After the Christmas Party (13 page)

“You sound as if having Christmas Day off is a bad thing.” Karen grinned at her. “Enjoy yourself, spend some time with family.”

Time with family? Ha. Her only family had been her mother and she’d died several years ago from liver problems.

But Riley’s family?

“Or that good-looking man you’re dating. Now, there’s a way to spend Christmas Day. Unwrapping really great packages.” Karen waggled her brows.

Panic tightened Trinity’s throat. She glanced at the schedule again. “You’re supposed to work. Let me take your place.”

Karen looked at her as if she was crazy. “Why would you do that?”

“Because I moved here from out of state, remember? I don’t have any family. I’ll be by myself if I’m not working. I should work and you go enjoy your day with your family.”

Karen shook her head. “No way. Pay for Christmas Day is always double time and I need the extra money. I’d put in to work and was glad for the schedule change as I’m helping put my kid sister through school. Besides, I seriously doubt Dr. Williams is going to let you spend Christmas Day alone.”

Okay, so convincing Karen to swap with her wasn’t going to work. Maybe one of the other cardiac nurses would swap with her.

No such luck.

Trinity couldn’t work out why not a single one of the nurses scheduled to work on Christmas Day preferred to have the holiday itself off. Not a single one of them was willing to let her work instead of them. Unbelievable.

What was up with this hospital anyway? Didn’t they have any Christmas spirit? They were supposed to want to be at home, to be with their families, to…not be like her.

Annoyed at herself, she went into a patient room and forced a smile onto her face for Jewel’s benefit.

“Not working.”

“Huh?” she asked, confused by her patient’s immediate comment. “What’s not working?”

“That fake smile.” Jewel pursed her lips. “I take it you still haven’t found that pair of glass slippers?”

“If you recall our conversation, you’ll remember that I don’t want glass slippers. Way too impractical for a practical girl like me.”

Jewel snorted. “You can talk big all you want, but when I look at you I see the truth.”

Scary thought, but somehow she believed Jewel really did see more when she looked than most people did. As if age had given her insight beyond the surface.

“What truth would that be?”

“That you’re a romantic through and through.”

Trinity made a face then put her hand across Jewel’s wrinkled forehead as if taking her skin temperature. “Uh-oh. I think we’d better call your doctor because you’re delirious.”

“And you, my dearie, aren’t fooling this old gal. You crave romance.”

Wondering at why she sounded as out of breath as her patient, Trinity shook her head. “Wrong. Pink hightops were my dream shoes, not glass slippers. I run from romance.”

Riley paused outside Jewel’s door, fascinated by the conversation he was overhearing. Perhaps he should
feel guilty for eavesdropping, but he didn’t. He needed an edge with Trinity, something to push him in the right direction where she was concerned, because she confused him.

And frustrated him.

Since the night on the beach she’d gone right back behind her wall, and had also erected a barrier between them. A new barrier because he wasn’t convinced there had ever been a point where she hadn’t had a protective wall between them.

Except perhaps for a few moments there on the beach when she’d been touching his face. When she’d looked at him, touched him, she’d been unguarded.

He’d liked what he’d seen, what he’d felt. A lot.

He wanted that woman, that unguarded Trinity, all the time.

The one he knew was buried within her who claimed to not like Christmas, to not believe in the magic of the season. He wanted to see her laugh as she had in the surf, to let herself loose with him and just embrace life.

Not for her to beg every nurse on the schedule to let her work for them on Christmas Day so she could get out of spending the day with him.

That had almost had him losing his temper. Even now the idea that she’d do that got his hackles up. Then again, perhaps he couldn’t say a thing because he’d already ensured none of them would swap with her, and without bribery.

Just because Trinity claimed not to be a romantic, it didn’t mean the other nurses on the cardiac floor were immune to romance. When he’d told them he’d planned a Christmas surprise for Trinity, they’d all oohed and
ahhed. Yeah, the other cardiac nurses were as much suckers for romance as…as he was.

Because he wanted to give Trinity romance and lots of it. He wanted to show her what Christmas was all about.

“Why on earth would you run from romance? Especially in a pair of pink hightops?” Jewel sounded as confused by Trinity’s claim as Riley himself was.

