a chair in the corner, along with his tie and belt, and the first few buttons of his shirt had been loosened.
There was a light rap on the door, and then it opened to a man wearing a white doctor’s coat over a checkered button-up shirt and dark brown slacks, a stethoscope slung around his neck. Liam scanned his memory for the doctor’s name. Dr. Wright.
“How are you feeling?” Dr. Wright asked. Xander and Felicia moved away from the bed to let Dr. Wright come closer.
“Good,” Liam said. “Did the test results come back with anything?”
“Your heart is good,” the doctor told him, “and your lungs are strong.” He glanced at his tablet, clicking through a few pages. “You need to get more sleep, your blood sugar was low, and you were dehydrated, so we’ve hooked you up with some fluids and electrolytes. Once the bag is empty, you are free to leave, but you need to take it easy.”
“What happened, then?” Xander asked. “It was like he couldn’t breathe and then he just passed out.”
Liam took a closer look at his brother, who looked as ragged as Liam had felt earlier. He tried to imagine what it would be like to see his brother collapse, but he couldn’t. Didn’t want to.
When the doctor hesitated, Liam shifted nervously in his bed. He’d given the doctor permission earlier, when he’d first arrived, to share his medical details with Felicia and Xander, so he knew that wasn’t why the doctor was hesitating.
“It was a panic attack,” he finally said.
“A panic attack?” Liam asked. “No. It couldn’t have been. I couldn’t breathe. I blacked out. It was like my entire body was shutting down.”
The doctor powered down his tablet. “Is this the first time it’s happened to you?”
“Yes,” Liam started to say, but then stopped and remembered all the times in the last couple of months that his chest had felt extra tight or when his hands had shaken almost beyond his control. He’d even had a handful of times where his breathing had felt a little wheezy, but he’d chalked it up to exhaustion, working too hard, or walking up several flights of stairs when everyone else had taken the elevator.
“I want you to see your primary care doctor when you leave, but also you need to find a therapist as well to help you manage your anxiety.”
A therapist? Liam Nichols was one of the richest people in the world. He had a great brother, a great team, a great life. What in the world did he have to feel anxious or need to see a therapist about?
The doctor left then, but a nurse came in with some papers for him to sign and removed his IV. He swung his feet around the side of the bed, realizing that he’d taken off his shoes as well, feeling numb. Anxiety? He was just tired and overworked.
“I think you need to come to Eureka Springs,” Xander said. He’d brought over Liam’s shoes, while Felicia held his tie and suit coat.
“I’ll take care of everything while you’re gone,” Felicia assured him.
“I can’t go to Eureka Springs in the middle of the fourth quarter,” he argued.
“You have a house there you’ve never even been to,” Xander pointed out. It was true. He had a house built right next to Xanders, but he’d been too busy to fly out and see it since it had been finished.
“There’s something else,” Felicia said. She handed him his coat and tie. “Someone leaked the footage of the meeting to the press. Your ... panic attack is all over the news.”
Liam fumbled through his pocket for his phone and searched his name. Sure enough, the first hit to come up was a video of him at the meeting, drinking water, his hands visibly shaking, and then collapsing. Is the Pets and More CEO on drugs? read one headline. Does He Have What it Takes to Fill His Dad’s Shoes? read another.
“I’ve got Dillon and Mark on it,” Felicia said, referring to their heads of PR. “We need to tell them you had a panic attack, though. Change the narrative before it gets out of hand.”
Liam nodded, feeling numb.
“Go to Eureka Springs,” Felicia said. “I will handle everything here.” He knew she could, so it wasn’t leaving the company that worried him as much as not taking care of things himself. Felicia must have known his thoughts, because she continued, “Take care of you, Mr. CEO. Pets and More will still be waiting for you when you return.” The vote. He hadn’t even seen the final results before passing out. They must have voted him in.
The television in the corner cut from the game show it had been on, and a newscaster came onto the screen. The outside of the hospital he was in filled the screen, followed by a flash of video of him collapsing. The reporter spoke. “Pets and More CEO is being hospitalized after a collapse at a board meeting. We’re bringing information to you live. Is there something more going on, or does Liam Nichols need a break?”
Xander turned off the television and raised an eyebrow. Maybe he did need to get away from all of this. It was telling that the best sleep he’d had in almost a year was in a hospital bed.
“Find a back door for a car to meet us at,” he said grimly, looking back and forth between Xander and Felicia. “It looks like I’m going to Eureka Springs.”
*To Read More of “Her Billionaire Heartthrob” and find other books in the “Billionaire Mountain Cove” Series, click: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B085VX1NCS
About the Author
Stephanie Fowers loves bringing stories to life, and depending on her latest madcap ideas will do it through written word, song, and/ or film. She absolutely adores Bollywood and bonnet movies; i.e., BBC (which she supposes includes non-bonnet movies Sherlock and Dr. Who). Presently, she lives in Salt Lake where she’s living the life of the starving artist.
Stephanie plans to bring more of her novels out to greet the light of day. Be sure to watch for her upcoming books: including books from her Hopeless Romantic Collection, Adventurous Romantics, her YA fantasy “Twisted Tales,” romantic suspense, an apocalyptic science fiction series, Greek Romance Regencies, Steampunk adventures, Dystopian, epic romance, and more—many more—romantic comedies. May the adventures begin!
Read more at Stephanie Fowers’s site.