the twenty-four days. The kind she’d told Brad she didn’t like.

She looked over at him and he gave her a beaming smile. ‘I thought in the spirit of making some nice Christmas memories I would try and convert you.’

She wrinkled her nose. ‘Convert me? Why?’

He shrugged. ‘You like the paper-type advent calendar. I always had one of these in Australia that my mum made for me. She used to put something in the pockets for only a few days at a time because she knew I would have looked ahead otherwise.’ He touched the first few pockets and she heard a rustling sound. ‘And they’re not all chocolates.’

She nodded and gave him a smile. ‘So, you’re trying to convert me, are you? Well, I’m willing to give it a go. But how do you plan on filling up the other pockets?’

There it was. That little twinkle in his eye as he took a sip of his wine. ‘That’s the thing. If you want your calendar filled, you’ll have to keep letting me into your flat. In fact, I’ll need unlimited access.’

She loved the way his smile stretched from ear to ear. The restaurant was dim, with subdued lighting and flickering candlelight. His eyes seemed even bluer than normal, their colour amplified as they reflected off his pale blue shirt.

‘Did you plan this just so you could get into my flat?’

He shook his head, his face becoming a little more serious. ‘I just think you’ve been a little quiet these past few days. As if something was on your mind.’ His fingers reached across the table and intertwined with hers. ‘I’m just trying to find a way to stay in your life.’

She felt shocked by the openness and honesty of his words. She kept her gaze stuck on the advent calendar as she tried to think of what to say. Things had been a little unsettled between them.

‘I’m just a little unsure of what’s happening between us,’ she started slowly. She lifted her eyes. ‘I like you, Brad.’

‘And I like you, too, Cassidy. You know that.’

He wasn’t making this any easier. It was hard enough, trying to get the words out. His fingers were tracing little circles on the palm of her hand. Just like he did after they’d made love together.

‘I’m just worried that I’m getting in too deep and before we know it you’ll be gone.’

His brow creased. ‘Why would you think that?’

She pulled her hand away from his. It was too distracting. ‘I don’t know. I just think that I’m from Scotland, you’re from Australia …’ She threw her hands up in frustration, then levelled her gaze at him. ‘I know you don’t want to stay here and I don’t want to move away. So where does that leave us?’

She could feel tears nestling behind her eyes. That was the last thing she wanted to happen. She didn’t want to cry.

Her mind was flooded with thoughts of her gran. Truth was, she would never find out what happened between her gran and Peter Johnson. Maybe it had only been a wartime fling, with no substance behind it. Or maybe her gran had given up the chance of a lifetime to go and live abroad with the man who’d made her face sparkle.

What Cassidy would never know was whether her gran regretted her decisions. If she could go back, would she do something different?

Was she about to make the same mistake?

Brad reached back over and took her hand again. ‘Cassidy, I have no idea what’s going to happen. All I know is I love spending time with you and I don’t want it to end. I’ve no idea what will happen in the next few years—I’ve been offered an extension to my job here for another six months, and I’ve decided to take it. You know I’m not going to stop looking for my daughter. Is that what this is all about? Melody?’

Cassidy shook her head. ‘No, it’s not about Melody.’ Then she hesitated. ‘But I don’t know what to think about all that. At the end of the day, Brad, we could continue to have a relationship for the next few months and then you could get a call one day about Melody and just disappear. I don’t think I could handle that.’

And there it was, staring him in the face. All the while he was practically telling her she was bullheaded and stubborn, her biggest vulnerability lay on the table between them. Abandonment.

He’d sensed it in her for a while. When she’d mentioned her ex-fiancé, her parents or her ill grandmother. That fear of being alone.

He shook his head, the expression on his face pained. ‘Remember, Cassidy, I’ve been on the other side of this fence. I’ve had someone disappear out of my life with no warning. And I know how much it hurts. I would never do that to another human being.’

She could tell her words had stung, and she hadn’t meant them to. It was just so difficult to describe the mishmash of emotions in her head. Even she couldn’t understand them, so how could she expect Brad to?

The waiter appeared at their side with some menus, and Cassidy pulled her hand from Brad’s to take one. Her eyes ran up and down the menu quickly before Brad lifted it from her hands.

‘Don’t tell me, you’ll have the mushrooms and the chicken.’

Cassidy groaned. ‘Don’t tell me I’m that predictable.’ She grabbed the menu back and ran her eyes along the text again with a sinking realisation that Brad was right. She did always have the mushrooms and the chicken. The only time she ever deviated was if neither was on the menu.

He leaned forward, giving her that smile again. ‘Why don’t you surprise us both and pick something totally different? In fact, close your eyes and just point at something and order that.’