“Because romance is all about building up expectations and making promises that won’t come true, not in the real world, so of course I run.”

That’s exactly how she described Christmas.

“Honey, like I said before—” Riley could just see Jewel’s head bobbing back and forth “—you’ve been hanging out with the wrong Prince Charming.”

Riley frowned.

She’d been hanging out with him.

Was he the wrong Prince Charming for Trinity?

For that matter, did he even want to be a Prince Charming? It wasn’t a role he’d ever envisioned for himself. He worked long hours, was dedicated to his career and would never want to do to a wife and family what his father had.

He wasn’t looking for happily-ever-after, but there was something about filling Trinity’s world with goodness and dreams come true that made him long for the ability to wave a magic wand and give her the world, to slip that glass slipper on her foot and be her Prince Charming.

“I like the man I’ve been hanging with. He’s a great guy.”

Riley’s chest puffed out a bit at her admission. Oh,
yeah. That was him she was talking about. She liked him and thought he was a great guy.

“If he’s such a great guy, where’s the glass slippers on your feet and the dreamy look in your eyes?”

Leave it to Jewel to point out the harsh reality.

Trinity laughed, the sound sparkly and warming something inside Riley.

He wanted to make her laugh that way.

“He tries, Jewel, he really, really tries, but I’m damaged goods.”

“Damaged goods?”

“Lots of baggage. Plus, Christmas isn’t my favorite time of year.”

“Not a crime, but why not?”

“Long, long story, but the most recent installment would be that my boyfriend dumped me quite publicly a couple of years ago at our hospital Christmas party. I wasn’t much on the holiday prior to that, but gave up completely at that point. Nothing merry about a day that only reminds you of bad memories.”

“Sounds to me like I was right. You have been dating the wrong Prince Charming.” Jewel made a sound that could have been her clearing her throat or could have been her faking a gag. “Let’s hope this current guy you say you like has more sense.”

“Let’s hope.”

Trinity’s voice held a dreamy quality that could only be defined as real hope. She hoped he had enough sense to be her Prince Charming? Was that it? Was he not giving her enough romance? He hadn’t really tried to be romantic, just himself. Although most men would say that cooking a candlelit dinner for her should have won him more than a few romance brownie points. He’d
done more for her than he’d ever done for any woman. Was it not enough?

Still, she’d given him food for thought.

He’d planned to go in, check Jewel and see if sending her home for the holidays was a remote possibility.

Instead, he walked away from the room wondering what one had to do to be Trinity’s Prince Charming? Her
right
Prince Charming?

And wondering why making sure he did just that was so important when he wasn’t a happily-ever-after kind of guy.

Christmas Eve. Only a few more days of this nonsense and then the world would be focused on out with the old and in with the new and how many resolutions could everyone make that they didn’t really intend to keep.

Trinity could barely wait.

Sure, so far she’d made it through the holiday season with a lot fewer tears than last year.

Actually, she hadn’t cried much at all, and she knew why.

Riley.

Since the Christmas party they’d been together pretty much non-stop and she hadn’t had time to dwell on Christmases past.

Just Christmas present.

No way would she even consider Christmas future. She had to make it through the rest of the current holiday season first.

As in, what the heck was she going to buy his family? She’d forced herself into a few shops and hadn’t found one thing that said,
Buy me because Riley’s family will love me
.

How the devil was she supposed to know what to purchase for people she’d never met? She’d considered buying everything from gourmet cheese and fruit to the latest bestseller. She’d even done several late night frantic internet searches on gifts for people one didn’t know.

Nothing had seemed just right.

She’d yet to see Riley today as the cardiology group he was a part of had closed up shop for the next two days, but she knew he’d be by at some point to check on his hospital patients. He was the kind of doctor who would do a round on his own patients rather than have the on-call doc do so.

“Hey, before you leave today, make sure you find me,” Karen said as she came around the nurses’ station. “I have a little something for you.”

“You do?” Trinity asked, thankful for the little something she’d picked up for her coworker while searching for Riley’s family something. The small gift was stuck inside a Christmas bag with Karen’s name on it inside her purse.

