by Janice Lynn
“McKenzie!”
Pausing mid-pucker, she glanced toward the direction she’d heard her name called from.
Across the room, an elderly man was lying on the floor with several people huddled over him. Jeremy’s uncle Daniel!
McKenzie and Ryder rushed over to where he lay. “What happened?”
“We’re not sure. One minute he was talking and the next he went pale, then collapsed to the floor.”
Jeremy’s uncle and aunt had come over to her soon after they’d arrived and given her a big hug, asking her about her life in Seattle, and saying how proud they were of her and her accomplishments. Now, the sweet man in his early sixties was unconscious.
“He’s breathing, but shallow,” Ryder told her from where they stooped over him.
They loosened his shirt buttons and Ryder bent to listen to his chest.
“His heartbeat is bradycardic.”
“Pulses are faint, thready,” she added, her finger against the unconscious man’s left radial artery.
“Is he okay?” someone asked as McKenzie continued to press her finger against the man’s wrist.
“We’re not sure,” she admitted, propping his feet up onto a nearby chair to increase blood flow to his heart. “Has he ever blacked out before? Any known health problems?”
She was used to dealing with kids but had done multiple adult rotations during her residency. Some things were basic medicine. This was one of them.
“Diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol,” an older woman began spouting out. His wife looked as if she might collapse herself any moment.
“He had a stent placed in his right coronary artery a few years back but has done well since that time. I don’t recall him ever having passed out, not even before his stent.”
Had the stent placed in one of the main arteries supplying his heart with oxygenated blood become blocked again?
“Grab my purse,” she ordered Callie, for the sole reason she was the first person McKenzie made eye contact with when she glanced up. She had a resuscitation mouth guard in her bag that she carried with her at all times.
Just in case.
She motioned for her brother to help Jeremy’s aunt sit down as McKenzie dialed 911. Regardless of why Uncle Daniel had passed out, he needed a full medical workup as his risk factors were high. They needed to get an ambulance on the way STAT.
“Do you have his blood sugar meter with you?”
It was unlikely the man’s sugar had bottomed out since they’d just eaten, but anything was possible.
Ryder had leaned down and was pressing his ear against the man’s chest to listen to his heart sounds.
“I have one in my purse,” someone else said, grabbing her bag and dumping the contents onto a nearby table so she could quickly hand over a clear bag that held a glucometer, a tube of test strips, some lancets and a few disposable gloves.
“Daniel,” she said to the unconscious man just in case he could hear her. “I’m going to check your blood sugar. In just a minute you’re going to feel a stick in your finger.”
With her cell phone held between her shoulder and her ear, McKenzie reported his status to the dispatcher while she slipped on a glove, pulled the protective cover off one of the lancets and poked the tip of the man’s finger. Taking one of the test strips, she pressed the edge to the drop of blood.
Within seconds, the machine flashed with the reading.
“Two hundred and sixty-one.” Much too high, but not the cause of the man’s syncope.
What worried McKenzie the most was his lack of response to her sticking him with the needle. He’d barely made a sound at what should have triggered a pain response.
Her gaze met Ryder’s and she knew he was thinking the same thing.
The dispatcher said he had an ambulance on its way and McKenzie handed her phone to someone else to talk to the man so she could focus on the patient.
“Mr. Carter?” Ryder shook the man, trying to get a response. “Can you hear me? I need you to open your eyes.”
Nothing.
Ryder rubbed his knuckles across the man’s sternum with good force which should have elicited a grimace.
McKenzie wasn’t surprised when it didn’t since he’d failed to react to the lancet.
She placed her finger over his radial pulse again and couldn’t find it.
“Ryder,” she said firmly to get his attention, not wanting to alarm everyone crowding around them, but becoming alarmed herself. She moved her fingers to his carotid, searching for a beat in case she’d just missed it, but knowing she hadn’t.
Reading her mind, Ryder bent his ear to the man’s chest again.
“Mr. Carter?” he repeated, shaking the man vigorously. Nothing.
He checked Daniel’s airway, then muttered a low curse as he pressed his hands over the man’s chest and began doing compressions.
Thankful she’d sent Callie to retrieve her purse, McKenzie grabbed the mouthguard, ripped off the plastic covering and gave two breaths.
Ryder counted out loud and McKenzie gave the two person CPR recommended two breaths to his every fifteen compressions.
In between breaths, she checked for a carotid pulse, for any sign he’d resumed breathing.
Nothing.
She and Ryder worked together, keeping the rapid lifesaving rhythm going in hopes of reminding Daniel’s body of what it should be doing.
After the fourth set of delivered breaths, her own breath caught.
“There’s a pulse! Faint, but it’s there,” she excitedly told Ryder, relief coursing through her entire being.
“Thank God,” someone in the crowd said, reminding McKenzie that they had an audience surrounding them. As she and Ryder had worked, she’d completely forgotten where they were. Everything had faded away except for her and Ryder and their efforts to save the man’s life.
