‘No!’
‘So my pride has to take it on the chin.’
‘It’s got nothing to do with pride.’
‘Oh, yes it does,’ she said bitterly. ‘Here I was practically launching myself into your arms…’
‘I believe I did some of the…launching.’
‘Well, bully for you.’ She sighed, a great gusty sigh that stunned him. She was like a chameleon, changing skins with mood. ‘Okay, maybe it was a bad move.’ She closed her eyes. Moved on. ‘So let’s forget it ever happened, shall we? You’ll still let me stay for Easter?’
‘Of course I will.’
‘Thank heaven for that. My noble host. Just when I want a hot one.’
‘I’m sorry.’
She managed a smile at that. ‘And now the man apologises…Where were you when I was planning my life? No,’ she said, and put her hands up as if to ward him off. ‘Don’t answer. You were adopting kids, being noble, doing all sorts of stuff I can scarcely dream of.’
‘You rescued Marilyn,’ he reminded her. ‘That has to count as noble.’
‘So I did but it doesn’t put me in your league. Nope. You’re a wonderful man, Dr Spencer, and I admire you immensely. As one doctor to another. And you’re right. We need to keep this professional. So…as patient to her treating doctor…or even as colleague to colleague…I need to go to bed. Goodnight.’
And without another word she turned and limped inside, down the hallway to her makeshift bedroom. Leaving Dom staring through the screen door after her.
Feeling like there was no way in the wide world he could forget the events of this night.
Feeling like his world had changed for ever.
How was a girl supposed to sleep after that? She couldn’t. She lay and stared at the ceiling and thought of all the reasons why she should ring her parents and ask them to come and fetch her.
They would. They were upset with her now but they knew their duty. They’d be appalled by Marilyn but if she insisted, they’d take her. They’d drive her back to their own home on the outskirts of Melbourne.
They’d be dreadfully upset at having their Easter plans spoiled, but maybe their Easter plans had been spoiled anyway. Maybe Charles had already hinted that Easter was to be the time of the Big Announcement.
And here she was, falling in love with another man.
Falling in love?
That was dumb. Crazy. Dom had pulled away because he’d sensed she’d felt desperate, and maybe he was right. Desperation, confusion, call it what you would.
Confusion. That’s what it was. Because she’d never before felt like she felt when Dom smiled at her. When he’d kissed her it was like her world had blown apart.
It had scared her. Terrified her. She’d felt like she was teetering on the edge of a cliff and about to fall.
Into what? She didn’t know.
Dom didn’t want…permanence. He’d said that loud and clear.
Neither should she. She’d met the guy for the first time less than twenty-four hours ago. It was way, way too soon.
When, then?
When was the first proper time that she could open her eyes and say she’d fallen head over heels in love with Dominic?
How was a man expected to go calmly to sleep? Dom lay in his too-big bed and thought maybe he ought to trade it for a single. Hell, he had no use for a double, much less the king-sized opulence he lay in now.
He’d bought it thinking of Ruby, how early mornings had been a contest to see who could dive into Ruby’s lovely squishy bed first. But he’d never got it right. He might do his damnedest as a foster-dad, but Ruby had something special.
Erin had something special.
She was as confused as he was. His family had been nonexistent, a scattering of dysfunctional people vaguely connected by blood, but nothing else. Erin’s extended family sounded much scarier.
He thought of the battered little boys in his care and he thought of Erin being raised with the ghosts of siblings. He wasn’t sure which was worse.
What would be worse, though, he told himself, would be complicating his life by hitting on her. When he had no intention-no capacity-to take it further.
Why not? A spot of seduction, maybe even progressing to thinking about love?
Love.
For some reason that was what he was thinking-he, who’d never had such a thought before. But he was thinking it. Of loving Erin?
Was he nuts? What would he end up with? A woman torn by guilt, raised to be duty bound to two sets of parents and a man who regarded her as rightfully his.
Did Charles want her as much as he did?
It was a dumb question. The whole situation was impossible.
He’d made a vow, a long time ago, when he’d been used as a bitter connection, a rope in domestic tugs of war where neither his mother nor his string of stepdads had worried that he might snap. Domestic harmony was for others-he wasn’t even going to try.
He’d had the odd relationship-who hadn’t? Until now he’d never wanted to push it an inch further than a casual affair.
So why was Erin different?
Because she was damaged, he told himself fiercely. He saw in her the same need he saw in his boys, maybe even in himself, but need was no basis for a relationship.
She was here as his guest, using him for refuge. Therefore he had to apply the same rules he applied to his boys. All care but no ties, so when they left there was no heartbreak on either side.
And as for the love word…When he’d known her for such a short time…That was being no better than his mother. Love at first sight was a crazy ideal, leading to heartbreak all round.
Right. He had that clear.
Maybe tomorrow he could drive her to her parents’ place himself.
Or not.
Probably not.
She’d offered to help. He needed help. There was a very sensible reason for him to accept her offer.
It was sensible for her to stay.
Yeah, right.
She slept badly, dozing and waking, dozing and waking. Once she heard Dom pad downstairs and let Marilyn out into the garden.
He was a very nice man, she told herself dreamily in her half-sleep. She listened to him leading Marilyn back to her pups, then speak softly. She couldn’t hear, but she was willing to bet there wasn’t any mention of dog pounds.
If she was seriously interested…
Dom with his needy kids…Marilyn and her needy pups…
Dom.
She was seriously interested. Dumb or not.
‘Maybe I need to go to the Antarctic for a year,’ she muttered. ‘I can hone my skills with frostbite and hypothermia, and everyone can need me solely because I wield a great roll of sticky plaster.’
But…how could she go the Antarctic when there was the faintest possibility of a repeat of that kiss?
Dumb or not, she was staying right where she was. For as long as Dom let her.
Easter Saturday.
Dom was coolly pleasant at breakfast. If he could be coolly pleasant, she could too, she decided. He didn’t say anything about leaving, and if he didn’t, neither would she.
Even though he’d told the locals he wasn’t doing calls, he was still the only doctor in the district. Patients arrived with the minor trauma of a country community. The phone never stopped. She ended up fielding calls-and