“Well, yeah.” Karen gave her a “duh” look. “We are friends, aren’t we?”

“Well, yeah.” She mimicked Karen’s tone, mostly to cover the odd emotion moving through her chest. Karen had gotten her a Christmas gift. And just called them friends. “But we never discussed gifts, so I didn’t expect you’d get me anything.”

“What? You didn’t get me anything? Guess that rules out that new Corvette I’ve been wanting.” Karen feigned a sigh. “There’s always next year.”

“I didn’t say I didn’t get you anything,” Trinity pointed out, “but you’re right, there’s not a Corvette sitting out in the employee parking lot with a big red
bow and your name on it. At least, if there is, I’m not the one who got it for you.”

Karen grinned. “Maybe we should check the parking lot out to see.”

They both laughed.

“So what are your Christmas Day plans?” Karen asked, but sounded as if perhaps she already knew the answer.

“Well, unless I can convince you to let me work in your place, I’ll be going with Riley to his family Christmas lunch.”

“Wow. I figured you’d be spending the day with him but a family get-together? Are you two that serious?”

Heat infused Trinity’s face. That serious. How did she answer that when she didn’t know the answer herself? “It’s just a meal.”

“When a man takes a woman with him to a family holiday meal, it’s never just anything. It’s a big deal.”

“Maybe he just felt sorry for me because I’m new in town.” Yet another reason why she didn’t want to go. She didn’t want his pity.

“Are you kidding me? I have seen the way that man looks at you. He is smitten.”

Which sounded good but also a little too good to be true. She kept expecting him to snap out of whatever spell he’d fallen under. Then where would she be? Lost.

“What are you wearing?”

Trinity shrugged. She hadn’t even thought about what she’d wear. What was wrong with her? She should have thought about it. Only she was so used to just wearing hospital scrubs that she didn’t give much thought to anything else.

Laughing, Karen shook her head. “Okay, so you’ve
no clue what you’re wearing. How about gifts for Riley’s family?”

If her face had been hot moments before it was deathly cold now.

“I wish I knew. I’ve been searching for something from the moment I realized I was going to have to go to this dinner, but what do you buy for people you’ve never met?”

Karen paused a moment then shrugged. “Nothing big or fancy, just some token of appreciation that says thank you for including me and, no, I’m not a total loser that your son’s dragged home to meet you.”

“Maybe I am a total loser when it comes to Christmas, because I don’t have gifts for them and don’t know what to buy.”

Karen looked thoughtful then waggled her brows. “Anything at home you can re-gift?”

Re-gift? As in give away something that someone had given her once upon a time? That would be assuming that she’d received gifts over the years. She rarely had.

She winced and met her friend’s gaze. “What am I going to do? I’m running out of time. Tonight, after work, is the last chance I have.”

Shaking her head in mock sympathy, Karen laughed. “I guess you are going to join the throng of last-minute shoppers who are hitting the stores the minute they get off work tonight and pick something from whatever is left on the sales rack.”

Trinity closed her eyes.

Go shopping for Christmas gifts on Christmas Eve.

Oh, joy to the world.

CHAPTER TEN

R
ILEY HAD PLANNED
to spend Christmas Eve with Trinity, but obviously she’d had other ideas because when he’d asked her to come over for dinner, she’d refused.

Something she hadn’t done for a while so she’d caught him off guard. He’d just assumed they’d spend Christmas Eve evening together and hadn’t even considered any other possibility.

He paced across his deck, staring out at the sea. The wind was up a bit and held a chill. The waves crashed noisily against the beach, the pounding sound matching his mood.

What if Trinity refused to go with him tomorrow? What if she refused to see him on Christmas Day, period?

What kind of glass-slipper-wielding Prince Charming could he be if she wouldn’t even let him have a go at her feet?

Besides which, he wasn’t quite sure how he was going to pull off everything he had planned. His sports utility vehicle was packed to the brim with what he’d planned to give her, but the reality was that he might have put a whole lot of effort into something he wouldn’t even be able to pull off. It wasn’t as if she even had a
chimney for him to shoot down. Besides, breaking and entering with her asleep in her bedroom seemed a little too stalker-ish.