‘I will,’ he said, and there was that something in his voice that told the crowd of onlookers that this was a vow he meant for life.
Erin’s misty smile grew even more misty. Her heart was singing, a silly joyous song, a great wonderful chorus. A song of love.
‘Will you?’ he said.
And then there was nothing for a girl to do. Her crazy, wonderful doctor. Her saviour. Her love.
He was waiting for an answer.
She glanced out at their entranced onlookers. ‘You realise there’s no way you’ll get out of this one.’
‘Why would I want to?’
‘Why indeed?’ she whispered. She slid down onto the cramped floor of the van so she was kneeling right in front of him. She took his hands in hers and she held, as she’d hold for life.
‘I do,’ she whispered, and then louder, so the audience up the back could hear. ‘I do,’ she repeated, and she would have said it for a third time but she was caught up and kissed so thoroughly that her third response was lost to everyone but themselves.
‘I do.’
And she did.
It involved almost military-like manoeuvres, but they honeymooned alone.
Ruby took Martin and Nathan to Dolphin Bay, promising them a month of beach and sun and fun. ‘They’ll have a ball,’ Dom told his bride-and he sounded almost wistful.
‘You don’t want to go, too?’
He’d smiled and shaken his head. ‘Not this time. Dolphin Bay’s the best place in the world if you’re a kid in trouble, but I have a better place to take my wife.’
And he was free to take her.
For, amazingly, Charles had offered to take care of the medical needs of Bombadeen while Tansy dog-sat. Bombadeen had been seeing a lot of Charles lately.
Tansy had even caught her bouquet.
There were developments with the kids, too. Applications had been made to make Dom and Erin into Martin and Nathan’s long-term foster-parents. Nathan’s dad was in gaol, and likely to remain there. Martin’s mother had been sighted in Nepal, and no other parent was in the picture. So it was settled. When their honeymoon was over, Dom and Erin could return to Bombadeen, gather their family and move forward.
For both Erin and Dom, it felt like life had started the moment Erin had walked into his house. He’d opened the door and she’d walked into his heart. Into the heart of his kids. Into the heart of his community.
Sentimental? Maybe it was.
The wedding had been fantastic. They’d done the full bridal bit. Erin had let her somewhat bewildered mother indulge every last fantasy on her wedding dress and there’d never been such a magnificent frock. She had been all lace and flounces and swirling skirts.
It had been crazy. She’d loved it, and so had Dom.
Dom had looked pretty damned handsome, too. A tuxedo, no less. The sight of them together had made her mother cry, but the tears had been tears of joy.
Her parents loved Dominic. After the first shock…well, why wouldn’t they?
What else? Tansy was taking two of Marilyn’s pups. One for her and one for Charles. Erin was giving the third to her parents to keep Peppy company.
The thought made her chuckle-as so many things made her chuckle these days.
And now…This was the first night of their honeymoon.
They were about as far from Bombadeen as it was possible to be. ‘For I’m not sharing my honeymoon with anyone,’ Dom growled and Erin agreed entirely.
He’d found a wonderful tropical hideaway-a room built on stilts over a lagoon so beautiful she hardly believed it was real. They’d flown here in normal travelling clothes but Dom had insisted they bring their wedding finery. Tonight, just for themselves, they dressed again.
‘For now is the time for us,’ Dom decreed, and it was.
So as the sun set over the water, they dressed in full bridal wear.
Erin needed help with the finishing touches. Dom helped her fasten the garland of tiny pink ribbon roses into her hair, then kissed the nape of her neck so gently she sighed with pure, erotic pleasure. There, it was done. Once again they were bride and groom.
A discreet waiter brought them dinner and ice-cold champagne. They dined out on their tiny balcony overlooking the lagoon.
The waiter disappeared. There was nothing but the water lapping gently underneath them, fireflies flitting over the water, moonlight and starlight reflected on the sea, and nothing else.
Except each other.
‘We fell in love at first sight,’ Dom said softly, raising his champagne flute in her honour. ‘We have all our lives to get to know each other.’
‘I believe I know you already,’ Erin said softly. ‘I knew you the moment I saw you. My heart knew you.’
‘That’s corny,’ he said, and smiled.
‘So it is.’
‘True, though.’ He pushed back his chair. ‘Would you like to dance, my love?’
‘I believe I would,’ she whispered, and they did, a long slow waltz with no music but the music that was inside them.
He held her close. Against his heart.
‘So where’s the man who walks alone now?’ she teased, holding him against her, savouring the feel of his body holding her close. Her dress was swishing around them in delicious folds of silk and lace. She was a white cloud on a starlit night. There was nothing and no one but man and wife. In love.
‘Maybe I never was alone,’ he whispered into her hair. ‘Maybe from the time Ruby took me in, from the time her care made me want to take in kids, from the time you walked into my life, from the time I decided to be a dog breeder…Where does love start?’
‘Where does it end?’
‘It never ends,’ he whispered, swinging her round and round and round. ‘And you know the lovely thing about family?’
‘What?’
‘We can use ’em,’ he said in quiet satisfaction. ‘We may have kids and dogs but we also have your parents and Ruby and Tansy and Charles. That’s five great kid sitters. So whenever I want my wife entirely to myself…’
‘Why would you want that?’
He chuckled. ‘Why indeed? Let me show you.’ He lifted her high into his arms and held her against his heart. They gazed together out over the starlit water, and then, firmly, Dom turned his back on the loveliness of the night. He carried his wife into their luxurious room, where a great wide bed was waiting. There were crisp white sheets, mounds of down-stuffed pillows, and soft, soft duvets.
What more could two lovers want?
Only each other. He lowered her onto the sheets and started unfastening the tiny buttons at her breast, one by one.
‘Such a waste,’ she teased softly. ‘To take it all off again.’
‘And again and again,’ he whispered, slipping the dress from her shoulders and sinking to lie beside her. ‘For I’ll love you again and again, for as long as we both shall live.’
‘That sounds just fine to me,’ she whispered. She wound her arms around his neck and tugged him forward, so she could kiss him deeply, properly, wonderfully, as a woman should. As a wife should.
‘That sounds fabulous,’ she whispered. ‘As long as I can love you right back.’
Marion Lennox
