A Special Kind Of Family

CHAPTER NINE

AMAZINGLY the fire had been contained to one room.

‘It’s all smoke,’ the firefighters told her. ‘The seat of the fire is a store chest. The fire took hold in a pile of acrylic fleece blankets. It’s spread from there but the bed’s iron, the rug’s wool, the bed had woollen blankets on and it’s mostly the fumes from acrylic we’ve been dealing with.’

‘Then there’s no harm…’

‘There nearly was a hell of a lot of harm,’ the chief said. ‘The fire went up the curtains into the ceiling and there’s insulation there that’s melted. The house is choked with poisonous fumes. I’ve sent my men to clear the seat of the fire but they’re all using breathing gear. Thank God for smoke alarms.’

And for Dom, Erin thought, stunned.

‘How the hell did it start?’ he asked. ‘Do you know?’

There was no point in lying. No one was going to charge a six-year-old with criminal damage. She still had one of the firefighter’s blanket draped around her but she was shivering. The last thing she wanted to do was stand and answer questions, but if this man didn’t get the information he wanted from her he’d have to ask Dom, and all Dom’s attention was needed now.

‘Hell, those kids…’ the firefighter said when she’d told him. ‘They’ll be the death of him.’

‘You’ve met them?’

‘A couple of their predecessors,’ the man said grimly. ‘Doc takes on the kids no one else will touch. He and Tansy…’ He paused. ‘That’s right, she’s away at her sister’s. She’ll have Doc’s guts for garters when she comes back. A right little mother she makes. She and Doc are a great pair.’

That didn’t sound good.

Um…what was she thinking? Fire, life-threatening peril, and here she was wondering about the unknown Tansy.

Around them the firefighters were moving in what seemed organised chaos. There were firefighters everywhere. A team was concentrating on the bedroom on the upper left of the house, but others were uncoiling what looked like a vast vacuum hose.

‘What’s that?’

‘A suction tube,’ the man told her. ‘We’ll get the burned stuff out of the house. We’ll check the roof, put any last embers out, then start sucking out smoke.’

‘Tonight?’

‘Straight away. The smoke causes the most damage. And if I know Doc he’ll want to stay here. He always does. He hates farming his kids out.’

‘You mean this has happened before?’

‘One of his kids stabbed him once,’ the man said, watching the vacuum hose disappear inside the front door. ‘Doc needed fifteen stitches but he wouldn’t go to hospital. Nor would he let the cops take the kid away. The lad was only eight. The cops called us ’cos he’d locked himself in his room and was threatening to set the place on fire, but by the time we got here Doc had talked him out and was hugging him. Blood and all. Can you believe that? The kid’s been reunited with his mother now and last I heard was doing okay. He and his mum still visit. Lots of Doc’s kids still do.’

‘How many?’ Erin said faintly.

‘God knows,’ the man said. ‘All I know is that he and Tansy are heroes. I wish to hell we could get another doctor for the town so he had more time to spare. Now, if you’ll excuse me, miss, I need to suck smoke.’

‘I wish to hell we could get another doctor for the town so he had more time to spare…’

This was not the time to be thinking career moves. But the tiny idea had seeded itself already. The firefighter’s words made it grow.

Her shoes were fine. As was Nathan’s egg and Martin’s pogo stick. Two hours later the house still stank of smoke but it was deemed no longer dangerous. The bedroom where Martin had lit the fire-Tansy’s room-would need major work, but with its door not only closed but sealed so no smell could escape, the house started seeming like home again.

Dom had fielded twenty offers of accommodation that she’d heard, but she’d given up counting.

He’d knocked them all back.

‘Once the smoke is clear we’ll get back inside,’ he explained. ‘It’ll be better for the kids not to move.’

Dom must be feeling weak at the knees himself, Erin thought as she watched him deflect offers, but he wasn’t putting Martin down. The little boy was slumped on his shoulder. Erin wasn’t sure whether he was asleep or not, but every time the voices round them rose, she saw Dom’s arm round him tighten.

With his other hand he held Nathan. He didn’t let them go, once.

‘We’re home here,’ he said, over and over, trying to make his voice normal. ‘The smoke makes everything seem worse than it is. But we’re fine.’

