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Chapter Five
Maddie
Whoever this man is, he’s left me baffled and slightly aroused.
Fiona is suddenly back by my side, talking a mile a minute. “Who was that hottie?” she asks, wide-eyed.
I was beginning to think I’d imagined the whole thing. “You saw him, right?” I ask, pointing in the general direction he went after abruptly ending our kiss. I was so deep inside it that I felt as though I’d been plucked from the planet and that nothing and no one else existed. “He just…” Left?
“Weird,” Fiona nods. “But hot.”
I shake my head in a bid to reconnect all the neural pathways that he shook loose in my brain.
Get it together, Mads, I tell myself. But something is niggling in the back of my mind.
I pull my phone out of my bag and check for a message from Jacob. He said he would message when he got here but so far, nothing.
“Babe, there’s plenty more hot guys here. There is all manner of sin occurring on the other side of the street. We should go there.” Fiona pulls at my arm, but I shake her off, and she bounces over the road without me.
“No, I’m going to find Jacob,” I shout over the music as I type out a message to him.
I wait, head down, staring at my screen, looking for the bouncy bubbles that tell me he’s responding.
Jacob: SOS with Mum. Had to leave party, sorry.
So, he was here?
Me: Where are you?
Jacob: Hospital.
I send Fiona a message letting her know I’m leaving the party and flag down a taxi.
“Where to, love?” the driver asks, and I give him the name of the hospital.
It’s weird walking through the doors to the main hospital as a visitor instead of being here for work. Anxiety returns as I push through the crowds of people, lots of them dressed in fancy Carnival costumes.
Guilt begins to take over the anxiety as the stranger’s kiss still burns on my lips. I’m texting Jacob, asking for his location in the hospital, when he appears in front of me, his mask dangling from his hand. The expression on his face has my stomach lurching in dread. He looks like he’s in shock.
“Jacob!”
His head snaps up as I call his name. His ochre eyes clash with mine, and he blinks a couple of times.
“Maddie?”
I run to him, coming to a halt as I reach him. He looks so lost, his eyes faraway. I smooth my hand over his arm, bringing his attention to me, to the here and now. The softness of the navy fabric has the niggle in my mind growing, but I push it down and focus on my friend.
“Mum had a heart attack.” His voice is strained, as though it hurts to say the words.
I pull him into a firm, tight hug.“How is she doing?” I whisper in his ear.
His big body shudders against me. “I don’t know.”
I release him but stay close. “Come on.”
I pull him gently along the corridors, stopping at the coffee shop to pick up drinks for him and his Dad. Keeping him busy until the doctor becomes available is the only thing I can think to do.
Jacob
