“I’m sorry to ring you like this at…” She let out a huff of breath. “I’m not sure what time it is in Australia, but Mackenzie,you need to come home.” Somehow someone had snuck up on me in the darkness, only to stab a knife made of ice into my heart. “Your mom…”
“What?” I asked, far too sharply. “What’s wrong with Mom?”
“She’s in the hospital, honey. You need to get back to the States as soon as you can…”
The details were missed as the phone fell from my fingers, only to clatter on the floor.
Chapter 28
Mackenzie
Hospital… Atrial fibrillation… Emergency department… Ablation…Sandra’s words echoed around and around inside my head, unable to be shut out as I stumbled out into the living room. Dressed now, but that didn’t help settle me at all. My heartbeat racing just reminded me of what Sandra had said.
Apparently, atrial fibrillation was a rhythm and rate disorder of the heart. Quite common, it was often easily controlled with medication. Medication Mom had been taking for months without letting me know. She’d taken her meds religiously but had still gone into atrial fibrillation and they couldn’t get her to ‘chemically convert.’ She’d had several procedures called a cardioversion, and I had no idea what the hell that was, but it sounded terrifying. Sandra said her heart rate just wouldn’t slow down. The hospital said she needed a procedure called an ablation and I…
I needed to get home right now and make sure she was OK.
Tickets, transport, car, baggage. I sank down into a chair, overwhelmed by the need to do something, but unable to move. What if something happened while I was in Australia? Or onthe plane…? My fingers gripped my phone way too tightly as I stared blankly at the screen.
“Mackenzie…?” Charlie appeared in the doorway holding a baby joey she was feeding. “Everything OK?”
“Um…” My throat felt like it was closing up, swallowing down the words. “My mom… She’s in the hospital.”
“Shit!” The joey startled, stopping feeding from the bottle, and shot her a disgruntled look. “Shit, you need to get home.”
“How?” I wasn’t normally this useless, but right now, it was as if my entire brain had gone offline. “Melbourne. Flights.”
“I’ll sort it out for you.” Charlie opened the same laptop we’d used to discover all the family secrets as she hung the joey’s pouch on the back of another chair. “Go and get packed.”
Glad to use all that adrenaline for something, I stumbled to my feet as I made for my bedroom. I grabbed things from the wardrobe, the floor, everywhere. It wasn’t so much packing, but shoving whatever I could find into my bag until I was forced to stop.
Mom told me not to go.
My breath was coming in faster and faster as my hand went to my forehead.
She said I should’ve gone to Canada instead.
My heart raced in sympathy for my mother.
She asked me to come home when the heat wave…
Shit.
I remembered how pale she had gotten, the way her hand went to her chest. Was she experiencing palpitations then? With a glance around the room, I saw nothing that was seriously important and so I zipped up my bag and wheeled it forward.
Which left me standing outside Troy’s bedroom door.
My hand shouldn’t have risen and then come to rest on the painted surface. The need to stride down the hall and back to Charlie rode me hard, but instead I turned the doorknob andstepped inside. The heavy sounds of Troy breathing, the whip of the breeze coming in through the window, they beckoned me forward, until I came to stand beside the bed.
He had his hand tucked under the pillow and with his eyes closed, his whole body relaxed, there was something almost boyish about Troy. I smiled, even if it hurt to do it, as I moved closer, pushing a lock of hair out of his eyes. His nose wrinkled and with a little snort, for a moment I thought he’d wake up.
Part of me wanted that.
To stare into his eyes one more time, even if they were unfocussed and bleary. To see him blink, blink, then smile at the sight of me. He’d pull me down onto the bed beside him, snuggling in close, but then when he saw I was dressed, he’d ask questions. I’d tell him, I knew that, vomiting up all the fear and worry that roiled around inside me.
But I was leaving.
He wasn’t my boyfriend, my partner, my… We were always going to go our separate ways. I just… I thought we had more time and that fact had my fingers flexing, wanting needing, to touch him one last time.
