The Army Doc's Christmas Angel

by Annie O'Neil

  “So nothing. I haven’t seen him look at anyone like that since the divorce went through.”

  “Finn was married?”

  You could’ve knocked her over with a feather.

  Maybe that explained why his male-female relations were so...rusty. Not that she wanted him to flirt with her or anything. Her eyes traveled across the gym to where a gaggle of children were clamoring to get his attention.

  Her heart did a little skippity-hop as their eyes met and he dropped her a quick wink before returning his focus to the children.

  Maybe she did.

  “Oops. My bad. Open mouth, insert foot!” Charlie grinned unapologetically. “Look. Finn and I go way back. Did our basic training together when we were fresh out of school. Never met anyone who wanted to be an army man more. He started young with everything, precocious upstart that he was.” Charlie grinned, his voice warm with genuine affection. “Finn comes from a long line of army men so the second he could enlist he did. Would have lied about it if that sort of thing were possible these days. He married young, too. Then got himself blown up after just a couple of tours in the Middle East, but...” he paused for effect “...not before he saved my life.”

  What?

  An action hero on top of everything else?

  Still waters did run deep. At least in the case of Finn Morgan.

  “That one?” Naomi pointed across the gym to where Finn was teaching the children how to turn their hands into “pilot goggles” then scanned Charlie’s face for signs of a wind-up. “That Finn Morgan saved your life?”

  “Too right he did.” He gave her a quick glance as if trying to get a gauge on her “combat story readiness.”

  He wheeled his chair closer to her, looked her straight in the eye and said, “If Finn Morgan hadn’t thrown himself on top of me that day, I wouldn’t be here.”

  His tone was enough for Naomi to decipher what he was really saying. Finn Morgan had sacrificed his leg to save his friend’s life.

  She was about to ask how he’d ended up in the chair but Charlie beat her to the punch. “This happened later. On my next tour. I shipped out while Finn was in rehab. He took it hard. Pushed everyone he loved as far away from him as he could.”

  Naomi could hardly get her head around the fact that Mr. Grumpy liked to play footie with kids with special needs who he handcrafted seasonal treats for, let alone take in the huge news that not only was he a hero, he was also a broken-hearted divorcee.

  “Including his wife?”

  It felt such an intimate question to ask.

  “Including his wife. She moved on but Finn hasn’t. May never forgive himself. He was a seething ball of fury by the time I came back for my own stint in rehab.” He shrugged it all off. “He just poured all of his energies into retraining as a pediatric ortho king and...’ he blew an imaginary trumpet fanfare from his hand ‘...voilà! Look who is one of the country’s top limb specialists. An amazing guy.”

  This was more than peeling away the layers, like an onion, and finding out there was a diamond in the rough. It was like opening up an enormously intimidating book, only to find the binding and outer layers disguised an enormous and generous heart.

  CHAPTER SIX

  “FINN! ARE YOU coming along to the Christmas quiz night at the Fox and Hounds?”

  Finn scrunched the paper he was drying his hands with into a ball and threw it into the nearby bin. “Nope.”

  “Now, there’s a surprise.” Amanda rolled her eyes and laughed good-naturedly. “Don’t think a handful of ‘nopes’ is going to stop me from trying, though.”

  Finn bit back his usual retort—good luck with that—and did his best to give her a better-luck-next-time smile before heading toward the stairs. It wasn’t her fault that ducking out of social gatherings was his forte. Especially at this time of year. Everything seemed infused with extra meaning. Intent. He figured Amanda would catch on soon enough. Finn Morgan wasn’t a social creature.

  So what the hell was he doing, heading down to the physio gym with a bit of extra fire in his step?

  No prizes for guessing the answer there. A sweet, soft smile.

  He was hoping for a dose of both.

  He may not win Hope Children’s Hospital’s Most Sociable Doc Award, but it seemed as though he’d done a one-eighty on how he felt about “Naomi run-ins.”

