Turnabout's Fair Play (34 page)

He took a deep, shuddering breath. “I have. I’m—”

His cell phone rang—the new ringtone he’d assigned to Cookie. He released Flannery to pull the phone out of the cargo pocket on the side of his shorts’ leg. “Hey, Cookie, what’s—”

“Is Flannery with you?” Her voice sounded frantic.

“Y–yeah. What’s wrong?” He flashed a concerned look at Flannery, grabbed her hand, and started toward the dining hall.

“It’s Kirby. I think he’s having a heart attack.”

Chapter 23

H
e can’t be having a heart attack. He has an automatic defibrillator—an ICD.” Flannery’s voice preceded her, and Maureen looked up from Kirby’s pallid face as his granddaughter flew into the room.

She shifted so Flannery could kneel beside her but kept her fingertips pressed to the inside of Kirby’s wrist, the deep groaning prayer in her soul never stopping. “It’s probably tachycardia or fibrillation. His pulse is weak and rapid, and just before he passed out, he complained of dizziness. And he’s been having trouble catching his breath all weekend.”

Kirby groaned. Flannery stroked his cheek. “Big Daddy, are you okay? Can you hear me?”

“He has been responsive but sluggish.” Maureen chewed her bottom lip. She’d been a pediatric nurse, so her knowledge of providing support for a cardiac event had been limited twenty years ago when she was still practicing. And so much had changed since then.

She looked up at Jamie, who knelt with one hand on Flannery’s shoulder—the other rubbed the center of his own chest.

Oh, dear Lord. I can’t have found Kirby only to lose him the same way I lost James and Jimmy. Please, please, don’t take him from me
.

Finally, someone in a nurse’s uniform leaned over Kirby with a stethoscope. Flannery moved out of the way so another nurse could wrap a blood pressure cuff around his upper arm.

“His pulse is 120.” That was the only thing Maureen had been able to do. Sit here and count his heartbeats, wondering if the next would be his last.

Jamie stood over her, his hand extended. “Come on, Cookie, I know you want to help, but let’s let them take over for now.” He wrapped his arm around her and pressed her head to his chest—where she could hear the steady, strong beat of his heart. Jamie held out his other arm, and Flannery accepted his one-armed embrace.

“At least it happened somewhere with medical personnel on site.” Flannery held her left hand up to her mouth and tapped the nail of her pinky finger against her bottom teeth while she watched the nurses monitor her grandfather’s vitals.

The crowd around them stirred and parted. Relief touched Maureen’s panic to see the paramedics arriving. Jamie pulled her and Flannery back to make room for the gurney.

With a little help, Kirby got to his feet and onto the gurney under his own power. As the emergency responders unbuttoned his shirt to place the heart monitor leads on his chest, he reached his hand out in their direction.

Maureen was about to step forward and take it when Flannery broke away from Jamie and went to her grandfather’s side. Of course he wanted his family, not someone he’d only known for a little more than a month.

“I’m sorry, darlin’. Sorry this happened.”

“Oh, Big Daddy, it’s not your fault.” Flannery swiped her cheeks with the back of her free hand. “They’re going to get you to the hospital and get you sorted out. And then we’re going to get you well and home again.”

“Do me a favor—don’t call your dad or the rest of the family until we know what’s going on.”

“Big Daddy, are you sure? They should know. They’ll want to be here.”

He gave his granddaughter a wan smile. “That’s what I’m afraid of. Let’s find out if it’s serious or not before we go ruining everyone else’s holiday.”

Flannery’s ponytail bobbed when she nodded her head. “Okay.”

“Where’s…?” He lifted his head a little, but one of the EMTs gently pushed it back down onto the thin pillow. “Where’s Maureen?”

Jamie propelled her forward. Flannery gave her a teary smile and passed Kirby’s hand to her. Maureen clasped the big paw in both of hers. “You gave me a little scare there.”

“Sorry. Not the best way to impress a pretty girl, is it?”

“You don’t have to try to impress me, Kirby McNeill. You just have to get better.” She kissed the back of that strong, solid hand.

“Ma’am.” The paramedic who’d been setting up the heart monitor now stood at the head of the gurney, ready to push.

Maureen kissed Kirby’s hand again and released it. “What hospital are you taking him to?”

“Vanderbilt,” Kirby groaned out. “That’s—that’s where my cardiologist is.”

The crowd parted again to let them through. Maureen followed, with Jamie and Flannery behind her.

“Come on, Cookie. We’ll all go in my car.” Jamie held the front door for her and Flannery—who pulled out her phone, pressed a button or two, and held it to her ear. Maureen almost reminded her of the promise she’d made to Kirby, but it wasn’t her business.

“Hey,” Flannery greeted whoever answered. “We’re not going to be able to make it to the cookout…. Um, Big Daddy, Jamie, Maureen, and me…We’re on our way to the hospital. Big Daddy got dizzy and passed out at lunch at the senior center—he’s talking and seems to be getting better already—but we’re going to go find out what’s going on.”

Impressed with Flannery’s calm voice and her ability to understate the problem to keep from worrying anyone else, Maureen allowed Jamie to help her into the front passenger seat of his car. He closed her door, and in the mirror, she watched as her grandson drew the pretty blond into his arms, said something to her, and then kissed her tenderly.

More tears flooded Maureen’s eyes—tears of joy for her grandson and tears of fear for herself. She couldn’t lose Kirby. She just couldn’t.

For all that Flannery kept calm and cool on the outside, inside…garbled, short-circuited thoughts tumbled through her head. Her heart went from racing to a slow pounding. And it was all she could do not to call her mom and dad.

