Page 56

“Seriously? The two of you spend at least a half hour every morning going over celebrity gossip.”

“Mmm.”

Ellie frowned. “Mmm? That’s all you’ve got to say for yourself?” She remembered now that Carys had wanted to talk to her last night. “Hold on, what’s wrong? Is everything alright?”

“Yes. No.” Carys rubbed her face. “Um, I don’t know.”

“Helpful,” Ellie said. She minimized her window and turned away from her computer. “Come on, spill it, my time is your time.”

Carys pulled a face. “Um, I don’t quite know where to start with this.”

“At the beginning?”

“At the end is probably better,” said Carys. “Mo and I kissed.”

Ellie felt her mouth drop open, felt her eyes widen. “You what?”

“We kissed,” said Carys defiantly.

Ellie’s phone rang and she reached out to silence it before seeing it was Jem calling. She grimaced. “I have to take this. We’re not done here, we’re far from done here, don’t you move an inch.”

But for the second time that morning, Ellie was destined not to finish a conversation.

Chapter Twenty Three

Jasper was ashen, his face the color of dirty dishwater as he strode back and forth in the hospital corridor. Jem hurried over to him. “Jasp, I’m so sorry.”

“Yeah,” he said, running a hand through his hair. “Yeah. Thanks.”

“What happened?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. They won’t tell me anything, I’m just supposed to wait. I haven’t even seen her yet. Jesus, Jem, what am I supposed to do?”

Jem took a deep breath and put her hands on his shoulders. “Sit down, first of all.” He lowered himself onto a hard plastic chair. “Now stay there. There’s a machine in the waiting room, I’ll get you tea.”

She hurried off, scraping up spare change from the bottom of her bag to feed into the machine. When she got back, Jasper was still sitting. He looked so much smaller than he normally did, so pale, so absolutely bereft that she wasn’t sure she knew what to say.

“Here.”

“What’s this?” he asked.

“Tea.”

“Is it supposed to be this color?”

“Dunno,” Jem said. “I’m not sure I’ve drunk tea out of a machine before.”

“Christ.” He banged his head back against the wall. “I told them to move her to a private hospital, but they wouldn’t listen, just told me to wait out here and someone would be with me shortly. That was half an hour ago.”

“I’m sure they’re doing their best,” Jem said, sitting down next to him.

“What if their best isn’t good enough?”

There was silence for a while then, a deep silence that Jem didn’t know how to fill.

“She was feeling better,” Jasper said finally. “She was feeling better and she wanted to go out and do some shopping. She wanted things for…” His voice cracked. “For the baby.” He looked up at Jem. “Jesus, Jem. What am I supposed to do?”

She had no idea. She patted his arm. “Wait,” she said. “Just wait. They’ll tell you what’s going on as soon as they can.” Then she had a thought. “Should I call Pa?”