And gradually the chaos became order. The onlookers melted into the night. Two of the fire engines left. One would stay.

‘I know you wish us to the devil,’ the fire-chief told Dom as they carried the kids back into the almost-normal living room. ‘But the fire spread to part of the ceiling and there’s no guarantee we haven’t miss spots. There’ll be two men staying upstairs all night, and there’ll be more outside. Yes, you can stay in the house but you’ll do so with our presence. Like it or leave it.’

Dom could see the sense. He smiled, rueful. ‘Fine by me, Graham. We’ll sleep round you.’ He looked across at Erin. ‘How about you? Can I accept any of these offers of help on your behalf?’

The locals were leaving, but he only had to call one back, say, ‘Do you mind looking after Erin?’ and she’d be away.

‘No,’ she said fiercely, involuntarily.

‘No?’

She coloured. ‘I…If it’s okay with you. I might be able to help…with Marilyn.’

‘That’s right, we still have Marilyn,’ he said, and he smiled, and she was reminded of that chuckle all over again.

‘She’s having the world’s worst birth experience in dog history,’ she said, and tried to make her voice not wobble. ‘I’ll settle her back by the fire.’

‘If the very word doesn’t make us all blench.’

‘Fires are good,’ she said, stoutly, aware that Martin’s eyes had widened in alarm. ‘Fires are lovely. This was an aberration.’

‘What’s an aberration?’ Nathan said. He sounded exhausted. It was time he was tucked up into bed, wherever they could find a bed. But Erin knew that farming the kids out to strange beds tonight would be asking for trouble. Dom knew it and she knew it.

‘An aberration’s a mistake,’ she said, meeting Dom’s gaze full on. ‘This was a little, smoky fire lit by mistake that made us all feel a bit sick. But there’s a lovely fire in the kitchen stove and another in the living room. That’s what we all want now. A lovely warm fire so I can get my cold toes warm.’

It was the right thing to say. They were wearing their nightwear plus blankets. Even though Erin had shoved on Dom’s wellingtons over the dressings on her foot, her toes were freezing. So, it seemed, were everyone else’s.

‘Brilliant,’ Dom, said and his eyes were giving her a message that said her approach had been right on all sorts of levels. ‘It’s what we all want. An ordinary fire to warm our toes. Let’s get ourselves organised.’

It would take days before the stink cleared from the upstairs rooms, but downstairs the smoke had been sucked out before it had permeated enough to cause any damage. The windows were open, fresh air had blown through and it felt almost normal.

‘So we’re all sleeping downstairs,’ Dom decided, and before they knew it burly firefighters had hefted mattresses and bedding downstairs and set up a row of beds in front of the sitting-room fire.

What had seemed a big room when Erin had had it to herself was now cramped. Three mattresses. Erin’s divan.

Marilyn’s mat.

‘For she’s not going to be the only one in the kitchen,’ Erin decreed. ‘One in, all in.’

‘Fine by me,’ Dom said.

The fire was still a pile of glowing embers in the grate. Dom added wood, building it up so it crackled and flared.

‘Fire’s great,’ he said as Martin looked at it nervously. ‘This is what fire’s meant to do. Martin, I’ve been thinking. You’ve had a terrible experience-it should be useful for something. Tomorrow I’ll teach you how to set and light a fire properly.’

Whatever Martin had been expecting it wasn’t this. He even managed a sleepy smile.

Dom had set the beds so his was the closest to the fire, Martin’s was next, then Nathan’s and finally Erin’s settee. So they were in a protective sandwich, two little boys with an adult on either side and Marilyn at their feet.

The kids were asleep in seconds. Erin knew she should sleep, too-but she could see Dom in the firelight. He was propped up on one elbow, looking over his charges. By the firelight she saw raw emotion playing on his face.

‘I don’t regret that kiss,’ she said suddenly into the dark, and she saw him stiffen.

‘Why aren’t you asleep?’

‘I’m watching you.’

‘Don’t.’

