Sam dropped his arm behind my back, helping me to a sitting position.
“We good for sure?” Conrad called.
“Are we?” Sam asked me.
“Yes.” I tried to swallow, but my mouth felt like a desert.
Sam stood up. “Bubbly?”
A moment later, a can came sailing over the fence. Sam caught it in one hand, dipping his arm so it didn’t smack against his palm, then cracked it open. It didn’t overflow one bit.
“So talented,” I croaked.
Sam held it to my lips. “I did pick up a few things in my short time in college.”
I smiled shakily, then took a sip. I’d never tasted something so tasteless and somehow so delicious.
“What did tools down mean?” I asked after I swallowed.
“Con was going to call an ambulance.”
“Do you think I need an ambulance?”
His lips turned up. “I’m no doctor. But you look okay to me. Unless you have any underlying conditions I should know about?”
“You said you weren’t a doctor.”
“I trained as a medic.”
“You never told me that.”
“You never told me you liked to take spontaneous naps on your back deck.”
I laughed softly, but that made me feel a little woozy.
“No laughing, pillow princess.”
That only made me laugh again.
Together we managed to get me to my feet, though I was fully leaning on Sam.
“I’m too heavy,” I said.
“You’re just right.”
Why did that sound so good? And why did I care when I’d literally passed out just now? God, this was embarrassing.
“I can’t believe I fainted.”
“When’s the last time you ate?”
I had to think about it. “This morning,” I said. Sort of. I’d had a coffee and a half a banana that Henry hadn’t finished. I was going to pick something up on the way to work, but I decided I’d be good for lunch. But that never happened either.
“I needed to finish my job,” I said. Which I did. “To get Henry, then go to Greenville, to get Tommy. I was okay on the way home—”My stomach seized thinking about what could have happened if my body hadn’t waited until I got home to pass out. I’d had both my boys in the car with me.
“Hey,” Sam said, pulling my arm over my shoulder. “Don’t think about what-ifs. The body knows what to do.”
He’d been reading my mind.