Cassidy shivered. ‘Yuck.’ Even the thought of doing that was too much for her. Imagine if she ended up with something she didn’t like—or never ate? That would be hideous. ‘I can’t do that, Brad, I might get seaweed or fillet steak.’

His eyes gleamed as he did a pretend shudder.

‘Mmm, and that would be awful, wouldn’t it? Take this as a test, Cassidy.’

‘A test for what?’

He folded his napkin in his lap, as if he was choosing his words carefully. ‘For a thoroughly modern woman, you can be pretty closed-minded about some things.’

An uncomfortable feeling crept down her spine. ‘What do you mean?’

‘You can have some pretty fixed ideas.’

Cassidy shook her head. ‘I just know my own mind. There’s nothing wrong with that.’

He paused. ‘I didn’t say there was. But sometimes you make your mind up about things without looking at the whole picture.’

Cassidy was feeling rattled now and a little irritated. So much for a romantic dinner. ‘What do you mean exactly?’

He licked his lips and she saw him take a deep breath. There was something different in his eyes. The normal laid-back look was gone. ‘What I mean, Cassidy, is that you’ve written me—and others—off with no thought or regard for our feelings, just because we live in a different country. Now, if you’d been abroad and stayed there for a while and didn’t enjoy it, it might seem a reasonable conclusion to have come to. But you haven’t. You’ve never done it. You’ve never even tried. And what’s more—you won’t even consider it.’

He looked frustrated by her, angry even, and she felt a tight feeling spread across her chest. Not even Bobby, her Spanish fiancé, had called her like this. She’d just refused to go with him and that had been that. He hadn’t questioned her reasoning behind her decision. He hadn’t made her question her reasoning behind the decision.

But Brad hadn’t finished. He was on a roll. ‘It’s the same with your menu choices and your Christmas traditions.’ He leaned over and picked up the advent calendar. ‘You say you only like the picture calendars but you’ve never even tried one of these, have you?’ She saw his shoulders sag, tension easing out of them, and the tone of his voice altered.

‘All I’m trying to do is get you to look outside your box. To look at the world that surrounds you and open your mind to other ideas, other experiences, other …’ he paused before ending ‘… possibilities.’

He was holding his breath, waiting to see what she would say. She should stop, she should think and ponder what he was saying to her and why. But Cassidy went with her first instinct. She was mad.

She flung her napkin on the table. ‘So why are you bothering with me, Brad? You don’t date someone with the idea of changing them. You date someone because you like them the way they are, not the way you want them to be.’ She spat the words at him.

‘I’m not trying to change you. I like you, everything about you. But if we have any hope of a future together, you’re going to have to learn to bend a little.’

‘Meaning what?’

‘Meaning that I would love to promise to stay with you in Scotland for the next thirty years, but what if I do get that call about my daughter? What if I do need to go to the States? That’s it for us? Just like that—because you won’t even consider any other possibility?’

He made it all sound so unreasonable. So closed-minded. But inside she didn’t feel like that.

‘Or what if I get a great opportunity to work in another country? You won’t even consider coming with me? Because you can’t leave Scotland?’

‘But my gran, I can’t leave my gran.’ It was the first thing that sprang to mind. The first brick in her feeble wall of defence.

Brad shook his head. ‘I’m not asking you to leave your gran, Cassidy. Even though you know she’s somewhere she’s been taken care of. I’m just trying to see if you’ll at least consider the possibility.’

Silence hung in the air between them. Her temper had dissipated as quickly as it had arisen.

He was making sense. Inside she knew he was making sense. But to admit it made her seem so petty.

The waiter appeared at their side again. ‘Are you ready to order?’

Cassidy didn’t even glance at the menu, she just thrust it back at the waiter. ‘I’ll have the chilli prawns and the Cajun salmon,’ she said as she looked Brad square in the eye.

She could see the pulse at the side of his neck flickering furiously. How long had he been holding all this in? Chances were he’d been waiting to say this to her for the last few weeks. And he was right.

Although there was no way she was going to admit it right now.

Tiny little thoughts of Australia had started to penetrate her brain. Little sparks, curiosity and wonder had been creeping in over the last few weeks. Would she like it there? What would it be like to be in a different country for more than a two-week holiday?

It wasn’t as if she’d never left the sunny shores of Scotland. She’d been all over the world—Spain, Italy, the US, even the Bahamas. But only for two weeks at a time. And by the time the plane had hit the tarmac back at Glasgow Airport, she’d always been glad to get back home.

But she had lots of friends who’d gone to other countries to work. The most popular place lately had been Dubai. Five of the nurses she’d worked with in Glasgow City Hospital had all upped sticks and gone to work there. All of them loved it and most had no intention of coming back to Glasgow. Two other members of staff had gone to work for aid organisations—one to Africa and one to Médecins Sans Frontières.

