Turnabout's Fair Play (35 page)

“Yeah…that wouldn’t surprise me.” Jamie let out a hybrid chuckle-snort—a snuckle? “Actually—it kind of would surprise me that they’re just calling and haven’t already descended upon the waiting room. We couldn’t seem to get rid of them when I was eighteen and had—”

“Family of Kirby McNeill?”

Flannery shot out of the chair and dragged Jamie by the hand toward the woman standing in the double doors to the main part of the ER. “Yes—family of Kirby McNeill.”

Maureen joined them.

“You’re all family?”

“Of course.” No way was she going to leave her only support system out here while she went in to see Big Daddy.

“Come on back, then. Oh, and you will need to turn your cell phones off.” The nurse looked pointedly at Maureen, who hadn’t put hers away yet.

Flannery handed hers to Jamie to deal with as they followed the nurse through the labyrinthine emergency room.

Big Daddy had been put in a room rather than one of the curtained-off areas. Leads and wires connected him to several machines, not to mention the IV in his hand and the oxygen tube under his nose.

And suddenly Flannery understood why Mimi hadn’t wanted her grandchildren visiting her in the hospital until they’d unhooked her from everything.

But he was sitting up, and he smiled at them. “Doc says the old ticker has finally gone back into rhythm.” He thumped his chest between the heart-monitor leads. “That’s all it was, the ol’ heart being stubborn and wanting to make its own rhythm.”

“Don’t joke about it, Big Daddy. Why is your heart going out of rhythm? Isn’t that what your ICD is supposed to keep from happening?” Flannery looked at the monitor recording his blood pressure (110/60), pulse (82), and O
₂
(98).

Big Daddy gave a laughing groan. “Believe me, it was trying its hardest to shock my heart back into the right rhythm. Felt like that time Ol’ Bert, the mule, took a disliking to me and showed me just how much by applying his back feet to my chest.”

Maureen’s arm brushed hers. “Pressure’s still a little low, but not bad. The rest of your vitals look good. Your pulse rate has come down quite a bit.”

“It was even lower than that just a minute ago, but then you walked into the room.” Big Daddy waggled his bushy eyebrows at Maureen, who turned almost as red as her hair.

Flannery dropped her left hand from her mouth and tapped Big Daddy playfully on the shoulder with her fist. “Easy there, big fella.” But even though he still looked somewhat gray and weak, the fact that he could not only joke but also flirt helped her believe he would be okay.

The doctor came in, introducing himself as the on-call cardiologist.

“Mr. McNeill had a ventricular tachycardia episode—meaning the heart started beating too fast and irregularly. We downloaded the information from his ICD, which shows it was working correctly, but it just took awhile for the heart to respond. We’re going to admit Mr. McNeill for observation for at least twenty-four hours to make sure he doesn’t have another event, as well as run more tests and find out if we need to adjust his medications.”

“What kinds of tests?” Her mother would ask, so Flannery needed to know.

“We’ll need to test for damage and to see if any adjustments need to be made to the ICD—or even if it needs to be replaced. His regular cardiologist will determine exactly what tests are needed.”

“His regular …” Flannery crossed her arms. “So you’re saying that he’s not going to have these tests today?”

“A few—especially to check for damage. But most of the others can wait until tomorrow, when we’re back up at full staff.” He looked down at the pager on his belt. “Please excuse me.”

“Thank you, Doctor,” Jamie called after him.

“Flan, now you can go call your folks. But be sure to tell them I
don’t
want them coming up here. I’ll be out of the hospital in another day—there’s no point in them taking time away from their jobs and responsibilities to come up for nothing more than this. Jamie—why don’t you go with her?” Kirby inclined his head toward the door.

Before she could argue, Jamie clamped his hand around her elbow and led her out of the room, back to the waiting room, and out through the doors they’d entered.

“What was that all about?” She accepted her phone when he handed it to her.

“I think your grandfather wanted to have a word alone with my grandmother.” He grinned at her.

