A Special Kind Of Family

It happened.

‘I’ll drive you there now,’ Dom said, sounding suddenly grim.

She thought ‘Huh’ again, even if she didn’t say it.

‘You can’t,’ she said. ‘Everyone’s here.’

‘Which is why I need to be somewhere else. Charles, can you help Tansy and Ruby inside with their things? You girls can have the two usable upstairs bedrooms. The boys and I will keep sleeping in the sitting room. Erin, I’ll take you-’

‘And Marilyn,’ she said.

‘And Marilyn,’ he agreed, sounding goaded.

‘Erin…’ Charles said.

‘They want to be alone,’ Tansy said unexpectedly, and tucked her arm confidingly in his. ‘I can sense these things.’

‘You’re good,’ Ruby said warmly. ‘A woman after my own heart. Charles, can you take this holdall?’

‘Erin…’

‘Charles, tell our parents I love them,’ Erin said, but she had to speak fast for Dom had her hand and was leading her forcibly back to the house. ‘I’ll ring them tonight. And thank you for coming to rescue me but I think I might have rescued myself. Dom, where are we going?’

‘To fetch your dog, of course,’ Dom said. ‘And your toothbrush. And then to get rid of at least one woman from my life.’

CHAPTER ELEVEN

THEY hardly spoke until she was in the front seat of Dom’s car, and they were heading across town. Erin’s belongings had been hastily stuffed into her overnight bag. Marilyn was on the back seat, looking as confused as a bulldog could look. No woman in a maternity suite had ever been shuffled between so many beds, but as long as her head count of pups was correct she seemed resigned.

Erin didn’t feel resigned. She felt breathless, and a little afraid.

Dom looked downright furious.

They reached the centre of town, drove past the fire station and a couple of volunteers were still there. They got cheery waves. Erin waved back.

Dom didn’t wave.

‘Are you going to tell me what you’re playing at?’ he said at last, tightly, and she stared at the road in front of her and thought of what she needed to say.

‘I guess…this was a spur-of-the-moment decision. To work here.’

‘You’re not serious.’

‘I think I am.’

‘You want what, a nice idyllic home in the country.’

‘That’s not what I’m looking for,’ she said evenly. ‘I need…to be needed. I don’t want to be needed to play violin like my brother and sister. I don’t want to marry Charles to make our parents happy. I want to do something for me.’

‘And Bombadeen’s supposed to provide it?’

‘I think it can,’ she said evenly. ‘I don’t know, of course. I’ll have to wait and see.’

‘So you’ll walk away from your job. Leave your employer in the lurch…’

‘That’s not fair. I’m about to start a new job heading our emergency department. I won the job by a whisker over two other doctors who are still available. I’m on two weeks’ leave before starting. That means there’s heaps of time for another applicant to be delighted that I can no longer take up the appointment.’

‘You have all the answers.’

‘You mean you don’t want me?’

The question was tossed into the air like a hand grenade. They drove in stillness, waiting for it to explode.

It didn’t. But neither did it disappear.

‘So what are you proposing?’ he asked at last, sounding strained.

‘That I live in the old doctor’s house and practise medicine. I can at least give it a few weeks’ trial. Every single person I talked to today told me how overworked you are. They say non-urgent stuff has to go to Campbelltown because you can’t handle it. Is that right?’

‘Yes, but-’

‘So I wouldn’t be setting up in opposition to you. I’d be sticking up a sign saying I’m here for Doc Dom’s leftovers.’

‘My leftovers.’

‘I’ll even do insurance medicals,’ she promised grandly. A greater offer she couldn’t make. Insurance medicals were renowned for being the bane of a doctor’s life. In the midst of a busy day they took an hour of crossing t’s and dotting i’s.

How could he help but be impressed? And he was. ‘You’re kidding,’ he murmured. And then-amazingly-he smiled.

Great. That’s what she’d been aiming for. It was starting to seem like a reasonable career ambition-to make Dom smile.

She smiled back and the tension lessened. A little.

‘You’re a top doctor,’ he said cautiously, as if he was thinking it through. ‘You’d never have got to head the emergency medicine team if you weren’t good.’

‘I do a nifty line in sticky plasters,’ she said, and looked hopeful.

‘And the rest,’ he said. His smile died. He was serious again but the tension was gone. ‘You’ll have skills I can’t guess at. But why? For this decision to come out of nowhere…’

‘See, that’s where you’re wrong,’ she said, and suddenly she knew she only had to tell the truth. Sure, there was her very definite attraction to this man, but the moment she’d thought of taking on this job things had settled that had been jumbled for a very long time.

‘I loved this morning,’ she told him. She clasped her hands together on her knees and hoped he got it.

He got it. ‘Spending time with Hughie…’

‘It felt right,’ she said. ‘Working in a city emergency department, I’ve lost count of the times I’ve had to face death. But this morning…instead of leaving Hughie with a social worker, I made a cup of tea and sat down and talked. It felt…right.’

‘It’s why I’m here,’ he said simply. ‘I’ve never want to be anything but a family doctor.’

‘My family might see it as failure,’ she told him. ‘But it’s not. I saw it clearly this morning. And then I thought if I have to move apartments anyway-I can’t have Marilyn in my hospital flat and there’s no way I’m giving her up-why not move here? I know you have misgivings about us but I think-I hope-we can work it out. I want to give it a try.’

‘You’re serious?’

‘I am.’

It seemed he couldn’t think of anything else to say.

Two minutes later they reached the house. Two women were carrying in armloads of bedding. An elderly man in overalls was carrying in…a dog kennel?

‘My God,’ Dom said. ‘This is serious. I knew Marg’s organising skills were good, but this…’

‘I don’t think Marilyn’s ready for a kennel,’ Erin said, looking dubious. ‘I sort of see her at the end of my bed. This…this is happening very fast.’

‘It surely is,’ he said drily. ‘You’ll wake up tomorrow and this’ll seem like some crazy aberration.’

‘Maybe.’ But she didn’t think so. She climbed from the car and went to retrieve her dog. But Dom was before her.

‘I’ll carry Marilyn. You bring the puppies.’