The Midwife's Christmas Miracle by Jennifer Taylor Read Free Book Online Page A

the first step towards building a social life. The first step towards taking her mind off Max, too. She hurriedly dismissed that thought. ‘What time are you meeting up?’
    ‘Seven o’clock outside the restaurant,’ Amanda informed her, then looked up and smiled. ‘Oh, good. I was hoping to catch you before you left. How do you fancy coming out for a curry on Saturday night?’
    Lucy glanced round to see who Amanda was talking to and felt her heart jolt when she saw Max standing in the doorway. It was hard to maintain an outward show of calm as he came into the room. It wasn’t just the fact that Max had seemed attracted to her that had shocked her, of course, but that she had reciprocated. Bearing in mind what had happened recently, she should have been immune to his appeal, but there was no point pretending. Even though she knew that Max was the last man she should get involved with, there was something about him that drew her.
    Max could feel his body humming with tension as he walked into the office. He nodded to Lucy, hoping she couldn’t tell how on edge he felt. Maybe he did intend to get over this… crush he seemed to have developed on her but it could take a little time. ‘Sorry. I’m afraid I can’t make it on Saturday. I’ve made other plans.’
    ‘Oh, I see!’ Amanda grinned at him. ‘So who’s the lucky lady, then? Don’t tell me it’s still that nurse from Paeds? She must be well past her sell-by date by now!’
    Amanda laughed but Max was hard pressed to raise a smile. Even though he knew she hadn’t meant any harm, he couldn’t help feeling uncomfortable about Lucy hearing the comment. Although he was the first to admit that he’d been out with a lot of women, it wasn’t nearly as many as people seemed to believe.
    There was little he could do to redress the situation, unfortunately, so he changed the subject. ‘I just came to see how Fiona Walker’s been doing since she was transferred from A& and E. Has the bleeding stopped yet?’
    ‘I’m not sure. Lucy has been monitoring her,’ Amanda informed him.
    ‘How is she?’ Max repeated, turning to Lucy. He felt his heart give another unsteady lurch and had to batten it down, wondering exactly how long it would take to get things back onto a more even keel. The problem was that he had never experienced this kind of reaction before so he had no way of knowing if it would take days or even weeks. He sighed under his breath. Knowing that he could be in for a rough ride every time he spoke to her wasn’t the most comforting prospect.
    ‘The bleeding has eased off, although it hasn’tstopped. Diane did another ultrasound and the baby is still moving about so that’s a good sign. And there’s been no cramping either,’ she added quietly.
    ‘Good. All we can do is hope that everything settles down.’ He turned to Amanda, determined to get a grip on himself. No matter how long it took, he knew what he needed to do. ‘I’ll be here for another hour at least so call me if there’s a problem.’
    ‘Will do, although it won’t be me you hear from.’ Amanda stood up. ‘Thanks to Lucy, I am going home.’
    ‘Lucy?’ Max queried, wondering what she meant.
    ‘Yes. Lucy has only gone and volunteered to work nights over Christmas and New Year.’ Amanda picked up the timetable and showed it to him. ‘I’ve been struggling to get this finished for days and now it’s all sorted, thanks to her. She’s a real star, wouldn’t you agree, Max?’
    ‘I…um…yes, of course.’ Max summoned a smile, wondering why it bothered him so much to learn that Lucy had offered to work over the holidays. Surely she would want to be with her family at this time of the year, he thought. It was what he planned to do, spend time with his parents and brothers, and he couldn’t understand why she didn’t want to do that too…unless she preferred to remain in Dalverston rather than to go home and face whatever situation she had run away from.
    His