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Back On the First Day of Christmas Save as PDF
Chapters (33)
  1. Cover
  2. ALSO BY FAITH HOGAN
  3. Title Page
  4. Copyright
  5. Dedication
  6. Contents
  7. Prologue
  8. 1
  9. 2
  10. 3
  11. 4
  12. 5
  13. 6
  14. 7
  15. 8
  16. 9
  17. 10
  18. 11
  19. 12
  20. 13
  21. 14
  22. 15
  23. 16
  24. 17
  25. 18
  26. 19
  27. 20
  28. 21
  29. 22
  30. Author’s Note
  31. Acknowledgements
  32. About the Author
  33. An Invitation from the Publisher

It wasn’t a question. Liv was jolted back to the present and this tiny A&E cubicle. They were lucky – at least so far this evening, A&E was ticking over efficiently and when the curtain was pulled across, it felt as if the frenzy of the world beyond could be at least temporarily held at bay. God, he looked as if he had just closed his eyes to sleep, Liv thought; then, she remembered the gift bag that Finn had been carrying earlier. She’d tucked it into her own bag in the craziness and now she pulled it out. She would leave it here, next to him on the locker.

She held it for a moment, examining it. It wouldn’t do any harm to just look in the bag, would it? Of course not. She reached in and pulled out a small box. It was perfectly wrapped. A ring perhaps? There was no card. This was going to be hand-delivered, but a small ticket had been attached to the side, in the shape of a blue heart. He had written M. Just a simple M and one small kiss. Whoever Finn was going to see earlier must mean a lot to him. Liv turned the box over in her hand. Could it be an engagement ring? Maybe. She dropped it back into the bag again. No point in thinking about that now. Engagement rings needed to be put firmly to the back of her mind for the next few hours and maybe days.

The buzzing of the heart monitor startled her once more from her thoughts. The bag fell from her hands and she flew to Finn O’Connell’s chest, pulling back the covers, checking, though she didn’t need to, that the sticky monitors were in place. ‘He’s going into cardiac arrest. Help, help,’ Liv cried out, hoping that someone would hear in the nearby nurses’ station. And then, she hadn’t time to think, she was taking a deep breath, placing her hands over Finn O’Connell’s mouth and blowing in air for all she was worth. Again. Again. It didn’t take long before she was surrounded by the EMTs who’d brought him in the ambulance and from somewhere far beyond her panic, she heard a kind but sure voice telling her, ‘It’s okay, lassie, we have it from here.’

‘Come along now.’ One of her colleagues was guiding her out of the cubicle, but Liv stood firm. She couldn’t leave him. Instead, she watched as the surgeon she’d messaged on the way into ER began to work on Finn O’Connell and all she could do was pray that he would be all right.

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