‘I’m a doctor,’ she said, smoothly professional. ‘How can I help?’
‘But the doc-’
‘We had a house fire last night,’ she said, trying to sound like it was no drama. ‘Dr Dom’s taken up with his kids. I’m the doctor on call. Will you allow me to help you instead?’
There was a pause. Then a shattering sob. ‘I’ve just woken up,’ he managed. ‘I think my wife’s dead.’
It took all of two seconds to decide someone needed to go, and that someone should be her.
This was Dom’s patient. In theory she should wake him. But she glanced back into the living room and all three boys were sleeping like the dead.
Martin had snuggled next to Dom during the night. Dom had his arm across the little boy’s shoulders. The sight made her suddenly blink away tears.
She was almost…jealous. It was dumb, but there it was. These guys were a family, and she wanted to be a part of it.
At least she could give them this time. Which meant this was her call.
Quietly she asked the questions she needed to know.
The lady had been suffering from advanced metastatic cancer. Dom had been looking after her at home. Yes, Dom had said she might die, but surely not so soon…
She covered the receiver and talked to Graham, who’d been watching with concern from the landing. ‘Is there someone who can take me to Hughie Matheson’s house?’
‘Sure thing. Is Enid dead, then? We thought it might be soon.’
So the town was expecting this death. More and more, she knew this was something she could deal with. Yes, it’d be better for Hughie if Dom was able to come, but right now triage said those little boys needed him more.
She’d stowed her clothes in the downstairs bathroom so she could have privacy when she dressed. That meant she didn’t need to go back into the living room. Two minutes later she was dressed in jeans and a thick sweater-and Dom’s boots again-and Graham was ushering her out of the house.
‘Thank God you’re here,’ he said, stowing Dom’s medical bag into the back of his truck. ‘Doc’s driving himself into the ground. You don’t want to move here permanently, do you?’
‘I might,’ she said, and he came close to tripping over his feet as he climbed into the truck.
‘You’re kidding.’
‘Maybe I’m not,’ she said cautiously. But the idea was taking solid form.
Dom had said flatly it was impossible. Okay, living in the same house was impossible-she conceded that. But what he was doing with the kids was so worthwhile. If she could share his medical load…
‘Everyone says you need two doctors.’
‘We need half a dozen,’ Graham told her. ‘We’ve been advertising for ever.’
‘So if I were to stay…’
‘You’d never move in with him,’ Graham breathed.
‘I…No.’ Dom had said they couldn’t work together because of this ‘thing’ between them. But maybe they could. If they stayed apart.
Apart for as long as he wanted.
‘I reckon our Tansy’d have something to say about that,’ Graham said, grinning. ‘But that means you’d be needing somewhere to live. What about old Doc’s place?’
Whoa. Things were suddenly moving really fast, even for her newly formed resolutions.
The dawn light was just starting to edge over the horizon. Their truck was headed out of town on a bumpy road. Around them were open paddocks full of sleepy sheep.
How could she move here?
But Graham wasn’t treating the suggestion as silly.
‘Where’s…old Doc’s place?’ she ventured.
‘How about I take you there after we finish at Hughie’s?’ Graham said, warming to his theme. ‘It’s a bachelor pad-a tiny house attached to the building that used to be the hospital. The government closed the hospital when old Doc died. This doc says he can’t open it again-he can’t have inpatients without back-up. But old Doc’s place is owned by the town and it’s for medical staff. That’d mean you. Hell, with two doctors we might be able to open the hospital again. What d’yer reckon?’
‘I reckon I need to think about it,’ she said cautiously. ‘I need to talk to Dom.’
‘What’s this got to do with Dom?’ Graham said easily, chuckling. ‘In my other life I run the local hotel. I’m head of the chamber of commerce, plus I’m shire president. If there’s the possibility of an extra doctor for this place, I’m not letting you go. Consider yourself hired.’
Enid Matheson was indeed dead, peacefully in her own bed, dying in her sleep with her husband beside her.