McKenzie was thankful, too, for the pulse, but knew they were far from out of the woods. Ryder continued to do the compressions, and as McKenzie bent to give her two breaths, the man finally took one on his own. She waited to see if he was going to take another, didn’t like how much time passed and went ahead and delivered two more.
“I hear the ambulance sirens,” someone unnecessarily said as the distant wail couldn’t be missed.
Now, that was something McKenzie was also thankful for. Daniel needed medical attention fast as she was almost positive he’d had a myocardial infarction.
They continued to assist the man’s basic vital functions while they waited on the ambulance to arrive. Time seemed to drag but it couldn’t have been more than a minute or two in reality.
As his breathing and pulse were sporadic at best, neither she nor Ryder stopped their cardiopulmonary resuscitation efforts.
Just as the emergency sirens came to a halt outside the building, Daniel opened his eyes.
They were blurred, staring up in dazed confusion. McKenzie wasn’t sure they were registering much, if anything, but, oh, how she rejoiced at seeing the flicker of movement quickly followed by his taking a deep gasp of air on his own trailed by another.
“Oh, honey.” His wife could apparently no longer stay back in her nearby chair and knelt next to him, leaning over, tearful as she continued to talk almost incoherently. “Love you...so scared...please don’t...”
McKenzie could make out only part of her words they were so muffled with tears, and she felt moisture pricking at her own eyes. How much the woman loved her husband, how scared she was, poured from her shaking body.
McKenzie dealt with a lot of sad things in pediatric cardiology but hadn’t dealt with an acute heart attack adult patient since residency. It was unlikely that Ryder had either. He seemed to be taking it all in his stride.
McKenzie stayed crouched next to the man, closely monitoring his vitals. Ryder stood to make r
oom for the emergency medical workers to rush to the patient’s side. He began filling them in with who he and McKenzie were and what had happened while the crew completed a quick assessment of their own.
“Daniel, it’s McKenzie Wilkes. I’m Reva’s cousin and a doctor. We’re at Jeremy and Reva’s wedding rehearsal dinner,” she told him to help ground him to where he was and hopefully help keep him calm. “You passed out and we called for an ambulance. The paramedics are here now. They’re going to take you to the hospital to be checked further to find out why you lost consciousness.”
“I’m okay,” the man mumbled low, garnering everyone’s attention at his whispered words and weak attempt at sitting up. “Just my chest feels heavy. Sharp pain.”
As if to confirm his words his hands went to his chest.
“Don’t try talking,” one of the paramedics advised, covering his mouth with an oxygen mask.
Quickly, they had an intravenous line in, and he was being rolled to the ambulance on a wheeled stretcher.
Jeremy’s aunt and a couple of other family members stayed close to the stretcher, planning to drive to the hospital. McKenzie and Ryder moved along with the stretcher as well, available in the unlikely case they were needed further, but far enough back as to not be in the way.
Most of the guests followed the procession, watching as Daniel was loaded into the ambulance and as it noisily took off with two cars of family members on its tail. Slowly, the guests began returning to inside the rehearsal dinner venue.
Once they were inside, everyone looked around at each other in an anticlimactic way of not knowing what to do next, their over joyous celebrating from earlier having taken a nosedive at Daniel’s scary episode. Did they all just pack up and go to the hospital? Or did they proceed with the rehearsal dinner and afterward plans as if nothing had happened to keep from spoiling Jeremy and Reva’s rehearsal?
Apparently knowing everyone would look to the bride for guidance, Reva took a deep breath.
Pride filled McKenzie as her cousin spoke.
“Anyone who wants to go on to the hospital, please do. No worries about us. As long as Uncle Daniel is okay, we’ll be fine.” She smiled at the crowd. “We’ll finish here, pack up the leftover food and send it back to Aunt Roberta’s house for anyone staying or visiting there to munch on over the weekend. Then, we’ll check on Uncle Daniel before we decide whether or not to cancel the rest of our plans.”
“Not our wedding plans,” Jeremy quickly clarified, shooting his bride-to-be a concerned look. “Regardless of what happens, those plans are noncancelable because I’m marrying you tomorrow.”
He lifted her hand to his lips and pressed a kiss there.
A collective sigh resounded across the room, McKenzie’s included. Another ping of jealousy also hit her.
Had Paul ever looked at her that way? She wondered. With such love shining in his eyes?
If so, he hadn’t for some time.
She’d been so caught up with her career that she hadn’t noticed. Or maybe, she hadn’t wanted to notice that Paul was no longer enamored of her.
Nor had she noticed that she hadn’t been head over heels in love with him. She’d cared deeply for him, had been content with the life she’d believed they’d have together, but had she been with Paul to appease her worried family and fallen into habit rather than love?
When she got back to Seattle, she was going to find more balance in her life. Hadn’t she moved to Seattle because she’d loved walking along the pier? Loved feeling the wind in her face and the sea breeze filling her soul? Because she loved just meandering through Pike Place Market people watching and browsing the goods? And always she’d left with a huge bouquet that made her smile each time she saw it in her house? How long since fresh flowers had adorned her kitchen table?
That balance might not include Ryder or any man, but McKenzie planned to make a few changes, including making time to come back to Tennessee at least annually.
