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‘Marjory?’
‘Charles’s mother,’ she said, and bit into her scone with a savagery that made him blink.
‘Um…’
‘Don’t ask,’ she said. ‘I love them but they drive me nuts. In a while I’ll phone and ask them to come and get me.’ She looked down at her sarong and winced. ‘I’m not sure what they’ll think of my fashion sense. What do you think, boys?’
The little boys had been staring at her like she had two heads. They were totally entranced.
‘It’s very…nice,’ Martin tried.
‘My mum wore a blanket sometimes,’ Nathan offered.
‘Your mum…’
‘I’ve washed your clothes,’ Dom said, thinking maybe now was a good time to deflect the conversation. ‘I put them in the washer last night—they’re in the drier now. I’d expect you’ll have decent clothes in about half an hour.’
‘I think I ripped them.’
‘You may have,’ he agreed. ‘Did you have any more? In the car?’
‘Of course.’
‘I let the police know about the crash last night. If the local cop doesn’t arrive with your gear, we’ll go and get it.’
‘Did you really crash your car?’ Martin asked.
‘I did.’ Then, seeing the boys’ desire for gory detail, she relented. ‘Marilyn, the dog, was in the middle of the road. I swerved to avoid hitting her. My car went off the road and rolled all the way down to the river.
‘Rolled…’ Nathan breathed.
‘Rolled,’ she agreed. ‘Over and over. It was lucky I was wearing a seat belt or I’d have been squashed.’
‘You must have been scared,’ Martin said.
‘I was.’ She nodded, looking satisfactorily ghoulish. ‘I could have been deader than a duck.’ Her dark eyes twinkled. ‘If it was a dead duck, that is.’
But Martin wasn’t to be deflected. He was off in his own horror story. ‘You might have rolled into the river and drowned,’ he said, and frowned. ‘I think my dad drowned. My aunty said he drowned himself in booze.’
‘I’m so sorry,’ Erin said, focusing directly on the little boy before her. Her playacting disappeared. Her expression was suddenly adult to adult, and Dom thought, This woman is skilled. Empathic. Kind. Her whole body language said she cared.
‘I can’t even remember him,’ Martin said. ‘I can remember Mum but she’s gone, too.’
‘Does that make you really sad?’ Erin asked. Cautious.
‘No,’ cos Dom’s looking after me,’ Martin said, cheering up. ‘And Tansy, but Tansy’s not here. But you’re here, and now Marilyn is, too.’
‘The dog’s here only till this lady goes home,’ Dom said warningly and Erin thought…
‘No,’ Dom said.
She looked startled. ‘What?’
‘It’s two who can play at face-reading,’ he retorted. ‘I’m sorry you crashed your car. I’m also very sorry for Marilyn but I can’t keep her.’
‘You can’t…’ She paused. ‘No. I… Of course you can’t.’
‘I’m looking after two boys and the medical needs of this entire community,’ he said. ‘Normally I have a housekeeper…’
‘No wife?’ she said before she could stop herself.
‘No wife,’ he agreed, and smiled at her evident confusion. ‘I’m sorry. Last night you assumed there was, and because you were scared it seemed more sensible to let you believe it. We normally have a live-in housekeeper—Tansy. She’s great, isn’t she, boys? But her sister had a baby last week so Tansy’s flown to Queensland to help out. Which means when I get an urgent callout the boys have to come with me. I can hardly take Marilyn and the pups as well. I can only take on so much.’
‘Of course you can,’ she said, hurriedly. ‘I…I’ll think of something.’
‘Of course you will,’ he said, and had to bite back the urge to say, Stay here. Of course we can keep your dog. We can keep you, too, if you want.
Which was ridiculous. There was no earthly reason why he should look at this woman and feel his heart hammer in his chest. She was a patient, who’d come to him for help.
She didn’t belong here.
His body was telling him she did.
His body had better go take a hike.
Maybe he had more of his mother in him than he thought. His mother had believed in love at first sight and she’d messed with both of their lives because of it. Her romantic ideals had turned into loser after loser. She saw life through rose-coloured glasses, and her dreams turned to nightmares every time.
‘I have work to do,’ he said abruptly.
‘I won’t interfere.’
‘I know you won’t,’ he said. And added silently as he left, for his ears only, Because I won’t let you.
* * *
She’d upset him. He’d walked out of the room like he couldn’t leave fast enough. Like she was contagious.
Ridiculous. She must be mistaken.
She ate another scone and had a second cup of coffee and talked to the boys. The tumble-drier whirred to a halt in the next room, and Dom appeared again, with an armful of clean, dry clothes.
‘Do you want to phone your family?’ he asked, brusque and businesslike. ‘You lost your cellphone, didn’t you. You can use my land line.’
She glanced at her watch. Nine. If she was driving from Melbourne this morning she’d hardly arrive before eleven. They wouldn’t be worrying. She could have a couple more hours…
Of what? Sitting in this man’s kitchen eating more hot cross scones while he stayed out of her way?
Stupid. She was avoiding the inevitable. She had to go.
And Marilyn? If she was careful she could get her onto the back seat of Charles’s or her father’s car, she decided. Sure, they shouldn’t disrupt her but it was a whole lot better than putting her down. Which was the alternative.
‘You could ring the local animal shelter,’ Dom said, watching her face and seeing her indecision. ‘They might be able to do something.’
‘On the first day of a four-day holiday? An injured stray with hours-oldpuppies?’ She shook her head. ‘I’llthink of something.’ She rose to her feet. Feeling shaky. Feeling unaccountably desolate.
