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falling to my knees at her side.
Almost expecting to see foam spewing from her mouth as if she d turned rabid, I wiped wet
clumps of hair out of her face and clutched my phone with my free hand.
Dawn didn t answer her cell within four rings and I swear these were the four longest freaking
rings of my life. I think I had about three mini heart attacks between each one.
I couldn t handle waiting for a fifth, so I disconnected and found the next number in line on the
contact list. Mason s cell phone. My fingers shook so badly and my brain was so overloaded with
fear, I knew I had to be punching in the wrong digits, but I continued jabbing until a ring echoed into
my ear.
I wiped a buttload of tears off my cheeks and listened to the echoing silence after the first ring. I
could count each heartbeat as it pounded in my chest. God, if he was with a client right now, I was
going to kill him.
Just as the second ring started, he answered, and I swear, his voice had never sounded so
wonderful.
 Mason, I need you; I don t know what to do. I rushed out the words, making one long,
breathless, run-on sentence.  Sarah s having a seizure, and I don t know what to do. She won t stop
shaking, and Dawn s not answering her phone. I m so freaked out right now. I don t know what to
do.
Had I mentioned that I didn t know what to do?
Mason didn t answer immediately. After a painfully long pause, he said,  Reese?
Oh, my God! There was no time for introductions.  Yes! I screamed in a frustrated, get-with-
the-program-already kind of way.  Who the hell do you think it is? Did you hear me? I said your
sister s having a seizure.
 Yeah, okay. I heard. I think. Just& first of all, calm down.
Calm down? Calm down? Was he mental? This was not a time to calm down.
 You can t help her if you re flipping out.
Shit. His steady, grounding tone trickled past the panic and somehow found the only rational
section of my brain. I blew out as calming a breath as I could manage.
 Did you get her out of her wheelchair? he asked.  Is she lying down?
I nodded.  Yes. We re on the floor in the hall. I was giving her a bath when 
 Good, he butted in, obviously not needing details.  Keep her there and just stay with her. Talk
to her. Let her know she s not alone. I ll be home in a minute.
 Do I call for an ambulance?
 Is she turning blue or changing any color?
 No.
 Not yet, then. This is fairly typical, but I ll know more when I get there.
 Okay. Okay. I clutched the phone gratefully.  Hurry.
 I will.
He hung up before I could thank him. And I really, really wanted to thank him for being there and
answering my call.
But& later.
Tossing my phone aside, I crawled to Sarah and held her hand, stroking the back of her knuckles
where her curled, contorted wrist seemed to wrap around my fingers, begging for help.
 It s okay, honey, I cooed.  It s okay. Reese is here. And Mason s coming. Sniffing, I didn t
even wince when I bumped the still tender area around my nose ring when I wiped the back of my
hand across my face.
For some reason, I remembered something I d heard once about epileptic people and how you had
to make sure they didn t swallow their tongue during a seizure. I tried to look into Sarah s mouth, but
her jaw was clamped tight. She didn t appear to be choking, so I prayed she hadn t swallowed
anything that wasn t supposed to be swallowed. A trail of drool seeped from the corner of her
pressed lips. I wiped it away, figuring no girl would want to be caught drooling, especially if the
paramedics who might need to come save her were as sexy as hell.
Then a breath later, she fell still and went catatonic.
 Sarah?
She didn t respond. Her eyes were open but they stared sightlessly. My level of scared rose to a
whole new level. I checked for a pulse and when I found one, I began to cry even harder. The relief
was more than I could handle.
 Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Please be okay, little buddy.
I didn t know if unconsciousness was common after a seizure, but I didn t want to call Mason
again; I wanted him to concentrate on the road so he could drive as fast as possible to get here.
Since Sarah was no longer juddering about, I hurried into the bathroom and collected her
nightclothes. If I were her, I wouldn t want everyone to see me in my birthday suit while I was out
cold.
With her being wet and unconscious, it took me three times as long as it usually did to dress her.
My fumbling fingers, which wouldn t stop shaking, didn t help matters. And it was impossible to see
clearly through all the tears that kept falling and blurring my vision.
I d just pulled her shirt on over her head when the front door flew open.
 Reese?
I wiped my nose with a trembling hand and sniffed.  We re here.
Mason appeared in the hallway.
 I was just getting her nightclothes on, I explained needlessly as I smoothed Sarah s shirt down
her torso.  She passed out. I didn t know if that was normal.
He knelt beside us and pressed two fingers to her throat.  Sometimes. How long has she been like
this?
 Umm. I shook my head.  A few minutes. Three. Four. I looked at him. He was wearing his
Country Club valet uniform.  You got here fast.
His glanced up.  You sounded pretty shaken.
I was still shaken.  How& how long will she be like this?
 Not much longer. So you need to keep it together, okay. If she sees you upset, she s going to get
upset too. We don t need anything triggering another episode. His gaze was steady but determined.
 Think you can do that?
No, absolutely not. I wanted to keep bawling my eyes out, curl into a fetal ball, and call my
mommy while drinking hot cocoa and stroking my childhood blankie.
But, I nodded and stopped wringing my hands to wipe all the wetness off my cheeks. If it helped
my little buddy, I d do whatever I had to.
Mason s eyes softened. Voice low and soothing, he said,  Good. She ll probably need a drink
when she wakes up. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]