Ryder held out his hand toward her, leading her away from where the crowd lingered, discussing what had happened and how calm Reva was about the ordeal.
Glancing toward Ryder, McKenzie’s breath caught as it seemed to have started always doing when he came into view. Truly, he literally took her breath away.
Was it just him and his supersized pheromones that made her so aware of how much a man he was, how much a woman she was?
“Are you okay?”
McKenzie blinked at Ryder. “Yes, thank you,” she told him and meant it. She really was. Better than she’d felt in weeks. “How did it take me so long to notice what a good man you are?”
Probably because he’d avoided her, and his overt masculinity had made her uncomfortable when patient care required they interact.
“Good question and one I often ask myself. Let’s just be glad you finally noticed.”
No doubt his words were for their observers’ benefit, as were his next actions. He leaned down and pressed a quick kiss to her lips.
Which left her confused. Had she purposely not acknowledged her attraction to Ryder due to her relationship with Paul? Because the uncomfortableness she always felt she now knew to be sexual tension.
She’d be lying if she didn’t admit to feeling electrified at where his lips had pressed against hers. And disappointed the kiss hadn’t been more than a swift peck.
Because McKenzie wanted to kiss Ryder. For real.
She wanted to do lots of things with Ryder. For real.
CHAPTER NINE
“VINE TO THE right and hold. Right foot step to the right,” the dance instructor said via her headset microphone to be heard over the country music playing in the background of the iconic Nashville honky-tonk on Second Avenue.
Jeremy’s uncle had indeed had a heart attack with a blockage in the right coronary artery. Upon arrival at the emergency room, he’d immediately been taken to the heart catheterization lab and had the blockage stented. He was stable, in the cardiac care unit for the night, and doing well with several family members waiting for their brief visit that would be allowed every two hours for a few minutes each.
After going back and forth about whether or not to cancel their original plans, the wedding party and their dates had headed to downtown Nashville at Jeremy and Reva’s insistence. As they’d wrapped up the rehearsal dinner so early it was barely eight o’clock when they arrived at the hopping venue on Second Avenue.
Luckily, they caught a group leaving and grabbed their vacated table up near the bar. Part of their crew, all guys, were still there, having a beer, and claiming to be holding the table. Ryder, Jeremy and a single brave groomsman had accompanied the women to the dance floor. Ryder wouldn’t have minded staying with the guys at the table, but he had to admit, he was enjoying listening to McKenzie sing along with the country song’s lyrics while she went through the motions being given by the dance instructor.
She was a good dancer and kept rhythm perfectly with the directions. He suspected she’d already known the dance prior to their fifteen-minute lesson. But her laughter was contagious, and she seemed to be truly relaxed for the first time since they’d arrived.
He could hold his own on a dance floor during a slow song, was passable during faster dances, but he’d been telling the truth when he implied that he wasn’t much of a line dancer.
McKenzie had insisted he join her on the dance floor for the class that was just starting as their group arrived and he hadn’t had the heart to disappoint her.
Fortunately, he quickly picked up the dance with only a few missteps.
Like now when he went left when he should have gone right, leading to McKenzie bumping into him when he stepped into her dance space.
Which had happened only because he’d been watching her smiling face rather than paying attention to what he was doing.
“Oops!” Laughing, she grabbed hold of his arm to s
teady herself. Her palm was warm against his skin.
Warm? Warm didn’t scorch straight through every layer and singe a man’s insides. McKenzie’s touch did that, quickening his pulse more than moving to the music had.
He usually tamped down his attraction to her, but they were in a public place. What could it hurt? After all, they were a pretend couple. A little heat sparking between them would add to the show they were putting on for her family.
“Sorry.” He grinned down at her although he wasn’t sure he was sorry as her fingers lingered on his arm.
“No worries.” Rather than let go, she slowly let her fingertips graze over his skin in a light caress.
Shivers ran down Ryder’s spine.
What would it feel like if McKenzie ran her fingers that way over his chest? Over his abdomen? If while doing so she looked at him with the light shining so brightly in her big green eyes? If those eyes darkened with desire?
They would. Ryder saw the sexual energy in her eyes when she looked at him. It had always been there, lurking beneath the surface, tormenting him with the knowledge she’d belonged to another.
McKenzie was no longer in her relationship. She looked at him with passion in her eyes.
But Ryder knew all about a woman on the rebound, about how they could project their feelings, how a rebound fling often soothed a deflated ego.
Ryder swallowed the knot forming in his throat.
If anything happened between him and McKenzie, she’d be using him.
The last time a woman had used him he’d been left with a gaping hole in his chest. He refused to go through that again.
But in this moment, dancing with McKenzie, feeling the energy of her laughter, of her sexual energy, remembering anything other than the fact he wanted her seemed impossible.
Oblivious to his thoughts, she leaned toward him and spoke up so he’d hear her over the music. “You’re doing great.”
Well, he had been until she smiled, her eyes flashing with another spark of feminine awareness, and his feet took on a mind of their own. He stepped into her dance space rather than out of it, again.