He wasn’t a large man, but he was barrel-chested. It took all her strength to depress his chest. Sweat trickled between her breasts.
Unable to stop tears that blinded her, she threw her weight into rapid, stiff-armed pumps.
She sensed time slipping away. Exhaustion sapped her strength. Yet even as her arms grew numb, she imagined she heard the growl of a motor close by.
She couldn’t turn to look. She had to trust it wasn’t a figment of her imagination. Blessedly, she heard heavy footsteps pounding up the porch steps moments before her arms gave out. “Thank heavens. Is that you, Eddie? Please help me.”
What almost shocked her into stopping was the deep male voice that demanded, “Jewell, what in hell happened? Here, let me take over.”
Saxon. It couldn’t be!
She must be hallucinating. Probably so, since her head was spinning. However, the man in the flesh landed next to her on his knees and placed his larger hands on top of hers. “I trust you’ve phoned for help.”
“I left my phone in my pickup,” she mumbled. “I’ll get it.”
“Leave this to me. Call quickly. There’s still a fire department, right?”
“Yes.” She vaulted to her feet and ran to get her phone. After punching in the fire department number, she reached the captain. “Dan, Jewell Hyatt. I’m at Leland Conrad’s. He’s collapsed. Hurry—he’s either had a stroke or a heart attack.”
Sinking down next to Saxon, she muttered, “Dan says they’ll be here in five minutes. Wh-what... How did you get here?”
“Airplane and car. So it’s true he has a bad heart? That’s what Fred’s sources thought. Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked, all the while continuing compressions as fast as Jewell had but harder.
“I didn’t know his problem until Doreen Mercer said she saw him last week at the clinic making an appointment to see a new heart doctor in town.”
At a distance, sirens wailed. As the sound grew louder, Jewell stood and waved frantically. She saw Eddie yank off his earphones, stop his tractor and sprint toward them. “What’s wrong?” he asked, panting as he leaped up on the porch. “Can I help?”
“Maybe.” Jewell knelt again. “Look, did his eyelids flutter?”
“I didn’t see anything.” Saxon didn’t relax his ministrations until three men in firefighter gear, one depositing a square black kit on the porch and another a stretcher, scooted him aside.
“We got this, buddy. Ralph, start an IV. Shall I hit him with the paddles?”
“Jewell, who’s his doctor?” the fire captain asked as his colleague swabbed Leland’s vein and expertly stuck in a needle. The third man kept compressing Leland’s chest.
“The new heart specialist in town,” she murmured.
“Hamlin,” said the man who’d started the IV.
Leland moaned and tried to lift his arm.
“He’s coming around. Let’s move him to the aid car for transport,” said the fireman who’d opened the defibrillator case. “If need be, we’ll use the paddles en route to the hospital,” he added, closing it again. “You three can follow to give particulars. Jewell, notify Doc Hamlin about this episode.”
The captain leaned down. “Hey, Leland, it’s Dan, Ralph and Porter. We’re taking you to the hospital. Jewell’s going to call your doc.”
“Ralph, take good care of him,” Jewell implored as she followed them to the steps, then stopped.
Leland blinked, but his eyes looked glassy and unfocused. In a barely audible voice he said, “Call Jim Weiss.”
She inclined her head and the burly team carried Leland off at a lope. She gripped her phone, found a number for Dr. Hamlin and left an urgent message with his answering service.
“Who’s Jim Weiss?” Saxon inquired when she clicked off.
She shrugged.
Eddie Four Bear scraped back his straight black hair. “I’ve gotta go back to ready the field before rains move in. If you don’t know Weiss, Jewell, he’s the lawyer Leland called to set up the contract giving Aaron and me permission to share crop till spring.” Eddie jumped to the ground without touching the steps, leaving Jewell and Saxon gawking after him.
Chapter Seven
“Ride with me to the hospital,” Saxon entreated Jewell.
Still shaking, she said, “You go on ahead. I have soup and bread in my pickup to put in Leland’s fridge. I’ll lock up, then try to locate a number for Mr. Weiss.”
