St Piran's: The Fireman and Nurse Loveday

Read St Piran's: The Fireman and Nurse Loveday for Free Online

Book: Read St Piran's: The Fireman and Nurse Loveday for Free Online
Authors: Kate Hardy
a man bought a woman flowers. Of course not. She already knew she wasn’t the kind of woman who could make men look twice; she was way too short, thirty pounds too heavy, and on the rare occasion she wore a skirt it was usually six inches below the knee rather than six inches above. Plus she spent most of her time with a red face, tongue-tied. No way would someone like Tom be interested in her.
    As always when faced with a social situation involving adults, she took refuge in practicalities, gesturing to Tom to sit at the scrubbed pine table in the centre of the kitchen, then busying herself arranging the flowers in a vase. Once she’d put them on the table, she made two mugs of coffee, took the remaining brownies from the tin and put them on a plate, thensat down with Tom and slid the plate across to him. ‘Help yourself.’
    ‘Thanks…’ he smiled at her ‘… but, lovely as those brownies are, I’d better pass. We’ve just had breakfast. Chef Joey there makes a mean bacon sandwich.’
    She raised an eyebrow. ‘I assume you grilled the bacon.’
    ‘But he did the important bit—he buttered the bread and added the tomato sauce.’
    Joey clearly wasn’t paying attention to anyone else except Banjo, but then Tom lowered his voice. ‘I’m sorry we turned up unannounced. He told me this morning that he wanted to come and play with Banjo—and it’s the longest sentence he’s said in a month. I feel bad about taking up your spare time, but this was a chance to get through to him. I just couldn’t turn it down.’
    ‘It’s not a problem,’ Flora said, keeping her voice equally low. ‘I wasn’t doing anything in particular, just the usual Saturday chores.’
    ‘I don’t want to make things awkward with your boyfriend.’
    She felt the betraying colour heat her cheeks again. ‘I don’t have a boyfriend.’ The boys at school had never looked twice at her, she’d never been the partying type as a student nurse, and she knew that she wouldn’t even be on the radar of a gorgeous firefighter like Tom Nicholson. Then a really nasty thought hit her. ‘Is it going to be a problem for your girlfriend, Joey coming here to play with Banjo?’
    ‘There’s nobody serious in my life—just Joey.’ He smiled wryly. ‘Let’s just say my last girlfriend found it a bit hard to share my time. The way she saw it, I should’ve made my parents come back to England to look after him.’
    ‘How selfish of h—’ Flora clapped a hand to her mouth. ‘Sorry, it’s not my place to judge.’
    ‘No, you got it right first time. And she told me that the dayafter the accident.’ For a moment, he looked grim. ‘Apart from the fact that we hadn’t been dating for very long, it wasn’t a hard choice to make. Joey comes first.’
    ‘Well, of course he does.’
    Tom gave her an approving smile that made her feel as if she were glowing from the inside.
    ‘I’ve been thinking about your childminder issue. I could help out, if you like.’ The words tumbled out before Flora could stop them. ‘I finish at five, the same time as the after-school club—so I could meet him from there if you like. There’s only me and Banjo to please ourselves, and it’s as easy to cook for two as it is for one, so if you’re out on a shout or something he can have his tea here with me—if you think he’d like that,’ she added swiftly.
    Tom looked surprised at her offer. ‘That’s really kind of you,’ he said carefully.
    Oh, no. He’d obviously taken it the wrong way. She’d better explain. ‘Look, I just know what it’s like to lose both parents,’ she said. ‘And that wasn’t me trying to—well, you know.’ She blushed again.
    Trying to come on to him? From another woman, Tom wouldn’t have been so sure. But with Flora, he knew she was genuine; he hadn’t known her long, but it was obvious that she was the type to wear her heart on her sleeve. She was offering to help because she was kind, because she cared, because

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