Bowie answered her internal plea. He went to Brystol and stood next to her, making sure Luke was with them. He set his hand on her shoulder and pulled her close to him, as if he was protecting her. Bowie was there for her daughter, just as he had been there for her in her many times of need. He was always there with the right things to say, with an encouraging hand and a shoulder to lean or cry on. He never asked for more. He never demanded Brooklyn return the favors. And now, here he was taking care of her daughter when she couldn’t. He was doing what he had always done with her when it came to Austin, and now he was doing what he would’ve done had Brooklyn stayed. She could’ve given her daughter a different life, a life with a man she knew would’ve played a role that wasn’t his. She couldn’t watch them together, not now at least, and turned her attention back to Carly, saying her name over and over, praying she would wake up.
“Why isn’t she responding, Jason?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know. Is she sick? What medicines is she on?”
Before Brooklyn or Simone could answer, the local EMTs were on the beach and heading their way. They yelled for people to clear a path, and while one barked out questions, the other put an IV into Carly’s wrist. Within a few minutes they had her on a backboard and were carrying her toward the stairs.
“Wait, where are you taking her?” Brooklyn stopped them. She knew there wasn’t a hospital in town, only the office that her father used to work at. She remembered clearly that he used to be on call most of the weekends until he could hire another doctor to help fill in.
“Skagit Valley. Are you family?” Brooklyn nodded, but there was no way she could go with Carly and leave Brystol behind.
“Go,” Bowie said, standing next to her. His hand softly touching her arm. “I’ll bring Brystol. We’ll be right behind you.” Brooklyn sought confirmation from her daughter. Brystol’s expression told her nothing. What spoke volumes was her daughter’s white knuckles from the death grip she had on Luke’s leash. This dog was giving her daughter some peace of mind and comfort, something Brooklyn wasn’t capable of right now. “B.” Bowie’s voice was softer this time. He stepped forward, closing the gap between them. “I’d never let anything happen to her.”
She knew this, deep in her heart. But it still unnerved her to see her daughter so close to a man she had spent years hating. Brooklyn took off in a dead sprint, catching up to the ambulance before they shut the doors. She expected Simone to be in the back also, but it was just her and the EMT.
“Has she been sick?” he asked.
Brooklyn shook her head. “I just got to town not too long ago. Um . . .” Brooklyn pressed her hand to her forehead, trying to think. The truck hit a pothole, and Brooklyn slammed into the side, her arm banging hard against a protruding corner. She bit her lip to keep from crying out but couldn’t stop the tears.
The EMT reached across Carly for Brooklyn’s arm. He held it still with one hand while rifling through his supplies. He popped an ice pack over his knee and told her to hold it on her arm. She did as he instructed while he secured a bandage over it to hold it in place.
“Is this necessary?”
“Unfortunately, yes. Mostly precautionary, but since you were hurt in the ambulance, I have to treat you as well. Now back to my question: Has she been sick?”
Brooklyn inhaled deeply. “I don’t know. I suspected something was wrong, but we’re not exactly close. I’ve noticed tissues with blood on them in the bathroom, and yesterday she coughed up blood.”
“How much?” he asked without taking his eyes off Carly.
“What do you mean?”
“Was it just a drop of blood?”
She shook her head, but he wasn’t looking at her. “It was a lot. I mean for someone coughing. It was a lot of blood.”
He continued to monitor Carly. She remained unconscious, lifeless. Brooklyn took her frail hand in hers and bent over. She whispered a prayer, begging Austin to spare his mother a little bit longer so his daughter wouldn’t remember her grandmother this way.
Once they arrived at the hospital, everything moved quickly. Carly was rushed into the emergency room, and Brooklyn was told to stay in the waiting room. She stood there long after the doors closed, holding her arm and thinking about nothing. All her thoughts were lost, her mind blank. It was the sound of Bowie’s voice that brought her back to reality. They were in the hospital, and he was standing there with her daughter glued to his side, as if they’d known each other for years and not weeks . . . as if they meant something to each other.