‘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.’