‘There’s not a lot of women lucky enough to have this as their farewell,’ Erin said gently as she checked all vital signs. Then, just as gently, she touched the lady’s face in the gesture of farewell she always used. Working in Emergency in a big city hospital meant most of her farewells didn’t seem as right as this one. Enid had been in her eighties. There were photographs all over the house-Enid and Hughie, with kids, dogs, grandkids, ribbons for prize bulls, certificates for prize fruit cakes…The house was a cosy, well-loved testament to a woman who had known how to make a home.
Erin thought fleetingly back to her parents’ home, to the super-clean granite and stucco architectural statement her parents worked so hard over-and she was aware of a stab of envy.
Then she thought of the bikes and pogo stick and general chaos in Dom’s yard and felt a stab of something else. The same but different.
But now wasn’t about her, she thought as she finished her examination. Hughie was sitting at the kitchen table, his head in his hands, silently weeping.
She put on the kettle and found two mugs. Outside Graham would be waiting but he’d said, ‘You’re not to worry-there’s others taking care of things back at Dom’s place and I have all the time in the world. Hughie’ll need you. I’ll wait for as long as you need.’
So she took him at his word. In a while she’d do the official stuff-fill in the death certificate, organise an undertaker, ask Hughie who she should call.
But if he’d desperately wanted his family to be with him he’d have called them by now. It seemed he wanted a little time first, before the business of dealing with death began. Thanks to Graham, she could give it to him.
‘Tell me about Enid,’ she said softly, as she put a mug of hot, sweet tea in front of him. ‘This house is lovely. I’m guessing she’s been a wonderful woman.’
‘She is,’ the old farmer said brokenly, and looked through into the bedroom. ‘She was.’ He shook his head. ‘You…you really want to hear about her?’
It was a plea, pure and simple.
‘Yes, I do,’ Erin said strongly, and surprised herself by the truth of what she’d said.
This was a facet of medicine she’d never thought about. Trained and working in city hospitals she’d never been in the position where…
Where patients could be friends, she thought suddenly, with a flash of insight. This Easter was really changing her perspective.
Up until now she’d thought that Dom was a self-sacrificing hero. Now, as she sat in front of the ancient kitchen stove and shared a second and then a third cup of tea and heard about Enid from the time she and Hughie had first met, she thought, No, it worked both ways.
She could do this. What’s more, she wanted to do this.
‘Doc’s been great,’ Hughie said, and she had to haul herself out of her own thoughts and back to him.
‘He’s looked after Enid well?’
‘When we knew the cancer had spread, our kids said we should put her in a hospice. But Doc said if she wanted to stay home then stay home she would, and he’s moved heaven and earth to keep her here. He’s been here nearly every day. He brings those kids with him-I take ’em for a ride on the tractor while he looks after Enid. You know, she’s hardly had pain at all. The minute there’s pain you ring me, he says, and we do…we did…and he’d be here. He’s one in a million. But he works too hard.’
‘I know tha
t,’ she said. ‘I’m thinking of helping him.’
The old farmer’s gaze lifted from the dregs of his tea. His eyes were red-rimmed from weeping but he looked at her now-he really looked.
‘That’d be great,’ he said simply. ‘You’re such a one as he is. I can see it sticking out a country mile. And now…’ He took a deep breath.
‘And now?’
‘It’s time to call the kids,’ he said. ‘It’s time to call the church and the funeral chaps. Thank you for giving me this time, miss. I’ve appreciated it more than you can say.’
‘You want me to make the calls for you?’
‘If you would,’ he said with dignity. ‘I’ll sit with Enid until they come.’
Afterwards Graham drove her home past the old doctor’s house and the building that had once been Bombadeen’s hospital. Weirdly it still looked neat and freshly painted-a long, low building of rendered brick surrounded by well-tended gardens and ancient eucalypts.
‘It looks like it closed yesterday,’ Erin said, confused.
‘The locals hated it when it closed,’ Graham told her. A few of the oldies have taken it on as their retirement project. If we can ever attract another doctor to the place, we can get it open again in a trice.’
‘I’d imagine there’d be heaps of bureaucracy.’
