“We’ll get it, love,” I whispered to my phone. “Because I’m not letting you go. I’m coming for you, Mackenzie James.”
A voice over the PA system told me we were now boarding. Grabbing my bag, I lined up with everyone else, showing my ticket before filing onto the plane. The trip was long, cramped, and frankly, shitty, because I didn’t sleep a wink. Sandy eyed, I stumbled off the plane and then stared at this part of LAX airport. More people than I’ve ever seen in one place, for one. Brands I didn’t recognise, and shops, so many shops, but I walked past each one. To baggage claim first, then to a taxi, but when I slid into the backseat, the driver looked at me from the rear-vision mirror and asked, “Where to?”
A hospital, I wanted to blurt out, but then I realised there’d have to be heaps of them in this end of the world. Pawing through the paperwork Charlie gave me, I found the name and then told the driver our destination.
“An Aussie, eh?” Americans always said the word oddly, saying the first part like you would Austria, whereas we condensed it down to Ozzie. “What brings you to the States?”
“A girl,” I replied. “My girl.”
“You flew all the way here for love?” he asked with a smile. “Well, we’ve got quite a drive ahead, so tell me about it.”
“Thanks, Mike,”I said as I got out of the taxi. The hospital was a massive, gleaming thing, which was kind of intimidating. Or was it just that my heart was rattling around in my chest, fighting to get free because it knew we were close to where Mackenzie was? “Shit, a tip.”
I’d paid him exactly what the fare said, but I remembered what the guidebook Charlie had shoved into my carry-on bag.Handing over twenty percent of the already huge fare stung, but it’d be worth every cent to see Mackenzie.
“You’re alright, Troy,” Mike said with a wink. “Now go get your girl.”
I was about to do just that. Hoisting my bag over my shoulder, I strode inside, only to see yet more people. Forced to stop at the reception desk, I asked for directions. Repeating the instructions over and over in my head, I rode the elevator up to the third floor and then walked down the hallway. Pausing to talk to the nurse sitting at the station near the ward door, she said, “Are you family?”
“My…” The woman’s brows creased slightly. “My girlfriend had to fly home to see her mum, mom. Mackenzie James, that’s her name.”
That seemed to make her more concerned, not less, but with a nod, she told me she’d go and talk to the patient to see if she was up to having visitors.
Mackenzie was who I wanted to see, but I’d have settled for the family friend that alerted my girl to her mum’s situation, or even the nurse, telling me when I could visit. Instead, a guy in a sharp suit came walking out. Hard eyes looked me up and down, then his lips curled into a smirk before he thrust his hand out.
“You’re Troy?” he asked.
“Yep, and you are?”
“Alex Miller,” he said in the smooth way salesmen did, making me wonder what the hell he thought he could sell me. “I’m Mackenzie’s fiancé.”
Chapter 30
Mackenzie
“What’re you doing here?” The way Mom clutched at my arm, the weak grip, had me turning her hand over in mine and cling on for her. “Honey, you’re supposed to be in Australia.”
“Can’t stay Down Under when my mom is in hospital,” I said, then glanced up at the monitor. Her heart rate was changing by the second, but now it was averaging around 120 beats per minute. That couldn’t be good. Forcing myself to smile, I focussed back on her. “When did you develop atrial fibrillation? Mom, you never said anything.”
“Plenty of people have rhythm disorders.” That blithe tone, I knew it well. She only used it when she was trying to minimise how bad things were. It’d been the one she used when we hunkered down, watching a wildfire tear through the hills. “They live with it every day.” Her gaze hardened as she stared at the door. “Something I told the doctors here. Mackenzie.” Her fingers tightened around mine. “You need to get me out of here. The neighbours found me…” It felt like there was a hand around my chest, and now it was squeezing. “They called a damn ambulance, which will need to be paid for somehow.”
There was something I did not like at all in her expression when she met my gaze. Desperation.
“We need to leave. Every minute I stay here, every test, is costing more money.”
And that’s when I understood. Medical debt was a spectre that seemed to haunt a whole lot of us. Losing my health insurance was almost worse than losing my job. It meant anything that went wrong could bankrupt me.
And Mom was facing the same reality.
“This hospital is out of network,” she said. “My insurance will only cover a small amount of the cost. Mackenzie, they’re talking surgery and you know how expensive that will be.”
What was the alternative? I wanted to scream, but the persistent beeping of the heart rate machine silenced me. Her pulse was picking up and even I knew that was bad.
“We’ll find a way,” I said, giving her hand a squeeze. “Don’t worry. Just relax?—”
“I can’t relax, not until I’m home,” she said. “The house, my animals?—”
“All taken care of.” That masculine voice had me stiffening and every muscle locked tight, not wanting to turn around. “Hi, Mom.” Glancing back over my shoulder, I saw Sandra rise to her feet, presenting her cheek, so Alex could press a kiss to it. “How’re our girls doing?”