She rolled her eyes. “Whatever.” Turning her phone back on, she made the call to her parents. When she got no answer at their home number, she remembered that they usually went to their church’s cookout.

Instead of face her mother’s questions immediately, she called her dad’s cell phone number. After all, he was Kirby’s son, so he should be the first to know.

And he did know first—and then handed the phone to Mom so that Mom could grill her with medical questions the cardiologist probably wouldn’t have been able to answer.

“No, Mom—I don’t know. I’ve told you everything the cardiologist told us. Tests. For damage today and then they’re going to look at everything else tomorrow…. Yes, he said at least twenty-four hours so they can keep him under observation.” After ten minutes, she’d repeated herself at least four times. “Look, once Big Daddy is moved up to the medical floor, I’ll make sure he calls you and explains. And if that isn’t good enough, tomorrow we’ll try to get his cardiologist to call you and explain.”

“He won’t have to. We’ll be there in three hours.”

“No—Mom, no. He doesn’t want you to come.”

“He may not want us, but he’s going to get us.”

Flannery grabbed hold of Jamie’s wrist and squeezed—hard. “No, Mother. He doesn’t want you coming.”

Before she could stop him, Jamie snatched the phone out of her hand. “Mrs. McNeill…no, I’m not his doctor. I’m Flannery’s boyfriend, Jamie.”

Flannery slapped both hands over her face and then smoothed them back over her hair. She was in for it now.

“Oh, she didn’t tell you she had a boyfriend? I can understand. It’s a pretty recent development. Anyway, I wanted to tell you that my grandmother and I were with Flannery and Big Daddy when this happened, and we’re here at the hospital. And my grandmother has four really good friends who are, even as I speak, heading this way to come and gather round and pray and make sure that your father-in-law recovers. Frankly, I think if you came now, you’d just be in the way.”

Flannery turned toward the parking garage, and sure enough, four elderly ladies marched toward them.

“Yes, ma’am, I understand that you’re concerned. And I know Big Daddy appreciates that. But he’s going to have enough on his hands dealing with my grandmother and her friends.”

Perty Bradley, Sassy Evans, Trina Breitinger, and Lindy Patterson formed a semicircle around them.

Jamie shot Flannery a big grin. “Yes, ma’am, Maureen O’Connor…Yes, ma’am. I would say it’s pretty serious…. Well, she’s very fond of him, too. And so am I…. How long have Flannery and I been dating?”

Flannery jerked the phone out of Jamie’s hand. “Mom, we really need to go.”

“How could you not tell me you have a boyfriend?”

She had to hold the phone away from her ear. And from the smiles exchanged amongst her friends’ grandmothers, they heard every single word.

“Mom, really, we’ve got to go. I promise I’ll call you…later.” Maybe in a month or two, once Mom got over the shock of finding out this way that Flannery was seeing someone. She disconnected and then punched Jamie in the arm. Not softly or teasingly, either. “How dare you tell my mother you’re my boyfriend!”

He grabbed her around the waist and pulled her close. “Because I
am
your boyfriend. And it got her thinking about something else.”

“Just saying you’re my boyfriend doesn’t make it true—”

His lips crushed against hers. She smiled and pressed her hand to his hairy cheek as she kissed him back.

And the meddling, matchmaking grannies cheered.

Chapter 24

F
lannery flipped back to the previous page and reread it. But after a second reading, she still didn’t follow.

Maybe trying to read new book proposals while sitting in her grandfather’s hospital room wasn’t the greatest idea in the world. She closed out of the reader and switched over to solitaire. Playing round after round after round of it didn’t help in keeping her work from piling up, but it did suit the chaos in her head. And even though she’d spent the morning at the office—until Jack ran her out—every minute she spent away from her desk, her workload increased exponentially.

But she couldn’t leave Big Daddy here by himself, and Maureen and Jamie couldn’t be expected to stay here with him all day.

His light snores paused, and she looked up. He blinked a couple of times, reached up to rub his eyes, and looked at the IV in the back of his hand as if he’d forgotten where he was.

