St Piran's: The Fireman and Nurse Loveday (13 page)

He dragged in a breath. Not now. He needed to take this slowly. Get her to talk to him again. ‘Please, Megan? ‘

She looked wary, but she nodded. ‘OK.’

Josh wanted to punch the air. ‘Back in a second, OK?’

Even though he grabbed the first sandwich he could see from the chiller, by the time he’d paid for them and two coffees, he could see that Megan had changed her mind.

‘Sorry. My bleep just went.’

She might’ve been using it as an excuse; then again, it might not be. Her department was busy.

But this felt just a little too convenient.

‘Sorry,’ she said again, and fled.

Tom and Joey met Flora at the surgery on Tuesday with a picnic basket; although it was cold, it was dry and for once not windy. They ate sandwiches on the beach, then went for a walk to collect shells.

‘So have you thought any more about going to the football dinner with me?’ Tom asked.

‘I’m still thinking about it,’ she admitted.

‘Sure. I don’t want to rush you.’

Which made her feel even worse, because he was being so patient with her. The dinner was less than a week away, and there would be a cut-off point for getting tickets.

But she still couldn’t help thinking that someone as popular as Tom could have absolutely anyone he wanted. Was he only spending time with her for Joey’s sake? And besides, despite what they’d shared on Sunday night, he hadn’t actually said he loved her—just that she made him feel amazing.

Was she expecting too much? All she’d ever wanted was someone who loved her for herself. Could Tom be that man?

And why couldn’t she shake the feeling that this was all going to go horribly wrong?

Flora was miserable all evening; and, at the surgery the next morning, Kate Tremayne came in to the treatment room and closed the door behind her.

‘Are you OK, Flora? ‘

Flora summoned a smile. ‘Of course I am,’ she lied.

‘Don’t fib.’ Kate put her hands on her hips. ‘You’ve got five minutes before your first patient. Now talk.’

Flora opened her mouth to say that nothing was wrong—but ended up spilling all her doubts. She finished miserably, ‘He’s asked me to go to the football league dinner with him, and I don’t have a clue what to wear—I don’t exactly go to posh dinners. And, if I do go, he’s going to be surrounded with people all night and I won’t know anyone there.’

Kate squeezed her hand. ‘Love, first of all, Tom sees you exactly as you are—and you’re lovely. You probably will know people there, because there are a few medics who play in the league. So I think you should say yes. Go to St Piran on Saturday morning, buy yourself a fabulous dress, and knock his socks off.’

Flora was none too sure that she’d be able to do that, but she knew that Kate meant well. ‘Thanks, Kate. I will,’ she said.

On Thursday, Flora went to the science museum with Tom and Joey. Not having children of her own, she’d never visited it before, and she loved it as much as Joey did.

Tom and Joey insisted on trying every single one of the interactive exhibits—from Joey standing inside a giant bubble, through to doing a duet on the giant keyboard where you pressed the notes with your feet, and making a tornado inside a bottle. The bubble show—where the woman on stage actually managed to set bubbles on fire—and the planetarium shows were also a huge hit with Joey. And Flora discovered a whole heap of leaflets they could take home to make their own
experiments. ‘We’re definitely going to have to try making our own slime—what colour d’you reckon, Joey?’

‘Green,’ Joey said enthusiastically.

She laughed. ‘Good call.’

She took photographs of Tom and his nephew together, having fun.

‘Excuse me, love.’ A middle-aged woman smiled at her. ‘Would you like me to take a picture of the three of you? I know how it is when you’re always the one behind the camera.’

The three of them.

Like a family.

‘That’d be wonderful,’ Flora said warmly, and returned the compliment by taking a picture of the woman with her grandchildren.

Tom had reverted completely to being a child, and Flora found his enthusiasm adorable. Over lunch, he looked through Flora’s leaflets.

‘Making a plastic out of milk? Oh, now, we have to do that. Hey, Joey, did you know this is how they used to make windows for aeroplanes in the Second World War?’

