Six
Good gracious, I’d killed him.
I’d go down in history as a black widow. Not quite as treacherous as Lady Macbeth, but still more villainous than I was hoping for. I could see the headlines now. Woman Tricks Man Into Fake Marriage, Poisons Him Same Day. I wouldn’t go to jail, would I? I didn’t mean to kill him, after all. There was no motive. If I’d known he was allergic to peanuts, I would never have given him a cookie.
So not what you should be obsessing over right now, Ashleigh.
Landon coughed over the wastebasket, and I leapt to his side and started pounding him on the back.
“Can you breathe? Is your throat closing? Are you going into anaphylactic shock? Do you have an EpiPen?” With each question I pounded harder. That’s how you made sure a person’s airways stayed open, wasn’t it? He wasn’t clutching at his throat or gasping for breath, so that was good. He was kind of flailing around and trying to grab my wrist though. I took that to mean the pounding was working. I kept at it. Kinda like CPR. Just keep on doing the compressions until help comes.
“Where’s your EpiPen? Don’t people with allergies always have one with them?” Whack. Whack. Whack. “Claire, check his luggage. See if you can’t find that infernal pen!”
“Ashleigh,” Landon wheezed, hunched over.
I leaned close to his face so I could make out his dying last words. Carol would hate me for all eternity, but at least I could let her know what Landon had said on his final breath.
He turned his head and met my eyes. “Stop.” Whack. “Hitting.” Whack. “Me.”
“Oh.” My hand stilled midair.
He straightened, his fingers going to his beard where he started to scratch. Bright red spots began to form over the curve of his cheek bones, and his lips looked like someone had attached a bicycle pump to them and started to fill them with air. “I’m not going into anaphylaxis.”
“You’re not?”
“No.” He scratched down his neck. “But I’m going to break out in hives and swell up a bit.”
My mind had him rounding out like Violet Beauregarde in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Except Landon hadn’t snatched a forbidden invention and didn’t deserve this punishment. And there were no Oompa-Loompas to roll him around until he unswelled.
Red splotches travelled across Landon’s face, his ears growing to resemble a beet. Nausea rolled my stomach. This was all my fault.
“Is there anything I can do?”
He scratched behind his ear.
Annie!She was a pastor’s wife, so she must be a nurse. She’d know what to do. “Noah, get your mom. Her nursing training can help us out.”
Noah’s head jerked back. “Nursing? Ashleigh, my mom—”
“Go get your mom!” If Landon kept scratching like he was, he’d soon be filleted like a fish.
Noah scrambled out the door, passing a glaring Claire with her hands punched to her hips.
How could she have that look mastered when I didn’t?
Landon sank onto a lower bunk. “I’m fine. No need to rally the troops.”
Right, because being able to play connect-the-dots on someone’s face was the definition of fine.
“Did you need—” Annie’s palm flew to cover her mouth. “Oh, you poor man,” she crooned. “Are you all right? What happened?”
“He’s having an allergic reaction to the peanut butter in the cookies,” I said, like I was a paramedic relaying pertinent patient information to the doctor. “He took a bite but spat it out when he realized there were peanuts in it. What should we do? Does he need over-the-counter antihistamines or something?”
“My cookies did this?” Her eyes widened. “I am so sorry. I should have checked to make sure no one had any food allergies. I did ask Claire, but she didn’t tell me that…well, none of that matters now.”
“It’s okay, Mrs. Abrams,” Landon reassured, although his words sounded slurred past his swollen lips.
“Antihistamines?” I asked again. Surely there was something we could get the man to stop the itching and swelling.
