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“Please?” she pleaded with the two men, desperate to get Levi somewhere quiet where he’d feel safe.
The two young men stood and hurried over.
“Did he have too much to drink?” one of them asked as he got on one side of Levi while his friend moved to take a position on his other.
“No. He’s a war veteran and is experiencing a flashback. I just need to get him away from the noise.”
“Yes, ma’am,” the two men said, hauling Levi to his feet between them. As they made their way out of the stands, the fireworks display turned from amazing to spectacular, keeping the attention of those around them on the sky instead of the five people rushing out of the stands, one of them unconscious.
“Thank you, Lord,” Grace muttered as she and Cindy led the way to Stella’s car. She fished into Levi’s pocket and found the keys, unlocked the doors, and had the men settle Levi in the back seat.
She got in and started the car, letting welcome, cool air fill it as she quickly debated the best course of action. Levi needed to go home. Immediately. Was it safer for her to drive since Cindy rarely did and never at night? Or was it better to take their chances with Cindy puttering along behind the wheel while Grace sat in the back with Levi in case he came to before they got him home?
Grace decided it would be far faster for her to drive. If Levi woke up thinking he was still in a war zone, hopefully, she could talk him out of it.
“What can I do?” Cindy asked as she looked over the front passenger seat at Levi’s prone form sprawled across the back seat.
“Pray.” Grace buried her foot in the accelerator and hoped she wouldn’t get a speeding ticket between the raceway and the farm.
Amazingly, no one pulled her over as she made it back to Star in half the time it had taken them to get to the raceway. Rather than take Levi to his house, she drove directly to his parents’ home. The lights were all off, but she knew Levi shouldn’t be alone.
She pulled the car around by the end of the front walk and slid to a stop.
“Cindy, run get Gary, please. We’ll need his help getting Levi out of the car.”
Cindy raced down the walk, bounded up the porch steps, and pounded on the door while ringing the bell incessantly. The porch light had been left on, but lights began clicking on throughout the house, and the door swung open. Gary rubbed sleep from his eyes, wearing a pair of plaid shorts and a white T-shirt. Stella rushed up behind him with her housecoat snapped crooked, the hem hanging at a crazy angle, and wire mesh rollers poking out from beneath a silk scarf she’d tied around her head.
“It’s Levi,” Grace heard Cindy explain, then the three people on the porch ran to the car door that she’d opened.
Levi looked like he was in a trance, with his eyes rapidly moving behind his closed lids. His body twitched, and he moaned. His right hand batted at something only he could see. His muscles bunched, tense and tight, as though he prepared to defend himself.
“Levi. You’re safe. You’re home. Everything is fine,” Grace muttered as she climbed on the other side of him, hoping she could help push him out far enough they could get him on his feet and into the house.
It took the work of all four of them to get him out of the car and into the bed in his childhood bedroom.
Stella went to get a cool cloth and a glass of water while Gary pulled off Levi’s boots. Cindy hung the straw hat she’d rescued from the bleachers on the rung of a desk chair, then left to help Stella.
Grace had shifted from girlfriend to nurse the moment she’d sensed Levi was in distress. Not giving a thought to anything but helping him, she had Gary hold him while she removed his shirt, then they worked off his jeans. She was grateful Levi wasn’t the type of guy to forego underwear, or the situation could have turned extremely embarrassing for all of them.
Together, she and Gary tucked him in beneath a crisp cotton sheet that smelled of sunshine and laundry soap.
“He won’t want you here when he comes out of this,” Gary said softly as he adjusted the covers over Levi.
“I know, but I’d like to stay a few minutes, just to make sure he’ll be okay.” Grace feathered her fingers through his thick hair. His skin didn’t feel nearly as hot as it had earlier. He wasn’t moving around as much, either. His eyes no longer darted around behind his lids, which was a good sign.
She looked up at Gary as he stood on the other side of the bed. “Has this happened before?”
“Not that I’m aware of, in a public place, I mean. He has nightmares, night trauma might be a better description. When he was living here after he came back, he would wake us up shouting and yelling, and it would take hours for the tremors to stop. It bothered him that we saw him that way. He sees it as a weakness. I tried to talk to him about it, but he refuses to listen or discuss it. I know that’s why he wanted to move into my brother’s old house, to fight his demons alone.”
“He hates to show anything he sees as weakness,” Grace said, sitting on the edge of the mattress and taking the cool cloth Stella handed to her when she hurried into the room. Grace noticed Cindy chose to remain elsewhere, which was for the best. The fewer people around, the easier it would be on Levi when he did awaken.
Grace sponged his face, neck, chest, and hands, then Stella went to rinse it out with cool water. Although there was a bathroom in Levi’s room, Stella headed to the kitchen in her unsettled state.
Grace took Levi’s pulse and found it to be normal. His breathing was even and steady now, and she was sure he had actually gone to sleep.
“I think he’ll be fine the rest of the night. I could sit with him if you’d like me to,” Grace volunteered, hoping Gary and Stella wouldn’t think her forward for offering. She needed to be with Levi, not as a nurse watching over a patient, but as a woman needing to be near the man she loved.
“No, Grace. You have to work tomorrow, don’t you? We’ll keep an eye on him.” Gary patted her on the shoulder. “You and Cindy should go home.”
