Hot Pursuit (25 page)

Maggie turned to face Nick, hoping that the warmth and affection she felt for him showed on her face and in her eyes. She had never loved anyone or felt more loved in her life than she did with Nick. It couldn’t be any easier for him than her but it was always Maggie they discussed. Perhaps for Nick there had been less of a choice; he had had to go. But she and the boys had chosen to leave with him.

For Nick, the three of them were his fresh start, a ready-made family to cushion the blow of what amounted to banishment for life from everything he had ever had. Sometimes it seemed like a very big price to pay for a little justice; but then who was she to judge?

Nick, Maggie knew, was painfully aware that she had done nothing and yet had chosen to share his sentence, so maybe it was guilt mingled with gratitude that made him ask her.

Maggie grinned and pulled him close; curling
up against his body. How would she ever make him understand that while it was a hard choice it felt like the right choice – the only choice. Nick Somerville, nee Lucas, was the best thing that had happened to Maggie in years.

‘So yes, I do love it here and I love being with you. It’s just that some days it seems too big a thing, but I also know that it was the right thing. Do you understand?’

Nick lifted her fingertips to his lips. She let the grin linger. ‘And you have to remember I lost you once – I still keep thinking how bloody awful that felt, seeing you lying there, thinking you were dead, feeling as if I had lost the chance to even begin. I don’t ever want to do it again.’

The intensity of the moment was broken by Maggie yelping and jumping out of the way as their dog – an Australian Blue Heeler – charged between them, shaking the water from his sleek mottled coat, barking with excitement as he went.

‘Bloody dog,’ she laughed, picking up the stick that the dog had dropped at her feet and throwing it ahead of them into the white lacy-edged waves. ‘And I suppose if it gets too bad I could always dye my hair, wear dark glasses and pop back for a holiday and leave you here to mind the fort. Assuming you wouldn’t mind teaching my Year Six’s next term?’

Nick grinned. ‘I knew that you were something special the first day I met you, Maggie.’

She pulled a face and poked him teasingly. ‘Oh please, Nick. I was actually just thinking how much easier my life would have been if I’d followed my first instinct and laid you out with a baseball bat the moment I clapped eyes on you.’

‘There’s still plenty of time for that,’ he said, as she broke away from him and raced off down the beach, giggling.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

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A Paperback Original 2004

Copyright (c) Gemma Fox 2004

Gemma Fox asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

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EPub Edition © FEBRUARY 2010 ISBN: 978-0-007-36810-5

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