the stairs and looked across the parking lot and into the street. “I’ll work my way through the—” His cell phone rang and he looked at the caller display. “It’s Bailey.”
John watched his friend’s face lose all its color. The news mustn’t be good.
“I’ll meet you there in a few seconds.” As soon as he ended the call, Steven looked at Caleb. “Find Zac. Elena is unconscious and on the east side of the building. Shelley’s doing rescue breathing.”
John forgot about the biting cold, the wind that was chilling him to the bone. He sprinted down the steps and rushed to where Shelley was resuscitating her mom.
Please God, he prayed. Keep Elena safe and look after Shelley.
Shelley sat in a black plastic chair in the family room at the St. Joseph Medical Center in Polson.
She was holding her dad’s hand, trying to offer him what little comfort she could. “Mom will be okay.”
Her dad bowed his head. Shock and grief were etched in each line of his face. “I should have paid closer attention to her. Elena said she hasn’t been feeling herself. But with all the excitement of the wedding and Sam’s baby, I thought she was overdoing things.”
“I feel just as bad,” Shelley admitted. “Mom had to sit down when I chose my wedding dress. She said she was having heart palpitations, but no one was worried. We thought she was feeling a little overwhelmed because it was an emotional day.”
The last few hours had been horrible. After ten minutes of rescue breathing, their mom had started breathing on her own. With the paramedics another thirty minutes away, Zac had taken Elena to his clinic and completed an ECG of her heart and given her oxygen.
By the time they’d finished more tests at the hospital, the cardiologist had confirmed that Shelley’s mom had collapsed after having a heart attack. Because she was diagnosed quickly, the specialist could inject some medication into her arm to dissolve the blood clot that was blocking the artery.
Now they were waiting for the results from an MRI to see if the heart or its valves and arteries were permanently damaged.
John walked into the room holding two disposable cups. “I found a coffee machine down the corridor. There’s food, too, if you’re hungry.”
Shelley’s dad shook his head. “The coffee’s fine. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” John carefully placed the cup on the table beside them. “Bailey and Steven are in the parking lot, and Sam and Caleb are on their way with some clothes and toiletries for Elena.”
Ted wiped fresh tears off his face. “I don’t know what I’ll do if Elena dies.”
Shelley hugged her dad. “Think positive thoughts. Mom is strong and courageous. If anyone can pull through this, she can.” As she held him close, she thought back to the times when her dad had been her rock. When their mom burst into tears or became excited about something that had happened, her dad stood quietly in the background, waiting for her mom’s exuberance to drop to a low simmer.
He was always there for his girls, always the one they could count on to make things right. But now, with their mom in another part of the hospital undergoing more tests, Ted was as fragile as his wife.
“When did the doctor say the tests would be finished?”
Shelley glanced at John. They’d already told her dad three times that it would be at least another hour before they could see Elena. It must be the stress and shock of what had happened that was making him forget what they said.
“They should be finished in about an hour,” Shelley said to her dad. “Mom’s in good hands.”
John handed Shelley the other cup of coffee. “I can stay with your dad if you want to meet Bailey and Steven downstairs.”
“I’m okay here. Bailey knows we’re on the third floor.”
John’s cell phone chirped and he checked his messages. “Sam and Caleb are fifteen minutes away from Polson. Is there anything you want me to tell them?”
Shelley looked at her dad. When he didn’t say anything, she sighed. “You could tell them Mom’s still having some tests done.”
“Okay.” John quickly sent the message. “I found somewhere we can stay. There’s a hotel close to the hospital that has three rooms available. Your dad could share with us, and Sam and Caleb, and Bailey and Steven could have the other rooms.”
Shelley glanced at her dad’s bent head. “They sound perfect. If you give me the hotel’s phone number, I’ll book