Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 72856 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 364(@200wpm)___ 291(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72856 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 364(@200wpm)___ 291(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
“What hurts, Judith?” I asked Mia’s mom.
“My left arm, mostly,” she said. “But that’s pretty much it. My chest isn’t even hurting much anymore. Nothing else.”
“When did the pain start?” I asked, warning bells going off in my mind at the mention of her chest and left arm.
Her car wasn’t even that banged up, so her left arm most likely shouldn’t be hurting.
“Right before I hit that curb,” she admitted, rubbing her jaw. “It was the weirdest thing. One second I was fine, the next this awful pain hits in my left arm, and then I’m banging against the guardrail.”
I gestured for PD to get me the blood pressure cuff and went around the other side to wait while Fatbaby finished getting the passenger side door opened.
He finished in a few short moments, and I crawled inside.
Once inside, I could clearly see that she was sweating profusely, and she was now moving her jaw even more.
“Does your jaw hurt, Judith?” I asked.
She wiggled her jaw once more. “A little. Why?”
“PD, I need you to give her three hundred and twenty-five milligrams of aspirin and some nitro,” I ordered.
PD was back within moments with the aspirin, and Judith took it.
“Water?” She asked.
I shook my head.
“Chew it,” I said. “What’s her BP?”
“180 over 100.”
PD put the Nitroglycerin pill up to her mouth and said, “This one just melts under your tongue.”
I looked at Judith, at the question in her eyes, and said, “I think you’re having a heart attack.”
She gasped.
“Oh, no,” she whispered.
I got the board in place behind her back while PD stabilized her neck, and within moments, we were removing her from the crumpled vehicle.
“Where’s Mia?” I asked.
“She’s at work. Wait to call her until we know,” Judith ordered.
I didn’t bother to tell her no.
I wouldn’t be keeping this from her. HIPPA be damned.
I’d deal with the repercussions of giving out patient info later. This was more important than my license.
Mia would want to know, and I wouldn’t be keeping anything from her.
She wasn’t a fragile flower.
We loaded Judith into the back of the ambulance, and I got in with her, taking a seat at her right.
PD closed the doors, and I got busy starting an IV on her and getting fluids running.
“You’re good for my daughter. I think you’ve helped her these last two months,” Judith admitted.
I grimaced.
“I haven’t seen, nor spoken to her, since Colt’s funeral,” I said, all business.
She may have sent me a peace offering, but that didn’t mean that I was going to put myself out there again.
Colt dying had dredged up a lot of old memories for me.
Ones of Catori, my sister, dying. Ones of Winter dying. Ones of my brother breaking and never really living again. Adam dying.
Memories assaulted me, and I hadn’t had a full night’s rest since I’d met her.
And I was pretty fucking pissed about it.
I was a fun person.
I let loose.
I celebrated.
What I didn’t do, however, was care.
Caring let to feelings, and feelings led to heartache.
I didn’t want that…and Mia made me care. Made me feel. Then she refused to see or speak to me, and I was left wondering what the hell I was supposed to do.
She’d changed something inside of me.
Made me consider a relationship with her…something I just didn’t do…and then took away that promise…the promise of her.
Yes, I realized she was hurting.
But I could’ve hurt right along with her.
I didn’t have to be there to have her back, but she wouldn’t give me that.
I knew it was selfish. She’d just lost her son. She was allowed to do whatever the fuck she wanted to. Me, I was used to people thinking I couldn’t handle the hard stuff.
My whole family thought I couldn’t handle it. So why should she be any different?
“Oh, such an expressive face,” Judith rambled. “My girl’s a survivor. She had to be. Her daddy died, and I could barely afford a single thing. I was working from sun up until four or five hours past sundown, before she was even old enough to watch herself alone. She’s been an adult for a very long time. She doesn’t know how to lean on others when she needs it…and, sadly, that’s my fault. You need to give her a second chance to prove she’s the one for you.”
I shook my head.
“I’m a mess myself. It’s probably for the best that she doesn’t realize what she was starting to mean to me,” I admitted.
Judith had the nerve to laugh.
“You’re fooling yourself,” she said as she reached for her left arm again.
I checked the time, then pulled out another nitro and opened it, placing it under her tongue for her this time.
Little by little she relaxed.
My heart, however, didn’t relax.
I couldn’t tell Mia that she lost her mom, too.
So I did some hardcore praying as I monitored her all the way to the hospital.