Most people with this condition would end up in a cardiac theatre, with an angiogram and stent inserted to open up the blocked vessel. But there was no specialised equipment like that on Arran.
There were monitoring facilities and Gerry was currently attached to a cardiac monitor in one of the side rooms with an extra nurse called in to observe him closely for the next twenty-four hours.
Kristie couldn’t stop pacing. He hated to see how worried she was, but the truth was he couldn’t give her the guarantee she so desperately needed—that Gerry would be fine.
Rhuaridh put down the phone after talking to one of the consultants in Glasgow. Emergency situations called for emergency treatment.
‘What’s happening?’ Kristie was at his side in an instant.
He ran his fingers through his hair. ‘Bloods and ECG confirm it. Gerry’s had a massive heart attack. If he was on the mainland he’d go to Theatre to get the vessel cleared and probably have a stent put in to try and stop it happening again.’
It seemed she knew where this conversation would go. ‘But here?’
‘But here I’ve given him the first two drugs that should help, and now we’ll need to do things the more old-fashioned way and give him an IV of a drug that should break up the clot.’
She frowned. ‘Why don’t you still just do that? It sounds better than Theatre.’
He gave a slow nod. He had to phrase this carefully. ‘Studies show the other way is better. But as that isn’t an option, this is the only one we have.’
‘That doesn’t sound good.’ Her voice cracked.
Rhuaridh put his hand on her arm. ‘It takes an hour for the treatment to go in, then we have to monitor him carefully. There can be some side-effects, that’s why we’ve called an extra nurse in to monitor Gerry all day and overnight.’
Kristie’s head flicked from side to side. ‘Right, where can I stay?’
He tried not to smile. He knew she would do this. ‘You can stay with me. I’m going to have to stay overnight too. We’ll pull a few chairs into one of the other rooms close by. Miriam, the nurse, can give me a shout if she needs me.’
He looked down at her white knuckles gripping the camera in her hand. ‘What are you going to do with that?’
She took a few breaths as if she were thinking about it, then she lifted her chin and looked at him. ‘I’m going to do Gerry’s job. I’ll film it.’
There was something in her eyes that struck him as strange. ‘Are you okay?’
Her jaw was tight. ‘If Gerry was the one out here, he would film. He told me back at the B and B.’ She nodded as if she was processing a few things. ‘And I’ll film you. You can explain what a heart attack is and what the medicines are that you’ve given Gerry.’ She paused for the briefest of seconds then added, ‘Then you can talk about the weather and why we can’t leave. I’ll ask you a few questions about that.’
He tilted his head to the side. What was wrong with Kristie? Something just seemed a little...off. He understood she was worried about her colleague. Maybe this was her way of coping—to just throw herself into work.
He gave a cautious nod. ‘Of course we can do an interview. But give me a bit of time. I’m going to set up the IV with Miriam and have a chat with Gerry.’
She pressed her lips together and swung the camera up onto her shoulder. ‘Carry on. I’ll capture what I can.’
Just as he’d finally managed to get used to Gerry constantly hovering in the background with a camera, now everything was flipped on its head and Kristie hovering with a camera was something else entirely. Initially he’d found Gerry’s filming intrusive, and probably a bit unnecessary. But Kristie’s? That was just unnerving. Gerry had an ability to be unnoticeable and virtually silent. Now he was constantly aware of the scent of Kristie drifting from behind him and the noise of her footsteps on the hospital floor.
Where Gerry had felt like a ghost, Kristie was more like a neon light.
And things were certainly illuminating. It turned out Gerry had been harbouring a history of niggling indigestion and heaviness in his arms and a constant feeling of tiredness. Trouble was, Gerry had worked out himself that all the signs were pointing to cardiac trouble—but instead of seeking treatment he’d kept quiet, out of fear of losing his job.
Rhuaridh wasn’t there to judge. Healthcare and insurance in the US was completely different from healthcare in the UK.
He turned to speak to Kristie just in time to notice a big fat tear slide down her cheek. Her eyes were fixed on Gerry’s pale face as he lay with his eyes closed on the hospital bed, surrounded by flashing monitors and beeping IVs.
Something inside him clenched. This was her worst nightmare. Of course it was. She hated hospitals and now she was forcing herself to stay to be with Gerry. He knew in his heart that any suggestion he made about her leaving would fall on deaf ears. Rhuaridh slid his arm around her shoulders and pulled her towards him. ‘You okay?’
She shook her head then rested it on his shoulder. ‘I was mad at him. I went across to his room to shout at him.’
Rhuaridh tilted his head towards her. ‘Why on earth did you want to shout at Gerry? You two seem to get on so well. You complement each other.’
She hesitated for a second then pulled a face. ‘If I tell you why I was mad, you might get mad too.’
Rhuaridh shook his head. He had no idea what she was talking about. ‘Okay, I feel as if I missed part of the conversation here.’
Her eyes lowered, her hands fumbling in her lap. Her voice was sad when she spoke. ‘I found out Gerry filmed us kissing outside the hospital in December. I didn’t know. He didn’t say a word to me. And now my producer, Louie, has seen it, and loves it, so it’s going to be in the next episode of the show, no matter how much I begged him not to use it.’
For the first time since she’d got here Rhuaridh felt distinctively uncomfortable. He didn’t actually care about being filmed kissing Kristie. What he did care about was the fact she didn’t seem to want anyone else to know. All those previous thoughts that he’d pushed away rushed into his head. Why would a girl like Kristie be interested in a guy from a Scottish island?
He took a deep breath and said the words he really didn’t want to. ‘What’s wrong with us kissing?’
Her head turned sharply towards his. ‘It’s private. It’s not something I want to share with the world.’
She was looking at him as if he should understand this. But his stomach was still twisting. His brain was sparking everywhere. He was looking at this woman in a new way. A way that told him she could easily break his heart.
He’d kind of shut himself off from the world since he’d come to Arran—focusing on work had seemed easier than realising he might never get the opportunity to meet someone to share his life with. And even though he knew things were ridiculous and completely improbable, even the fact that he’d thought about Kristie in that context had meant that he’d finally started to open himself up a little again. But it seemed he couldn’t have timed things worse.
‘We were in a public place,’ he said carefully. ‘That isn’t so private.’
For a millisecond he might have been annoyed with Gerry—just like he had been in the beginning, questioning everything they filmed and the ethics behind it.
But Kristie had already told him. She needed this show to be a hit. If she didn’t want the world to know they’d kissed, then at least part of him could be relieved she wasn’t playing him.
She looked wounded by his words, her hand flew up to her chest. ‘But it’s private to me,’ she said empathically.
He leaned forward, looking into those blue eyes and then whispering in her ear, ‘Kristie, I don’t care if the world knows we’re kissing.’ And he meant it. He glanced at Gerry on the bed. They still didn’t know how this would all turn out for Gerry. If he had medical insurance he’d get shipped home
once his treatment was complete. But chances were Rhuaridh wouldn’t see him again anytime soon. Gerry might not be fit enough to travel like he had been.
He had to admire the canny old rogue. He’d seen the opportunity to film and taken it. Something flashed into Rhuaridh’s head. Something he hadn’t really processed earlier.
‘Gerry asked you to film—and you did. We don’t know how this is going to play out yet, Kristie.’ He was serious. The IV drug Gerry was currently on could cause heart arrhythmias. It could also lead to small clots being thrown off while the heart was trying to re-perfuse. There were no guarantees right now. ‘I’m not sure this is footage you should use.’
He left the words hanging in the air.
She blinked and her body gave a tremble. When she spoke her voice was shaky, ‘I’m a terrible person. You know I want Gerry to be okay, don’t you?’