One Great Christmas Love Story

by Kaylee Baldwin

  She could only imagine Jack’s face if he heard about the emails or the comments, or heaven forbid, the hashtag. His lips had a way of subtly curling down on the left side in distaste when he heard something he didn’t like. He’d only ever leveled that look at her when she suggested a greasy hole in the wall for dinner, but he’d never leveled it at her. She couldn’t handle that.

  What if he’d already read the comments on the videos? Holly knew he watched all her episodes eventually. Her mind went around in circles, trying to figure out how much damage control she already needed to do to keep the friendship that meant more to her than anything.

  Her resident walked up, saving her from herself. “Room 3 is Francis Hendrickson. A follow-up from surgery after cardiac arrest.”

  Holly scanned through the chart on her laptop to remind herself of the particulars of Francis’s medical history.

  “The nurse took his vitals. His blood pressure is low, and he reports he’s running out of energy even after a short walk.”

  Holly frowned. It wasn’t unusual for someone his age to have low blood pressure or to take extra time to heal after a major surgery, but it could also be a sign that something else wasn’t quite right.

  She walked purposefully toward his hospital room. “Hi, Francis,” she said, welcoming the familiar man. “Where’s Pauline today?”

  “She’s visiting a friend over in Tower 4 who had knee surgery yesterday.” He leaned back in the chair. “Want some free advice?”

  “Sure.” Holly set the laptop down on the counter and glanced over her shoulder at him as she washed her hands.

  “Don’t get old.”

  She laughed. “Well, getting old sure beats the alternative.”

  He winced. “True. Maybe you can invent something that keeps bodies from falling apart in the meantime.” She noted how out of breath he sounded.

  “In all my spare time,” she said with a wink, pulling out her stethoscope.

  “I turned my article in to my editor. She loves it.”

  Holly’s stomach twisted with nerves. “Now that worries me. Dig up some old secrets?”

  He chuckled. “Do you have some I should go looking for?”

  “Take a deep breath.” She listened for a few minutes, then sat back and stuck her stethoscope back around her neck. “I’m pretty boring.”

  “I definitely wouldn’t say that. Your colleagues had interesting things to say about you.” He paused as if sensing the question she didn’t want to ask. “Good, interesting things,” he emphasized. “Especially that Dr. Shay. Very interesting responses.”

  Oh, geez. She could only imagine. “I want you to worry less about my story and more about getting better.” She waved her resident over. “I’m going to have Dr. Diggs get you set up with radiology to do an echo this afternoon. And let’s do an EKG, too.”

  “Hear something that worries you?” he asked.

  “Just want to be thorough,” she replied. “Occasionally there will be more than one blockage, and some of your symptoms are consistent with that.”

  “Would that mean another surgery?”

  “Possibly. But we don’t know for sure if that’s what we’re dealing with. I’ll have more answers after these tests, hopefully.”

  She told him she’d check in with him as soon as the tests were complete and headed into to see her next patient, with thoughts of hashtags and Jack pushed out of her mind. Mostly.

  Holly opened her office door after seven that night, completely exhausted from her back-to-back patient schedule. She stopped in her tracks when she saw Jack sitting at her chair again, looking at his phone, his feet crossed up on her desk.

  Near his shoes was a foam container. She didn’t even know what was in it, and her stomach growled. Had she stopped for lunch? One of her assistants had insisted she eat a granola bar at one point; that much she recalled.

  “Jack. You’ve got to stop doing this.”

  “I didn’t bug your assistant this time.”

  “Which I appreciate.” She had to admit it was nice seeing him after such a long day. She’d regretted not agreeing to meet him for lunch right away, not only because it would have forced her to leave and get something to eat, but because she missed seeing Jack. He’d become a staple of her everyday life, and she couldn’t let a few overzealous fans ruin that.

  He didn’t look up from his phone. Sounding distracted, he answered, “It seems like you’d be more excited to see the person who brought you dinner swimming in a pool of grease.”