‘Someone has to look out for you,’ she said gently. ‘You watch out for the whole world and no one watches out for you. Well, that’s about to change. I don’t regret that kiss one bit. It was a truly fabulous kiss. A kiss to dream about. You go to sleep now, Dominic Spencer, and know that tonight you’re off duty. Responsibility’s mine.’

‘Right.’

‘Believe it,’ she whispered.

‘You’re shaking,’ he said into the dark.

‘I’m not.’

‘I can hear it in your voice.’

Well, maybe she was. Somehow the events of the night had caught up with her.

‘I’m okay.’

‘You need a hug?’

‘I might,’ she said, cautiously.

‘Why didn’t you say so?’ he said, and suddenly he was upright, stepping carefully across the sleeping boys, stooping to touch her face. And then, because there was no room to kneel by her bed in the crowded room-that surely must be the reason-he tugged back her blankets and slipped in beside her.

His arms came round her and held.

If she’d not been shaking before she was now. Or maybe…maybe not. It was a different sort of shaking.

‘I needed to hold you,’ he said.

‘I…I know. I kinda need to be held,’ she admitted.

‘I know that, too. You were brilliant tonight.’

‘You were, too.’ She relaxed against him. Or sort of relaxed. Her back was curved into his chest. He was wearing pyjama bottoms but no top. She could feel his body through her silk pyjamas.

It certainly took a girl’s mind off fire.

‘I’m not seducing you,’ he said, apropos of nothing in particular.

‘No?’ Her voice wasn’t working properly. It sort of…squeaked.

‘No,’ he said, and she could feel his smile.

‘Rats,’ she whispered.

He chuckled-and held her closer. ‘Hey, if I could I would, but how Mom and Pop Brady ever managed procreation with that lot…’

‘I can’t remember any combined Bradys,’ she said cautiously, savouring the warmth of him against her. Loving the warmth of him against her. ‘There was a His Bunch and Her Bunch and then no more.’

‘Kids,’ he said darkly. ‘They’re a contraceptive device second only to a brick wall.’

Right. Or not right. She wasn’t sure. The feeling of his body against her was doing all sorts of strange things. Wonderful things. ‘You…you want to tell me why you’re in my bed, then?’

‘To stop you shivering.’

‘I think I’ve stopped shivering.’

‘I’ll be the judge of that. Besides, I need to thank you. You saved our lives tonight.’

‘You saved yourselves.’

‘I never would have got Martin downstairs without your help.’ His voice was still hoarse from smoke inhalation. He sounded serious suddenly, and husky, and so damned sexy he was making her toes curl. ‘I couldn’t say it in front of the boys but I know how close we came to losing him,’ he whispered into her ear. ‘Thank you.’

‘Hey, any time,’ she whispered-and then she thought Dom must have been even more terrified than she’d been. Just because he was a man, did that make him less needful of comfort? Instinctively she twisted to face him and her arms came round to hold him, tight.

‘It’s okay, Dom,’ she said, trying-not altogether successfully-to focus on him as a person and not as the body he came with. ‘We’re all okay. And I’m sure Martin won’t do such a thing again.’

‘He might.’

‘Then you’ll be there to help him,’ she said stoutly. And then, because it was what was in her heart, she said what she most wanted to say. ‘Dom, I want to help you.’

‘You already did.’

‘No, long term.’ She swallowed. ‘I could help here. If you let me.’

‘You mean medically?’

‘Of course.’ The medical bit was only part of it, she thought, but instinct told her to start with the medical offer and move on. ‘I could take so much off your shoulders. Here. In this community. There’s so much work!’

‘Here? Are you nuts?’ They were lying entwined like long-term lovers. It felt right, though, she thought. It felt entirely, wonderfully natural. ‘You’ve just got a new job,’ he said.

A new job. She forced herself to focus. That’s right, she had, too. Head of Emergency Medicine. In another world.

But she’d shifted worlds. This was her world now and there was no going back.

‘I’ve just had another epiphany,’ she retorted. ‘In fact, I’ve had a week of epiphanies. The work you’re doing here…I can’t imagine how you cope. I can’t imagine any greater honour than being permitted to help you.’

‘Tansy helps me.’

It was like a slap. She closed her eyes. She felt ill.

She was still holding him. She didn’t know how to stop holding him.

