she was born and bred by the sea. The Douglas children had always had boats, mostly home-made by themselves, and there were always too many children in them. She was an expert in keeping old tubs afloat.
And blessedly her self-taught skills didn’t let her down. By the time Matt’s head appeared, dripping, as he clung to the side, she was holding her two little boys to her as if her life depended on it, and she was able to move backwards to stabilise the boat and let Matt haul himself on board.
And then she had the sense to shift again to the middle. So that once he was safely on board, Matt could take all of them into his arms. It was sandwich squeeze of half-drowned adults and kids, who held each other as if they’d never let each other go again. Forever.
Around them the flotilla of fishermen and police watched with blatant approval and the odd goofy smile. This was the happy ending they’d all wanted so badly.
They should move. They should get the old tub into the lee of the harbour so they could shift the kids out of it.
They should.
But for this moment, no one moved at all. It was as if everyone knew that, right there and then, a family was being forged that would take more power than the sea to split asunder.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
THE children were asleep.
Shocked to the core, they’d been held tight while ropes from the fishing boat tugged them slowly and safely back into the lee of the harbour. Once there, they were transferred to the police launch, William clinging for dear life to Erin, and Henry clinging just as closely to Matt. Then they’d been dried off and brought home.
Charlotte wasn’t waiting.
‘I said a few unforgivable things to Charlotte,’ Matt told Erin briefly, as they put the twins through a warm bath and snuggled them into bed-the same bed-and watched them fall instantly asleep with their precious Tigger between them. ‘I don’t suppose she’ll be back.’
‘Oh, Matt, I’m so sorry.’
‘Don’t be. I’ve been a fool, and I’ve been blessed to get out of it as lightly as I have.’
And now, dried and dressed themselves, they were standing in the living room watching the embers of Charlotte’s fire die in the grate. The first rays of dawn were breaking over the horizon out to sea.
Erin still hadn’t bought herself a decent dressing gown. She was still wearing her huge flannelette welfare handout that made her look about ten years old, and, watching her, Matt thought back to the moment when he’d seen Erin dive from the boat.
Something in him had almost died in that moment. For one awful minute until she surfaced, he’d thought he might lose all of them.
He couldn’t bear it. And he couldn’t bear to waste another precious minute.
‘Marry me, Erin,’ he said, and the world held its breath.
She stared. ‘M… Marry you?’
‘That’s what I said.’ He took the two short steps to bridge the space between them, and he pulled her to him. Somehow he couldn’t bear not to, and as her soft body yielded to his he knew that he could never let her go again.
Dear God, he loved her so much. How had he not known it before? He loved her and loved her and loved her.
But she was pushing him away, and her eyes were troubled. ‘Matt, it’s just the night. It’s shock or something. You love Charlotte.’
‘I don’t love Charlotte.’ He glanced down at the beautifully polished coffee table and there was a diamond ring, lying where she’d tossed it in indignation at what he’d said to her. ‘And she doesn’t love me,’ he continued. ‘You see? She’s given me back my ring. Not that I want it.’
‘So now you…’ Erin paused, still troubled. ‘You want me to wear it?’
He shook his head at that, absolutely definite. ‘No way.’ Suddenly his arms were holding her again, and a woman would have to have super powers to resist his hold.
‘Not that,’ he said. ‘Charlotte can have it if she wants it, but you’re not wearing her ring. You and Charlotte… you’re about as different as two women could be and I was a fool to see it. Erin, I love you. The ring we buy, we buy together, and it’ll be a ring full of colour and light. Just like you. Sapphires and rubies and… I don’t know. Everything. All the colour you’ve brought into my life.’
Dear heaven… Somewhere deep inside, Erin’s heart was starting to sing.
But not now. Not yet. She couldn’t!
‘Matt…’
He kissed her lightly on her damp hair, and then, because he could resist no longer, he tilted her chin and kissed her deeply on her mouth. The kiss lasted forever, and was a vow all by itself.
‘Yes, love?’ he said, and his voice was a husky whisper, filled with passion.
‘Matt…’ She was trying so hard to make herself say what had to be said. She must! Tonight she’d known. As well as loving this man, she had other loves. ‘Matt, I can’t leave the twins.’
Was that all that was troubling her? With a shout of triumph, he lifted her high and whirled her above his head. ‘The twins? You think I don’t love the twins like I’ll love my own children? They’re part of you, my love. A package deal. It’s all or nothing, and I want it all!’
‘You…’ She was swinging dizzily off her feet. ‘You mean you’ll adopt the twins?’
‘
Here was her home.
He set her down on her feet, and his voice became surer. He took her hands in his, and their eyes locked.
‘So you’ll marry me?’ he asked.
Yes, her heart screamed but there were things that needed to be said. It was only fair to warn him.
‘Matt, your life will be chaos.’
‘I’ve discovered I love chaos.’
‘But you love your mother’s lovely things!’ She looked around the room. ‘This carpet… The porcelain… There’ll be accidents. I know the kids. We won’t be able to keep the house to the standards you like.’
The answer to that was easy. He lifted one piece of porcelain-a droopy Romeo and Juliet, for heaven’s sake- and let it drop. It hit the grate and smashed into a thousand pieces. Then, as Erin gasped in horror, he grabbed the blackened poker from the fire. Very deliberately he walked across the room and drew in huge letters on the once pristine carpet.
‘Matt!’ She was shocked to the core. ‘That’s vandalism. If you were mine, I’d spank you.’
‘Hmm…’ His loving eyes mocked a challenge. ‘You want to try?’
‘Erin Douglas,’ he teased right back. ‘Now, will you marry me, or do I have to smash every piece of porcelain in the place before you agree?’
‘We’d be much better packing it up as a wedding present for Charlotte and Bradley,’ Erin said seriously, and Matt gave a whoop of pure joy.
‘Very practical.’ She was in his arms again. ‘Very sensible. You’re my own gorgeous, sensible, crazy, House Mother. My love. My heart. My Erin. Now… Are you going to admit that you’ll marry me? Or am I going to have to kiss you senseless, and keep right on kissing you until you finally grow so weak you agree?’
And what was a girl to say to that?
‘Yes, please,’ she said. ‘If only to stop you kissing me senseless.’
‘I have news for you,’ he told her. ‘I intend to do that anyway!’
