and fear.
But Evie knew nothing of Naomi’s past. Having Adao here would be the biggest emotional challenge she’d faced since arriving in Britain at the ripe age of fifteen. Scared. Utterly alone.
Two things she never wanted Adao to feel.
At least he knew his family was waiting at home for him.
Naomi pinned on her bright smile—the one she ensured her patients and colleagues knew her by—and asked, “How’d you guess?”
Evie shrugged in her elfin way. She just did.
Naomi liked to think of Evie as the entire hospital’s resident Christmas faerie. She had a canny knack for intuiting things. That and a heart the size of Britain. She smiled as Evie shifted Grace on her hip, the baby who’d been abandoned at the hospital a few months ago and who was to be adopted by Evie and her soon-to-be husband, Ryan.
“I have a really ridiculous question.” Evie looked at her a bit bashfully.
“Shoot.”
“I’m not exactly sure where Kambela is.”
“Adao’s home?” Naomi knew what Evie was really asking. Is it anywhere near where you’re from? Her English, no matter how hard she tried, was still lightly accented. “It’s on the coast of Africa. Near the Horn.”
Right next door to her country. Zemara.
“Hey...is everything all right with you?”
Uh-oh. Evie’s emotional intuition radar was beep-beep-beeping like a metal detector in her direction...not so good.
“Fine! Great.” Naomi tipped her head toward the glass doors leading out of the front of the hospital and grinned. “Did you see that?”
“Violet being discharged early? Amazing. You did such good work with her.” Evie grinned and shifted Grace from one arm to the other. “Oof! This little girl’s putting on weight at a rate of knots! I’ll have ‘mom arms’ soon.”
Naomi smiled and gave the tip of the baby’s nose a tickle. Hope Hospital had hit the headlines with this little girl and would again soon with Adao...if the surgery went well and the rehab was successful. So much of recovery had to do with a patient’s will. The will to fight. The desire to survive. The stamina to confront what had happened to them head on.
She crossed her fingers behind her back for Adao, ignoring the tight twist of nerves constricting the oxygen in her lungs.
“Are you waiting for Ryan?”
Evie nodded, her smile hitting the ear-to-ear register. If a couple of red-breasted robins flew in the front door and began adorning her with mistletoe, she could easily be the poster girl for Cupid’s arrow. “He’s just come out of surgery. I’m swotting up for nursing college in the new term and he’s promised to talk me through all the signs, symptoms and early treatment for scarlet fever if I make him an early Christmas dinner.”
“Turkey and all the trimmings?” Naomi couldn’t hide her shock. She knew they were in love, but Christmas dinner on a “school night”?
“Giant prawn cocktails and pavlova.” Evie shrugged and shifted Grace in her arms again. Whatever her Australian-born fiancé wanted...
Naomi giggled. “You are well and truly loved up, aren’t you?”
Evie blushed in response. Her whole world had changed. “It’s not just me, is it? Have you seen Alice lately? Sunbeams. Everywhere she goes. And Marco can’t stop humming opera during surgery these days.” She drummed her free fingers on her chin and gave Naomi a mischievous sideways look. “I wonder who’s next?”
Naomi put up her hands and laughed. “Not me!” That ship of possibility had sailed long ago.
“Why not? You’re beautiful. Amazing at your job. You’d be a real catch.”
If cowardice was something a man could ever love, sure. But it wasn’t. Which was precisely why she kept herself just out of love’s reach.
She was just about say “Finn Morgan” to be contrary, but stopped herself. The man had scowling down to a fine art. At least around her. But the season of good cheer was upon them so she stuck to what had served her best when her past pounded at that locked door at the back of her mind: a positive attitude. “I reckon Mr. Holkham down in the cafeteria could do with a bit of a love buzz.”
Evie threw back her head and laughed. “A love buzz? I don’t know if that’s a bit too energetic for him. What is he? Around seventy?”
“I think so. I love that Theo hired retirees who wanted to keep active, but...if anyone needs a love buzz it’s him.” She made a silly face. “Anything to make him chirpier when he serves up the lasagna. Who wants garlic bread with a side of gloom?”
“Good point.”
Naomi could almost see the wheels turning in Evie’s mind...already trying to figure out who she could couple with the sweet, if not relatively forlorn, older gentleman. She’d tried to tease a smile from him every day since the hospital had opened, to no avail. Perhaps she should ask him for a coffee one day. Maybe he was just lonely. A widower.
She knew more than most that with love came loss and that’s why being cheerful, efficient and professional was her chosen modus operandi.
“Ooh, Gracie, look. It’s Daddy!” Evie took her daughter’s teensy hand and made it do a little wave as Ryan approached with a broad smile and open arms.
Naomi gave Evie’s arm a quick squeeze and smiled. “I’d better get up there.”
“All right. I’ll leave you to it, then,” Evie said distractedly, her eyes firmly fixed on her future husband.
Naomi took the stairs two at a time all the way up to the fifth floor, as she usually did. She put on the “feel good” blinkers and refocused her thoughts. She was feeling genuinely buoyed by her last session. A cheer-worthy set of results for her patient followed by a discharge. What a way to end a work day!
Watching a little girl skip—skip!—hand in hand with her parents straight out of the hospital doors and away home, where she would be able to spend Christmas with her family. A Christmas miracle for sure. Four months ago, when Violet had been helicoptered in from a near-fatal car accident, Naomi had had her doubts.
It was on days like this her job was the perfect salve to her past. Little girl power at its finest. And knowing she was playing a role in it made it that much better.
If she could keep her thoughts trained on the future, she could hopefully harness some of that same drive and determination in Adao. This was definitely not the time to let her own fears and insecurities bubble to the surface.
Then again, when was it the time?
Never. That was when.
So! Eyes on the prize and all would be well.
She hit the landing for the fifth floor and did a little twirl before pushing the door open.
Happy, happy,