‘Erin?’ He shifted away from her and she felt like weeping. Okay, she was being overemotional here but it had been some night and he was making her feel…

‘Erin?’

She opened her eyes again, cautiously. He’d pushed himself up on his elbows and was gazing down at her in the firelight. Rueful.

‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘I didn’t mean to sound so blunt. Tansy does help with the boys. Medically, though…yes, I am stretched. But you and I…No.’

‘No?’

‘No.’

‘Because?’

She put her hands up to touch his face. This was the most important moment in her life. She knew it.

Did he know it, too?

‘Because of this,’ he said.

And he kissed her.

It was a different kiss this time. Their last kiss had been born of fear and exhaustion and relief, but those emotions had passed. The warmth of the room, the knowledge of two little boys sleeping safe and warm beside them, the peace of the drama past-and the warmth and comfort they were taking from each other-combined into one lovely whole. Suddenly it seemed so right, so inevitable, so…true.

Dom was kissing her and the pain his words had caused was gone. She was singing inside. Her Dom. They were safe and warm and at peace, and she was in the arms of the man she loved. She was floating, dreamlike, responding to his kiss with every fibre of her being.

Dom, she whispered in her heart. Dom.

What the hell was he doing?

He was kissing a woman as he’d never kissed one before.

He was needing a woman.

She was luscious under his hands, soft, yielding but wanton.

Wanton. The word played in the back of his brain, in the tiny section that was free to think anything at all. For now wasn’t about thinking. It was about feeling, touching, tasting, all five senses awake, alive, tuned to this woman as he’d never been tuned to a woman before.

Wanton.

That was the way she was with him. He knew-in that part of his brain he hadn’t seemed to possess until he’d met her-that wanton wasn’t an adjective he’d ever hear applied to Erin. She was the good child, the compliant, clever daughter, the dutiful and faithful friend.

She’d done all she was supposed to in life-but right now she was pleasing herself.

She wanted him as desperately as he wanted her.

Every part of her was yielding. Her body was crushed against his, her breasts moulding deliciously against his chest, her mouth closed on his, her tongue…her tongue…

She tasted of salt and heat and want. She tasted of everything he’d ever dreamed of.

His kiss deepened and she matched him, demanding as much as she gave, willing him to want more.

His hands tugged her hard against him, his fingers cupping her butt in her silken pyjamas so she was pulled right against him. She was doing her own tugging.

He could do with her what he willed and he knew that she’d come.

She’d follow where he led, or she’d lead herself if he willed.

He should stop. He had to stop.

But he could no sooner tear himself away from her than he could fly. He felt as if a part of him that had been torn away at birth had miraculously come home.

Erin…

Her hair smelled of smoke.

Erin.

The fire crackled in the grate, a small hissing explosion. It caught him. Pulled him up.

No.

Hell, what was he doing?

He was hers. Whatever he’d ask of her in this moment she’d give. She could love him no more in the future than she did now.

He was her man. She was his woman and she’d come home.

Dom.

This was a long, lingering kiss, deep and sweet and right. She clung to him and he held her close, savouring the kiss as she savoured it, deepening it as she deepened it. Tugging her closer. Closer.

Loving her as she loved him?

But…Maybe not. No!

For the fire had spat and hissed and he’d pulled away as she could never have pulled away. Now he was holding her at arm’s length, gazing at her as one might gaze at a precious, unattainable thing. Something so far out of his reach it was a dream.

‘What is it?’ she whispered. ‘Oh, Dom…’

‘I just…meant to tell you…meant to show you why your offer is impossible.’ His voice was shaken. Desperate. ‘It’s the most generous offer I’ve ever heard-to give up your city practice and come here. But there’s this between us…There’s this. I never meant it to go so far.’

‘So?’

‘I don’t want it.’

‘It seems to me,’ she whispered, fingers of ice suddenly whispering their way round her heart, ‘that you do want it. As much as I do.’

‘No.’

‘Why not?’

‘You’ve been here for less than two days. This makes no sense.’

‘It makes all the sense in the world.’

‘No,’ he said, more strongly now. ‘You’re sweet and smart and beautiful and I’m not about to take advantage.’

