Read Online An Evergreen Christmas by Tanya Goodwin - Free Book Online

surgical resident when she’d get her chance to perform in the O.R. Pure adrenalin. There was nothing like it. There still isn’t. Well, except when she was with Noel.
    Holly and her team entered the waiting room. The woman’s husband shot up from his seat, his forehead furrowed. He clenched his hands together. She watched the anxiety dissolve from his face as she relayed the good news. He released his hands. His shoulders relaxed. The man shook Holly’s hand, thanking her, and acknowledged Clifford and Candice. Everyone left that room happy.
    As they walked out of the waiting room, Candice said, “It’s so nice to give people good news.”
    “Yes, it is,”Holly said. She’d not deflate the elated medical student’s surgical dreams with tales of somber news. Candice would learn soon enough that not every case ended well.
    After Clifford and Candice took off, Holly went to the recovery room and as promised sat at her patient’s bedside until she was alert. She squeezed the woman’s hand and announced the bright prognosis. Tears streamed down the woman’s cheeks. The woman hugged her. Holly’s day was getting better by the moment and her night promised to cap off a fabulous 24 hours.
    Her next two cases flew by without a hitch. As always Holly’s favorite scrub tech anticipated all her instrument needs, her hand offs crisp. The residents and medical students were eager to learn, and no one accidentally contaminated her surgical field. A banner morning it was!
    Her cases done for the morning, Holly dictated her last operative report in the recovery room. The telephone receiver pressed to her ear, she caught Noel out of the corner of her eye. She was right. They did finish their surgeries at the same time. He leaned over her, his breath on her cheek, and scribbled a note on the pad in front of her. She raised her finger while continuing to dictate. Noel tapped his index finger on his note, and then made funny faces at her, trying his best to make her laugh. She pressed the pause button on the phone.
    Clutching the receiver in her hand, she shook her head and laughed. “You’re distracting me.”
    “Oops, sorry,” he teased.
    Noel plopped into a chair and picked up the receiver from the phone next to Holly. He began to dictate at the same time as she, speaking a bit louder, a mischievous grin on his face. It was like trying to count while someone else shouted out random numbers. She rushed through her dictation and hit the “end” button, and then stuck her tongue out at him. She could never figure out how the hospital transcriptionists were able to comprehend their lightening fast summaries. Holly read Noel’s note while he finished his dictation. It read, “Meet me in Mrs. Shale’s room.” Holly tapped him on his shoulder before she left and nodded.
    Noel paused his dictation. “You beat me, Green. But I’ll win the first annual incentive spirometry challenge. Be afraid, Green. Be very afraid.”
    She shrugged. “I happen to have excellent lungs.”
    He winked at her. “Well that will come in handy! See you, at high noon.”
    Holly teasingly held out her palms and waved her fingers. “Bring it, Shepherd.”
    The recovery nurses laughed and said, “Whoa!”
    “What? She’s not going to win. I was on my high school swim team and I have the lungs to prove it.”
    Holly jabbed her hands to her hips. “Oh, come on, Shepherd. What was that? Twenty years ago?”
    “I happen to have won every swim meet. You’ll see.”
    Holly smiled. “The surgical glove has been tossed.” She playfully flipped her ponytail from her neck and left the recovery room. She knew he was watching her.
    Holly giggled softly all the way to the women’s locker. She’ grab her lab coat to wear over her scrubs and then she’d go up to the surgical floor to sign off on her team’s work before heading to Mrs. Shale’s room. About to open her locker, she paused, her hand resting on the metal handle. Not an eves-dropper, she