The ambulance arrived, and two EMTs came in with a stretcher for transporting Luke, who continued to be weak and clammy. As they moved him to the stretcher, Lizzie gave them the rundown on his condition.
Josh put his hand on her shoulder. “If you want to ride along, I can hold down the fort.”
“Are you sure?” She did want to go.
“Yep. Other than the aspirin, you’ve run this one. Go ahead. Besides, I’ll feel better if one of us is with him. He doesn’t really have anyone else.”
“Thanks, Josh.” As Luke was wheeled out to the waiting ambulance, she rushed to her office for her purse. “I’ll try to be back for supper, but if not give Sarah my apologies, will you?”
“Of course.”
They’d already inserted a cannula for fluids as Lizzie jumped in the back of the ambulance with one of the attendants. The other hopped up front to drive. As they pulled out of the lot and the sirens blared, Lizzie smiled grimly. Other than the brief time she’d spent on the island with Josh, this was the most alive she’d felt in months.
She knew where she belonged. At some point she was going to have to work on getting back there again.
* * *
Lizzie briefly considered not going to Sarah’s, but it was too late now. Jeff and Scott, the EMTs, had considerately dropped her outside Sarah’s house when they returned to Jewell Cove. She could always walk back to the clinic for her car, but she could hear laughter from inside the house and she was drawn to the happy sound.
It had been a hell of a ride to the hospital.
She shouldered her handbag and walked down the narrow drive to the house, following the chatter of voices through a fence gate and into the backyard. Rick was playing soccer with Josh’s nephew, Matt, while his niece, Susan, challenged Josh to a game of bocce ball. Josh smacked his head and let out a cry of disgust as Susan’s green ball came closest to the little white one, and Lizzie smiled. This was what family was supposed to be like. It’s what things had been like in her childhood, though it was usually friends playing in the backyard and not extended family.
Remembering made her lonely and homesick. For the second time today.
“Lizzie, you made it!”
Sarah called out her name, Josh turned around and saw her, and everything seemed to pause for a long, long second.
She diverted her attention from Josh, who was now dressed in khaki shorts and a T-shirt, and faced his sister Sarah with a smile. “Sorry I’m late. And I didn’t have a chance to pick up dessert. The guys from the ambulance dropped me off.”
Sarah waved a hand at her, dismissing her apology. “No worries at all. Meggie brought cookies and we always have ice cream in the freezer anyway. You must be hungry. We’ll get you something fresh and you can tell us how our favorite mayor is doing.”
Lizzie let out a sigh and followed Sarah to the deck.
“Mark? Plug in the fryer again. I’m going to make a fresh batch for Lizzie.”
“Yes, dear!” Mark called down, and Lizzie caught him winking at his wife. He disappeared and Lizzie heard some clanging about up top.
“Sarah, don’t go to any bother. I know you’ve already eaten. I just wanted to stop by.”
“Nonsense. I’m going to let you in on a secret that no one in the family knows.” She led the way up the stairs to the deck, gave her husband a quick kiss, and went on to the kitchen through sliding doors. Once the doors were closed behind them, Sarah went to the pantry and took out a storage container. “Before I tell you, you have to swear you won’t breathe a word. My beer batter is a thing of legend in this family.”
Lizzie couldn’t help but smile and she crossed her heart. “Promise.”
Sarah grabbed a bottle of beer, popped the top, and snagged a small mixing bowl. “It’s pancakes.”
“Excuse me?”
Sarah giggled. “My secret batter recipe! It’s pancake mix and beer. Everyone thinks I have this secret recipe, but I leave it up to Aunt Jemima.”
Lizzie laughed. “I promise I won’t breathe a word.”
Sarah whisked together the dry mix with the beer until it was the proper consistency and then went to the fridge for another container that held fish fillets. “Come on out. We’ll dip and fry. There should be some potatoes left, too, we can do up, if you don’t mind them cooked in the same grease.”
“I can feel my arteries hardening already.” She grinned.
Out on the deck again, they were joined by Jess and Abby and Meggie, who’d been out in Sarah’s flower garden when Lizzie had arrived. Meggie snagged the rest of the bottle of beer and took a long swig while Jess settled her very pregnant bulk into an Adirondack chair. “God. Now I’m in this thing and I don’t think I’ll be able to get out.”