  Holly flipped the lid off the container and almost wanted to cry when she saw the two green chili enchiladas. She unwrapped the plastic fork and sat on her desk, taking a bite before saying another word. Absolute perfection.

  Jack stood and motioned for her to slide into her chair, which she did with a long sigh. He sat on her desk, still scrolling through his phone—not an unusual sight, especially when they were at work. People often sent him images he needed to look through in a timely fashion.

  “Drink?” He passed over the massive foam cup, and she drank in the cold Coke. With every calorie, the awkwardness she was worried about springing up between them seemed more and more ridiculous. This was Jack. Her very best friend. So what if a few people got the wrong idea? Jack had never let what anyone thought change what he did before, so why in the world should she?

  “Want some?” she asked, holding the plate out to him after she’d eaten one of the cheese enchiladas.

  He waved her plate away. “I already ate.” He glanced up briefly. “Did you eat lunch?”

  She shook her head, already cutting into the second enchilada. He sighed, his lip doing that distaste thing, and she smiled at the familiarity of it. He always got that look when he found out she’d skipped meals; she knew this specific concern was in part why he’d instituted their lunches nearly every day.

  Seriously, what would she do without Jack?

  “What?” he asked, suspiciously.

  “Nothing.” She took another bite to keep from having to say anything more.

  He stared at her for another beat before turning back to his phone.

  “What in the world are you looking at?” she asked, finally having eaten all of her food and finishing up the soda. It wasn’t like Jack to devote so much time to his phone when he was with her, even when he was working. “Doing a consult?”

  “No.” His thumb moved up the screen for a second; then he turned to show it to her. “I think it has a nice ring.”

  It took a moment for her eyes to compute what she was seeing on his screen. A string of Twitter posts with the hashtag #JollyForChristmas. Her heart skipped a beat—a phenomenon she’d actually learned about in medical school, but which didn’t help her now.

  She screwed up her courage to look at him, to see the look of distaste, but … it wasn’t there. Instead, he was smiling, the kind of smile she loved the most. The mischievous one he always gave when they were in on a secret together, like the two of them were separate from the rest of the world. It was the kind of smile that people who called him Gaston had never seen before.

  “You’re not mad?”

  His brows furrowed. “Why would I be mad? I think it’s brilliant.”

  She bit the inside of her cheek. “Brilliant in the American way or the English way?”

  He laughed at this. “I can tell you’re overthinking it, Holly. You know more about marketing than I do, but a grassroots hashtag seems like a good thing for your show.”

  It was, sure, but did he not get it? She took a deep breath and forced herself to say it. “But you know what it means, right? Jolly. Jack and Holly.”

  He was back on his phone, his thumb scrolling. “This person has made a Christmas playlist for our wedding.” He paused. “Who would play ‘Jolly Old Saint Nicholas’ at a wedding? Points for tying in jolly, but still. ‘Holly Jolly Christmas’ is a little better, I guess.”

  Holly wished she had another enchilada.

  “Okay, this is a little cree
py.” He flipped the phone around for her to see that someone had photoshopped them together on a beach. “Who would take the time to do this?”

  “Jack.”

  “Yeah?” he asked, laughing now. “Okay. Someone is setting up a Facebook page for the hashtag now.”

  “This isn’t weirding you out?” she asked carefully.

  At this, he looked up. “No. Is it weirding you out?”

  “A little,” she admitted.

  “Why?”

  She folded her arms. “I don’t know. Why isn’t it weirding you out?”

  He shrugged. “People are going to do what they’re going to do. I can either find it annoying or amusing.”

  “Usually you find it annoying,” she pointed out.

  He tipped his head in acknowledgment. “True. But this is no different from all of the nurses thinking we’re dating, and we laugh about that all the time.”

  He did have a point. But this was on such a wider scale. She had a plan with these episodes, and the plan was definitely falling through.

  “Come on. Jolly? You don’t find it so ridiculous it crosses the line back over into hilarious?”

