The Nightshift Before Christmas

All through the hospital...magic was stirring

It might be Christmas, but Dr. Katie McGann would prefer to bury her head in her work than celebrate. Until her estranged husband Dr. Josh West strides into the ER, turning heads and making her heart flip.

Two years ago their world and their dreams ended, and they had to part. But Josh vowed never to stop fighting for his wife, and with the clock about to strike midnight he knows he has one last chance to heal Katie’s heart...one kiss under the mistletoe at a time.

Dear Reader,

Thank you so much for coming along to The Nightshift Before Christmas. I realise I have said this before—but this book really, really ate my heart alive when I was writing it. Josh and Katie were so real to me that my friends began to wonder if I actually knew them!

I don’t want to give anything away at this point, but the loss they have each suffered is something I can imagine might too easily define a person. Grief is a strange beast, and it can shape-shift even the strongest of people into someone even they don’t recognise themselves. Coming out of the fog of initial grief and back into ‘the world of the living’ is often overwhelming—especially if you don’t have the one you love most by your side.

This is such a journey. One in which the gorgeous Josh and the heartbreakingly wonderful Katie are just trying so hard to live again—despite all that has happened to them. I hope you are as swept away as I was as they quest for their HEA in a busy mountainside hospital in Copper Canyon. And at Christmas! I do love a good holiday story, don’t you? Just perfect for a little miracle of the L.O.V.E. variety.

Happy (Ever After) Holidays to you! And don’t be shy about getting in touch. I can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @AnnieONeilBooks.

Annie O’ Xx

The Nightshift Before Christmas

Annie O’Neil

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ANNIE O’NEIL spent most of her childhood with her leg draped over the family rocking chair and a book in her hand. Novels, baking and writing too much teenage angst poetry ate up most of her youth. Now Annie splits her time between corralling her husband into helping her with their cows, baking, reading, barrel racing (not really!) and spending some very happy hours at her computer, writing.

Books by Annie O’Neil

Mills & Boon Medical Romance

The Monticello Baby Miracles

One Night, Twin Consequences

The Surgeon’s Christmas Wish

The Firefighter to Heal Her Heart Doctor...to Duchess? One Night...with Her Boss London’s Most Eligible Doctor

Visit the Author Profile page at millsandboon.co.uk for more titles.

This one’s for my guy. You’re my Christmas, birthday and HEA all wrapped up into one handsome, blue-eyed Scottish package. Wifey xx

Praise for Annie O’Neil

‘This is a beautifully written story that will pull you in from page one and keep you up late and turning the pages.’

—Goodreads on

Doctor...to Duchess?

Annie O’Neil won the 2016 RoNA Rose Award for her book Doctor...to Duchess?

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

Dear Reader

Title Page

About the Author

Dedication

Praise

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

EPILOGUE

Extract

Copyright

CHAPTER ONE

“OKAY, PEOPLE! LISTEN UP, it’s the start of silly season!”

“I thought that was Halloween?”

“Or every full moon!”

“First snowfall?”

“Hey, Doc? Is that where your locum tenens is? Stuck in one of the drifts?”

“He won’t last long in Copper Canyon if that’s the case. A man needs snow tires.”

“A woman just needs common sense! I follow the snowplows! Got them tracked on my phone!”

Copper Canyon’s Emergency Department filled with laughter. Impressive, considering they were down to a quality but skeleton staff. Never mind the fact it was almost always one of the busiest weeks of the year. The town was full of holiday visitors and the ski resort up the hill always had an emergency or six their small clinic couldn’t handle.

Katie scanned the motley crew who would see her through Christmas Eve and, for some double-shifters, into the Big Day itself. Valley Hospital was no Boston General, and that was just the way Katie liked it. The facility was big enough to have all the fancy equipment, small enough to be able to give the personal touch to just about everyone who walked through those doors. And if they needed an extra hand, there were always the emergency services guys up on the mountain, willing to lend a hand. It wasn’t home yet...but she’d get there.

“Thank you, peanut gallery. Time to focus.” Katie tried her best to smile at the small but vital crew, all visibly buzzing with Christmas cheer. It wasn’t their fault she wanted to rip every bauble, snowman and glittery snowflake from the walls. Someone else took that prize. “Thanks for wearing your red and green scrubs, by the way—you all look very...festive.”

“Who doesn’t love Christmas, Doc?” a tinsel-bedecked RN quipped.

Me.

“Right!” Katie soldiered on. They were used to her grumpy face—no need for Christmas to morph her into a jolly, stethoscope-wearing elf. “Just in time for the lunchtime rush, I’ve got our first Christmas mystery X-ray!”