Once again, she thanked God Jamie and Maureen were with her so she didn’t have to do this alone. She glanced up and caught Jamie looking at her through the rearview mirror.

She looked away. She didn’t need pity right now; she needed strength. She needed him to hug her and reassure her and kiss her. Again.

Pressing her forehead against the window, she almost gave in to the threatening tears. She didn’t
want
to need Jamie’s presence. She didn’t want to need his strength, his confidence, his assurance that Big Daddy would be okay. She wanted to find that within herself. She’d lived this long without needing someone else. After just five weeks of being around him, of flirting back and forth—sometimes without even realizing it was him—she’d gone and done what she’d vowed to herself she wouldn’t.

She’d changed. She’d given up her independence. And all because some cute, dorky guy made her lower her defenses and let him see her vulnerabilities.

As soon as Jamie pulled into a parking space in the garage, Flannery jumped out of the car and headed for the elevators. She was still jamming her finger on the call button when Jamie and Maureen caught up with her.

Jamie and Maureen murmured behind her, but Flannery couldn’t bring herself to focus on their words. She needed to think, to concentrate. To pray.

Only, she couldn’t seem to get past,
Dear God…dear God
…, but she made it her mantra all the way from the car to the information desk in the emergency room.

“My grandfather was brought in by ambulance. Kirby McNeill.” She spelled both the first and last names without being asked.

The woman at the computer typed it in. “Your name?”

“Flannery McNeill.”

“Please have a seat. We’ll call you when you can go back.” She didn’t even look up from the computer.

“But, I’m—he shouldn’t be alone.”

The woman barely spared Flannery a glance. “Ma’am, they’re still getting him situated and running tests and getting all of his information, so you’d just be in the way. And we have to clear visitors with the patient, due to privacy concerns, so please have a seat, and we’ll call you when you can go back.”

“Flan, come on.”

She considered resisting Jamie’s tug on her elbow, but from the expression of sheer unconcern on the hospital employee’s face, she figured she wouldn’t accomplish anything more than making a scene and getting more people upset.

Jamie led her to the bank of seats where Maureen sat staring at her hands resting in her lap. No, not her hands, but something she held. A handkerchief.

Big Daddy’s handkerchief. He’d handed it to Maureen when she’d gotten choked up during the finale of the program. Flannery found a glimmer of humor. Big Daddy had offered Maureen a pristine, delicate, white handkerchief on which to wipe her tears. Jamie had offered Flannery his shirtsleeve. Both offered unconditionally, neither worrying about makeup stains or, in Big Daddy’s case, if he’d get it back. If that wasn’t love …

Maureen looked up at Flannery and Jamie’s approach, and she reached her hand out toward Flannery.

Flannery didn’t want to need anyone. But honestly, she did. If Jamie and Maureen hadn’t been with her, she would have called Caylor and Zarah to be with her. If she couldn’t have them, she would have called Jack or other coworkers or friends from church. If it wouldn’t take Mom and Dad three hours to drive up here, she’d have called them.

For years, she’d put on a big show about being independent and taking care of herself and not wanting to put her trust in anyone lest she end up getting hurt; but as a human being, she must depend on others. That’s how the world worked. That’s how God intended it. And because Maureen and Jamie had been with her when this happened, God wanted her to depend on them.

Leaning down, she gave Maureen a hug and then sat beside her. Flannery, in turn, extended her hand toward Jamie, who took it and eased down into the seat beside her.

“Sorry I freaked out there a little bit. It was rude.”

Maureen patted her leg. “It’s forgiven and completely understandable.”

“He’s my last living grandparent.” Flannery finally gave voice to her greatest fear.

“How old were you when…?” Jamie left the end of the question unasked.

“Sixteen when Mimi—Big Daddy’s wife—died. She’d been fighting cancer for three years, so we had time to prepare, but still, even though her passing was expected and peaceful and we were all there with her, it was hard to say good-bye. I was in college when my mom’s parents died. We weren’t really close with them. They lived in Oregon and didn’t travel at all—meaning that to see them, we had to go all the way out there. And with Dad’s school schedule and all the years Mom had no say in her work schedule, trips out to Oregon had been few and far between. We got to see Big Daddy and Mimi all the time—they could come to all of our school programs and recitals and church musicals and graduations and all that kind of stuff.” Flannery leaned hard against Jamie’s strong shoulder. She couldn’t lose Big Daddy now. She wasn’t ready.

Jamie pulled his hand out of hers and put his arm around her instead. “You’re lucky. I never knew either of my grandfathers. One died before I was born, and the other, when I was just a baby.”

Flannery wondered which had been Cookie’s husband but didn’t feel right asking.

“I guess that’s why I’ve liked volunteering at the nursing home and helping out with the senior adult group at church. And why I’ve liked having Kirby around so much recently.”

“Big Daddy,” Flannery corrected.

Jamie kissed her temple. “Big Daddy. I like having him around because it’s like he’s my long-lost grandpa.”

Flannery stole a quick glance at Maureen, who was back to staring at the handkerchief, but the corner of her mouth did quirk up a little at Jamie’s statement.

They all jumped when Maureen’s cell phone rang. She looked at the screen before answering and then stood and went out through the automatic sliding doors to talk outside.

Jamie frowned. “Wonder what that’s all about.”

“I imagine Caylor told her grandmother, who called Dylan’s grandmother, who called Zarah’s grandmother, who called Bobby’s grandmother, to see who knows what’s going on, and now it’s one of them calling your grandmother to try to find out.”