  Wait. Did he mean the mash-up of their names, or the idea of them together as a couple? She shook her head. It didn’t matter, either way. It was all ridiculous. And hilarious.

  She finally cracked a smile. Maybe she was taking this all too seriously. People could be very fickle. It wouldn’t take too much to persuade them all to root for Jack with another woman, one with whom sparks flew for the camera.

  One who was actually available.

  Chapter 17

  Holly had packed her grocery cart with baking items she usually didn’t keep on hand because she rarely had time to cook. She ticked the items off her list: flour, sugar, eggs, powdered sugar, butter, food coloring, sprinkles, pastry bags and tips, cream, vanilla, plastic plates, cellophane wrap, and Christmas ribbon.

  When she got home, she unloaded everything onto the counter, printed off a recipe she found called The Best Christmas Sugar Cookies Ever, and set her tripod and phone up to face the kitchen.

  She’d arranged to have Georgia show up an hour before Jack so Holly could get her settled and interview her alone without Jack potentially brooding in the background. Georgia and Holly had spoken on the phone the night before to confirm, and Holly had a good feeling about this. Georgia was well spoken with the kind of easy laugh that made you feel entertaining and funny.

  The doorbell rang, and Holly glanced at the clock. Almost three. Georgia was a couple minutes early.

  Holly’s stomach fluttered with nerves as she opened the door, but it was only Jack.

  “What are you doing here?” Holly blocked the doorway so he couldn’t come inside the condo yet. A violin version of “O Holy Night” faintly played on the air.

  “I have a date today.” He glanced at his watch. “It is Saturday, right?”

  She leaned against the door with a sigh. “Yes, but you’re not supposed to be here until four.”

  “Shiloh’s mom picked her up early.”

  Holly stopped looking over his shoulder for Georgia and finally took him in. He looked more worn out than usual; his ex had a way of doing that to him. “How early?” She knew Jack and Shiloh had been planning on going Christmas tree shopping that morning.

  “At nine. Right as we were heading out the door. She swears it was an unavoidable family event.”

  Holly clenched her teeth hard. It didn’t help the situation to talk bad about Jack’s ex and her manipulative, controlling ways, but she sure wanted to. She took him by the arm and brought him into the house. “You could have called me earlier.”

  “I had a few things to do.”

  Once again, things were not going directly to plan, but that was becoming the usual state of things when it came to this matchmaking segment she wished she’d never begun.

  “Okay,” she said, shifting into problem-solving mode. “I was going to interview Georgia first and then bring you in later, but I’ll interview you first, and then when Georgia comes, if she’s too flustered with you here, I’ll have you hang out in the bathroom.” She paused. “Did that sound as horrible to you as it did to me?” The last thing he needed today was to be stuffed into a bathroom while she did an interview.

  “I can take a nap on your bed,” he offered with a raised brow.

  The offer did something twisty to her stomach. “Let’s figure all that out later.” She walked to the kitchen to grab her broom. “In the meantime, I’m going to straighten up a bit.” Anything to get her out of the room so she could regain her composure.

  Jack swept the kitchen while Holly gathered up a few stray pieces of mail and took them to her room. When she got back, Jack was reading the recipe and starting to lay out the ingredients.

  “We need to wait for Georgia,” she reminded him.

  “What are we doing exactly?” he asked.

  “We’re going to make and decorate Christmas cookies, then take them around to a few shelters. One of my favorite MyHeartChannel shows is doing a hashtag campaign I can actually get behind, #seethegood, so I’m going to mention her show on this episode and tie in the hashtag, so hopefully it’ll catch on.”

  “Wait. A hashtag you can actually get behind? As opposed to our hashtag?”

  “It’s not our hashtag. Besides, my viewers have seriously active imaginations.”

  “Of course it’s our hashtag. It’s grown on me. Jolly for Christmas.” He threw her a grin. “You’ve trained them to believe in getting one great love story.”