‘Really?’ Joey asked, wide-eyed.

‘That’s what it says here.’

‘Wow.’ Then Joey smiled. ‘This is the best day ever.’

Flora, seeing the look of relief mingled with delight on Tom’s face, had a lump in her throat.

Tom hugged his nephew, and then Flora. ‘I’m having a brilliant day here, too, and I wouldn’t have wanted to share this with anyone else except you two.’

‘Snap,’ Flora said. ‘I never knew this sort of place could be so much fun.’

‘It’s just the best,’ Joey said.

That evening, when Joey was in bed, Tom said, ‘So what do you want to do on Saturday?’

She frowned. ‘I thought you were going to the football dinner?’

‘Not without you,’ he said. ‘And you’ve been avoiding the subject, so I know you don’t really want to go.’

She sighed. ‘Tom, they’re your friends and it’s something you all look forward to at the end of the season, isn’t it? ‘

‘Absolutely,’ he agreed, ‘but if it’s the choice of going to the dinner or spending time with you, it’s a no-brainer.’

He’d really give up something he was looking forward to, for her? She remembered what Kate had said.
Tom sees you exactly as you are… I think you should say yes.

She stroked his face. ‘Tom, I’m not going to stop you going.’

‘I don’t want to go without you. Come with me, honey.’ He stole a kiss. ‘I know you’re probably worrying that you won’t know anyone there, but they’re a nice bunch and they won’t shut you out.’

They had at the football match, Flora thought.

Although she didn’t say it aloud, her reservations must have shown on her face because Tom said softly, ‘You’ll be part of the crowd because you’re with me—you’re my girl.’

And this time he’d be with her instead of running around on a pitch, so it might be different. She took a deep breath. It was time to be brave about this. ‘What’s the dress code?’

‘Black tie.’

Which meant a cocktail dress—and she didn’t possess one. ‘I’d better go shopping, then.’

‘You’ll really come with me?’

She nodded.

He hugged her. ‘I’m so glad. I’ll go shopping with you, if you like.’

‘No. Joey would hate being dragged round dress shops.’ She
smiled. ‘And anyway, I’d like to surprise you.’ She thought again about what Kate said.
Knock his socks off.
Maybe, just maybe, it was time to stop being shy, frumpy Flora and show Tom that she was a woman who was worthy of him.

O
N
S
ATURDAY
afternoon, Flora drove to St Piran. She couldn’t see any dresses that would suit her in the first three shops she went into, and the assistants in the fourth turned out to be really snooty; she didn’t even approach them, because she could see them mentally sizing her and wondering what on earth she thought she was doing in their shop when they were so clearly in the market for people five dress sizes smaller.

But then she saw a beautiful floaty dress in the window of a little boutique. It probably wasn’t right for her, but maybe there was something else that would catch her eye.

‘Can I help you?’ the assistant asked.

‘I’m just looking,’ Flora said.

‘For anything special? ‘

The assistant looked genuinely interested and didn’t give the impression that she would only be interested in selling size-eight clothes. ‘I’m going to a black-tie dinner. I need a cocktail dress, and I don’t have a clue what will suit me.’

The assistant’s eyes lit up. ‘Would you trust me to pick something for you?’

‘I… Well, sure.’

To her surprise, the assistant didn’t even ask her size. She looked through the racks and picked out several dresses in very bright colours—the kind of colours that Flora never wore.

‘Should I have a black dress?’ Flora asked.

The assistant smiled. ‘Your colouring’s gorgeous, so don’t hide yourself in black.’

Help, Flora thought. I don’t want to stand out from the crowd.

The assistant put a gentle hand on her shoulder. ‘Is he special?’

‘Yes.’

‘Then you’ll stand out from the crowd for him anyway, so you might as well do it properly.’

