Expecting a Christmas Miracle by Laura Iding Read Free Book Online Page A

crazy sitting at home.”
    He nodded, barely refraining from pointing out she didn’t have to be at her apartment all alone. He’d wanted her with him.
    “Who wants to cover the trauma room?” Susan asked.
    “I will,” Alyssa volunteered. She smiled at the new nurse, Maureen, who was learning the ropes. “Maureen can work with me.”
    “Okay, I’ll put you guys down as first trauma coverage.” Susan scribbled on her clipboard.
    “Did you see the full moon out there?” Alyssa said to Susan and Maureen. “It was so beautiful.”
    “Yeah, beautiful.” Susan let out a loud snort. “You know what a full moon means—more work for us. The crazies will be out in full force.”
    “Is that really true?” Maureen asked with wide eyes.
    “You bet,” Susan said. She turned to Alyssa. “Remember last month, Alyssa? When the police brought us that guy who’d stripped down to his bare butt while standing right in the middle of Main Street? Like, what were we supposed to do with him? Other than put his clothes back on.” Susan rolled her eyes at the memory.
    Alyssa nodded and let out a chuckle. “Yeah, he was a strange one all right.”
    Jadon clenched his jaw at their slightly derogatory tone. He wanted to snap at them to shut up because obviously people couldn’t help having emotional illnesses, but he also knew they didn’t mean any harm. Alyssa and Susan were excellent nurses.
    He was just being overly sensitive. He turned away, to focus his attention on the two patients who were still waiting to be transferred up to inpatient floor beds. He needed to make sure these patients were placed before new ones began to arrive.
    They received their first trauma call about thirty minutes later, a car versus tree. The driver was a young man who luckily didn’t have severe injuries. Jadon and Alyssa fell into a familiar rhythm, working together as if he’d never left. When she handed him a chest tube insertion tray, the slightest brush of her fingers sent an unexpected yet familiar tingle of awareness zipping through his system.
    “Thanks,” he managed.
    The way she avoided his direct gaze convinced him she might have felt it, too. This sizzling attraction had drawn them irrevocably together the first time they’d met. Tonight was proof the passing of time hadn’t lessened the attraction.
    He still wanted her.
    There wasn’t time to dwell on the knowledge because as soon as they managed to get the patient stabilized, it was as if a dam had burst, the way the patients flooded in.
    Loud screaming erupted from the ED waiting room.
    Jadon glanced up in alarm. “Stay here,” he told Alyssa as he dashed through the doors into the waiting area to see what was going on.
    “Don’t touch me! Leave me alone! I can’t listen—Don’t touch me!”
    A man stood in the center of the room, his eyes wild, his clothes disheveled, a three-day growth of beard covering his face. He grabbed at the hair on his head with one hand, while waving a butter knife clutched in the other. While the butter knife wasn’t sharp, it could still be used as a weapon and the few people in the waiting room were pressed against the back wall, giving the guy a wide berth.
    “Easy, now,” Jadon said, waving a hand at the others to indicate everyone should stay back. He prayed Alyssa hadn’t followed him in. She was pregnant. He didn’t want her anywhere near this guy. “No one is going to touch you. I promise, no one is going to touch you.”
    “I can’t. They won’t stop—I can’t listen. Don’t touch me.” The man was clearly in distress, and Jadon knew that if he didn’t help this man calm down, he might quickly turn violent.
    And violence meant someone would get hurt.
    Not Alyssa. Please, keep Alyssa safe from harm.
    “No one is going to hurt you. You can relax now. I can help you. You’re safe here.” Jadon understood, onlytoo well, that while this man seemed crazy, his wild actions were the result of a deep fear.
    Fear of what, he