Page 20 of Needing His Touch
“Carsynn, we gotta give them some room. The ambulance is here. You need to go with him. I can’t get ahold of Gabe, so I’m going to drive over to the shop. You go with Bernie, alright?” Denny tells me what seems like hours later, but I know better. I’ve been in this situation before with my adrenaline pumping, thinking about the worst and praying for the best. He pulls me away. My emotions are messy, tears streaming down my cheeks.
“Okay, I can do this. Please tell Gabe to hurry.” I wipe my cheeks with the back of my hands, watching as the paramedics work on Gramps, unaware of when they showed up. Besides Sheriff Sanders, Plaine Hill and its citizens are amazing people.
“You got it. Go with Manny. He’ll make sure you’re with Bernie the entire time.” Olive comes rushing around, my purse in her hand, looping it over my head, and giving me a fast hug. They have Gramps loaded, and Manny is waiting on me to follow him out while he starts to ask questions about his medical history. I answer what I can, mostly his medicines, and mumble. “I don’t know” when there’s a question I don’t know the answer to. This happens the whole time we walk to the ambulance and continues while I look on, watching as they work on Gramps. My hand grips the strap of my purse, tightening its hold while I chant over and over in my head to please hurry and get us to the hospital.
23
GABE
Jesus fucking Christ, two scares in less than a month. My damn gut can’t take much more. First Carsynn and now Gramps. When Denny came rushing toward my bay to deliver the news, I thought my knees were going to give out beneath me when he told me Gramps was at the hospital and that Carsynn was with him. The tightness in my chest loosened a bit at knowing she was with him, but it didn’t prepare me for the sight of her when I walked into the emergency room, talked to the front desk clerk, and gave the nurse my name. Apparently, she already knew who I was. Carsynn’s doing. She gave me a name badge, hit the button, and told me where to go. The whole drive here I was hitting the dial button on my woman's number, but it was no use. Cell reception in the hospital was obsolete. It sucked because Denny wasn’t sure how Gramps was doing, only that they were working on him when the paramedics loaded him up. He had a pulse, but other than that, there was no fucking news. Denny couldn’t tell me what was going on, and since I had no way of getting ahold of Carsynn, it was a long-ass ride here. It didn’t even dawn on me to call the hospital. I drove as fast as I could, found the closest spot, and double-timed it until I walked through the sliding doors.
“Carsynn!” I call out her name. She’s sitting down in a chair, biting her nail, rocking back and forth, and looking down at the ground. When she lifts her head, giving me her amber eyes, I’m kicked in the gut. There are tears streaming down her face, her eyes are bloodshot, and she looks like her world ended.
“Gabe, thank God you’re here. He’s okay. Gramps is okay.” She’s out of her seat, running toward me. My arms are open, and I’m hugging her tightly. “I didn’t know. I swear I didn’t know.”
“Didn’t know what, baby?” I ask, breathing a sigh of relief as I hold her head to my chest, my arm wrapped around her lower back. Carsynn’s tears saturate my shirt, and as much as I want to know how Gramps is doing, something tells me this has everything to do with my grandfather.
“Gramps. He confronted Sheriff Sanders. One minute he’s cussing him out, the next he’s dropping to the floor.”
Fucking hell. I pull back from our hug, needing to see her, and cup her cheeks. There’s no use wiping them away, they’re coming down so rapidly. “Tell me everything.” My mouth is as dry as the Sahara, thinking the worst. How Gramps could have been at the wrath of Sanders and how my woman is worried about me thinking she’d put someone in harm’s way.
“They asked me to leave the room for a minute to run a few tests.” Her lips quiver. She’s probably thinking about him being unconscious again. “He looks so tired. God, Gabe, I’m so sorry. It’s all my fault. I’m the reason Grandpa Bernie is lying in that hospital bed right now.” I shake my head. No way this is coming from her. “It is. He confronted the sheriff about my accident, Sanders said a few choice words, and Gramps gave it right back to him. One minute Denny is telling that arrogant, pompous asshole to leave, then Gramps is collapsing.” It figures Gramps couldn’t wait a moment longer. He was chomping at the bit, ready to go after Sanders. Instead of waiting for the election, it seems he decided to take matters into his owns hands.