Why was she so different? Why had she never wanted to go and work somewhere else? Why did she feel as if her roots were firmly planted in Scottish soil?

Brad lifted the wine bottle and topped up her glass. She hadn’t even heard what he’d ordered. She only hoped it was chicken so she could swap her salmon for it.

He lifted his glass to her. ‘So, what do you say, Cassidy? Can we raise a toast to trying new things?’

She swallowed hard, her fingers brushing the tiny pockets of the advent calendar on the table in front of her. This couldn’t be too hard. She could try this, couldn’t she?

He was staring across the table at her, with those big blue eyes, tanned skin and perfect smile. Everything about him made her stomach still lurch. She’d never felt like this before. Could she honestly just walk away?

This had to be worth fighting for.

CHAPTER EIGHT

4 December

CASSIDY woke up with a smile on her face. She glanced at the calendar hanging on her wall. Maybe embracing new change wasn’t such a bad thing.

Brad’s gifts had proved personal and thoughtful. She’d found an orange Belgian chocolate in the first pocket—one that she’d remarked on that night at the George Square market. For once she hadn’t been instantly offended by the thought of a chocolate-filled calendar.

Next had been a tiny green sequin Christmas tree complete with red string, and in the third pocket she’d found a sprig of mistletoe.

It only took her seconds to push her feet into her red slippers and wrap her dressing gown around her shoulders. Brad had been on call again last night, so she hadn’t seen him.

Her brow wrinkled. Pocket number four looked distinctly flat—maybe he hadn’t had time to put something in there yet? She flicked the switch on the kettle and pulled a cup from the cupboard, before finally touching the pocket. There was a faint rustling noise. She pulled a piece of paper from the pocket and unfolded it.

It said, ‘Look under the tree—not everything can fit in these tiny pockets!’

She left the kettle boiling and walked through to her living room. There, under the tree he’d helped her decorate a few days before, was a red, glistening parcel. She couldn’t wipe the smile from her face as she unwrapped the paper. It was a book. But not just any book. It was the latest thriller from her favourite Glasgow author—one she’d been meaning to buy herself.

Cassidy sagged back against the cushions on her sofa. Yet another thoughtful gift. One that meant something to her. Picked up from a chance conversation they’d had in the middle of the night on one shift.

She looked out at the overcast sky. It was going to be another miserable day. Time to wrap up warmly and head up the frosty hill to the hospital. She heard a noise at her door—a key turning in the lock and a whoosh of cold air blasting across the room.

‘Brad, what are you doing here?’

Brad was barely recognisable among the layers of clothing he was wearing. All she could really see clearly were his blue eyes peering out from the balaclava-type headwear he’d started wearing to protect himself from the cold. He was brandishing some cups. ‘A skinny caramel latte for my favourite woman.’

She smiled. ‘I’d hug you, but you’re too cold.’

He sat down next to her, hands clenched around his cup. ‘I’d take off my jacket but let me heat up first. It’s Baltic out there.’

She laughed. ‘So, you’re finally connecting with our language. That’s something I would normally say—not you.’

He nudged her. ‘You must be rubbing off on me.’ He bent over, his cold nose brushing against her, and she let out a squeal.

‘Get away, ice man!’ He wrapped his arms around her, trapping her on the sofa.

‘This is an emergency. I need some body heat. I can’t take these cold winters!’

She pretended to squirm as he held her tight. ‘Drink your coffee. That will heat you up.’

‘I can think of a better way to heat up,’ he whispered as he grabbed her hand and led her back through to her warm bed.

10 December

Today she had a magic wand. Pocket ten had held another little note that had led her to find it wrapped in silver paper, balanced on the branches of the tree.

He’d asked her favourite film character the other night and she’d declared she’d always wanted to be Glinda, the good witch of the north, from The Wizard of Oz. So he’d bought her a magic wand. And right now she really wanted to wave it above her medical receiving unit.

In the last twenty-four hours every single one of the thirty beds in the unit had been emptied and refilled. Patients were never supposed to stay in the medical receiving unit. Patients were supposed to be assessed and transferred to one of the other wards, but the current rate of transfer was ridiculous, for both the staff and the patients.

She replaced the phone receiver. Her staff was run ragged. The bed manager was getting snarky—she had patients in A and E waiting to be admitted. The normally pristine ward looked chaotic. There were a few random patient belonging bags sitting at the nurses’ station, obviously misplaced or forgotten in the preceding few hours. And as for the ward clerk—she’d disappeared in tears five minutes ago.

Cassidy took a deep breath. This was the story of Scottish hospitals in the middle of an icy winter. It was only eight o’clock in the morning. She had to take control of this situation. Something was going to give. And she didn’t want it to be her—or her staff.

She lifted her hands above her head. ‘Everyone, stop!’

