The Billionaire's Christmas Wish Read online

  Wasted time can’t be recaptured. Hadn’t she just said that not very long ago? Yes, and it was true. It couldn’t.

  Neither could lost opportunities.

  She straightened her backbone. So she needed to do something about it. Needed to work faster. Harder.

  Theo led the way from the room and handed her the rest of the cards. “I gather there was a reason for that. Quite clever, actually.”

  It took her a few seconds to realize he hadn’t read her thoughts but was talking about the game.

  She drew a careful breath, trying to tamp down the chaotic emotions that had been racing through her a few seconds ago. “I wondered if you would figure it out.”

  “Only after I caught those eagle eyes studying Ivy as she played. After the third or fourth time it hit me that you were monitoring her.” He sighed. “She’s getting tired more quickly.”

  “Yes.”

  “What else?”

  “Theo...”

  He shook his head. “I want to know.”

  And he deserved to. She just didn’t want to be the one to tell him. But she owed it to him to be honest.

  “Her arms have developed a tremor when holding them in front of her.” Muscle wasting from lack of use. The problem was, no one had any idea what was causing them to atrophy. “By the time we were ready to leave the room she was completely spent. I have a feeling she forced herself to keep going. For you.”

  “Hell.”

  Theo put his hands behind his neck and stretched his arms out to the side. A pop sounded in one of his joints, the sharp sound making her flinch slightly.

  “Sorry. Bad habit.”

  She could understand that. She had her little quirks as well. But they were more along the lines of insomnia when she was dealing with a puzzling case. She’d had more than her share of nights doodling symptoms on a whiteboard and looking for something that would ring a bell. Ivy’s symptoms were plastered on a board she’d propped in the dining room of her apartment. And she had definitely spent more than one sleepless night searching for a clue.

  “Her treatment team wants to do more blood tests,” he said.

  “I know. I asked that the report be sent down. The list of what it’s not is growing longer, which is good in that the list of what it could be is getting shorter.”

  “Is it?” His arms went back to his sides. “How long can she go on like this? At some point it’s going to reach a point of no return.”

  Hadn’t she thought something very similar moments earlier?

  Fighting through the catch in her throat, she turned toward him, wrapping her fingers tightly around his wrist. She wasn’t sure if she was clutching him to reassure herself or to lend weight to what she was about to say.

  “Hey. We’re not there yet. She’s still breathing.” Not the best way to word it. She hurried to add, “The weakness is only in her limbs and hips at the moment.”

  “Thank God for that.” The second he reached up to cover her hand with his, she knew touching him had been a big mistake. The heat from his skin was electric, unseen calluses scraping across her nerve endings and bringing them to life.

  She should move. Tug her hand free. But since she’d initiated the contact, she had no one to blame but herself.

  “I’ll take as many of those ‘at the moments’ as I can get,” he murmured. “Until we can figure this out.”

  The hallway was completely empty. There were fewer people staying in this section over the holidays, since everyone who could go home to be with their families did.

  Ivy could probably have a great team of caregivers if she went home as well, but Theo wanted her here. Near him. They had an amazing bond. One she’d never had, growing up.

  A tightness in her chest warned her that her emotions were venturing far too close to the surface.

  She glanced up and caught him staring at her. She wanted to promise him miracles and happy endings and anything else he was looking for. But she couldn’t. “Sometimes we just have to do our living in those moments.”

  “Yes. I agree.”

  The seconds stretched into minutes. Neither of them moved. Until—real or imagined—his thumb brushed the back of her hand.

  Her body erupted instantly, nipples drawing tight inside her thin bra. God, she hoped he couldn’t see them. Hoped he couldn’t—

  “Madison...”

  A sharp ping! signaled the arrival of the elevator. Jerking free, she took a hurried step back. Then another, struggling to catch her breath.

  She needed to escape while she could. “I’ll see you tomorrow for our meeting.”

  “And another game of cards?”

  “Cards?” Her brain was a huge mudslide of buried thoughts and emotions at the moment, and so it took her a second for the words to make sense. “Oh. You don’t have to be here for that, if you don’t want to.”

  The less contact she had with him the better. At least it was looking that way. What had she been thinking?

  She hadn’t been.

  Evidently neither had he, if his response to her living-in-those-moments comment was any indication. It had certainly veered away from the professional and into the personal.

  Her lack of dating life had shown its ugly face. She’d lapped up the attention like a lovesick teenager.

  “I’d like to be, if it’s okay. It gives me a chance to measure her abilities as well.”

  Two people stepped off the elevator, one of them giving Theo a wave that asked him to wait before heading toward them.

  Madison did not want to hang around. Her face was already burning. Someone was sure to notice, since she had the worst poker face in history. Theo seemed to be thinking the same thing. “I’ll see you tomorrow. Call me when you know a time.”

  “Okay.”

  And with that, she fled down the hall in the opposite direction of the approaching staff members. It would take her longer to get back to her little cubicle this way, but she didn’t care. Right now, all she was worried about was how she was going to face Ivy’s father tomorrow. Or keep herself from doing something else stupid. Like hurtling down a road that led from professional courtesy toward unprofessional crush.

