crab walk at the children’s hospital. But of course you were Grant’s girlfriend. I was going out with someone else, and I told myself I was a fool. I couldn’t want what Grant had.’
‘But-’
‘But then you came to the farm for Christmas,’ he continued. ‘Do you know how close I came to breaking? You were so near. And Grant kept leaving and you were there, laughing, loving, making my parents love you, making me love you…’
‘You had a girlfriend.’
‘No. I broke up with Rachel before that week was out. I knew what I felt for you was impossible, but I also knew it was impossible to keep up any relationship with anyone else while I felt like I did. But you were still going out with Grant, and then he rang and said you’d agreed to marry him.’
‘I was so in love with your family,’ she whispered. ‘I thought… I had it all mixed up. But it was a mistake.’
‘Noa told me.’ He closed his eyes and took her hands in his. ‘It took a terrified refugee with all the world to lose to make me see the truth. We talked while we were waiting for the plane to come. Azron was asleep and I was treating her wrist. I asked her why she’d described me as “Sarah’s Alistair” and she told me the story you’d told her. She told me that you loved me. That you’d realised you were marrying Grant not for him but for his family-for me! That you loved Grant only because he was so like me. But he wasn’t the same. And as soon as you realised you broke off your engagement. Is that true, Sarah?’
Sarah gazed up at him, stunned. Noa had told him this? In the face of her terror Noa had taken this in and felt it important enough to tell Alistair? ‘Yes, but…’
‘And you weren’t engaged to Grant when the car crashed?’
‘No.’
‘He hadn’t told us.’
‘He didn’t want me to break it off. He was still trying to make me change my mind.’
‘And you wouldn’t?’
‘I loved you,’ she said softly. ‘I fell so hard… Over Christmas. Every time you smiled… And the only way I could get near that smile was to marry Grant. But of course it wasn’t enough. It wasn’t nearly enough.’
‘And then Grant was killed.’ Alistair was holding her so tight he was hurting-but not hurting. How could he hurt her? ‘If you knew how I felt… I loved you, and yet everything was screaming at me that it was crazy. As far as I knew you were still engaged to my twin. And he was dead. You were driving when you shouldn’t have been. There was grief…so much grief for my twin. And my parents were bereft, and then ill. I couldn’t cope with the way I felt about you. I couldn’t begin to think about you…like that. And all along…’
‘Alistair…’
‘Enough.’ He was still holding her, but his grip had slackened a little. He put a hand up and traced the bandage across her forehead. ‘I’ve come so close this day. So close to losing the most precious thing in the world. I’ll not let that happen again. Do you hear?’
‘Not?’ There was a searing joy exploding around her heart. Joy coursing through her veins, taking over her world. Joy…
How could this thing suddenly be so right? How could so much grief suddenly be made right? And yet it was. Here was her man. Her partner. Her life’s meet.
Alistair…
She didn’t speak. She didn’t have to. She was gazing at him and all the joy in her heart was right there in her eyes.
She was gathered into his arms and she was melting into him. His lips were claiming hers, their hearts were merging, heartbeats beating with a single rhythm.
Pain becoming joy.
Two becoming one.
All they needed was a wedding…
CHAPTER TWELVE
DAWN.
Dawn at Dolphin Cove. It was a strange time for a wedding, but here in the north where the searing heat took over in the middle of the day no one was complaining. No one was complaining at all.
Every man and his dog was here.
Larry was here, with so many police squad members-friends Sarah had hardly known she had. Max was best man. Claire was bridesmaid, beaming with proprietary joy.
Every person in the district seemed to be on the beach this morning.
And every dog.
Flotsam was here-of course. The little dog was busier than ever these days, with a new pup demanding his full attention. The black and white ball of cocker spaniel fluff was the town’s get-well gift to Azron. Appropriately or not, the town had voted his name as Jetsam.
They wore wonderful red ribbons-and why not? It was such an occasion. The fishermen had fashioned a guard of honour, using fishing nets as a gorgeous canopy instead of upraised swords. They’d provided the basis for the wedding breakfast laid on in marquees on the beach. Seafood to die for. Crays, bugs, oysters, prawns. And cakes and pastries that the district women had been planning for months. Every local was doing his utmost to see that this wedding was one that would last.
Well, why wouldn’t they? In Alistair they had a doctor in a million, and this new lady doctor met with general approval.
For Sarah had taken her third career step without a backward glance. First a paediatrician. Second a forensic pathologist. And now here she was, a country doctor with a little police work on the side, helping out the brand-new sergeant of police-one of Larry’s men, who’d fallen in love with the place and asked to stay.
It fitted beautifully. Sarah still had time to continue with the police work she’d grown to enjoy. And Dolphin Cove, once medically understaffed, now threatened to be a medical mecca for the north. Because there was another doctor here, too.
Amal was here, with his wife and his son. All fully recovered. Gloriously recovered. The Dolphin Cove community had offered to sponsor the little family, and it seemed everyone in town had wanted to take a hand in providing a safe and comfortable home for these people whose introduction to this country had been so harsh.
It was working out so well. Alistair was mentoring Amal as he did the retraining necessary to work as a doctor in this strange new country. Maybe when he qualified he would move to a bigger place, but for now Azron was at kindergarten here, and loving it, Noa had been taken under the wing of the local women, and the little family was blooming.
Azron was pageboy, beaming with pride at his responsibilities, and his parents beamed with joy at this, their first wedding in this wonderful new home. Sarah had asked Noa to be her matron of honour, but Noa had blushed and declined. She’d laid her hand on her tummy and smiled and smiled.
‘It is very early. Very early. I feel…sometimes a little sick. I would prefer not to spoil your day.’
How could she spoil it? There was so much happiness here for all of them. But Sarah wouldn’t push her. This little family who’d been through so much had found a home here in the most unexpected of places.
It seemed they were here to stay.
And Sarah? And Alistair?
They were here to stay, too. Of course they were.
They stood on the beach with their faces turned towards the rising sun, and they made their vows in voices that told every watching person that there was no mistaking their sincerity. Their love. Their joy.
No one who saw them could doubt that this man and this woman were meant for each other.
From this day forth.
For ever.