  “Ha,” she said, snatching a mini-foil-wrapped Christmas chocolate from him before he could finish opening it. She completed the job and then popped it in her mouth with a grin. “Cynics don’t get chocolates at my house.”

  He folded his arms. “I don’t think that’s true at all, seeing as how I’ve had my fair share of chocolate here over the years.”

  “It’s a new rule. Instituted today.” To punctuate her point, she slowly unwrapped another chocolate and ate it. “So good.”

  His hand darted out to grab the bag of chocolates, but she snagged it before he could and put it behind her back.

  “Nope. You’ll have to admit love is real before you can get one.”

  “Love is real,” he said, holding his hand out.

  “And that you can find it.”

  “Seriously?”

  She waved her hand for him to repeat the words.

  “I didn’t eat lunch, and I ran eight miles on the treadmill this morning.”

  She cringed playfully. “Nope, that is not the magic phrase.” She grabbed another chocolate out and unwrapped it, but before she could pop it in her mouth, he bent his head down and ate it straight out of her hand. “Jack!”

  “What?” he said, his mouth full of chocolate.

  She pointed her finger at him. “I’m taking that as a full admittance you believe you’ll find your one great love.”

  “Or that I’m a shameless thief.”

  “It can be both.” She tried to hold back her smile, not wanting to encourage him, but it wasn’t long before she felt it peeking through.

  He smiled as well and snagged another chocolate. “Since I’ve already admitted it and all,” he said, tossing another one back.

  Holly rolled her eyes. “I have real food. Let me make you a sandwich.” She checked the clock on the wall on her way to the fridge. “Georgia is about ten minutes late. What if another person doesn’t show?”

  “Maybe I’m not the catch you think I am? They’re all running for the hills when things get real.”

  She laughed at his teasing tone. “Not likely. There’s a big storm rolling in, and traffic is probably slow. We should’ve done this this morning.”

  “I was supposed to have Shiloh.” Jack, very familiar with her kitchen, grabbed a plate and the bread while she got turkey, cheese, lettuce, and tomato from the fridge.

  While he ate, Holly checked her phone for any messages from G
eorgia. She wasn’t too late yet. Holly needed to relax.

  “Do you want to interview me at all while we wait?” Jack asked after he’d rinsed off his plate and stuck it in the dishwasher.

  “Sure.” Holly thought quickly. “Maybe we could start making the cookies, and when Georgia gets here, you two can frost them.” They’d need time to cool anyway, and then they could get to the shelter early enough to deliver the cookies with dinner.

  “Let do this.” Jack got out the mixing bowl and spoon while Holly turned the camera on.

  “I’m going to end up editing most of this out, because as exciting as it will be to watch the two of us making cookies together, they’re going to want more of you and Georgia than they will of me and you.”

  “Are you sure about that?” he asked with a lifted brow.

  She frowned. He was right, of course. They would want more of Jack and Holly. But it would only enable them. “They don’t know what they want until we show them,” she said, trying to convince herself as well. “Now give me your camera smile.”

  She pressed record and walked around the counter to stand beside him. “Welcome to One Great Love Story! For those of you who have been watching for a while, you know this is a departure from what I usually do on this show, but I thought it would be fun to be a part of creating someone’s love story instead of reporting it afterward. For our new viewers, glad to have you.” She waved at the camera and elbowed Jack into giving a half-hearted wave as well. “Most of you are probably here for Jack, and I don’t blame you. Jack and I are going to start baking cookies while we wait for Georgia. In the meantime, I asked you at the end of the last episode to send in any questions you had for Jack, and there are definitely plenty!”

  “Did I agree to this?” Jack stepped out of the frame to grab a couple of aprons from the back of her pantry door. He threw the pink one to her and kept the white one with purple lavender flowers along the edges for himself.

  “You agreed to the whole experience,” she told him with a grin. She slid the recipe in front of him. “I’ll link the recipe we used in our show notes,” she informed the camera.