  The encounter at “his” sports center had changed everything. Letting someone see his private self, the side he allowed to have fun—to care—hadn’t been the horror show he’d thought it would be.

  His world hadn’t shattered into bits. He hadn’t flared up in anger as he had at his family and wife. His heart still beat. Beat faster, if he was being truly honest.

  And, of course, it wasn’t just any old someone.

  It was Naomi.

  Instead of rubbing him up the wrong way, he was experiencing an entirely new breed of agitation.

  He actually caught himself smiling when their appointments overlapped. Feeling concern when he saw her shoulders tense up in advance of going into Adao’s room. Actual, honest-to-God pleasure shot through his veins when she clapped and hugged a patient who’d achieved a new benchmark.

  Curiosity teased at his nerve endings. What would it feel like to be on the receiving end of one of those hugs? One of those smiles?

  Which was why the deserted physiotherapy gym was getting a bit more after-hours attention from him than usual.

  One man. One gym. A perfect night. The best way to pummel all the feelings straight out of his system.

  At least that’s how it had worked in the “before Naomi” days.

  Now that he’d let himself see beyond the beautiful, chirpy façade of hers, and he’d realized she seemed to have every bit as much going on beneath the surface as he did, the gym felt empty if she wasn’t there. He’d almost grown to anticipate the quiet way she had of looking at him when he’d been a bit too gruff. The slip of her gaze from his eyes to his hips then his knee on days his leg was giving him jip. The way her cheeks had pinked up when he’d winked at her that night at the gym.

  Winked!

  What the hell? The last thing his ex would’ve accused him of was being soppy and yet...each time he walked through the deserted corridors and pushed through the doors to the physio gym, he caught himself hunting for signs of her. A stray clipboard, a little cloud of her perfume, a Hope Hospital hoodie hanging in the small office she used in the corner of the gym.

  True, he could’ve gone to any gym, anywhere in Cambridge, but something about coming to the playground atmosphere of the hospital’s physio ward appealed to him. A reminder that if children could push themselves to work harder, achieve their goals, then he could, too.

  There were the standard weights and cardio machines any adult physiotherapy center would have. Running machines. Static bicycles. A small set of steps. Massage tables.

  But the walls were painted with colorful murals. There was a climbing wall. It was too small for him but it never failed to capture his interest. All of the “rocks” were shaped like dinosaurs. Each time he came down here he traced a new path to the top. And there was also—Ah! A zip wire. And tonight it was in use.

  “That’s right, Ellie.” Naomi was helping a blonde ponytailed girl establish her grip on the bar. “Now, off you go and hold, hold, hold, hold... Hooray!”

  Naomi applauded as the young girl—maybe around ten—landed on the huge gym mats at the far end of the zip-wire run.

  “Looks like fun.”

  Naomi snapped to attention, obviously unaware he’d been watching them.

  “Yes.” She looked at her young charge for confirmation, as if she wasn’t entirely sure whether to be happy or wary to see Finn. Wow. That stung. Guess he only had himself to blame.

  “What do you think, Ellie? Have you been having fun?”

  “Defin
itely.” The girl’s eyes shone with pride. “Especially now the distal radius epiphys...epiphysss...”

  “Epiphysititis,” Naomi and Finn said as one.

  Ellie laughed and called out, “Snap!”

  Finn just stared. Naomi’s eyes were about as deep brown as a woman’s eyes could get. A man could get lost in them if he had nothing but time.

  She drew in a quick breath and turned back to her young charge.

  “I think there should be a rule that until you can say the word, it’s not completely gone.” Naomi nudged the girl with her hip and Ellie giggled.

  “Okay. It’s not gone gone...but now that the cast is off and I can use my wrist again, I can get back to gymnastics practice, right?”

  “Well...that’s what we’re here to establish, young lady.”

  The way Naomi’s dark eyes twinkled and the corners of her mouth were twitching, it was easy to see she was teasing the girl. He liked that. Having patients think they’re playing rather than working was half the battle on the rehabilitation side of things. Naomi was obviously excellent at her job—and enjoyed doing it.