Flora was beginning to agree until the assistant handed her a bright turquoise dress. It had a wrap front with a V-neck and wide shoulder straps, plus layers of silk georgette in the skirt, and it was much shorter than the kind of thing she normally wore, finishing just at the knee. She looked dubiously at it. ‘I don’t think I’m thin enough to wear this.’

‘This shape will look fantastic on you. Just try it on and see what you think,’ the assistant coaxed. ‘If you hate it we’ll try something else.’

Flora looked at a dress with a much higher neck. ‘Something like that.’

‘That’s absolutely wrong for you—you need to be tall and a stick insect to suit that style,’ the assistant said. ‘You’re much better off with something that flatters you, like this, or maybe an Empire-line dress.’

Flora knew when she was beaten and tried the dress on. To her surprise, it looked amazing.

‘Just what I thought. Hang on, you need accessories.’ A couple of moments later, the assistant returned with a turquoise and silver pendant, and a pair of silver strappy shoes with medium kitten heels. ‘Try these. And if you wear your hair up with just a couple of curls tumbling down to soften your face…’ She demonstrated, and Flora stared at herself in the mirror, barely recognising herself.

‘And you’re so lucky—you have fabulous skin. All you need
is a touch of eyeliner, mascara and lipstick—you’re going to look amazing, and he’s going to think he’s the luckiest man on earth,’ the assistant finished with a smile.

‘Thank you—you’ve been really kind.’

The assistant smiled. ‘My pleasure. It’s lovely to be asked for advice instead of having someone come in with set ideas who refuses to try something that’d really suit them.’ She paused. ‘Forgive me for being rude, but you know the other way of giving yourself loads of confidence?’

‘No.’ Flora knew she needed all the help she could get on that front.

‘Really,
really
nice underwear.’

Flora loved the silk and lace confections that the assistant showed her, and couldn’t resist a buying matching set. The whole outfit came to quite a bit more than she’d intended to pay, but she didn’t care. In this underwear and this dress, she was going to feel fantastic—and she was going to knock Tom’s socks off.

On impulse, she texted Kate when she got home.
‘Thanks for your advice. Found really lovely dress. ‘

Two minutes later, her phone rang. ‘That’s great. What about your hair and make-up?’ Kate asked.

‘The shop assistant said I should wear my hair up. I was going to see if Maureen could fit me in this afternoon at the salon.’

‘On a Saturday afternoon in half-term, you’ll be lucky.’ Kate paused. ‘Let me come over and do your hair and make-up, then I can see the dress as well.’

‘Kate, I can’t ask you to do that.’

‘You’re not asking, I’m telling you,’ Kate retorted.

It was the work of only a few minutes. When Flora looked in the mirror, she could hardly believe it was her. Kate hadn’t caked her with make-up, and yet her eyes looked huge and luminous, and her mouth was a perfect rosebud.

‘You’re going to have an amazing time.’ Kate hugged her. ‘Let yourself be happy with Tom, Flora. You deserve each other.’

Tom arrived at seven to pick her up. When she opened the door, he didn’t say a word, and Flora’s heart plummeted. She’d thought she looked good. Had she got it so wrong? And then Tom blew out a breath. ‘Flora. You— I— You…’ He shook his head. ‘I’m gibbering. Sorry. You look so fantastic, I can’t remember how to speak. That dress… God, I want to carry you upstairs to bed right now and forget about the dinner dance.’

Flora was lost for words.

‘But I’m not going to,’ Tom continued, ‘because I want to show you off.’ He smiled at her. ‘You always look lovely to me, but tonight…tonight, you’re
glowing.’

Confidence, she thought. Confidence that Tom had given her.

When they arrived at the dance, as Flora expected, Tom was in demand; but he kept his arm round her the whole time and introduced her to everyone on his table. A couple of them knew her anyway from the village, but to her pleasure everyone seemed to accept her.

‘Weren’t you at the football match, the other week?’ one of them asked.

Flora bit her lip. ‘Um, yes.’

