“So you stayed?”
Motormouth nodded, her gaze flickering to his left shoulder, where the scars of his injuries deformed his skin.Instinctively, Dan’s fingers curled around the sheet to cover himself up, but there didn’t seem much point now.She’d already seen the damage.Loosening his grip, he patted the sheets around him, then—wait a minute… This wasn’t where he remembered sleeping.His gaze shot to the empty sofa bed.“How did I end up here?”
“It’s where you crawled to after you were sick.”
Ugh.He’d crawled?“You saw me…?”
“Yeah.You were hurling big-time when we got back.”
Wonderful.Dan’s insides shriveled, exposed and embarrassed.It was bad enough to have had months of Isabella and his family seeing him weak and helpless, but a stranger?He rubbed his eyes.“I don’t even know your name.”
“It’s Libby.Libby Jones.No relation, you’d be pleased to hear.”She picked up her child again.“And this is Karim.Say hi, honey.”
The little boy squealed something, kicked his legs and brushed his head against his mother’s neck.He was wearing red inflatables around his arms and some sort of bathing-sun-protection suit, in bright green with blue turtles blowing bubbles across the front.A matching sun cap flapped over the back of his neck.
“Hey, Karim.You feeling better now?”Despite everything, Dan pushed up a smile.“You’re looking ready for action.”
“He’s kind of obsessed with getting wet, so we’d better go do some splashing before it gets too hot.”Libby lowered the boy to the ground and held on to his hand.“I was actually halfway through writing you a note when you woke up.Your mom called the reception desk last night, said her flight gets in at three today so she should be here by four.She couldn’t reach you on your phone.She sounded worried, so I told her you were okay, but that you’d been sick—and I told her about your phone, too.”
“My phone?”Fuck.The last time he’d seen his phone, it had dropped to the bottom of the bath.He’d accidentally knocked it in when he’d been spewing.
He flung the sheets back, the brightness of his orange shorts reassuring him that he wasn’t naked—thank god.Flashing his privates in front of this woman was all he needed after the state she’d seen him in.Dan tried to swing his legs out of bed, but his body had seized up again, and his left leg felt like it had a knife rammed into it.His breath hitched.
She noticed.“Are you okay?”
“Yes.”He swallowed back the foul words he’d been about to hiss and straightened as best he could.“I need my phone.”
Libby stepped to the side, revealing what looked like a bowl of rice.
“It’s in here,” she said.“The rice might draw out the moisture inside.I took the SIM out.You might be lucky and get it to work again.It depends how long it had been in the water.”
Until two minutes ago, Dan had no idea what day it was, so he’d be damned if he knew how long his phone had been submerged.He stared at the SIM on a piece of kitchen towel.Shit.He never got around to texting Femi and Gabrielle back.They’d be pacing the walls with worry by now.He could only hope Mum had messaged them after she’d spoken to Libby and told them he was okay.
He pressed the power button on the side of his phone.
“Is it working?”Libby asked.
“No.”Dead as a fucking dodo.Dan sighed.
“Mommy, splash!”
“Okay, sweet cheeks, we’re going now.”Libby’s son tugged at her hand.“This might give you déjà vu, but we can’t check in to our new place until after four p.m.Mind if I leave our stuff here until then?”
“Yeah, of course.”Without looking at her, Dan pushed his phone to the side and noticed her neatly packed rucksack by the front door, with his own next to it.“When did my bag arrive?”
“Yesterday afternoon.Someone from the airport dropped it off.”
Christ, how many more visitors did he have yesterday?And he recalled jack shit about any of it.
“So…um…I’m glad you’re feeling better now,” Libby said.“I’ve left some food over there, and there’s orange juice in the refrigerator.Help yourself.You slept sixteen hours on a very empty stomach, so I figured you’d be hungry.”
Dan clutched his stomach.It felt tender, but the thought of food was no longer making him heave.“You didn’t need to do that.”
“It was no problem.”She gathered her bags and toys, hooked them over the pushchair, and headed out the back door.“See you later.”
“Ka kite,” chirped the little boy.
“Oh, good job, honey!”Libby squealed, and they disappeared into the garden.