  “C’mon, please?” Ellie put her hands into prayer position. “That’s the first time I’ve done the zip wire without letting go.”

  “A zip wire’s one thing. Vaulting is another.”

  Ellie scanned the room, her eyes alighting on Finn. “I bet I could vault him.”

  Naomi’s eyes widened and a hit of the giggles struck her hard and fast.

  “What?” Finn gave a mock frown. “I put Ellie’s cast on, if memory serves.” With a huge grin, Naomi nodded. “I also took the cast off, which would indicate it was healed. So...tell me, Miss Collins, what exactly is the problem with Ellie here using me as a human vault?”

  “Er...health and safety for one?” She crossed her arms playfully and gave him her best what-are-you-going-to-say-to-that-one-pal? look. “Her muscle strength would have deteriorated.”

  “Not that much!” Ellie pointed at the zip wire as if it was proof she was ready for the next phase. “Look! I can do handstands on the mat, no problem.”

  They watched and, yes, she could indeed do handstands perfectly well.

  “Well.” Finn turned to Naomi when Ellie put her hands into prayer position again and gave them both a doleful round of puppy-dog eyes. “I doubt she was planning on vaulting all six foot two inches of me, were you, Ellie?” He pressed himself up to his full height and actually—oh, good grief—he’d actually swelled his chest a bit. Like a cartoon character.

  Why are you showboating like this?

  Mercifully, Ellie was oblivious to his lame attempt at flirting with Naomi. She was already dragging a mat over alongside the ball pit. “Look, Naomi, I won’t do the splits version. I’ll just do a simple handspring. If Finn kneels on here...” Ellie eyeballed him for a minute and he tried not to laugh. He’d never really been considered as gymnastics equipment before. Ellie pointed at Finn to relocate himself. Stat. “Mr. Morgan, you have to kneel here and then I’ll do a quick run-up on the mats here and when I do the handstand over you, I’ll land in the ball pit so it’ll be totally safe.”

  Naomi tilted her head to the side and stared at him. If he thought he was being considered for anything more than a stand-in vaulting horse he would’ve read something into it. But this was work and it was easy enough to see Naomi’s focus was one hundred percent on her patient’s safety. As his should be. Which did beg the question...

  “You ready, Finn?”

  “If we have Naomi’s stamp of approval.”

  Finn and Ellie turned to Naomi as one and the smile that lit up her face at both of their expectant expressions was like the sun emerging from a cloud on a summer’s day. Pure light.

  Damn, she was beautiful.

  “Fine!” She threw up her hands. “Under two conditions. One...” She gave Naomi a stern look. “I will stand by to spot you. And two...” She looked at Finn and then quickly shifted her gaze to his knee. “If you think you’re up to it.”

  He did a squat, as if that was the ultimate proof he could kneel on all fours.

  Hmm... That was what her expression said. She drummed her fingers on her lips for a moment then put up a finger. “Hang on a minute.” She jogged to the far end of the room and rummaged through a drawer for a minute. She brandished an elasticated wrist brace as if it were a long-sought-after treasure. “Put this on first.”

  “Thank you, Naomi!” Ellie threw her arms around Naomi then pulled on the brace and eyed Finn with the cool acuity of a girl who knew her way around a competitive gymnastics tournament. “Are you ready, Mr. Morgan?”

  “As I’ll ever be.” He went down on all fours and steadied himself, wondering how the hell he’d gone from wanting a quiet workout on his own to being part of a ten-year-old’s gymnastic ambitions.

  He looked straight ahead of him to where Naomi had relocated herself to spot Ellie if she needed it.

  Her dark eyes shimmered with delight for Ellie as she executed the move to perfection and, much to his satisfaction, when he rose to his full height in front of Naomi, there was an extra flash of pleasure just for him.

  * * *

  After Ellie’s mum had come and collected her and she’d been signed off to go on her gymnastics tournament—“using the brace!”—Naomi returned to the gym, surprised to find Finn was still there.