‘I didn’t realise you were with Tom or I’d have asked you to come over and join us,’ she said. ‘You must’ve thought we were all so snooty.’

‘I did feel a bit out of place,’ Flora admitted.

‘I’m so sorry. Tom never brings his girlfriends to anything, so I just assumed you were with another crowd. Well, I’m Cindy, and it’s lovely to meet you.’ She beamed at Flora. ‘And it’s especially lovely seeing our Tom so happy.’

Over the next few minutes, Flora discovered that, actually,
she
was
a part of Tom’s crowd. She was included in the general teasing about how the wives forced the men to hold the league dinner to make up for all those weekend afternoons spent freezing on the sidelines of a football pitch and the amount of scrubbing they had to do to get the mud out of their kit. She discovered that people were interested in what she did, and interested in her opinion. It wasn’t just the champagne that made her feel heady: it was Tom, because he made sure that he was sitting next to her with his arm round her shoulders, more or less telling the whole world that she was his.

Megan was really beginning to regret accepting the invitation to the football league dinner. If she’d known that Josh would be there, she wouldn’t have come.

Oh, who was she kidding? Seeing him was torture—and yet not seeing him was just as bad.

This whole thing was a mess. No way was she a home wrecker, the sort of woman who destroyed someone else’s marriage on a whim. Her feelings for Josh—despite the fact she’d tried to bury them for all those years—were still the same. But she knew it wasn’t going to lead anywhere. How could it? Too much had happened.

And there was Rebecca.

Beautiful, fragile Rebecca.

No, she couldn’t be the one to destroy Josh’s marriage. To hurt another woman the way that she’d been hurt.

When Tom was dancing with Flora, a tall, glamorous, slinky blonde came up to them. ‘Tom. Make sure you save a dance for me, yes?’

Tom simply smiled. ‘Sorry. Tonight I’m dancing with my girl, and only my girl—and anyone who wants to dance with her is just going to be disappointed, too.’

‘Tom, I’m not that insecure,’ Flora said. Not any more. ‘If you want to dance with your friends, that’s fine.’

‘That’s the point.’ Tom stole a kiss and drew her closer. ‘There’s only one person I want to dance with tonight. She’s in my arms, right now—and that’s how it’s staying.’

‘Dance with me? ‘

No. Tell him no. Tell him you don’t dance.

And yet Megan found herself on the dance floor with Josh.

And he
would
choose to show off with a waltz. Typical Josh.

‘I’ve missed you,’ he said. ‘You’ve been avoiding me.’

‘You know why.’

‘How would I know, when you never talk to me, Megan?’

A muscle flickered in her jaw. ‘There’s nothing to talk about, Josh.’

Josh’s eyes became pleading. ‘Megan.’

‘You have a wife,’ she said crisply, taking a step back that forced him to drop his hands from the dance hold. ‘Maybe you should be talking to her. Go home, Josh.’ And, just to make sure that he couldn’t follow her, she headed for the ladies’ toilets.

Josh stared after her. Hell, he hadn’t meant to upset her. He just wanted to… No, he wanted
her.
And he realised yet again what a huge mistake he’d made, all those years back. He should never have married Rebecca; he’d tried to anaesthetise his feelings and in the end he’d been unfair to all of them. Himself included.

So what now? He and Rebecca didn’t want the same things any more. They’d agreed before they’d married that there would be no children; and now Rebecca had changed her mind, was desperate for a baby; but Josh knew that having a baby wouldn’t repair their broken marriage. If anything, their
marriage would crack even further under the strain. And Josh had lived in a family fractured by the pressure of children. He’d been forced to take the place of his excuse of a father—of course he couldn’t have stood by and watched his mother struggle on her own—and no way did he want to go back to that. One generation of that was enough.

Frustrated, hurt and completely confused, Josh headed for the bar.

‘Are you all right?’

Megan didn’t even look at the woman who had just walked into the toilets. ‘Yes,’ she fibbed.