  CHAPTER THREE

  “WE WOULD LIKE to congratulate Naomi Collins on moving in with Finn Morgan. He is one lucky devil.”

  Madison, who’d been talking to Naomi about Ivy, saw the woman’s eyes widen in surprise as the voice continued over the hospital PA system.

  “Oh, my God,” the physical therapist muttered. “Is that Finn?”

  Madison’s lips curled in a smile. She knew Finn and Naomi were an item, but had had no idea their relationship had progressed to this point. “It certainly sounds like him.”

  “He said he wanted to keep it under wraps.”

  That made her laugh. “Well, he’s evidently changed his mind.”

  “So it would appear. That man has some explaining to do.” Naomi didn’t sound angry, though. She sounded...in love. Completely and madly in love.

  And the fact that Finn was announcing to the world that they had moved in together? It was dreamy in a way Madison had never experienced. The quick fumbling in the back of her prom date’s car had been anything but a dream. It had left her feeling empty and confused. And the guy had never called her for another date, something that had hurt almost as much as her mother’s abandonment. She’d been wary of relationships ever since.

  So why was Theo affecting her the way he was?

  She glanced at Naomi. She didn’t seem empty. Or confused. She seemed very, very sure of what she wanted. And what she wanted was Finn.

  And that, my dear, was love. The kind that real dreams were made of. The kind she’d never found.

  “Congratulations, honey.” She gave her new friend a quick hug. “If anyone deserves this, you do.”

  Naomi
waved a hand in front of her face. “Stop or you’ll make me cry. Or he’ll make me cry. Or someone will.”

  “I’d go find him if I were you, before he adds to his story and says something really embarrassing.”

  “Good idea.” She gave Madison’s arm a quick squeeze. “Can we continue this another time?”

  “Of course. Go.”

  With that, Naomi hurried down the corridor in the direction of the elevators.

  Madison watched her go until she disappeared into a small group of people.

  What would it be like to find someone like Finn and settle down?

  She wasn’t likely to ever settle down, wasn’t sure she even knew how to stay in one place longer than a few months or a year. Even her job changed repeatedly. Well, not the job itself. Just where she practiced it. She seemed to gravitate toward the hardest of the hard cases. Her last hospital had been different in that regard. She’d been there for two years. And now she wasn’t. But she’d left there expecting to go back. Hadn’t she?

  Or had coming to England put something into motion that felt both familiar and unsettling? Like pulling up her tent stakes and wandering to a new city with new faces and new challenges.

  Was she really bored so easily?

  Or was she too afraid to get attached, expecting what was familiar to be yanked away from her at any moment?

  Like her prom date? Or her mother’s love? Or all those foster homes she’d lived in?

  One thing was for sure. No one would be announcing she’d moved in with them over a hospital intercom. She’d made sure of it.

  The universe had tricked her one too many times. She no longer wanted to play the relationship version of Go Fish. There was no card out there that matched hers.

  She swallowed, not liking her train of thought. She was single because she chose to be single, not for any other reason. She certainly didn’t need to be looking for wisdom in a child’s card game. Time to go back to her little cubicle and lose herself in Ivy’s case or someone else’s.

  Once there, she sat behind the desk and opened the drawer that contained the little notebook she was using for Ivy. Flipping open the cover, she saw that infamous list again. Her pen paused in front of the first item and stared at it for a moment or two. Then she drew two straight slash lines underneath the words Make Daddy like Christmas.

  Maybe while Santa was at it he could figure out why she had just as much of a problem with this season as Theo did. Maybe even more. But until then, she would just keep chugging along until all the baubles, trees and Go Fish games were packed away and life became normal again.

  * * *

  Theo pushed off the couch in his office and dragged his hand through his hair, trying to bring to mind the positive affirmation the hospital chaplain was always going on about. What was it?

  Today was a new day, with new hope and new possibilities. Don’t dwell on days past.

  Which day was that? The day when Hope had died, taking joy and love with her? Or the more recent one where he’d put his hand over that of another woman for the first time in a very long time?

  Madison had done something his late wife had loved to do to get his attention when confronting an important matter. She would wrap her fingers around his wrist and grip it tightly. The second the diagnostician had done that it had triggered an automatic response. Only it hadn’t been his wife’s hand his had reached to cover. It had been Madison’s. And within seconds Theo had been acutely aware that he wasn’t touching a ghost but flesh and blood. She was warm and alive, her touch reaching inside him and coaxing something to life. Something he’d thought long dead.

  His gaze had scoured Madison’s face, looking for something. Her cheeks had blushed bright red, something Hope’s had never done. And Theo had liked it, had found his attention drifting toward her lips. And then he’d said something stupid. And when her blush had deepened, he’d known he was going to kiss her.

  The sudden arrival of the elevator had broken the spell.

  Thank God.