‘I’ll fetch some crutches from the surgery.’
‘Thank you.’
‘We can be your crutches,’ Martin said stoically. But he was looking doubtful. ‘Are you taking the puppies away?’
‘They’re Erin’s puppies,’ Dom said.
‘Does she want them?’ Martin looked at Erin with eyes that said he’d been lied to in the past. His clear, green eyes were challenging.
‘Of course I want them,’ Erin said, forcing brightness. And then she glanced out into the hall and saw the heap of doggie contentment by the door. ‘Of course I want them,’ she reiterated, sounding more sure of herself. ‘It’s just a matter of convincing my family.’
Her family en masse—including Charles’s parents—were appalled. Erin tried to downplay the accident—a skid on a wet road to avoid a dog—but for her extended family, even a minor incident had the power to dredge up fearsome memories. It took a while to assure her mother she wasn’t hurt, honest, it had been a minor accident, and, no, she didn’t need their help, she only needed someone to fetch her.
Her mother put Charles on. So Charles hadn’t told them what had happened between them? Or maybe he had but he’d explained she was being silly. Hormonal, he’d said the last time she’d seen him, which had made her want to hit him.
By the time she spoke to Charles she was emotionally wrung out. She didn’t have energy left to explain she still had Marilyn.
‘I’ll be there as soon as I can,’ Charles said, and she knew she’d shaken him as well. She knew he’d come fast.
She didn’t want Charles. She wanted her dad to come, but of course they acted as a team.
They all cared for her. They cared for her so well she felt…stifled.
The doorbell pealed while she was getting dressed and her feeling of oppression deepened. But then she thought, surely Charles couldn’t be here already.
Maybe it was another patient. Maybe it was another need for Dom to face this Easter.
If he was called out… Maybe she could stay with the boys for a while, she thought. As a thank-you gesture. Charles wouldn’t mind waiting. He could have one of her hot cross scones.
She hauled her windcheater over her head and opened the living-room door with caution. Dom was at the front door, facing a stranger.
The man in the doorway was long, lanky and unkempt. He was maybe six feet four or so. He had limp, dirty hair that hung in dreadlocks to his shoulders. He was wearing tattered clothes and frayed sandals, and in his hands he was holding the biggest Easter egg Erin had ever seen. As big as two footballs, the thing was wider than he was.
‘I’m here to see Nathan,’ the man snapped, and then started coughing. Dom took the egg and waited until the coughing ceased.
‘Nathan,’ he called down the passage.
Marilyn was right behind him in the hall, between Erin and the front door, between Dom and Erin. As he glanced backward past the dog, Dom’s eyes met Erin’s. He gave her a blank stare—the sort of look doctors gave each other in the emergency department to say caution, act with care.
Nathan came running out of the kitchen. He saw who was at the front door—and stopped.
‘Here’s your dad,’ Dom said, gently, Erin noticed. ‘I think he’s brought you a present.
‘I can tell my kid that myself,’ the man said, aggressively.
‘Would you like to come in?’ Dom asked. He gestured to Marilyn. ‘Sorry about the mess. Our dog gave birth to puppies last night in just the wrong place.’
Our dog? Okay, maybe anything else would be too hard to explain, Erin conceded. For now Marilyn was communal property.
‘I’m not coming in,’ the man growled. ‘This place gives me the creeps.’
‘It’s a safe house, Dad,’ Nathan said in a small voice. ‘No one hits you here.’
There was moment’s deathly silence. The man seemed to freeze.
‘No one hits you anywhere,’ the man said finally, in a voice that said he didn’t believe it himself.
No one responded.
‘How’s the methadone programme going?’ Dom asked, and the man’s anger returned.
‘Bloody stuff doesn’t work. You know that.’
‘So you’re using again?’
‘Yeah, but I want the kid.’
‘You know the courts said you need to be clear for three months before they’ll consider it. Methadone and testing—you know the drill. We’ve been through it over and over. People are trying to help you.’
‘F…do-gooders.’
‘It’s all we can do, Michael,’ Dom said wearily. ‘Would you like some breakfast?’
‘Nah. I just want to give the kid the egg.’ He held it toward Nathan, not moving an inch inside the house. ‘Come on, Nathe,’ he said in a wheedling voice. ‘I bought it good and proper. With me pension money.’
‘It’s pretty big,’ Nathan said, but he didn’t look pleased. In fact, he looked close to tears.
‘So come and get it,’ Michael said.
Nathan edged forward along the hallway, inching his way past Marilyn. But it wasn’t the dog he was scared of, Erin thought. When he reached Michael his face was bleached white. Dom’s hand came down to rest on his shoulder.
‘Hey, it’s good that your dad’s brought you an egg,’ he said.
‘Y-yeah.’ Nathan took a deep breath, as if searching for courage. He reached out and the egg was shoved into his arms.
‘There,’ Michael said, satisfied. ‘You can’t say I don’t have contact with him. Can you?’ he demanded of Dom belligerently.
‘Of course I can’t,’ Dom said. ‘But if you want custody you need to get serious about the methadone programme.’
‘Yeah, yeah. After Easter. When I get me life in order a bit. But me and a mate are going surfing.’ He glanced out to the street where an ancient purple kombi van was clearly waiting for him. ‘I’d love to take you, Nathe.’
‘Yes,’ Nathan said, but his hand crept into Dom’s and held it.
