“Then she doesn’t need CPR. It could do more harm than good.” Toni rushed to her sister’s side and dropped to her knees. She could see Birdie’s chest rising and falling. She placed her hand over Birdie’s chest and she could feel her heart beating, but the organ was stumbling over itself irregularly. Something wasn’t right, but this wasn’t like what happened with Daddy at all. Birdie wasn’t gone.
“Birdie,” Toni called in a soothing voice, rubbing the center of Birdie’s chest gently. “Birdie, open your eyes.”
Birdie’s face twitched as if she were trying to open her eyes but couldn’t quite get a grasp on consciousness.
Logan knelt at Birdie’s head and stroked stray strands of hair from her forehead. “Hey there, princess, you’d better listen to your sister. She’s worried about you. Open your eyes.”
“Toni?” Birdie said, and she reached for the nearest hand, which happened to be Mom’s.
Toni sucked in a gasping breath of relief. “Yes, Buttercup, I’m here.”
“Oh, thank God,” Mom said. She lifted Birdie’s hand to her lips, kissing each of her stubby little fingers, her palm, her wrist.
“Is she okay?” Grandma Joanna asked, her knee brushing Toni’s shoulder as she leaned over to look down. “She’s coming around,” Grandma said to the 9-1-1 operator she still had on the phone.
Birdie’s eyes blinked open, and she stared up at Logan, who must have appeared upside down to her. She then turned her head slightly to look at Toni. “Did Logan come to take you away again?”
Toni closed her eyes to keep her tears from falling and shook her head. “No, baby. He’s just visiting.”
She couldn’t bring herself to look at him. If hearing those words hurt him even half as much as it hurt her to say them, she expected to find him lying gutted on the floor. But as much as she loved him, she couldn’t leave Birdie. Not now. Maybe not ever. He had to understand why.
“How are you feeling, Buttercup?” Toni pried her eyes open, but couldn’t see through the blur of her tears.
“I feel tired,” she said. “Why are you crying?”
“I’m just so happy you’re okay.” And still so sick with worry she felt like she was going to throw up. What was taking the ambulance so long?
“Why are you crying, Mommy?”
“Because I thought I’d missed my chance to be a good mommy to you.”
Birdie smiled at her. “But you’re already the best mommy.”
Mom shook her head. “No. No, I’m not. But I promise I’m going to be.” She sniffed loudly and clutched Birdie’s hand to her chest. “I promise.”
Birdie tilted her head back and looked at Logan. “Why are you crying, Logan?”
“Onions,” he said, lifting the hem of his shirt to wipe his eyes. “I hate those things.”
Toni leaned her forehead against his shoulder to hide a smile and somehow ended up in his arms. She hadn’t realized how much she needed a comforting hug until she was smashed against his hard chest.
“She’ll be okay,” he whispered.
And she believed him. Birdie would be fine. But would Toni be okay when he had to go back on tour and she had to figure out how to get by without him?
“Toni?” Birdie said. “Can I get off the floor now?”
Toni released her hold on Logan and settled her fingertips against Birdie’s cheek.
“You need to lie still until the ambulance gets here. The doctors need to check you out.”
“I don’t wanna ride in the ambalance.”
“I want to ride in the ambulance,” Logan said. “They’re so cool, all the other cars have to move over and let them go first. Even big trucks have to get out of their way.”
“They do?” Birdie stared up at him with utter adoration. And yeah, Toni knew the feeling.
“Yep.”
“Then you can ride it.”
“Ladies and princesses first,” he said.
Birdie beamed at him. Mom touched his shoulder and mouthed thank you. Logan winked at her.
When the ambulance wailed into their drive, Grandma rushed out to meet them. Toni stepped aside to give the paramedics room to work, but Mom sat beside Birdie on the floor the entire time.
“Her ECG indicates a heart block,” a paramedic told Mom. “There should be an extra bump here and not all these squiggles there.”
Mom paled, and Toni leaned against Logan for support.
“So it is her heart,” Mom said.
“Easily treatable,” he said. “But you don’t want to delay.”
“The heart doctors at Children’s Hospital are going to fix your ticker,” the other paramedic said to Birdie.