Healing Love — Laurie Ryan

A Christmas Novella
Nicole Milbourne is committed to a cause -- eradicating the deadly disease that stole her mother's life. She's only a three year medical residency away from her dream job in cancer research. If only she could skip the whole patient care thing. Her diagnostic skills are top notch, but textbooks are easier to read than patients.
One man is determined to show her a world larger than her single-minded focus. Charismatic Dr. Damien Reed, head of Nicole's residency program, is everywhere she turns, sometimes gentle, sometimes pushy, always nudging her in directions she doesn't want to go. When she realizes the truth in what he says, she opens her heart to her patients, and to him, in ways she never imagined. The wall she built up around her heart begins to crumble.
Adrift for Christmas, her favorite holiday, Nicole accepts the life-line Damien tosses her: Christmas with his family. Will an unexpected Christmas fill Nicole's lonely heart and show her the healing power of love?