‘I’m really good at bureaucracy.’ Graham was casting her thoughtful, sideways glances.
‘Dom probably likes being the only doctor.’
‘Are you kidding?’
‘If I moved here…’
‘You really are interested?’ He frowned. ‘Miss…Doc…if you don’t mind me saying, I’m hearing you’ve only been here for two days. It’s your car that’s at the bottom of the Boulder Creek Road. Maybe you hit your head on the way down. I don’t think you should make your mind up quite yet.’
‘That’s generous of you.’
‘It is, isn’t it?’ he said cheerfully, and drew the truck into the hospital yard. ‘Okay, I’ve given you my obligatory warning. Now let’s introduce you to your new home. That dog of yours is going to love this yard.’
‘Right.’
He pulled to a halt. She thought he was about to get out but instead he hesitated again. ‘You know, I shouldn’t say this but I have daughters of my own. You and Dom…’
‘What about me and Dom?’
‘He’s a really attractive man, miss,’ he said cautiously. ‘My daughters tell me he’s what they call a hunk. You’re not imagining yourself in love with him after two days.’
‘No!’ Yes.
‘That’s alright, then,’ he said, glad to have that cleared up. ‘My daughters say there’s Tansy and only Tansy. The local lasses have thrown everything they can at him but no one succeeds. And now you…’ He shook his head. ‘Okay, I’m talking out of turn. I know it. I’ve said my piece and now I’ll shut up. Now, let’s go show you your new home.’
They were at the kitchen table eating cornflakes when she got back. And Easter eggs.
‘Happy Easter,’ Dom said. ‘The Easter Bunny’s been.’
They all had an egg in front of them. Or half an egg. There’d obviously been considerable egg consumption in her absence.
But at the end of the table was an empty place, neatly set. In the middle of the place-mat was a shiny, pink-foiled egg.
A tiny white flag was stuck in the top. ‘Erin,’ it said.
Erin. It was her egg.
Weirdly it made tears prick at the back of her eyes. In all this chaos, Dom had still found time to play Easter Bunny.
And he’d remembered her. This very girly pink egg must have been deliberately organised. For her.
‘The Easter Bunny’s more reliable than the chap who cooks the Easter buns,’ he said, and smiled at her with that drop-dead smile that had her heart doing back flips.
‘You bought me an egg.’ Dammit, her bottom lip was quivering.
‘The bunny brought you the egg,’ Nathan corrected her. ‘They were on the table when we woke up this morning.’
‘The bunny’s good,’ she managed.
‘How do you think he knew you were here?’ Nathan asked.
‘Magic,’ she said, and sat down because she needed to. They were gorgeous-the three of them. Her boys…
Now, that was a dumb, possessive thing to think. These guys had nothing to do with her. Though Dom might end up being her partner.
Her medical associate. Nothing more.
She had to get her bottom lip under control.
‘Where have you been?’ Dom asked, passing the cornflakes. ‘The fire guys said you had a call.’
‘Can I eat my egg before I tell you?’
‘If you must.’
‘Of course I must,’ she said, and unwrapped her egg-quite a big egg actually. She bit a very satisfactory hole in the pointy end, munched for a bit, then placed her egg, hole-side down, in front of her cereal bowl. Then she poured her cornflakes.
‘That looks like a ritual,’ Dom said.
She nodded. ‘I’ve done it every Easter Sunday for as long as I can remember. One year the Easter Bunny brought me a chocolate rabbit instead of an egg. It messed with my psyche all year.’
‘I imagine it did,’ Dom said faintly. ‘So where have you been?’
‘Out to the Mathesons’.’
He was half way through handing her the milk jug. His hand froze in mid-air.
‘What-?’
‘A lovely peaceful ending,’ she said, and smiled across the table at him. ‘Thanks to you. Well done, Dr Spencer.’
‘Hughie rang?’
‘At six. Graham drove me out there.’
‘You should have woken me.’ There was no mistaking the anger-a flash of fury.
‘Right,’ she said. ‘You copped more smoke than me last night. I decided this morning that you’re my patient and it was me making the decisions.’
