Page 66 of Love, Just In

Natasha Harrington’s also sent a kind message offering me as much time off as I need. I thank her for the flowers and tell her I’ll be back as soon as the doctor gives me the all-clear. I can’t afford to be off her radar for too long.

Zac steps back through the curtain, looking red-faced and adorable.

‘Hey, bodyguard,’ I say weakly.

He slumps into the chair. ‘I’m sorry. Not about the sentiment, but I’m sorry about the tone. And the bad language.’

I smile. ‘You kiss your mama with that mouth?’

He taps his fingers on the armrests. ‘I see that he’s gone,’ he says pointedly.

‘He’s gone. And he won’t be back.’

He sits a little higher in his seat, and I watch that information sink in.

‘You broke up with him?’ he asks.

‘Well, that implies we were a couple in the first place. But yes, I ended it. It’s not even so much about last night, to be honest. I’d already decided I wasn’t into it. And now he’s well and truly in the Insect Category.’

Zac raises a brow. ‘TheInsect Category?’

‘Yup. It’s when you’re dating someone, but then you suddenly go off them and don’t even want them to touch you. Because when they do, it feels like an insect is crawling over your skin. It’s a very bad sign. Because once you’re in the Insect Category, you never come out.’

He scrubs a hand down his face. ‘Oh, Josie. Josie, Josie, Josie.’

I smile at him, a touch blown back by how handsome he looks in his navy T-shirt, which is printed with the words ‘I’m Not Angry. This Is Just My Face’.

The perfectly ironic shirt for today.

‘Hey, the nurse thinks I can go home,’ I say. ‘But the doctor still has to OK it.’

‘That’s great.’ Zac’s cheeks lift, and a little river of warmth rises up in my chest. I don’t know if it’s the painkillers making me soft, or the way the muscles in his arms flex as he rests his elbows on his knees, but I’m having all sorts of inappropriate thoughts. Again.

Zac insists on staying, and we eat bad hospital food together and watch mindless afternoon TV until he can’t linger another minute without being late for work.

‘Are you sure you don’t want me to try to get out of it?’ he asks for the third time. ‘You know I’m a nonexistent person when I’m on a shift. It’ll be harder for me to help you out.’

‘I’ll be fine. It’s just a bit of brain trauma,’ I tease. ‘It’ll be good for me to have some quiet time to rest so I can get back to work. Can’t have Meghan getting Christina’s Sydney job instead of me,’ I add with a smirk.

It occurs to me that Zac hasn’t mentioned Meghan for a few days, but he doesn’t react. He just offers me a contained smile and reluctantly heads off.

I finally call Mum and Dad, and we chat for more than an hour before the doctor clears me to go home.After texting Ingrid because it’s the early hours of the morning in London, I order an Uber, which I know Zac will feel terrible about, but I’m so relieved to be on my way back to his place that I couldn’t care less how I get there.

As the car rumbles past the football stadium on the way to Hamilton, I let out a long sigh and file this accident as a wake-up call of epic proportions. I came to Newcastle to kick butt at NRN News and prove to my bosses that they need me on the news desk down in Sydney—not to act like a teenager who’s just discovered boys and alcohol.

It’s time that I grew the hell up and figured out my life.

CHAPTER 23

One year ago

My ballet flats scuff against the concrete driveway leading to my car while Mum and Dad’s words bounce around my head, still trying to fall into place.

‘We’re moving to Koh Samui. We’ve found an agent there, a lovely lady named Win who’s going to help us sort out our visas and find a beach house …’

They practically tripped over each other to go on about the low cost of living, the gorgeous beaches and jungles, the incredible food, and the fun British couple they met on their last trip there, who are already Thai residents.

Holy shit. My parents are moving to another country, and with my sister on the other side of the world, I’m going to be all alone in Australia.

---