Chapter 29
Troy
I went to bed feeling lighter than I had in years.
Selling the farm was something I’d tried to avoid, so the relief that came from everyone agreeing to it was unexpected.
I’d damn near floated down the hallway, because the weight of the world was finally off my shoulders.
Opening my door when Mackenzie came home, drawing her inside.
There was a sweetness to that which I didn’t deserve, but she came to my bed anyway.
And this time, it was different.
I couldn’t hold back what I felt. When she stared into my eyes, a look of wonder on her face, I was pretty sure on some level she knew.
I was falling for her fucking hard and now…
Freed of the farm, we could make a go of things, in the US or Australia.
Wherever the hell she wanted, that was what my heart made clear, and I’d say the same to her the next morning, I promised myself.
Only to wake up and find her side of the bed was empty.
It took a second for me to realise that.
My hand slid across the sheets before I even opened my eyes, some primitive instinct knew that reaching for her was my first priority.
Patting the mattress, then rolling up onto my elbow, I blinked and looked around, sure she had to be standing there, getting dressed.
Nope.
Jumping out of bed, I pulled on some shorts and then walked into her room, just in case she was there.
Nope.
The place was a mess, stuff thrown everywhere, but I didn’t look any closer. If I had, I’d have realised why. That her bag wasn’t there.
That she wasn’t.
Instead, I stuck my head in the bathroom, then walked out into the living room to see Charlie standing in the kitchen.
“Hey.” My voice was carefully modulated, softer in tone that I usually used. She glanced my way, a wary look in her eyes. That was on me, I realised. Whatever future lay ahead, making amends to my family was high on my to do list. “Seen Mackenzie?”
“Yes.”
The way she said that one word, gripping the sink edge as she turned around, it had my senses going on high alert. Something was wrong, I knew that in my gut and yet I forced myself to smile.
“She’s out in the rescue?” I asked. “Or in town, helping—”
“Mackenzie’s gone, Troy.” I knew what every single one of those words meant, but put together, I couldn’t seem to get my head around them. Charlie sighed. “Her mum is in hospital and—”
“Hospital?” Shaking my head, I wanted to dislodge this information, sending it flying out the door. “Why…? How…?”
“She got a call last night. I found her out in the dining room spiralling. While she got packed, I sorted out the tickets.”
Tickets. Hospital. Gone. My heart beat over and over, repeating those words for me. Didn’t help them sink in, though.
“No, she…” What was I going to say? That we had a moment last night that made clear we had a future together. “But…”
My hands flexed, the knuckles tight and sore from all the work we were forced to do yesterday.
Work I needed to finish today.
“I…” Needed to head to the pub and drink beer after beer until Vance refused to sell me another. Needed to drive and drive, to wherever Mackenzie was, but if she left last night…
Without even saying goodbye.
Was it all in my head? Part of me rebelled at that idea. Didn’t she feel it as well? A connection snapping into place. The reason why I could countenance selling the farm was because when I was with Mackenzie, I felt home. If I was with her—
“She said she’d send you a voice note,” Charlie said finally, and that was what I needed to hear to get me moving. Striding down the hallway, I found my phone and while my hand shook, I unlocked it to find Mackenzie had left me a message.
“…this was supposed to be just a fling.” The hoarse sound of my girl’s voice, I hated it and loved it in turns. “Just a holiday romance to help me get over my ex, but… It turned into something else, at least for me.”
“Me too,” I muttered. “Me too, love.”
“My ex, he was always around, but you… I chose you, Troy.” My fingers raked down my thigh.
“And I’m so glad I did. The months I spent with you; they were some of the happiest days of my life.
” Teeth grinding together, I forced myself to keep listening.
“Because when you’re not stomping about being a pain in everyone’s ass, you…
You make me feel safe, protected, and you have no idea how good that feels. ”
My thumb moved of its own accord, stopping the voice note as I pressed the phone to my forehead. When I was an idiot kid, I touched an electric fence once and that’s what this felt like. Raw emotion pulsed through me, forcing every muscle to spasm, including my heart.
It was the far-off sound of cattle that got me moving.
Unless we were selling the farm today, I needed to get out there.
Keeping stock in containment yards meant there was no food for them other than what you provided and that was the job for the morning.
One breath, then another, I let the agony I was feeling throb in my chest, then got to my feet and pulled on my work clothes.
“I’m going down to the containment yards to feed the cattle,” I told Charlie when I walked back out into the living room.
“No, you’re not.”
The way she looked at me, hands on her hips, made clear she wasn’t going to entertain any arguments.
“Well, someone has to, unless we want to starve a whole lot of cows to death.”
“The boys are already on it,” she replied. “That’s why I made sure you got a sleep in.”
“So I’ll meet the feed truck when it arrives,” I said.
“Not doing that either. I rang Bill.” He was our feed supplier. “He’s bringing his own guys down to shift the hay off the trucks as an apology for sending us shit hay. You…” A piece of paper and my passport hit the table. “Are going to pack. You’ll be on a plane to Los Angeles tonight.”
“What?” I was going to spend the whole day befuddled, it appeared. “I can’t fly to the US.”
“Can’t stay here,” she said. “Not when your heart is over there.”
Picking up the paper, I read the details, but didn’t really process them.
“A visa?” I said, ready to make clear how impossible her suggestion was.
“Filled out an application when you first got together with Mackenzie,” she said, then smiled.
“I told you, Troy. You don’t do casual. That girl, you love her.
” Hearing someone else say the words was like a slap to the face.
“You love her and right now, she needs to be in the States, looking after her mum. And you need to be there, looking after her.”
If Charlie had grabbed a carving fork and stabbed it right into my chest, it wouldn’t have hurt as much as hearing those words. I’d slapped a band aid over my aching heart, and she went and tore it off.
Then offered me everything I could’ve possibly wanted.
“I… You…”
“Thank you, Charlie,” she said with a sniff. “That’s what you’re supposed to say.”
I didn’t, not in words. Instead I rushed over, wrapping my arms around my sister. Her arms went up in surprise. Probably because the last time I hugged her was the day of Mum’s funeral. Slowly, she squeezed me back and for just a moment, I closed my eyes.
“Gotta pack,” I said, pulling away. “Gotta get to the airport.”
“Go get your girl,” she said with a nod, and that was all the permission I needed.
Hours later, I was handing a customs agent my passport, filing through into the international lounge. Briefly considering getting a beer, instead I found a seat away from everyone else and played the rest of the voice note.
“Don’t think it didn’t mean anything to me.
That you were just a fling. That’s what you were supposed to be, Troy, but…
You got under my skin somehow. Not a rebound romance, because being with you, I realised something.
I never loved Alex. But you…?” Say it, love, I thought furiously.
Say it, so I know I’m not doing something really fucking stupid.
“You have me feeling things I have no right to and I wish we could’ve had more time. ”
“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.”