Before the nurse could answer the curtain was pulled back and his parents stood at the end of the bed. JesusChrist. That’s all he needed. He offered them a grimace that he hoped passed as a smile.
They didn’t smile back. His mum looked as though she’d been crying. “Mason.” Her voice was choked and vague alarm pumped through his drug soaked veins. “Oh, God. I couldn’t bear it if anything happened to you, too.”
Now he knew he was hallucinating. First he was engaged to Piper and now his mother was weeping over him, the son who’d disappointed her at every turn.
“I’m fine,” he growled. “Be out of here tomorrow.”
“Might not be tomorrow, son.” His dad gave him an awkward pat on the shoulder. Mason stared at him, speechless. He couldn’t remember the last time his father had touched him. “They need to make sure your lung’s okay first.”
Hislung? “What…?”
“Punctured lung and eight cracked ribs.” His dad swallowed. “Could’ve been worse. The police are charging the other driver. Drunk,” he added, and there was a world of pain in that one word.
“Thank goodness Piper called us.” His mum wiped her eye with one finger. “She’s such a lovely girl.”
An eerie shudder crawled across his skull.How long was I unconscious?Had he suffered from amnesia? Piper was still in love with Colton. Why else had she been going through all the things he’d given her, except to remind herself of everything she’d lost? The last thing he could remember was a shitty night at the pub, and the sick certainty that he and Piper had no chance of a future together. But nothing since he’d opened his eyes in hospital made any kind of sense.
Why aren’t they freaking out that I’ve been with Piper?