For a second there was silence. Cassidy never raised her voice on the ward and her staff looked startled. A few heads stuck out from doors down the corridor.

‘Everyone …’ she gestured her hands towards the desk ‘… come here. This will take five minutes.’

Her bewildered staff walked towards the nursing station. Some were carrying electronic nursing notes, some bed linen and towels.

Cassidy waited until they’d all assembled. One of the phlebotomists and ECG technicians appeared, too. She took another deep breath.

‘Everyone, let’s calm down. I want you all to take a deep breath and tell me calmly what help you need.’ She laid one hand on the desk. ‘I can tell you that right now, no matter what the bed manager says, we will not move another patient until after lunchtime today. We need time to assess these patients properly.’

She gestured to the bags on the floor. ‘We need to make sure that patients’ belongings don’t go astray.’ She lowered her voice. ‘More importantly, I need my team to know that they do a good job.’

She could see the visible calm descending on the ward as the rumble of the meal trolley could be heard approaching. ‘What about the patients in A and E?’ asked one of the younger staff nurses.

Cassidy shook her head. ‘A and E is full of competent nursing staff. They are more than capable of starting the assessments for their patients. I’m going to phone them now and tell them to arrange breakfast and lunch for those patients. They won’t be moving any more up here until after lunchtime.’

A number of shoulders relaxed around her.

‘What about the bed manager?’

Cassidy smiled. ‘Let me deal with her. Now …’ she looked over at the staff surrounding her ‘… Fiona and Claire, go for your tea break. Michael …’ she nodded to the tall, dark-haired nurse beside her ‘… you start the drug round. Linda and Ann, you help Joanne, the domestic, with the breakfasts.’ The two auxiliaries scurried off, glad to have a simple task to perform.

Cassidy noticed Janice, the ward clerk, sniffing at her side. ‘What’s wrong, Janice?’

‘It’s the off-duty. It was supposed to be in for yesterday. But there’s still a few shifts that need to be covered.’

Cassidy’s eyes swept over the blank spaces in the book. Her brain shifted into gear. One of her senior staff nurses had asked if she could start taking over the off-duty rota. And she’d made an absolute mess of it, something Cassidy would have to deal with at a later date.

Just what she would have expected. One short for the night shift on Christmas Eve. The same thing happened every year without fail.

Her mind drifted back to the night at smelly-cat-woman’s house. She almost cringed as she remembered she’d offered to do the night shift if she was a Christmas bride.

She could almost laugh out loud. Although the thought didn’t seem anything like as ridiculous as it had before.

Things between her and Brad were good—better than good. Her brain had started to rationalise things for her. Australia was one day away. All twenty-four hours of one day, but still only one day away from Scotland.

The more stories he told her about his life there, the more curious she became. But something else was becoming clearer to her. Just like it had when Brad had naturally came home to her flat the other day after his shift had finished.

She wanted to see him all the time. She wanted to be with him all the time. If he was on call and she didn’t see him one day, she missed him. Something that had hit her like a bolt out of the blue.

Cassidy had spent the last two years living life on her own. Her gran’s memory had deteriorated to the point she didn’t recognise Cassidy, and it had left her feeling even more alone than before. She rarely heard from her parents. But all of sudden it felt as if she had family again.

And having Brad around just felt so right.

She didn’t expect to be a Christmas bride, but she did expect to have Brad in her future.

She pointed. ‘Swap these two around. Lorna prefers her night shifts together. And I’ll cover the night shift on Christmas Eve. Okay?’

‘Are you sure?’ The clerk was looking at her through red-rimmed eyes.

She gave her shoulder a squeeze. ‘Yes, I’m sure. Now, just send it in and go make yourself a cup of tea.’

She went through to her office and made an uncomfortable call to the bed manager then walked quickly through the ward, helping the auxiliaries sit some patients up in bed for breakfast and helping another few patients into chairs. Luca appeared at her side and started reviewing some of the patients who had been admitted overnight. He gave her a smile. ‘I hear you’re leading a revolt up here this morning.’

She nodded. ‘Happy to join in?’

‘Absolutely. I feel as if I hardly got to see some of these patients in A and E.’

‘It was the same for my staff. We weren’t getting the chance to assess the patients properly before we sent them on.’ She looked up and down the length of the ward, which seemed much calmer. ‘I’m not allowing that to happen. We have a duty of care to these patients and I won’t compromise.’

‘Tell that to the bed manager.’

‘I just did.’ She shrugged her shoulders. ‘Although she hates me right now, first and foremost she is a nurse, so she does understand the issues.’

The phone started ringing again, and since she’d sent the ward clerk off for tea, Cassidy leaned forward and picked it up. ‘Medical receiving unit, Sister Rae speaking. Can I help you?’