‘Hey! Isn’t that ever so slightly patronising?’

‘Whatever. But it’s true.’ He kissed her again then, but lightly this time, holding himself rigidly under control. The drama of the night had unveiled his need, but he had himself back together.

He slipped from under her blankets and rose and she could have wept.

‘I want to help,’ she said, and if she sounded needy she couldn’t help it.

‘I can’t accept.’

‘You might have to accept,’ she whispered. ‘This community is too big for one doctor. You’re doing what you have to. Maybe I am, too.’

He shook his head. ‘Neither of us is making sense,’ he said softly, and he stooped and touched her lightly on the lips. It was a feather touch. It was like a touch of farewell.

‘Enough. This is crazy. It’s dreams talking, not reality. Goodnight, Erin,’ he whispered. ‘Go to sleep. In the morning we’ll be sane again.’

‘But I won’t be sane tomorrow,’ she muttered rebelliously under her breath as he returned to his makeshift bed. ‘I’m sane now. I’m feeling like I’ve been insane all my life and I’ve just woken up. I’m feeling like it’s time to come home.’

She didn’t say it out loud, but she meant it. Somehow she just had to convince Dom…

That love worked?

She had to convince Dom that what she felt was for ever.

She hardly slept. When the phone went at six it didn’t get the chance to ring a second time before Erin was out in the hall to answer it.

There were still firemen in the house. One of the men-the fire-chief, Graham-had started down the stairs to answer it. He stopped when he saw her. She smiled, waved the receiver at him, and pulled the sitting-room door closed so as not to wake Dom and the boys.

‘Doc?’ On the end of the line, a man’s voice sounded frantic. The terror of last night kicked in again. Just because last night’s terror was gone, it didn’t mean the world was a safe place for everyone.

‘I’m a doctor,’ she said, smoothly professional. ‘How can I help?’

‘But the doc-’

‘We had a house fire last night,’ she said, trying to sound like it was no drama. ‘Dr Dom’s taken up with his kids. I’m the doctor on call. Will you allow me to help you instead?’

There was a pause. Then a shattering sob. ‘I’ve just woken up,’ he managed. ‘I think my wife’s dead.’

It took all of two seconds to decide someone needed to go, and that someone should be her.

This was Dom’s patient. In theory she should wake him. But she glanced back into the living room and all three boys were sleeping like the dead.

Martin had snuggled next to Dom during the night. Dom had his arm across the little boy’s shoulders. The sight made her suddenly blink away tears.

She was almost…jealous. It was dumb, but there it was. These guys were a family, and she wanted to be a part of it.

At least she could give them this time. Which meant this was her call.

Quietly she asked the questions she needed to know.

The lady had been suffering from advanced metastatic cancer. Dom had been looking after her at home. Yes, Dom had said she might die, but surely not so soon…

She covered the receiver and talked to Graham, who’d been watching with concern from the landing. ‘Is there someone who can take me to Hughie Matheson’s house?’

‘Sure thing. Is Enid dead, then? We thought it might be soon.’

So the town was expecting this death. More and more, she knew this was something she could deal with. Yes, it’d be better for Hughie if Dom was able to come, but right now triage said those little boys needed him more.

She’d stowed her clothes in the downstairs bathroom so she could have privacy when she dressed. That meant she didn’t need to go back into the living room. Two minutes later she was dressed in jeans and a thick sweater-and Dom’s boots again-and Graham was ushering her out of the house.

‘Thank God you’re here,’ he said, stowing Dom’s medical bag into the back of his truck. ‘Doc’s driving himself into the ground. You don’t want to move here permanently, do you?’

‘I might,’ she said, and he came close to tripping over his feet as he climbed into the truck.

‘You’re kidding.’

‘Maybe I’m not,’ she said cautiously. But the idea was taking solid form.

Dom had said flatly it was impossible. Okay, living in the same house was impossible-she conceded that. But what he was doing with the kids was so worthwhile. If she could share his medical load…

‘Everyone says you need two doctors.’

‘We need half a dozen,’ Graham told her. ‘We’ve been advertising for ever.’

‘So if I were to stay…’

‘You’d never move in with him,’ Graham breathed.

