After the parade, I was in a slightly better mood because tossing candy to excited kids pretty much puts a smile on anyone’s face. I looked around at the crowd and hoped that this time next year maybe I’d be an uncle. Maybe Greg and Katie would bring a baby to the parade. I knew my parents would be thrilled, and Greg and his wife deserved every happiness in the world. They’d be great parents. And if the thought gave me a little pang somewhere in my chest, well, that was just regret flaring up. I wasn’t going to raise a family of my own. I swallowed hard and told myself I’d work around that feeling, be a fun uncle and a good son and brother. I could imagine myself in thirty years still driving in this parade, my hairline retreating like my dad’s and more lines on my face. Proud of the business I’d built and the ways I could give back to my community, proud of my brother and his family, and probably lonely as hell.
Clearly it was time to eat something and cheer up. I had depressed myself pretty thoroughly then and wrecked my own mood. I joined my parents, told them all the people who had complimented our float and said they loved the parade and thanked us for being sponsors. The mayor had done his thank you speech at the beginning, naming the groups and businesses that made this year’s event possible I had taken the stage with my parents and thanked everyone for coming today. I’d said when I bought the garage off my dad years ago it was because I wanted to carry on the family business and make it a strong presence in Rockford Falls to help out in the community. If I had scanned the crowd looking for Michelle’s face, I stopped myself pretty quickly, not finding her there.
During the picnic, I joined my mom and dad and ate the fried chicken and potato salad and corn on the cob, all the good, messy traditional foods. Later there would be fresh fruit and homemade ice cream, along with popsicles for the kids. After we ate, I decided to look around at the vendors from the farmer’s market and the games set up for the kids, just check out the entire set up. I spotted Michelle and caught her eye. She was sitting with Damon and Trixie and Ashton. I stopped over to say hi, give Ashton a high five. My eyes met hers.
“Hey,” I said, “want to walk around with me for a minute?”
“It’s not a good time.”
“When will it be a good time?”
She stood up, drew me a little away from the others, “There won’t be a good time,” she said. “I don’t want to do this.”
“I just want to know what happened. Why, all of a sudden, did you decide things weren’t going to work out with us?”
Michelle looked back over her shoulder at Trixie who was shooing us away and giving us an encouraging look. Michelle glanced back at me, her face pale as paper. Her legs buckled. Stunned, I caught her in my arms as she passed out.
29
Michelle
Cool air was blowing on my overheated face. I struggled to open my eyes, to get a deep breath and figure out where I was. Slowly and with effort, my eyes took in my surroundings. The clean gray interior of Drew’s truck, the leather seat reclined so I could rest my head. I rolled my head to the left to look at him. He was driving, and he was holding my left hand in his.
“I’m gonna get you there real quick. Don’t you worry about a thing. I’ve got you,” he was murmuring as if to himself. His brow was furrowed, his mouth a stern line. I tried to speak but my voice was a weak rasp.
“What happened?” I managed to croak out.
“Chel! Thank God!” he said, lifting my hand and kissing it, relief surging through his voice. “It’s okay. You passed out. I’m taking you to the ER to get checked out. I know you weren’t feeling good a while back and maybe it’s the same thing or maybe you got overheated or something, but I’m gonna take care of you. We’re almost there.”
I hadn’t been feeling good that morning, but I figured it was a combination of the July heat and the intermittent nausea. I hadn’t been able to keep much food down, but I’d been following Nic’s advice and making sure I drank plenty of water. Still, passing out wasn’t normal for me, and it made me worry about the baby. I knew getting checked out by a doctor was a good idea.
When we got to the hospital, Drew pulled up under the overhang marked ER and jumped out and got a wheelchair. He helped me out of the truck and eased me into the chair. He fixed the footrests and made sure I was secure before he wheeled me carefully inside. At the registration desk, he gave them my full name and birth date, my address and phone number. I didn’t have my purse—it was in my car parked back downtown, so I didn’t have my insurance information. He told them to take me back and he’d make sure the insurance card got here. He knelt down to my level, kissed my forehead.