  He and Hope had been colleagues as well as lovers. And good friends. And she’d put her career on hold for him, something he now regretted bitterly. He didn’t regret Ivy’s birth. Or the hospital’s founding—Hope had been just as excited about that as he’d been.

  No, he regretted neglecting her. Putting both of their lives on pause while he’d pursued his dream. And, yes, the hospital did good work. But had it been worth sacrificing a part of his life he could never get back?

  He would never know.

  What if Madison decided to leave the hospital because of what he’d done? He’d taken a friendly gesture on her part and read something into it. Or had he? Either way, he’d turned it into something more.

  He couldn’t afford to have her pack up and take off. Even though she hadn’t come up with a solution to whatever was happening with Ivy, he had a feeling that she would. Or at the very least she would put them on the right track. And if he’d ruined that out of some maudlin trip down memory lane...

  No, it had been more than that. Within seconds of touching her he’d been acutely aware that it had been Madison he’d been touching and not Hope. And hadn’t wanted to break that contact. Had wanted it to go on.

  Was it about sex? It had been a long time since he’d been with anyone. But even if it was just a physical reaction, then of all people for that to happen with...

  He needed to find her and set things right, if possible. And if she hadn’t even been aware that sparks were igniting inside him?

  He’d just be subtle about it. Really? He wasn’t exactly known for his subtlety. Hope had often rolled her eyes at him because he pretty much said what he thought. He’d tempered that in later years, learning that to run a hospital took more than a bull-in-a-china-shop approach. So he’d learned tact. Of a sort.

  Madison was supposed to meet him to discuss Ivy’s treatment and to play cards.

  Hell, since when had his duties included playing children’s games?

  Since his daughter had become ill, that’s when. And he respected Madison’s ingenuity in assessing her condition without making Ivy uncomfortable. She’d made it fun. And he was damned glad of it.

  Hmm. Madison was supposed to set up a time to meet with him. He glanced at his watch. It was still early, just before six a.m. There was time to go down to the hospital cafeteria and grab a bite for him and Ivy and figure out his strategy. Maybe he would gauge the diagnostician’s behavior and decide whether he needed to address the issue or not.

  And if she blushed again?

  He would damn well keep his hands to himself.

  A few minutes later he was balancing a tray containing a bowl of warm porridge, fruit and a French omelet and headed back to the elevator, trying to push the button inside with an elbow.

  “Need some help?”

  He glanced up to find the very person he’d been thinking about standing just inside the doors. Not a trace of red graced her face, and her voice was as steady as the day was long. Maybe he’d overreacted. “I was just taking some breakfast up to Ivy.”

  “That’s an awful lot of food for one little girl.” Up went her brows.

  He smiled, his insides relaxing. “I was planning on joining her. Ivy hates eggs.” He nodded at his own plate, where the clear cover revealed its contents.

  “Ah, so she has the oatmeal and fruit?”

  He smiled at the American term for porridge. “Yes, she loves...um...oatmeal.”

  “She has good taste.” Madison pressed the button for the fourth floor and the elevator headed up. She didn’t push a second button.

  “Were you going to her room as well?”

  “Not until a little later, but I wanted to talk to you.”

  Oh, hell. Maybe he hadn’t overreacted. Was this where she said she was catching the next flight out?

  “Something with I
vy?”

  “No. I wanted to apologize for getting too personal outside her room.”

  It was then he realized that her voice was a little too steady and her face was not only not blushing, it was deadly pale. And her hands were clasped behind her back where he couldn’t see them.

  What kind of irony was that? He’d been worried sick about how his behavior had come across, and here she was worrying about her own.

  “I was upset and you were trying to reassure me. Nothing more. Nothing less.”

  It sounded ridiculous. And a little bit condescending. He also wasn’t happy with the fact that he hadn’t admitted to his own part in what had happened. It would be a whole lot easier to let her take the blame and leave it at that, but it didn’t sit right. It was time to set the record straight. “If anyone needs to apologize it’s me. I actually woke up this morning worried that you might have thought I was being too forward yesterday. But, again, I was upset. And concerned.”

  “I know. Really I do.” Her hands came out from behind her back, and at first he thought she was going to touch him again, and had to force himself to stand still. All she did, though, was reposition the porridge container, which had slid a little too close to the edge of the tray.

  “Thank you. I appreciate that. I wouldn’t want to do anything that would...” He gave a half-shrug.

  Her head tilted. “That would what?”

  “Make you leave the hospital.” There. He’d said it. His biggest fear was laid out for both of them to see.

  “I’m not going to leave. Not yet. So if you’re afraid I won’t help with Ivy’s case anymore, you can rest easy.” Her brows went up. “I’ve dealt with worried dads before.”

  That made him frown. “You’ve had men make passes at you before?”

  There was a moment or two of silence as she stared at him. “Is that what you were doing?”

  Hell, he hadn’t meant to say that. And he actually hadn’t got to the pass part yesterday, although it had definitely been on his mind.

  The doors to the elevator opened as he was casting around for something to say. They both stepped off and into the corridor, where Theo stopped and faced her.