‘I…No.’ Dom had said they couldn’t work together because of this ‘thing’ between them. But maybe they could. If they stayed apart.

Apart for as long as he wanted.

‘I reckon our Tansy’d have something to say about that,’ Graham said, grinning. ‘But that means you’d be needing somewhere to live. What about old Doc’s place?’

Whoa. Things were suddenly moving really fast, even for her newly formed resolutions.

The dawn light was just starting to edge over the horizon. Their truck was headed out of town on a bumpy road. Around them were open paddocks full of sleepy sheep.

How could she move here?

But Graham wasn’t treating the suggestion as silly.

‘Where’s…old Doc’s place?’ she ventured.

‘How about I take you there after we finish at Hughie’s?’ Graham said, warming to his theme. ‘It’s a bachelor pad-a tiny house attached to the building that used to be the hospital. The government closed the hospital when old Doc died. This doc says he can’t open it again-he can’t have inpatients without back-up. But old Doc’s place is owned by the town and it’s for medical staff. That’d mean you. Hell, with two doctors we might be able to open the hospital again. What d’yer reckon?’

‘I reckon I need to think about it,’ she said cautiously. ‘I need to talk to Dom.’

‘What’s this got to do with Dom?’ Graham said easily, chuckling. ‘In my other life I run the local hotel. I’m head of the chamber of commerce, plus I’m shire president. If there’s the possibility of an extra doctor for this place, I’m not letting you go. Consider yourself hired.’

Enid Matheson was indeed dead, peacefully in her own bed, dying in her sleep with her husband beside her.

‘There’s not a lot of women lucky enough to have this as their farewell,’ Erin said gently as she checked all vital signs. Then, just as gently, she touched the lady’s face in the gesture of farewell she always used. Working in Emergency in a big city hospital meant most of her farewells didn’t seem as right as this one. Enid had been in her eighties. There were photographs all over the house-Enid and Hughie, with kids, dogs, grandkids, ribbons for prize bulls, certificates for prize fruit cakes…The house was a cosy, well-loved testament to a woman who had known how to make a home.

Erin thought fleetingly back to her parents’ home, to the super-clean granite and stucco architectural statement her parents worked so hard over-and she was aware of a stab of envy.

Then she thought of the bikes and pogo stick and general chaos in Dom’s yard and felt a stab of something else. The same but different.

But now wasn’t about her, she thought as she finished her examination. Hughie was sitting at the kitchen table, his head in his hands, silently weeping.

She put on the kettle and found two mugs. Outside Graham would be waiting but he’d said, ‘You’re not to worry-there’s others taking care of things back at Dom’s place and I have all the time in the world. Hughie’ll need you. I’ll wait for as long as you need.’

So she took him at his word. In a while she’d do the official stuff-fill in the death certificate, organise an undertaker, ask Hughie who she should call.

But if he’d desperately wanted his family to be with him he’d have called them by now. It seemed he wanted a little time first, before the business of dealing with death began. Thanks to Graham, she could give it to him.

‘Tell me about Enid,’ she said softly, as she put a mug of hot, sweet tea in front of him. ‘This house is lovely. I’m guessing she’s been a wonderful woman.’

‘She is,’ the old farmer said brokenly, and looked through into the bedroom. ‘She was.’ He shook his head. ‘You…you really want to hear about her?’

It was a plea, pure and simple.

‘Yes, I do,’ Erin said strongly, and surprised herself by the truth of what she’d said.

This was a facet of medicine she’d never thought about. Trained and working in city hospitals she’d never been in the position where…

Where patients could be friends, she thought suddenly, with a flash of insight. This Easter was really changing her perspective.

Up until now she’d thought that Dom was a self-sacrificing hero. Now, as she sat in front of the ancient kitchen stove and shared a second and then a third cup of tea and heard about Enid from the time she and Hughie had first met, she thought, No, it worked both ways.

She could do this. What’s more, she wanted to do this.

‘Doc’s been great,’ Hughie said, and she had to haul herself out of her own thoughts and back to him.

‘He’s looked after Enid well?’