“No heart attack or stroke?” I ask. She shakes her head. “This isn’t your fault. Sanders knew he fucked up. Gramps wasn’t going to have the dumb fuck strutting around thinking his shit doesn’t stink. He for damn sure wasn’t going to let him eat at the diner you work at when it was Gramps calling Sanders while I was out looking for you. Sanders knew what he was doing when he walked in, eating where Gramps does every single day. He was taunting you, Gramps, and me. I’d have confronted him sooner, but I’ve had my hands full.”
“I heard all of that. I promise if I knew the weather was going to be that bad, I’d have never left and put anyone in danger. You know that, right?” Carsynn’s past is trying to rear its head, and no fucking way am I going to have her second-guessing anything right now.
“Fairy, we all know that. Sanders does, too. He didn’t give a shit. Weather changes fast around here. You didn’t know that. Still, it doesn’t give him the right to act like a dick bag.” She huffs out a laugh and closes her eyes. It’s time she knows how I feel. “Carsynn, I knew who you were before I met you, loved you the moment I laid my eyes on you, the first time you gave me yourself. I knew you’d be mine forever. I love you, always.”
“Gabe.” My fairy says my name breathlessly. “I love you, too. God, do I love you.” My lips land on hers. There’s no way I can deny the two of us this moment. The hospital probably wasn’t my finest moment to lay it on her, but nothing we’ve done has been by what others would call the standard.
“Fuck.” I pull back, my cock hating me, and believe me, I’m hating myself, too, but taking this further in a hospital would see us both kicked out. “We’re going to resume this later.”
“Okay.” Her lips are swollen and wet from my kiss.
“Now, how about we go see the old man and interrupt whatever the hell they’re doing to him?”
“Yes, please. It’s been hell sitting out here thinking about everything I could be doing to help him. All I know is time crawled by.” I take her hand in mine.
“Which room?” Most hospitals have an emergency room where family members and friends sit out in the common area waiting with others. Plaine Hill being a small population has it set up in a unique way. The patients already in a room in the emergency area have a different waiting area for moments like these.
“One-ten.” I guide her, my hand staying where it’s the most comfortable for both of us. Right now, I need her in the worst way. There were a few moments when the absolute worst was running through my head.
“Knock-knock.” I wrap my knuckles on the wood door, pushing it open with my foot.
“Come in,” I hear gramps voice.
“Gramps, you’re giving us a hard time. Hell, if you wanted our attention, you could have asked for it.” We’re not strangers to this place. We both hate it like hell, and to keep us from being frequent flyers here, well, that means we take care of our regular doctor visits, Gramps more than me now that he’s getting older, but we both hold the other accountable.
“Damn pacemaker acted up right when I was going to give that damn sheriff a piece of my mind. I’d have loved to knock him off his high horse.” Gramps groans. He’s hooked up to a few monitors with the nurse standing off to the side, holding back her smile.
“He’ll be good as new. He will need to stay for a night or two. Today, we’ll get his tests done and make sure everything else is good. Tomorrow, we’ll get him on the schedule. Another night here to monitor the new pacemaker, and hopefully, he’ll be good to go home.”
“Come ‘ere, Carsynn, give me a hug.” Gramps opens an arm that isn’t hooked up to wires. I’m chopped liver again. My woman has her place with him. I’m not replaced; it’s like Gramps sees a piece of his own daughter, my mom, in her. I can see it, too. They’re both strong willed, independent, and to the core sweeter than honey.
“Gramps, you gave me a scare. I’m going to need a list of everything—medicine, hospitalizations, procedures. I could barely answer the paramedic’s questions,” she tells him before bending down to give him a hug and a kiss on the cheek.
“Ah, you can have it, but once my ole ticker is fixed, I’ll be back to normal.”