AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“He’ll say no. He says no to everything.” Zeke stood, scowled and yawned again, clearly worn with the busy day. And when he got tired, he got grumpy.
“Why don’t you take a rest,” she suggested softly. “If the puppies start arriving, I’ll come get you, okay?”
“I’m not even a little bit tired.” He yawned again, punctuating the declaration.
She hid a smile. “You don’t have to sleep, darling. Maybe just a rest and a cookie.”
“All my favorite cookies are gone.” He sighed as if the world had just crumbled around him. “Maybe I’ll get one anyway.”
“Okay.”
She heard him in the kitchen, then the nearby bathroom. She stroked the dog’s head, murmuring sweet words of comfort, right up until she heard the scream followed by a solid thud.
Her heart stopped, but the adrenaline punch pumped it right into high gear. As she burst through the door onto the side porch, her heart ground to a halt again because there was Zeke, the beloved boy, lying on the ground.
And he wasn’t moving.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
While one volunteer EMT cared for Zeke, a second one addressed the gathered crew of Pine Ridge Ranch. “We’ve called for the chopper,” he explained. “We want him at a level-one trauma hospital, just in case he needs additional services.”
“Additional services?” Lizzie gripped his arm. “What does that mean?”
“It’s concussion protocol. Some are worse than others and having skilled hands and equipment on hand is clutch. I hear it coming.” He pointed south as the sound of the chopper grew. “Let’s get him transported and they’ll take it from there. With a head trauma like this, we don’t want to waste time.”
Head trauma.
Zeke.
Lizzie’s hands shook. Her fingertips buzzed.
“How far up the tree was he?” the medic asked, and Lizzie had to shake her head.
“I don’t know. I was inside and he was going to take a rest. I heard the scream as he fell. I—”
Her voice was lost in the growing noise as the chopper descended into the fresh-cut hayfield nearby. Medics hurried their way, lugging necessary equipment at a dead run.
How had this happened in the space of a few short minutes?
“Zeke.” Heath sank to the ground on the other side of the inert child. Anguish darkened his face while worry clouded his eyes.
She hadn’t heard him arrive. The sound of his Jeep had been shrouded by the chopper noise.
The first EMT made way for the new arrivals. She approached Heath. “We’ve got concussion symptoms, Heath. Possibly a broken wrist. They’re going to fly him to Boise.”
“Am I going to lose him?”
Heath’s voice held more than fear. It held the stark reality of life and death. Guilt and sorrow fought for dominance within Lizzie.
“Kids get concussions all the time,” she told him. “But he needs care and observation, all of which they can give him. There’s so little up here to work with.”
They’d immobilized Zeke’s little body on some kind of a board.
The sight of the child, lying still and quiet against the hard surface, shattered Lizzie’s heart again. He should be kicking and screaming at the thought of being trussed up, but he wasn’t.
He couldn’t because she’d been too distracted to watch him properly.
“You’ll have to drive to the hospital, Heath. There’s no room in the chopper. I already checked. Are you okay to drive?”
Of course he wasn’t.
Tears filled his eyes. Worry darkened his face. The guy was totally over the top and it was one hundred percent her fault.
“I can drive.” She reached for his keys, determined. She’d messed up. It was her job to see it through.
“I’ll drive myself.”
Lizzie started to protest, but Heath was already moving away. She chased after him. “Let me drive. You’re in no condition to—”
“Tell everyone I’ll call to let them know what’s going on.”
He started the engine, turned the car around, and was heading down the driveway as the rescue chopper roared back to life.
And then they were gone, the beat of the chopper blades leaving a dull thudding noise as the copter headed south.
She stared after the chopper, then Heath’s car, then the helicopter again as it faded from sight.
She couldn’t stay here, waiting. Heath might not want her with him, but she couldn’t stay hours away while that blessed child fought for his life.
“Corrie.” She turned as Corrie came up next to her. “I’ve got to go.”
Corrie didn’t pretend to hide her concern. “I know, Lizzie-Beth. I know. But do you think it’s best, darlin’?”