‘When we knew the cancer had spread, our kids said we should put her in a hospice. But Doc said if she wanted to stay home then stay home she would, and he’s moved heaven and earth to keep her here. He’s been here nearly every day. He brings those kids with him-I take ’em for a ride on the tractor while he looks after Enid. You know, she’s hardly had pain at all. The minute there’s pain you ring me, he says, and we do…we did…and he’d be here. He’s one in a million. But he works too hard.’

‘I know that,’ she said. ‘I’m thinking of helping him.’

The old farmer’s gaze lifted from the dregs of his tea. His eyes were red-rimmed from weeping but he looked at her now-he really looked.

‘That’d be great,’ he said simply. ‘You’re such a one as he is. I can see it sticking out a country mile. And now…’ He took a deep breath.

‘And now?’

‘It’s time to call the kids,’ he said. ‘It’s time to call the church and the funeral chaps. Thank you for giving me this time, miss. I’ve appreciated it more than you can say.’

‘You want me to make the calls for you?’

‘If you would,’ he said with dignity. ‘I’ll sit with Enid until they come.’

Afterwards Graham drove her home past the old doctor’s house and the building that had once been Bombadeen’s hospital. Weirdly it still looked neat and freshly painted-a long, low building of rendered brick surrounded by well-tended gardens and ancient eucalypts.

‘It looks like it closed yesterday,’ Erin said, confused.

‘The locals hated it when it closed,’ Graham told her. A few of the oldies have taken it on as their retirement project. If we can ever attract another doctor to the place, we can get it open again in a trice.’

‘I’d imagine there’d be heaps of bureaucracy.’

‘I’m really good at bureaucracy.’ Graham was casting her thoughtful, sideways glances.

‘Dom probably likes being the only doctor.’

‘Are you kidding?’

‘If I moved here…’

‘You really are interested?’ He frowned. ‘Miss…Doc…if you don’t mind me saying, I’m hearing you’ve only been here for two days. It’s your car that’s at the bottom of the Boulder Creek Road. Maybe you hit your head on the way down. I don’t think you should make your mind up quite yet.’

‘That’s generous of you.’

‘It is, isn’t it?’ he said cheerfully, and drew the truck into the hospital yard. ‘Okay, I’ve given you my obligatory warning. Now let’s introduce you to your new home. That dog of yours is going to love this yard.’

‘Right.’

He pulled to a halt. She thought he was about to get out but instead he hesitated again. ‘You know, I shouldn’t say this but I have daughters of my own. You and Dom…’

‘What about me and Dom?’

‘He’s a really attractive man, miss,’ he said cautiously. ‘My daughters tell me he’s what they call a hunk. You’re not imagining yourself in love with him after two days.’

‘No!’ Yes.

‘That’s alright, then,’ he said, glad to have that cleared up. ‘My daughters say there’s Tansy and only Tansy. The local lasses have thrown everything they can at him but no one succeeds. And now you…’ He shook his head. ‘Okay, I’m talking out of turn. I know it. I’ve said my piece and now I’ll shut up. Now, let’s go show you your new home.’

They were at the kitchen table eating cornflakes when she got back. And Easter eggs.

‘Happy Easter,’ Dom said. ‘The Easter Bunny’s been.’

They all had an egg in front of them. Or half an egg. There’d obviously been considerable egg consumption in her absence.

But at the end of the table was an empty place, neatly set. In the middle of the place-mat was a shiny, pink-foiled egg.

A tiny white flag was stuck in the top. ‘Erin,’ it said.

Erin. It was her egg.

Weirdly it made tears prick at the back of her eyes. In all this chaos, Dom had still found time to play Easter Bunny.

And he’d remembered her. This very girly pink egg must have been deliberately organised. For her.

‘The Easter Bunny’s more reliable than the chap who cooks the Easter buns,’ he said, and smiled at her with that drop-dead smile that had her heart doing back flips.

‘You bought me an egg.’ Dammit, her bottom lip was quivering.

‘The bunny brought you the egg,’ Nathan corrected her. ‘They were on the table when we woke up this morning.’

‘The bunny’s good,’ she managed.

‘How do you think he knew you were here?’ Nathan asked.

