Read Eggnog and Candy Canes: A Blueberry Springs Christmas Novella for Free Online Page A

set out on the snowy porch railing. “So you two? I was talking to Liz today.”
    “How’s her hand?” Katie asked, heading her off.
    “Fine enough. I heard you two are working together again tomorrow?”
    “Yes,” Nash replied.
    “Well, I’ll try to keep everyone out of the hospital for you.” With a wink, Mary Alice stepped back indoors, leaving Katie to wonder what the woman saw when she looked at the two of them and if that something had actual potential.

Chapter 3

    Last night Katie had made it through her mother’s Christmas Eve party with no major incidents. She’d even managed to spend time with Beth and Oz without feeling too terribly guilty for a) reasons of kissing the ex, b) enjoying it, as well as c) spending time with him during dinner—although she could argue that Beth and Oz were married and had each other, whereas she had nobody and nothing but her (not quite) bitter, broken heart for company—and finally, d) for ignoring Nash a teensy bit in order to spend time with other people.
    The problem was, neglecting Nash had opened him up for every single, eligible woman in Blueberry Springs to move in on him, which Katie had found surprisingly distracting. But really, it was good, because maybe all that flirty-flirt business would throw Mary Alice off the track.
    Not that there was a track. Nash was her best friend’s ex. That was a line you didn’t cross.
    For any reason.
    Probably.
    “Nurse Reiter.”
    Katie inhaled, bracing herself against that brisk voice she hated so dearly. She turned, jaw set. “Yes, Nash .”
    Just like old times.
    Except he grinned as though it was their own secret game, and she couldn’t help but smile back.
    Just like new times.
    “Are you needing to cut nursing supplies for another major project of yours?” she asked with fake sweetness.
    “I was thinking, since you are so good with PICC lines, you could use cheaper needles in order to leave the better ones for the other nurses. We’d save approximately twenty-three dollars over the course of the year. Be a sport and help out the hospital?”
    She gave his chest a playful shove. “Merry Christmas Nash-hole.”
    He grabbed her arm, wincing in fake pain at the nickname. “Ouch.”
    She smiled and tugged her hand free so she could give him one of the emergency gifts she kept wrapped and under her basement suite’s tree in case someone gave her an unexpected present. This morning it had felt right to print Nash’s name on the tag. And not just as a bribe to keep him from spilling the beans about her wanting to go into decorating—not that she thought he would.
    “For me?” he asked, clearly surprised.
    “To take away the sting of my bites.”
    He let out a rich laugh and set his coffee down on the nurses’ station.
    “Hey! You can’t eat and snack here. It is a rule we adhere to from years ago. An esteemed doctor—Nash Leham, have you heard of him?—put this rule into place and it is as highly regarded as he is.”
    “Katie, shut up. You had me at ‘Hey’ and that scary tone of yours. I won’t snack or drink here.” He sat in her chair, kicked his feet up on the desk and chugged his coffee, then set the mug down on her notes.
    She spun the chair around so he faced her. Standing over him, she demanded, “What the hell has gotten into you?” He set the wrapped box aside and stared at her, not answering. “Really! What?”
    He glanced away and gave a small shrug.
    She yanked the chair closer. She needed to know why he was in Blueberry Springs and why he was joking around and acting like a nice guy—a guy she could totally fall for. She gave the chair a rattle. “What?”
    “I got lonely, okay? I was fine chasing my career before I came out here, but now…I just… It got under my skin, okay?”
    The shock of his confession knocked her sideways. “Do you want to move back?”
    “I don’t have the energy to go through all that renovation and decorating stuff in Blueberry Springs again.”
    “I