She set her computer pad down on the extra chair and rose to stand beside the bed. “How’re you feeling?”

“Good. Hungry.”

She checked the clock. Only three thirty. “Want me to see if I can scrounge you up a snack—something that your doctor would approve?”

“No. I can hold on till supper. Where are Maureen and Jamie?”

“Maureen had a meeting over at church she couldn’t get out of, and Jamie had to run down to the office to take care of something on one of the projects he’s doing for us.”

“Good. I was hoping to get a chance to talk to you alone.”

Flannery perched on the edge of the bed and took his hand in hers, being careful not to knock off the pulse/oxygen monitor clipped to his finger. “You look like the Cheshire cat.”

“I feel sort of like that grinning critter.” He squeezed her hand. “You like Jamie, don’t you?”

“Of course I do.” Her breath caught in her throat with the delayed impact of his question. “Why?”

“’Cause when I look at you with him, it’s the happiest I’ve ever seen you. Maureen agrees—this is the happiest she’s seen her grandson pretty much in his whole life.”

“You two have been talking about us?”

Big Daddy had the decency to look chagrined. “I have to admit, we’ve talked a couple of times about ways we could plot to bring the two of you together.”

“Like …” Flannery narrowed her eyes at him. “When we ‘accidentally’ ran in to them at the Japanese restaurant?” She shook her head and tried to keep her expression stern. “I should have known.”

“Are you upset with me?”

She bent forward and kissed his cheek. “No, Big Daddy. I’m thankful for you.”

“And I’m thankful for you, too. But I’ve been worrying about you.”

“And you’re blaming that for your heart problems?” She grinned at him but couldn’t stop the guilt that nudged at her from the very real prospect that she’d caused him undue anxiety, which landed him here.

“No. No. Not that. I’m worried about what you told me a few weeks ago—about moving to New York because you felt like your friends had left you behind.”

Flannery straightened and looked at the back of his hand, held in hers. “I was being stupid. I mean, I know I can’t help feeling the way I felt, but I’d let myself forget that Caylor and Zarah and I are closer than I ever was with my sisters. And they’ve gone out of their way in the last few months to make sure we haven’t stopped getting together or talking or being there for each other. And frankly, I know if I needed them, Bobby and Dylan would be there for me, too. I haven’t lost my friends; they’ve just brought more people into the mix for me to be friends with. I almost feel like I’m closer to them than I was before, and I know that’ll continue for the rest of our lives.”

“So you’re not considering moving to New York anymore?” He squeezed her hand.

She leaned forward and kissed his cheek again. “I can’t go to New York and leave everyone I love behind.”

He pressed his palm to her face and rubbed the apple of her cheek with his thumb. “I hope this incident hasn’t scared you away from Jamie. He’s a good man.”

She sat up with a laugh. “He’s been great through this incident. Why would you think it would scare me?”

Her grandfather’s expression clouded. “Because of his heart problem.”

“His—” Flannery slid off the edge of the bed and took a couple of steps back. “What are you talking about?”

Big Daddy tried to push himself up and then reached for the controls and raised the head of the bed. “He hasn’t told you?”

“Told me
what?
Panic chewed the edges of Flannery’s mind.

“I guess that’s a question you’d better ask Jamie.”

“Ask me what?” Jamie strolled into the room.

Flannery turned on him, fists planted on her hips, her own chest pounding with the frantic denials in her heart. “You have a heart problem? After all this, how could you not tell me?”

Jamie came toward her and reached for her upper arms, but she lurched away from him, holding her hands up between them.

He sighed. “I
used
to have a heart problem.” He unbuttoned the placket of his Henley-style T-shirt and pulled the neckline apart, revealing a thick scar down the middle of his chest. “I had what’s called ASD—an atrial septal defect. I had a little hole between the two upper chambers of my heart. But I had surgery, and they fixed it.” He buttoned three of the four buttons again—just high enough to hide the top of the scar.