Page 49 of With One Kiss

“Okay.” Mac’s tone of voice was the same one you might use on a three-year-old. One that said he was just going to keep agreeing with me, no matter what I said. “You might want to…” He waved a hand at my groin area. “You know, just in the interests of them not setting security on you when you arrive at the hospital.”

I glanced down to find that I might have pulled my trousers and underwear up, but I hadn’t done up the zipper or fastened the button, my underwear on full display. “Merde!” I quickly rectified the oversight, pleased by how steady my fingers were. I left the bedroom and put on a jacket, and then picked up my phone, wallet, and keys.

When I turned, Mac was shrugging on his own jacket. “You can stay here if you want,” I offered. “You don’t have to go home. I trust you not to rob me blind or set fire to anything.”

Mac shot me a strange look, half frown and half bemusement. “I’m coming with you to the hospital.”

“Why?”

“Because… I’m not an arsehole, and you shouldn’t be on your own.”

A mixture of feelings surged through me, so many and of such a variation, that I didn’t even try to parse them. “Sitting next to my alcoholic father’s bedside is hardly the remit of a fuck buddy.”

“What about a friend?” There was something sharp in Mac’s tone that warned me not to fob him off. “Unless you’d rather I call Finn?”

“No. They were going out tonight. The last thing I want is him dropping everything to babysit me. I’d never hear the end of it from Cillian.”

“Cillian would understand. My brother might be the most annoying person on earth, but… and it pains me to admit this, he’s not an ogre.” Mac held his hands out, palms up. “That’s your choice. Me or Finn?”

I could have suggested Henri as an alternative, but time stood here arguing was time I could be on the way to the hospital. The nurse I’d spoken to might not have seemed unduly worried by my father’s condition, but she wasn’t a clairvoyant and he could take a turn for the worse at any time. “You,” I said quietly.

“There we go!” Mac said, with a bright smile far more characteristic of his usual demeanor. “That wasn’t so difficult, was it?” He headed for the door.

After a pause, I followed. “Can I change my mind?”

“Nope. You’re stuck with me now. You made your choice.”

Mac had chatted constantly throughout the twenty-minute trip to the hospital. While I might not have paid much attention to what he was saying, the low timbre of his voice as backgroundnoise was comforting, and he didn’t seem to give a damn about my lack of response.

And now we waited on hard plastic chairs that never seemed to curve the right way no matter how you sat or how much you moved around, our nostrils full of an astringent disinfectant.

“Not a fan of hospitals?” Mac asked.

“Not since I got run over by a bus and spent a week in one, no.”

He laughed, but stopped when he saw my expression. “Wait! You’re not joking?”

I picked at a spot on the knee of my jeans. “If I was joking, I’d pick something funnier to get run over by, like an ice-cream van or a golf cart. I wouldn’t recommend a bus.”

Mac leaned forward in the chair, arms braced on his knees. “What happened?”

“The driver had a heart attack and lost control at the wheel. Yours truly happened to be on the section of pavement he plowed into. He lived, in case you’re wondering.”

“And you?”

I gave him a sideways glance. “I lived, too.”

“Dick! You know what I meant.”

“Severe bruising. A broken leg that took a long time to heal. Less one spleen. And a vow not to take a bus if any other method of transport is available. Hence us getting a cab here. Although, I suppose if I’m on the bus, there’s less chance of one driving into me.”

“You lost your spleen?”

“I did. Very careless of me, I know.”

“What does that mean in terms of daily life? Does it have an effect?”

“I’m more prone to serious infections. Pneumonia, septicemia, meningitis, and the like. So far, touch wood”—I leaned forward and tapped on the small table holding an assortment ofmagazines from the previous decade?”it doesn’t seem to have made any difference.”

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