“Where’s the hospital? I don’t recall there being one in Snowy Owl Crossing,” Saxon admitted.
“It’s still the one for the tri-cities. Go to the highway and turn right. Once you reach the city limits, you’ll see blue signs directing you to the hospital.”
“I’ll wait and follow you. Let me get the food while you track down his lawyer. Why do you suppose he wants him?”
Jewell sighed. “I’ve no idea.” It was plain Saxon wasn’t budging. “I’ll get the food, then worry about finding his lawyer.” She hurried to her pickup, then retrieved the soup and bread and didn’t look at him as she swept past him into the house. He wasn’t paying attention anyway. He leaned on the porch railing, tapping the face of his cell phone.
When she came out again, brandishing a key to lock the door, Saxon stuck his phone in her face. “Here’s Weiss’s office number. Seeing how it’s Sunday, I doubt he’s there. Maybe it will connect to an answering service.”
Tucking Leland’s house key in her pocket, Jewell dug out her phone. Looking at Saxon’s display, she entered the number on her keypad. “It is a service,” she mouthed upon reaching a recording. “This is Jewell Hyatt, Mr. Weiss. I’m Leland Conrad’s neighbor. He collapsed at his ranch and has been taken to the tri-cities hospital. He requested someone contact you. I’m not sure if he wants you to go there, but your name was the first thing he said after coming around.” She hung up, sighed a bigger sigh and started down the steps.
“Hey, why the cold shoulder?” Saxon hollered. “You ran out on me in Maryland, not the other way around. And I left you a message at your clinic number, but you never bothered calling me back.”
The weight of Leland’s incident coupled with Saxon’s surprise arrival, plus knowing what she had to tell him, was almost too great a burden. “I’m worried,” she called out over her shoulder. “You should be, too. Can we stop wasting time?” She climbed into her pickup and started it without waiting to see if Saxon left the porch.
He did, and his big SUV with rental plates stayed on her bumper from the ranch road all the way to the hospital.
On the relatively short drive she had barely managed to get her own heart rate down. Since Saxon had shown up several weeks early for his concert, she consoled herself that she had ample time to discuss their personal situation. Maybe she’d even wait until after his show. What if he got mad and took off, leaving them in the lurch after they’d advertised and sold a lot of tickets? She thought Mindy had already presold a ticket to every woman who had a standing appointment at her beauty shop.
She shouldn’t be worrying about the performance considering Leland’s iffy condition. Jewell doubted he’d been cognizant enough to recognize Saxon. His eyes had opened only once and briefly. She hoped seeing Saxon at the hospital wouldn’t set him back. Their relationship had always been like water and oil. There was no explanation for why suddenly today Saxon showed up at his uncle’s ranch. How could she wish he hadn’t when he’d probably saved Leland’s life.
On reaching the hospital, Jewell parked and saw Saxon pull in beside her. He tossed a gray cowboy hat aside and climbed out. He was dressed more like a regular cowboy and not glitzy like he’d been onstage.
They entered the hospital side by side without speaking. But then Saxon hung back and let her inquire about Leland’s whereabouts at the reception desk.
“Are you family?” the cle
rk asked. “Mr. Conrad was admitted to ICU. Dr. Hamlin’s there. He left word to send the patient’s family up.”
“We are family,” Saxon inserted before Jewell could say she was only a neighbor.
“Fourth floor. Check in at the desk when you get off the elevator.”
They caught the elevator along with several other people. All the others got off on lower floors. Saxon remained silent. The only thing Jewell said was, “We should silence our phones.”
Both took care of that detail as they stepped out of the elevator. Saxon walked over to the desk. “We’re here to see Leland Conrad,” he told a nurse seated behind a computer. “His doctor left word downstairs that we were to come up straightaway. I’m Saxon Conrad. This is Jewell.”
“The nursing team has left his room. Dr. Hamlin’s still with him,” she noted. “You’ll find them in pod 403. Signal the doctor. He’ll decide if it’s okay for you to go into the room.” She pointed across a narrow corridor where Jewell saw several glassed-in cubicles all opening out to this nursing station.