‘You don’t look it. Can I get you a glass of water or something?’

‘No, but thanks for offering.’ She looked up, this time, and recognised the concerned-looking woman in front of her. Flora Loveday, the school nurse. ‘I’ll be fine. Just a bit of a headache.’ And a whole lot of heartache, otherwise known as Dr Josh O’Hara. Megan forced a smile to her face. ‘Are you having a nice time tonight?’

Flora simply glowed. ‘Yes. Tom’s danced with me all night.’

‘Tom the firefighter? He’s lovely.’ Megan had worked with him a couple of times. He reminded her of Josh—everybody’s friend, full of good humour and charm—except she didn’t think that Tom was the type to lie, the way Josh had lied to her.

‘Yes. I still can’t believe how lucky I am. I never expected to find…’ Flora paused, looking dismayed. ‘Megan? What’s wrong?’

Megan scrubbed the tear away. ‘I’m fine.’ There wasn’t a cure for heartache. Unless she could excise Josh from her heart—and she hadn’t managed to do that in eight years of trying. ‘I think I’ll get a taxi home.’

‘Let me call it for you, and I’ll sit with you while you’re waiting,’ Flora offered. ‘Have you taken anything for your headache yet?’ She rummaged in her handbag. ‘I’ve got some paracetamol, if you need it.’

‘No, I just need some fresh air and some sleep. You know how busy things get at a hospital.’

‘True,’ Flora agreed.

Megan splashed water on her face, then called a taxi on her mobile phone.

Flora went out to the reception area with her; on the way, she caught Tom’s eye and gestured that she’d be a few minutes. She saw Megan into the taxi, then went back to Tom, who was sitting back at their table, chatting to his friends.

‘Everything all right?’ he asked as she joined him.

‘Megan—you know, the paediatrician from St Piran’s?—had a bit of a headache. I waited with her until her taxi arrived.’

‘That’s my Flora,’ Tom said softly, stealing a kiss. ‘Looking after everyone.’

‘Do you mind?’

‘It’s one of the things I adore about you,’ Tom said, stroking her face. ‘My adorable Flora.’

They danced together for the rest of the evening; and Flora found herself disappointed when the band finally stopped playing.

‘Come on. I’ll drive you home,’ Tom said.

Flora was still high on dancing with him all evening. Enough to take a risk when she’d unlocked the front door. She hadn’t quite finished knocking his socks off, yet. ‘Tom, your parents are with Joey tonight, aren’t they?’

‘Yes.’

‘Are they expecting you home?’

He went very still. ‘What are you asking, Flora?’

‘I’m asking you to stay the night with me.’ She lifted her chin. ‘To sleep with me. And wake up with me.’

He moistened his lower lip. ‘Are you sure about that?’

‘Very sure.’

He smiled. ‘Give me two minutes to make a phone call.’

‘And I’ll let Banjo out while you’re doing that.’

By the time she’d called the dog back in and locked the front door, Tom had finished his call.

‘OK?’ she asked.

He nodded.

She smiled. ‘Good. And now I’m taking you to bed.’ She took his hand and led him up the stairs to her room. The curtains were already drawn but she didn’t put the overhead light on; instead, she switched on a string of fairy lights that she’d draped above the bed earlier.

‘Wow. This is like a princess’s boudoir,’ Tom said.

‘Which makes you Prince Charming, yes?’

‘Me, I’m just a humble firefighter,’ he said with a grin.

‘No, you’re gorgeous. And you’re all mine.’

He laughed. ‘If this is what champagne does to you, remind me to keep a bottle in the fridge at all times.’

‘It’s not the champagne,’ she said. ‘It’s you.’ He’d given her the confidence that made her feel as if she could do anything.

Slowly, she undressed him; she untied his bow-tie first, then removed his jacket.

Tom tried to undo the zip at the back of her dress but she wagged a finger at him. ‘Uh-uh. I’m in charge.’