AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“They are going to take good care of her. My brother, Wes, is a doctor, and he fixes kids, so he’s going to take care of her.”
God, please let her be okay, I silently prayed to myself as I took the kids to the house. My mother met me on the porch where I set Emmy down. “Emmy, you are going to stay here, okay? I have to help your mom.”
“Come on, sweetheart,” my mother said, and Riley showed up at her side. “Do you like ice cream?”
“I like stuffed animals,” Emmy replied in a voice void of emotion.
“Stuffed animals?” Riley asked excitedly. “I think I can help with that.”
I was already rushing back to the barn when I heard Riley’s reply and was thankful for Riley’s addiction to stuffed animals when she was growing up. Hopefully, that would keep Emmy calm until we got back.
I ran out toward the pasture where the chopper had landed and saw Nolan kiss her daughter. I also saw her daughter pass out, and I knew that something awful was happening. As they started to take off, Wes was doing compressions on Lauren, and I put my arms around Nolan just as her knees began to buckle.
“What’s going on?” she asked. “Oh, my God! Was he doing CPR on her?”
Henley stepped in front of Nolan. “Come on, Nolan, let’s get you in the car, and we’ll get to the hospital.”
“Was he doing CPR on Lauren?” she yelled, and Henley peered at me momentarily before he nodded.
“Yeah, I think he was.”
“Come on, Nolan. Let’s go.” I turned her in my arms and led her back to the driveway. Roxanne was waiting beside Henley’s SUV. I climbed into the back with Nolan as Roxanne took the front passenger seat, and Henley was on the road in seconds.
I saw him flip some switches, and then the siren went on as we hit the road. Beside me, Nolan was shaking, and I encouraged her to put her seat belt on and I did the same. We were too far apart for me to hold her, but I took her hand, and she strangled it as if she were holding on for dear life.
We were mostly quiet, the only sound the radio crackling with someone’s voice every once in a while. After one such time, Henley glanced in the rearview mirror. “They are at the hospital.”
“Is she alive?” Nolan asked.
Henley replied tersely, “I don’t know that answer, Nolan. I only know that the chopper has touched down.”
She pulled her hand from mine and covered her face as she began to cry. I unbuckled my belt and slid across the seat, wrapping my arms around her shoulders as she fell against my chest.
I stared at Henley in the mirror. His grave expression did not make me feel better. Roxanne had picked up her phone and was making a phone call. A moment later, I heard her asking about the status of Lauren after she explained who she was.
She nodded and said thank you before she hung up. “She’s alive, Nolan.”
Nolan sobbed louder, and the rest of us released a tense breath. I remained where I was for the duration of the ride. I had been to Summersville a thousand times, but I had never made it there as quickly as we did today. Thank God for the emergency medical vehicle.
Henley pulled up to the ambulance drop-off at the hospital so Nolan and I could get out. He said he’d park and come in. I had my hand on her back as we rushed through the doors and stopped at the window to check in.
They opened the doors to allow her back within a minute, but I stayed in the waiting room. I wasn’t Lauren’s father, and I didn’t have any right to be at her side, but damn, did I want to be.
Henley and Roxanne joined me, and Henley said he’d find out what was going on. Roxanne and I took a seat in the corner.
“She’s going to be okay, Brad.” She rubbed my back as I leaned forward on my elbows.
I barely knew the young girl, but I cared about her. I also loved her mother, and I did not want to see Nolan lose her daughter.
“She has to be, Roxy.”
“She will be.”
Henley came back a few minutes later. “She’s stable. It looks like she had an asthmatic attack because of playing on the hay. The low oxygen caused her heart to work harder.”
“Did her heart stop?”
“It did, and they had to shock her in the chopper, but only once, and then they got her back.”