“Thank you,” Jewell mumbled, feeling her jitters return as she crossed the tile floor. She wished Saxon would go on ahead, but he didn’t. The doctor glanced up as her shadow fell across the room and gestured for them to come in. Jewell went to stand at the end of the bed.
Stopping short, Saxon braced one shoulder against the wall.
Leland looked small in the high railed bed, but Jewell was relieved to see his color was better. Probably because he had oxygen being fed into his nose. And two IV drips in his left arm. She actually found comfort in the steady beep of his heart monitor.
“I’m Jewell Hyatt,” she told the doctor in a whisper. “Leland’s next-door neighbor. The receptionist said family could come up, but I was first on the scene at his ranch when he had his attack.”
“Ah, the woman who saved my patient’s life.” The doctor smiled.
“That was Leland’s nephew, Saxon,” she said, jerking a thumb toward him. “It was a miracle he showed up when he did and took over CPR. Is Leland conscious?” If so, he hadn’t yet opened his eyes or given any indication he knew they were there.
Just then he stirred and squinted around. “It is you,” he said, gazing past Jewell. “I woke in a fog and saw firemen trussing me up. But I glimpsed you and thought you were Bernadette. So I figured I’d died.” The old man closed his eyes again.
Saxon straightened away from the wall but frowned and hooked his thumbs over a silver buckle on his wide leather belt. “You thought I was my mother?”
“As a kid, you were her spitting image,” the man in the bed croaked. His eyes cracked open a slit. “Now I see a blend of her and my brother. I’m glad you’re here before I kick the bucket. I have things to atone for. Did someone get hold of Jim Weiss?”
The doctor shook his head vigorously. “You aren’t kicking any bucket, Leland. I’m scheduling you for surgery later today. After I repair your mitral valve, you can live another twenty years or more.”
“I’m not having any damned pig or bovine heart,” sputtered his patient.
Dr. Hamlin rolled his eyes. “It’s a valve, you stubborn old goat. For as long as you’ve put off this surgery, you deserve a gorilla valve. But as far as I know, they don’t use those yet.”
Leland did his best not to smile, but one sneaked out.
Partly shocked, Jewell swiveled her head between Leland and his combative young doctor. She was used to staid old docs who’d never challenged a patient that way. But maybe tough love was what Leland needed. She occasionally used it herself.
“Go on, Doc,” the old man grumbled. “Beat it. Schedule the frigging procedure. I need to talk to my nephew and Jewell. Let Jim in, though. Someone phoned him, right?” he asked haltingly.
Jewell responded when Saxon didn’t. “I left a message with his answering service. Perhaps Saxon and I should go, too, and let you rest before surgery. I don’t mean leave altogether. We’ll wait until you’re out of recovery. Won’t we, Saxon?” she said, pinning him with concern.
Slow to nod, nevertheless, Saxon did jerk his chin down.
The doctor studied one then the other. “Leland apparently has things he needs to get off his chest. I’m for anything that’ll ease his mind prior to my operating on him.” Turning to his patient, he said firmly, “I’ll give you ten minutes. Talk fast, because ICU nurses are the best at following doctors’ orders.”
“Where’s Weiss?” Leland fretted. “I need to change my will before I die, Doc.”
Hamlin leaned over the bed. “I’m going to see that doesn’t happen. You can contact your lawyer after you recover.” He squeezed Leland’s shoulder, strode out between Jewell and Saxon and angled toward the nursing station.
“Maybe I should go and let you two talk,” Jewell said.
“No!” Saxon and his uncle spoke in unison.
Leland’s gaze roamed over his nephew. “The closer I come to perdition, Saxon, the more remorse I suffer for the rotten way I treated you.” He feebly lifted a hand and let it fall. “I’m ashamed.” Tears slicked his pale eyes.
“Whatever the reason, let it go.” Saxon cleared his throat. “I like to think I’ve matured enough to recognize I had a bad attitude back then, too. It’s sufficient to know you recognize you should have done better as the adult in charge.”
