Nathan’s ‘island’ was eight feet wide at its widest. In the centre was a jagged knob. That’s why he hadn’t been swept off-he’d been able to cling to it.

Erin swam the few yards to the rock in record time. She hauled herself up onto the ledge then grabbed Nathan and the rocky knob as another breaker crashed over them.

It took all her strength to hold on. When the wave receded, Nathan was stuck to her like a limpet, holding on with hands and feet, and she was clutching the knob beyond him.

With the incoming tide this was only going to get worse. It was a miracle Nathan had held on this long.

‘Can you swim?’

‘N-no.’

‘Then you’ll have to float,’ she said, spitting water. ‘And let me hold you. But, Nathan, if you try and hold me, we’ll both drown.’

‘I’m scared.’

‘Me, too.’ So much for reassurance, but it seemed to work. Nathan seemed to steady. The bravery of him…All of five years old and he was a hero.

A smaller wave washed over them. They didn’t go under this time but another wave was bearing down.

‘After this next one,’ Erin said, urgently. ‘We’ll roll back into the water and let the wave push us toward the cliff. As soon as the wave’s past you lie on your back and I’ll tow you. If another wave comes you’re not to panic-just hold your nose and wait till it passes. I’ll hold you around your shoulders. You’re not to try and grab me ’cos I have to use all my energy to swim. Do you think you can do that?’

‘Is Dom coming?’ Nathan quavered.

‘Of course he is,’ Erin said. ‘Here’s the wave, Nathe. Ready, set, go.’

She wasn’t at the house but Marilyn was in the kitchen, pacing back and forth to the back door.

‘So where’s your mistress?’ Dom said, crouching down and fondling her ears. ‘What have you done with her?’

As if in answer, Marilyn crossed to the open back door and stared anxiously into the night.

Toward the beach.

‘I told her not to search,’ Dom said, so savagely that Marilyn looked up at him in surprise. He relented and crouched down to give her another pat. ‘I s’pose you think that’s dumb. Telling Erin to keep out of my life.’

Marilyn groaned in agreement-or maybe because she really liked what Dom was doing behind her ears.

But doggy massage wasn’t on the agenda. ‘Okay,’ he said, and straightened. ‘Let’s assume she’s gone along the beach. I’m guessing she’s heading toward my place.’

He should wait for help. For back-up. But…

‘Everyone’s looking for Nathan,’ he told Marilyn. ‘I don’t want them to stop just because one dumb, female doctor…’

Who you happen to love…

Where had that come from? No matter-it just had-and once thought couldn’t be retracted.

‘Okay, who I just happen to love,’ he said, resigned. ‘Regardless. She’s risking her neck and her feet walking along the beach at high tide in the dark. But who am I to query her motives? Okay, Marilyn, while we wait for the rest of the world to find Nathan, I need to find Erin.’

She had Nathan safe. For now. She was shoving him out of the water onto the rock ledge she’d set off from, but even as she did so she saw their escape route had been cut off.

Part of the ledge she’d clambered over was now awash.

At least the rocks they were on now were dry. She hauled herself up after Nathan, she hugged him tight and she tried to assess whether they could clamber back to the beach between waves.

The answer was no. The sea was building; the strengthening wind whipping up waves already swelling with the tide. It had been risky enough trying to get Nathan here. She daren’t move any further.

At least the rock they were on wasn’t slippery. Maybe it was higher than the high-water mark.

Please…

‘Will Dom come and find us?’ Nathan asked in a tiny voice, and she hugged him close and thought he was such a brave little kid. Brave beyond his years. To be allocated a father like Michael…

It wasn’t fair. She wanted…she wanted…

She knew what she wanted. Dom only took kids in peril. When the peril was past…if she could manoeuvre her way round the challenge of Nathan’s appalling father…if Dom didn’t want Nathan…if Dom didn’t want her…

‘I seem to be adding to my family,’ she told Nathan, hugging him close. ‘Me and Marilyn and three puppies. And now you, if I can find a way to wiggle you into my life. If we can figure what to do with your dad. They say the heart expands to fit all comers. I wonder how my mum and dad feel about becoming grandparents?’

‘Erin!’ Dom was shouting into the rising wind, starting to worry in earnest as he saw the sea building. Storms could arrive without warning, and this had all the signs of being a beauty.

Dear God, Nathan was out in it. And Erin…

What the hell was she playing at? ‘Erin!’

‘Cooee.’

He stopped dead.

‘Erin?’

‘Cooee.’ It was the Australian bush call, echoing over the waves.

Where…?

There was no way she could have got further than the ledge he’d reached. Where…?

