St Piran's: The Fireman and Nurse Loveday (15 page)

And now, it seemed, he didn’t.

Joey nodded. ‘You’re really cool, Uncle Tom.’

‘I second that,’ Flora said.

Banjo barked, as if to third it, and Flora and Joey laughed.

‘If we’re a family,’ Joey said, ‘does that mean we’ll all live here with Banjo?’

‘Would you like that?’ Tom asked.

Joey nodded. ‘You’d be like my dad and Flora would be like my mum. That’d be cool. And then you’d have a baby.’

‘A baby?’ Flora asked, looking surprised.

‘Because that’s what people do when they get married. Have babies. And I’d be a big brother.’ He beamed. ‘That’d be cool, too.’

Tom thought of Flora, pregnant with his child, and sheer desire surged through him. ‘Sounds good to me. Flora?’

She coughed. ‘Is that a proposal, Tom Nicholson?’

He smacked his forehead. ‘I’m meant to be down on one knee, and there should be champagne and diamonds and—’

‘And none of that’s important,’ Flora interrupted. ‘What’s important is exactly what Joey said.’

‘So how about it? Would you marry us and be a family with us?’

‘Would you?’ Joey said. ‘And can we live here?’

Flora smiled at them. ‘I can’t think of anything in the world I’d rather do. Yes.’

Tom picked her up and swung her round, Joey whooped with glee, and Banjo barked madly. And when he set her back down on her feet, he enfolded Joey in a hug along with Flora. ‘My family,’ he said. ‘My perfect dream come true.’

All the characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author, and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all the incidents are pure invention.

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First published in Great Britain 2011
Harlequin Mills & Boon Limited,
Eton House, 18-24 Paradise Road, Richmond, Surrey TW9 1SR

© Pamela Brooks 2011

ISBN: 978-1-408-92439-6