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heart pound so hard it had to be creating shockwaves on the plethora of cardiac monitors in the unit.
When she’d spotted him her smile had been automatic. Even the tiniest glimpse of him made her insides light up. But that light had dimmed almost as fast as it appeared. As rather than return her smile, he’d given a nod of acknowledgment, then turned away.
Which hurt.
How could he just turn away as if they hadn’t had the most amazing sex on her bedroom floor, twice, before climbing up into her bed and holding each other long into the night?
As if they hadn’t shared looks and kisses an entire weekend?
As if... Ugh. She had to stop.
Ryder had done her a favor. Had pretended to be her boyfriend. He’d never promised, or even alluded to wanting, anything more.
Anything more scared her. One weekend as Ryder’s pretend girlfriend had turned her world upside down. What if they got involved for real, how would she cope when he walked away?
Clay and Paul’s walking away had hurt, but she’d survived. With the impact Ryder had had on her psyche, she wasn’t so sure she could handle being dumped by him.
Which was enough to keep her from reaching out to him and telling him how much she missed him.
McKenzie’s phone buzzed from her scrub pocket. She glanced at the message and her heart squeezed for more than one reason.
Whether either of them wanted to or not, she and Ryder would soon be forced to interact.
Sawyer Little was in respiratory distress and on her way to the hospital via ambulance.
* * *
McKenzie met the paramedics wheeling Sawyer into the emergency department. She’d wanted to be right there when the baby arrived.
As had Ryder.
Working beside him added a new level to the intensity of the moment, to the stress of Sawyer’s heart possibly failing.
Testing immediately began.
Nurses carried out orders as McKenzie and Ryder gave them.
“Please don’t let her be in heart failure,” McKenzie whispered softly as she ran the ultrasound conducer over the baby’s chest. “Please. Please. Please.”
The surgical sites looked good. The rebuilt aorta had good blood flow via the surgically connected proximal pulmonary artery. The pulmonary veins had increased pressure, which happened sometimes, but that shouldn’t have put the baby into respiratory distress. However, the fluid built up in the baby’s lungs could, and had.
Pneumonia? Or her heart’s inability to efficiently pump fluid and the fluid had backed up into Sawyer’s lungs, filling the tiny air sacs and preventing oxygen exchange?
Sawyer needed to go back on life support stat to take the workload off her heart and clear out the fluid, if it was cardiac in nature.
If infectious in nature, well, they’d deal with that, too.
“The surgical site looks patent,” Ryder commented. “Her blood is being oxygenated. I don’t see any evidence of a clot or failure of the repairs.”
McKenzie agreed. “It’s possibly pneumonia.”
Ryder nodded. “I hope not, but not uncommon after being on a ventilator for several days. It could have been slowly worsening since her hospital discharge.”
McKenzie ordered blood cultures and labs, determined to quickly get to the root of whatever was causing Sawyer’s problems.
The baby’s life depended on it.
“I’m going to suction her,” Ryder said.
