With my hand on her head, I feel heat through her hair. She’s burning up with fever.
“Maddy, can you hear me?”
I call 911, and while I wait for the first responders, Pascal lies half his body on Maddie’s back and nuzzles her. He looks back at me, and if he could speak, I think he’d be telling me to go upstairs and pack her a bag for the hospital. And that’s exactly what I do.
Chapter
Six
Maddie
I open my eyes and realize three things:
One, my fever’s broken, and I’m not woozy anymore.
For the second time in two months, I’m in a hospital bed and hooked up to an IV.
And three, someone is asleep in the chair in my room.
The figure is slumped to one side, facing the window.
I’m too tired to lie to myself anymore. I know exactly who this is.
My voice is dry as the Sahara when I say his name.
“Ewan?”
The slumped figure twitches awake and sits up straight, instantly alert. He always had this way of throwing off sleep immediately, as if someone stuck a quarter into him.
“You’re awake,” he croaks.
I stare at the man I haven’t seen since he walked out the door to move to Fort Bragg at age 19. He’s aged in so many ways, starting with the premature salt-and-pepper at his temples. It’s barely noticeable, but it’s there. Ewan has lost the puppy fatfrom his teen years in his face, pushing out the jawline and cheekbones. His eyes seem darker and deeper set. The enviable dark lashes are still there, making women jealous, and the brows are a bit unruly.
“What are you doing here?” I ask him. “How did they let you in?”
“Easy. I told them I was your husband,” he says with the same boyish grin I remember.
“Charming, as I haven’t seen you in forever,” I say, rasping a laugh and turning onto my side to face him. “How did you know I was in the hospital?”
“My dog found you lying on your porch,” he says.
I blink at him. The memory comes flooding back. That’s right. I was feeling like shit. I hadn’t picked up my Tamiflu and decided to take a nap right there in the doorway after I took a tumble.
But how did he find me? When did he get a dog?
These and a dozen other questions fight to be the first to come out.
But the one that wins is: “You’ve been keeping an eye on me, haven’t you?”
“Yes.”
“It was you at the Valentine’s Day Dance.”
“It was me,” Ewan confirms.
“Why didn’t you just tell me you came to see me?”
“I tried to. I heard the power went out, so I went to find you. But then you saw me and passed out.”
