Read Online The Nurse Who Saved Christmas by Janice Lynn - Free Book Online

she look at him and see so plainly that he had so much more to give? So much more life in him than he saw in himself?
    Why was it that when she looked at him she saw a world full of good and amazing things? A world full of Christmas every single day just because he was a part of her life?
    She closed her eyes and counted to ten. “Okay, if you want to just be friends, we’ll just be friends.”
    She couldn’t make him love her. Couldn’t make him want to take a chance on loving her. She’d spent years living with her great-aunt, doing everything she could to earn the woman’s love. In the end, she’d realized you can’t make someone love you. Either they did or they didn’t.
    “I’m glad you understand.” He let out a slow breath, looked relieved that she wasn’t going to make a scene.
    Had he expected her to stomp her feet and throw afit? Wrong. But neither would she pretend everything was fine, when it wasn’t.
    “No.” She shook her head. “I can’t say that I understand, because I don’t. Obviously I misread your feelings for me.”
    “Abs—”
    “Don’t,” she interrupted, holding up her hand. “Don’t say things you don’t mean in the hope of making this easier. I like you, a lot. You obviously don’t feel the same so, fine, end of story. We’ll be friends.”
    So why didn’t she believe he didn’t feel the same? Why did she believe that something else had prompted him to back away? Something that ran so deeply through him he believed he had nothing to offer her but heart-ache? Something that had to do with his dislike of the holidays?
    “You deserve better.”
    She nodded. “You’re right. I do.”
    This time she was the one who left.
    By the time she got home, she was throwing up. No doubt from the stress of the night and the sickening feeling that had crept in during their conversation.
    Friends. He wanted to be friends. Liar . Who did he think he was kidding? He didn’t look at her the way her friends looked at her.
    Neither did she have sex with friends .
    Or even almost have sex with her friends.
    Really, she’d just like to know how it was possible for a man to look at her with fire in his eyes and ice on his tongue? Because his words had bit into her bitterly coldly. Frigidly. Friends .
    Fine, if that’s what he wanted, she’d be his friend.
    She told herself all these things and more right up until that night, when she was scheduled to work with him.
    Then she admitted the truth.
    She couldn’t be Dirk’s friend. Not when she felt the way she did about him. If she didn’t protect her heart, she’d end up wearing battle scars from their friendship . Scars that ran so deep she wouldn’t ever recover.
    No, she couldn’t be his friend, but somehow she had to be his colleague, his nurse. She had to work with him and be the professional she was. Somehow.
    Almost, she called in sick, but her illness had passed, had just been from a morning spent longing for what might have been. So she’d go to work and come face-to-face with a man who seemed determined to be friendly .
    Seriously, it was enough to send her stomach into Churnville all over again.

CHAPTER SIX
    D IRK hadn’t slept much between ending his emergency call the morning following the Christmas party and reporting back in for a half-shift that evening. How could he when he couldn’t stop thinking about Abby?
    She’d agreed to his friend proposal, but he’d seen the hurt in her eyes. The confusion. She didn’t understand.
    Why had he let things get so out of control the evening before? Not that Abby had given him much choice. He’d looked into her eyes, heard the truth in her voice when she’d told him she wanted to make love, and he’d ignored all the reasons why they shouldn’t.
    Just as he’d ignored the reasons why he shouldn’t have asked her to the Christmas party to begin with. Not that he’d meant to. The invitation had just slipped out of his mouth and she’d looked so happy when she’d said