‘Magic,’ she said, and sat down because she needed to. They were gorgeous-the three of them. Her boys…

Now, that was a dumb, possessive thing to think. These guys had nothing to do with her. Though Dom might end up being her partner.

Her medical associate. Nothing more.

She had to get her bottom lip under control.

‘Where have you been?’ Dom asked, passing the cornflakes. ‘The fire guys said you had a call.’

‘Can I eat my egg before I tell you?’

‘If you must.’

‘Of course I must,’ she said, and unwrapped her egg-quite a big egg actually. She bit a very satisfactory hole in the pointy end, munched for a bit, then placed her egg, hole-side down, in front of her cereal bowl. Then she poured her cornflakes.

‘That looks like a ritual,’ Dom said.

She nodded. ‘I’ve done it every Easter Sunday for as long as I can remember. One year the Easter Bunny brought me a chocolate rabbit instead of an egg. It messed with my psyche all year.’

‘I imagine it did,’ Dom said faintly. ‘So where have you been?’

‘Out to the Mathesons’.’

He was half way through handing her the milk jug. His hand froze in mid-air.

‘What-?’

‘A lovely peaceful ending,’ she said, and smiled across the table at him. ‘Thanks to you. Well done, Dr Spencer.’

‘Hughie rang?’

‘At six. Graham drove me out there.’

‘You should have woken me.’ There was no mistaking the anger-a flash of fury.

‘Right,’ she said. ‘You copped more smoke than me last night. I decided this morning that you’re my patient and it was me making the decisions.’

‘You had no right.’

‘I know,’ she said softly. ‘And, indeed, if there was anything you could have done I would have woken you. But there was nothing.’

‘Can we talk about it later?’ he said, tightly.

She thought, Uh-oh, she’d acted unprofessionally. She’d stepped in and acted in his stead without a by-your-leave.

‘Of course we can.’

But then she looked at the little boys oscillating between egg and cornflakes and she knew she’d done the right thing. They’d woken to find Dom beside them. They needed him today.

Dom had made the decision to be a foster-parent. He had to accept the consequences.

What she was thinking must have been obvious. The tight lines of anger changed to something else-confusion?

‘What, not prepared to take an official reprimand?’ he asked, but his heart didn’t sound like it was in it.

‘Not for Enid,’ she said, and tilted her chin. ‘Or for anything else I may have done this morning.’

His voice grew apprehensive. ‘What the hell else have you done this morning?’

She peeped a smile at him. It was Easter Sunday after all, a good day, a day for celebration. Dom looked grim and tired and he was getting help whether he needed it or not.

‘I’ve found a home for Marilyn,’ she told him. ‘But discussion’s for after breakfast. If you’ll excuse me, I have an Easter egg to concentrate on.’

He needed to get his head in order.

The drama of the night was still close to overwhelming. He’d nearly lost Martin.

He’d taken his mind off the game, he thought grimly. These boys needed so much attention. He couldn’t afford to be distracted. And Erin was definitely…distracting.

She was lovely. And that kiss last night…

He’d gone to sleep with that kiss lingering in his senses. He felt it still. She’d kissed him as if she’d meant it, as if she wanted to be a part of him.

Well, that was a crazy thought.

Or maybe not so crazy. He had a great home, a great job, and he had…Yeah, okay, he had enough going in the testosterone stakes to make him interesting. Ruby had told him that over and over. ‘You’ll make some lucky girl a lovely husband. Just because your parents were a disaster it doesn’t mean the rest of the world’s damaged. Relationships do work. Open yourself up and some nice girl will slip right in.’

While he wasn’t looking. That’s what this felt like-as if Erin had slipped in while his back had been turned. And now she was in and he couldn’t take his mind off her. If she hadn’t been here maybe he’d have sensed that Martin had been troubled last night.

He couldn’t stay this preoccupied. He had to get her out of here.

He’d promised she could stay over Easter.

‘You needn’t worry. I’m organising myself alternative accommodation,’ she said, and smiled sweetly. He blinked. Were his thoughts so obvious?

‘Where?’

‘I’ll tell you after breakfast,’ she repeated. ‘Now, if you don’t mind, I haven’t eaten enough egg.’