‘You had no right.’
‘I know,’ she said softly. ‘And, indeed, if there was anything you could have done I would have woken you. But there was nothing.’
‘Can we talk about it later?’ he said, tightly.
She thought, Uh-oh, she’d acted unprofessionally. She’d stepped in and acted in his stead without a by-your-leave.
‘Of course we can.’
But then she looked at the little boys oscillating between egg and cornflakes and she knew she’d done the right thing. They’d woken to find Dom beside them. They needed him today.
Dom had made the decision to be a foster-parent. He had to accept the consequences.
What she was thinking must have been obvious. The tight lines of anger changed to something else-confusion?
‘What, not prepared to take an official reprimand?’ he asked, but his heart didn’t sound like it was in it.
‘Not for Enid,’ she said, and tilted her chin. ‘Or for anything else I may have done this morning.’
His voice grew apprehensive. ‘What the hell else have you done this morning?’
She peeped a smile at him. It was Easter Sunday after all, a good day, a day for celebration. Dom looked grim and tired and he was getting help whether he needed it or not.
‘I’ve found a home for Marilyn,’ she told him. ‘But discussion’s for after breakfast. If you’ll excuse me, I have an Easter egg to concentrate on.’
He needed to get his head in order.
The drama of the night was still close to overwhelming. He’d nearly lost Martin.
He’d taken his mind off the game, he thought grimly. These boys needed so much attention. He couldn’t afford to be distracted. And Erin was definitely…distracting.
She was lovely. And that kiss last night…
He’d gone to sleep with that kiss lingering in his senses. He felt it still. She’d kissed him as if she’d meant it, as if she wanted to be a part of him.
Well, that was a crazy thought.
Or maybe not so crazy. He had a great home, a great job, and he had…Yeah, okay, he had enough going in the
testosterone stakes to make him interesting. Ruby had told him that over and over. ‘You’ll make some lucky girl a lovely husband. Just because your parents were a disaster it doesn’t mean the rest of the world’s damaged. Relationships do work. Open yourself up and some nice girl will slip right in.’
While he wasn’t looking. That’s what this felt like-as if Erin had slipped in while his back had been turned. And now she was in and he couldn’t take his mind off her. If she hadn’t been here maybe he’d have sensed that Martin had been troubled last night.
He couldn’t stay this preoccupied. He had to get her out of here.
He’d promised she could stay over Easter.
‘You needn’t worry. I’m organising myself alternative accommodation,’ she said, and smiled sweetly. He blinked. Were his thoughts so obvious?
‘Where?’
‘I’ll tell you after breakfast,’ she repeated. ‘Now, if you don’t mind, I haven’t eaten enough egg.’
CHAPTER TEN
O NLY, of course, after breakfast things got busy. Really busy.
For a start there was the little matter of a fire having almost destroyed a bedroom and part of the ceiling. It seemed Easter Sunday was no reason why the fire department couldn’t come out in force. The morning ended up as an endless parade of men in hard hats traipsing up and down the stairs, climbing ladders, knocking holes in roofing tiles and clambering about the ceiling.
‘It’s still structurally sound,’ Graham somewhat grudgingly admitted at lunchtime. ‘But you’ve got your work cut out getting Tansy’s room ready for her to come home.’
‘I need to contact her and find out what she wants done with her damaged possessions,’ Dom said. ‘We’ll keep as much as possible intact until she comes back.’
‘When will she be back?’
‘In a couple of weeks,’ Dom said, as Erin listened from behind.
The unknown Tansy.
She shouldn’t mind, Erin thought. Why did the idea of Tansy have the power to unsettle her?
She knew exactly why, but she was trying hard not to admit it.
Luckily she had a distraction. A couple of church ladies arrived and offered to take the boys on an Easter-egg hunt.
Even though the thought of the hunt was enticing, the boys were clingy and Martin still needed observation. An X-ray had shown a rib had a hairline crack, though it didn’t seem to be bothering him. But the boys wanted to go. Dom was needed at the house, so Erin offered to go with them.
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