  “Did you need anything?” She’d not been alone with him since he’d bitten her head off before Adao’s arrival, but seeing him at the sports center the other day seemed to have softened the tension that often crackled between them. Further evidence that gold heart the charge nurse had alluded to wasn’t a myth.

  “Nope.” Finn looked around him as if sizing up the place. “I sometimes sneak down here after hours for a bit of a workout, but having stood in as a human gymnasium was good enough for tonight.”

  Naomi laughed. “I suspect it wasn’t really on a par with your normal workouts.”

  She saw him start to say something, his eyes alight with fun, and then bite it back, his expression turning back to the thunder face she was more used to.

  She turned away so he wouldn’t see the disappointment in her eyes. And the shock. Who would’ve thought a chance sighting at a sports center and a brief encounter in the gym would’ve brought out a side to him that made him...well...really attractive. If she hadn’t been mistaken, he’d been on the brink of flirting with her. But the part that had shocked her? It was that she had wanted him to.

  Flirt! With her. The one woman in the whole of Hope Children’s Hospital who seemed to rub him up the wrong way just by appearing.

  She dug rhe fingernails of one hand into the palm of the other. The woman who liked to keep her own heart as locked away as he seemed to.

  Whether she liked it or not, they just might be birds of a feather.

  At least it explained the tension.

  “Here. Let me help you with that.” Finn reached out for the same mat Naomi was lifting and their hands brushed. He pulled his hand back as if she’d branded him with her fingers. She rolled her eyes.

  Here we go. Back on familiar territory.

  The Mark of The Evil Physiotherapist.

  She pulled the mat over to the stack alongside the wall, laid it in place and tried to shake off the grumpy thoughts.

  Maybe it was simpler than like attracting like.

  Maybe it was a case of a man dealing with his own frailties. Someone as physically capable-looking as Finn—an actual war hero—would not like to be seen as weak, and she’d caught him in an incredibly private moment the other day. Or maybe he’d had an evil physiotherapist back in the day. Not that she was going to ask but physiotherapy wasn’t always as fun as it had just been with Ellie. And recovering from an amputation surgery was tough. Just seeing the abject misery on Adao’s face brought tears to her eyes.

  Finn w
as a big, strong, physical man. Before his injury she could just imagine how fit he must’ve been. A young man at the height of his strength and fitness, only to have it taken away by the horror of war. What the man deserved was compassion—not huffs of frustration. It didn’t stop her from smarting that he’d rolled back on the flirty behavior he’d shown when Ellie had been in the room. Maybe having her there made it safe. A buffer to ensure nothing would ever really happen.

  She knew that feeling. Keeping people at arm’s length was her specialty. Except her patients. Her patients always went straight to the center of her heart.

  “I’m good here if you wanted to get on,” she eventually said when all the mats were back in place.

  “I was thinking of heading down to the sports center. I owe Charlie a pint after the game the other day.”

  “Ah.” Was she supposed to be inviting herself along or telling him to get a move on?

  “You live in town, don’t you?”

  Was he feeling as awkward as she felt? Because this whole chitchat thing was... Neither of them was really excelling at it.

  “Yes.”

  Why don’t you invite yourself along, you idiot? He’s clearly trying to ask you if you want to come.

  “Would you like to walk into town? Together?” He shifted his weight and kicked up the pace. “And then, of course, I’ll go and meet Charlie.”

  She smiled. It was strangely refreshing to be with someone as awkward at the “making friends” thing as she was.

  “Sounds good. I’ll just grab my jacket.” She jogged across to the small glass office, willing it to magically get curtains or one-way glass so she could bang her head against the wall. What was she thinking?

  Her heart was pounding against her chest as white noise filled her head.

  C’mon, c’mon, c’mon! Behave like a normal human.

  It was a walk.

  Just a plain old walk. As she stared at her thickly padded winter coat she smiled. Plus point. It was cold enough that they didn’t even have to talk if they didn’t want to.

  Oh, good grief. If they lived at the North Pole maybe. Not Cambridge.