“Hush, and let me get this out,” the old man rasped. “When you came to live with me, looking at me with your mother’s eyes, I felt I was being punished a second time when I wasn’t the one who’d done anything wrong.” He tried to wave again, this time with the hand that held the IVs in his arm. Grimacing, he let it fall to his side.
Jewell rounded the bed and took his papery hand in hers. “Are you sure this can’t wait? You stopped breathing earlier. Stress can’t be helpful, Leland.”
“This has festered in me far too long. The doc knows that.”
Rocking back on his heels, Saxon crossed his arms. “What is it you imagine I did wrong? I was just a kid. I mean, if you’re not taking blame, that only leaves me.”
Leland huffed out a ragged breath. “You obviously aren’t aware I was once engaged to marry Bernadette.”
Saxon’s eyes bugged. “My mother? You were engaged to my mother?”
“Yes.” Leland licked his lips. “We, uh, put off our wedding because of word my younger brother Myron was coming home from Vietnam.”
Saxon moved closer to the side of the bed. “A caseworker who picked me up at school the day my folks died in that wreck later gave me a box of his medals. He never talked about the war. I hadn’t known he’d served in the Army. But...” Saxon’s eyes darkened and Jewell saw how troubled they’d become. “But...you...” He tried to get something out and failed.
“Uh-huh. Now you’re tripping close to the truth, which is...my brother came home an unrecognized hero like all Vietnam vets. He had wounds. As a nurse, Bernadette took care of him. Her note to me when they ran off to Vegas to get married claimed they’d fallen in love. They killed any belief I’d previously had about love.” His voice dropped an octave and Jewell tightened her hold on his hand.
Saxon crossed his arms and stood stiffly.
“Myron attempted to call me several times after they moved to California. I always hung up on him.”
“Like you did two weeks or so ago when I phoned you?” Saxon’s lips thinned.
“Telephones, bah! If I’d told you this, you would’ve hung up on me. So listen up. I thought they had some nerve sending me your birth announcement. I ripped it to shreds. I was a bitter man. You think guilt didn’t hit me like a ton of bricks when they were killed? It did. Yet when the court called on me as your only relative, all I could see was that I’d been double-slapped by fate.” He tried to take a deep breath, and his voice faded. “You were the kid Bernadette should’ve had with me. That’s a hard
belief to live with.”
Saxon whirled around and set both hands against the wall opposite Leland’s bed, presenting his back to his uncle. Jewell, though, could see his jaw working convulsively, but he didn’t say anything.
She wondered if she ought to go console him. But Leland still clung tightly to her hand. She felt anguish for both of them. She always had even without knowing the underlying cause.
“Jewell, the doc claims he’ll fix my heart. What if he doesn’t? Can you convince Hamlin that I need to change something in my will before I go under his knife?”
“Oh, Leland, you need to have faith. Look, I see the nurse coming. Our time is up. Be positive. We’ll see you after you come out of recovery.”
Saxon slowly turned around. “If you’re worried that I expect you to leave me anything in your will, rest easy, because I don’t.”
“Saxon!” Jewell glared at him before eyeing the approaching nurse again.
“Well, right now you’re the sole beneficiary.” Leland seemed to struggle to breathe in enough oxygen to say more.
Patting his hand, Jewell slipped hers out and smiled at the nurse, who’d reached the open door. “We’ve got to leave. Leland, Saxon came to give a concert on Labor Day. You men will have plenty of time to discuss your will, or whatever else, when you’re better.”
“No.” The old man’s voice strengthened. “Last month I added a codicil letting Eddie Four Bear and Aaron Younger plant and harvest my fields this year. I’ve seen for a while, Saxon, that you’re doing well. So now I want the ranch in total to go to your and Jewell’s child. I need that spelled out.”
The nurse motioned to Saxon and Jewell. “I’m sorry to cut this gathering short, but Dr. Hamlin wants his patient to rest until surgery.”
Saxon leveled a scowl at her, then his uncle and finally Jewell. “It’s plain something’s affecting his mind. Maybe medication, or perhaps he needs more oxygen. You’re right, old man, about me doing well. But since you’re talking crazy, I wonder if anything you said about you and my parents is even true.”
A Montana Christmas Reunion Page 10