‘Cooee?’

She must have reached further. Before the tide came in?

Dammit, was she trying to kill herself? Didn’t she know-?

‘Cooee.’

‘Alright, I’m coming,’ he said grimly. ‘Hold on.’

Their ledge was precarious. It might be safe for a little longer but the waves were already reaching just beneath the rock they were on.

Swimming out to Nathan, the sea had at least been clear. Here, though, the partial cliff collapse meant the sea was churning round jagged rocks. On her own she might have clambered back, knowing she’d probably be able to haul herself out if she was washed in. With Nathan, though…not.

He’d been extraordinarily brave. He’d lain limply in her grasp as she’d towed him here, and for a five-year-old to do that…

She was so proud of him she could cry, but she couldn’t take him further. Neither could she leave him to get help.

Her phone was dead-salt water wasn’t great for reception. All they could do was wait. And hope.

‘He’ll come, won’t he?’ Nathan asked again, through chattering teeth.

‘Of course he will,’ Erin said, but it sounded hollow even to her.

Stay or go? Damned if she did, damned if she didn’t.

Stay. There was no choice.

She held onto Nathan, she hugged him and she prayed. Dom, Dom, Dom.

‘Erin…’

When had her name ever sounded as good?

‘Cooee.’

She’d expected him to go for help. She’d never thought he’d clamber round the rocks.

He was ten yards away before she saw him in the moonlight. He’d been washed from a rock and had a handhold again, hauling himself out of the sea and up to safety.

She didn’t move. Nathan was hugged hard against her and it was Nathan who was directing traffic.

‘We’re up here. Dom, look out, there’s another wave, duck, hurry, we’re here.’

He’d reach them, she thought, mistily. Her kelpie. ‘I am a man upon the land, I am a kelpie upon the sea…’

She sang it with joy in her heart. Nathan stared at her like she’d lost her mind, and Dom hauled himself up the last rock and heard what she was singing. He stared at her as if he couldn’t believe his eyes-and then he burst out laughing.

He gathered the pair of them into his arms.

And then he kissed her.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

FIRST things first. Or, rather, second, because the kiss came first but that didn’t count as it was imperative. Erin tugged herself from Dom’s hold and smiled mistily at her love.

‘I knew you’d come.’

‘Marilyn told me you were here.’

‘Good old Marilyn,’ she said happily. ‘I rescued her and she’s rescued me right back. But, Dom…’

‘Mmm?’ He held her tight, with Nathan squeezed somewhere in between.

‘I dare say you didn’t think about it on your very noble climb around here but we can’t climb back and my phone got wet. The tide’s still coming in. These waves are getting higher. And if I’m not mistaken, your phone just got wet too.’

‘Yeah, but I phoned before I climbed,’ he said lovingly, and she blinked.

‘You phoned?’

‘Triage,’ he said. ‘What they taught us in medical school. Think about danger-i.e. personal safety first.’

‘You’re wonderful,’ she said happily. There was no earthly reason to be happy. She was soaked, she was battered, she wasn’t in the least bit safe-yet-and here she was, grinning like a fool just because this man had put himself in the same deadly peril she was in.

‘I love you,’ he said, and she stopped grinning.

‘P-pardon?’

‘I think you heard,’ Dom said. He hauled Nathan onto his knee. Dom was sitting on the end of their ledge, his feet hanging over the side so his already soaking feet got even wetter. It didn’t look like he cared, though. ‘Do you think she heard, Nathe?’

‘You said you loved her,’ Nathan said. ‘Why?’

‘Good question,’ Dom said.

‘Um…Dom?’

‘Yes, my love,’ he said, so lovingly she thought she’d drowned and gone to heaven. But this wouldn’t do, she told herself severely, trying to focus on something other than what he’d just said. There was a certain amount of triage she needed to do herself if this wasn’t to be the shortest engagement in the history of the world.

‘Um…you said you rang before you came.’

‘I did,’ he said-modestly. ‘I told Graham I thought you were stuck on a cliff at Moonlight Bluff-that’s where we’re sitting, by the way. I said if he didn’t hear back within ten minutes could he contact the authorities and get a helicopter.’

‘You didn’t,’ she breathed.

‘I know-Mr Wonderful,’ he said modestly, and she choked.

‘Um…how do we know the helicopter’s free to come save us?’ she asked. She shouldn’t ask. Nathan had relaxed, slumping against Dom, feeling safe and loved and…home. Like she wanted to be. And she could be, she thought, dazed. She just had to get these niggling worries sorted first. Like whether or not they were going to drown.