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MAEVE AND GRAY
21st December
Maeve sat back on the bathroom floor, wiping at her mouth shakily.
Oh, this wasn’t good.
Her stomach rolled and she let out a small whimper.
Get it together, girl!
You can’t let Gray see me like this. Get up. Get sorted.
Unfortunately, her little pep talk didn’t immediately have her springing to her feet, ready to take on the day.
Instead, she dragged herself up until she was standing and glanced wearily into the bathroom mirror.
A tired, pale woman with limp hair stared back at her.
This was terrible. As soon as Gray saw her he’d know that something was wrong.
That she was ill.
This wasn’t fair! She was always sick when something important was going on. She’d missed Cat’s wedding because the Surgeon had said she was too ill to travel.
Why the heck Gray trusted a doctor who didn’t even have a proper name, she had no idea.
But the Surgeon wasn’t going to ruin Christmas for her.
Not happening.
They were meant to leave tomorrow morning for Southampton to spend Christmas and the New Year with her family.
And Maeve was determined that nothing would stop her. Certainly not a stomach bug that had appeared out of nowhere.
She had no idea where she could have picked it up. She’d been working nonstop on the large number of doggy outfits her customers had placed for Christmas and had barely left the house. The only people she’d seen lately were Gray, Markovich, Triple-T, Ilya, and Dahlia.
It made zero sense.
Maybe it was something she’d eaten?
That had to be it. She turned on the shower and got in once the water warmed up. Gray wouldn’t be home until this evening so she had some time to get over this.
God, she couldn’t wait until they were on their way.
It felt like ages since she’d seen everyone. She hadn’t even been to Tennessee yet to see the new family compound.
The only dark spot on the holidays, besides her weird stomach bug, was the fact that Isaiah was still missing, and no one knew where he was. He’d disappeared two months ago. Immy had been the last one to see him and she’d said he was tracking wannabe Deity.
A shudder ran through Maeve as she washed herself. The last thing she wanted to think about was the fact that there might be a copycat out there. Someone who was going around pretending they were now the Deity.
No.
She definitely didn’t want to think about him or any of this. After turning off the shower, she dried herself and got dressed in her favorite purple tracksuit with gold and purple striped socks. They were so worn that Gray had threatened to throw them out several times.
That wasn’t happening.
