“The sort who knows the right end of a shovel.”
“Mom…!”
I smiled, almost able to see the teenage version of Mackenzie in that moment, flush cheeked and embarrassed.
“You can’t blame me for wanting you looked after.” Kimberley’s eyes narrowed as she looked back at me. “So you’ve flown all this way. What’re your intentions with my daughter?”
“Mom!” Mackenzie’s look of panic was so damn cute. “Troy, you don’t?—”
“Whatever the hell she wants,” I replied, unable to stop myself from grinning. “I’ve got a six week holiday visa right now, but if she wants me to move to the States…” The process was a whole lot harder than just being willing to become a US citizen, I was aware of that. “Or to look at permanent residency in Australia. If she wants to backpack through Asia or Europe.” I nodded slowly. “Then I’ll be there by her side.”
My girl went to say something, trying to smooth the situation over, but then my words registered. Staring at me, eyes shining, she studied me closely. I just let her. When her mum was on the mend and feeling better, I’d talk it over with her, work out whatshe wanted and then… I’d make it happen. Life had never been so simple, and I found I liked it.
“But let’s focus on getting you well, Kimberley,” I said. “Or is it ma’am? I gotta say, Australians are a pretty informal lot.”
“Maybe it will be Mom,” she said, smirking at her daughter.
My mother’s wedding ring was burning a hole in my pocket. Yeah, I’d like that, I thought. I’d like that a lot.
Chapter 32
Mackenzie
“Love, you need some rest.” Mom was in surgery and I had spent every minute pacing back and forth across the floor. Sleep? I had only grabbed a few hours here and there in the last couple of days, and yet the nervous tension had me moving. “Mackenzie.”
The sound of my name said in that deep, masculine voice was enough to stop me for a second. Looking up, I stared into those blue eyes, catching the moment they crinkled at the edges.
Troy was here.
Troy was freaking here.
The juxtaposition of the big, tall Australian against the white walls of the hospital was still too odd for me to process. Especially when my head felt stuffed full of terrible thoughts. My lips pressed together, my facial muscles tensing, as if that would be enough to hold it all back.
“Mackenzie…”
Somehow Troy just knew what I needed. A crooked smile, then feeling his hands on my shoulders before he pulled me closer. The hard wall of his chest was a barrier between meand the outside world, and that allowed me to go still just for a second.
“I can’t rest.” I whispered that into a shirt that smelled of sun warmed-cotton, hay, and him. “I can’t. What if?—?”
“I know something about what ifs.” Oh, I thought, going still. Somehow I’d forgotten that Troy had been through all of this before with his own mom. “Pretty sure I spent the entire time my mum was in hospital running all the scenarios through my head.” He tilted my chin up so I met his eyes. “I can tell you from experience, it doesn’t help. What will happen will happen.” A thumb brushed against the side of my face. “Getting your mum through surgery, then helping her during recovery, that’s a marathon, not a sprint. If you don’t rest?—”
“After.” I felt like I was bargaining with him, with fate itself. “After she comes out of the surgery. After…”
“Once she’s in recovery and in the ICU.” He looked down at with a meaningful look. “Mackenzie, promise me. If… When she comes out fine, we’ll find somewhere to sleep for a few hours at least.”
I smiled despite myself, even if it was a weak and shaky thing.
“Trying to get me back to your hotel room, cowboy?”
“Cowboy…” He snorted at that, then grew serious. “To rest, love. If you just spend the entire time resting in my arms, I’ll take it.” A thumb brushed the skin beneath my eyes. “Sleeping in a chair for days is hard on a body.” He made a show of stretching. “Ask me how I know.”
“Deal.”
So that’s how we came to be standing in the ICU hallway, hours later. Seeing the tiny figure on the hospital bed, swathed in blankets, helped alleviate some fears and created new ones at the same time. My hand went to my mouth, but before it gotthere, Troy grabbed it. Clinging to it like a lifeline, I watched my mom get wheeled past.
“The surgery was a resounding success,” the surgeon said with a smile. “There’s still some irregular heartbeats.” My hand gripped Troy’s harder. “Which is all to be expected post ablation. It’s the fact the rate has come down to normal levels that is reassuring…”
The doctor described what recovery would look like, when Mom could come home, but I barely heard a thing. Troy’s deep voice as he asked the right questions kept me grounded as I watched Mom get set up in her room. Still unconscious, I couldn’t talk to her, sink to my knees beside her bed and hold her hand tight. For once, I had to be the strong one.
