“Fine,” he gasped again.
Melissa’s hand wrapped around my shoulder. “I’ll do it,” she said. “Get him inside and lying down on his left side.”
She took off then, running toward a phone at the wall of the box suite for emergency uses.
“Come on,” I said to Grace. “Let’s get him inside.”
“He has to be okay,” she chanted repeatedly. “My Sean.”
His hand reached up and held hers, but I could tell it was taking everything in him. “Love you, honey. All the love in the world.”
“Stop it,” she hissed, and tears began falling down my cheeks. “You’ll be fine.”
We moved him inside, his weight difficult for us. When we had him on the floor, resting on his side, Grace dug into her purse again and popped out an aspirin. “Swallow this, Sean. Now.”
He did, working his throat like he was swallowing shards of glass, and I stepped back while they whispered to each other, things I couldn’t hear.
It was minutes that felt like hours before the stadium’s paramedics rushed through the door. We could do nothing except stand there and watch. Waiting.
Hoping.
A loud cheer in the distance and the vibration of the stadium shaking with applause pulled my eyes to the field. “Oliver.” I snapped my head to Grace. “We have to tell Oliver.”
She shook her head. “After the game. We’ll get word to him.”
“Should I wait for him?”
“No. Come with us. He’ll meet us there. The driver will be quicker anyway.”
***
We were at the hospital sitting in waiting room seats much too uncomfortable for anyone scared out of their mind.
I’d spent much of the time pacing, unable to sit still while we waited for word from the doctor.
Grace and Melissa had sat down, Grace the epitome of calmness with hope in her eyes while she sat there, hands clasped together and stared out the windows. Melissa looked as scared as I was, and I didn’t know if it was because of what we had seen, or what we were afraid the result would be.
Damn it. Oliver had been right—Sean had looked too tired this morning. Too worn down. And the way Oliver had looked at me, so concerned about his dad and asking me to keep an eye on him, promising him I wouldn’t let his dad get too excited.
I’d failed him. I hadn’t listened. I’d trusted Sean and Grace when he’d waved off the earlier pains in his chest.
I couldn’t close my eyes, I couldn’t blink. Every time I did I saw Sean’s large frame, almost as tall as Oliver’s, lying there on the floor, motionless and pale as the paramedics worked him over before rushing him out to an ambulance.
It was a memory forever ingrained in my brain.
Movement coming from the double doors caught my attention and I whispered Grace’s name.
Two doctors hustled through the doors, stopping only at the nurses’ station before looking at us when she gestured in our direction.
“Sean Powell’s family?” one of the doctors asked.
“I’m his wife, Grace.” She stood and held out her hand, smiling as if she wasn’t terrified out of her mind. There was something in her eyes, something that hit me after I’d watched all of this play out. She had been calm. Too calm and it didn’t feel right. She was either a chunk of granite in the face of horror, or she knew something she hadn’t shared. “How is he?”
The doctor smiled, tugging down his mask so it bent beneath his chin. “Sean’s going to be fine, Mrs. Powell. But he shouldn’t have been traveling—not so soon after his last heart attack.”
I gasped. Heart attack? Oliver had never said anything.
He shot her a look full of recrimination, and she rolled back her shoulders. “You try telling that man not to be there for his son’s games.”
I choked on a laugh, equal parts shocked and amused at the tone she’d just taken with the doctor when he sighed. “He’s still sleeping, but we can show you back. You know what this means, though, right? Did your doctors in Savannah explain it?”
“Surgery…stints…” Her voice trailed off as she flicked out her hand. “I’ll make sure he listens this time.”
“See that you do.” His voice went soft and kind and he reached out, squeezing Grace’s hand. “The next time he won’t be lucky. He won’t get a third chance, Mrs. Powell. There’s too much damage to his arteries.”
She turned to us then and fear flickered in her eyes as well as her remorse. “We didn’t want Oliver to know,” she said as she met my eyes. “He would have told us not to come, and Sean—well, Sean said if he didn’t have much time, he needed to see one last game.”
“I understand.” I didn’t. Oliver was going to be furious and it was warranted. I nodded toward the doctor. “You should go see him. I’ll send Oliver back when he gets here.”
“Thank you,” she whispered, reaching out and squeezing my hand. “Thank you for being so kind and loving my boy.”
I smiled with tears in my eyes. “It’s my pleasure.”
As soon as she’d disappeared behind the double doors and Melissa had her arms around me, I was quickly pulled away and my shoulders gripped by strong, firm hands. “What in the hell happened, Shannon?”
Oliver’s grip was so strong, so fierce, my head snapped back and my eyes flared.
“Oliver…” Melissa started as I winced from another hard shake. “Calm down.”
“Stay out of this,” he clipped, his hazel eyes flaring with fury. “What the hell happened? And why didn’t you call me? They could have gotten me during the game. I should have known what was going on. How could you let me go out on the field, knowing what happened and you knew how worried I was about him?” He scrubbed his hand through his hair and shouted at me. “I told you to watch him!”
I stumbled backward, rubbing my arms where he’d gripped them so hard they might bruise. Tears dripped down my cheeks and I swiped them away. “I did watch him, and your mom told me not to call you. He said it was heartburn.” I inhaled a long breath before exhaling. “He’s fine, though, Oliver. The doctors just came out and talked to us. He had a heart attack, but he’s fine. Sleeping. Your mom just went back there.”
“Damn it.” He swiped a hand through his still-wet hair and cursed again. “I knew it. I knew something wasn’t right. How in the fuck could this have happened?”
I shook my head, unable to comprehend the vitriol he was shouting at me. He was scared and hurt. Probably terrified. I’d take his anger for him if it helped him.
“I tried, honey,” I whispered, reaching out for him.
He jerked away from my touch and scrubbed his face with his hands again and then tugged on his hair. “Not well enough,” he barked. “I’m going to go see him.”
“Do you want us to wait?”
“No,” he said. Any emotion he had for me this morning was now gone in his cold, angry eyes. “I think you’ve done enough. Just go.”
I gasped, my fingers flying to my mouth when he turned and hurried away. He talked to a nurse before she opened the double doors for him, smiling at him with stars in her eyes while he rushed down the hall and disappeared.
“He didn’t mean it,” Melissa said, pulling me into her arms and squeezing tight. “He didn’t mean it. He’s just angry and scared. You’ll see.”
I’d seen Oliver lose his temper and say shit he didn’t mean often. He was usually quick to apologize.
I reminded myself of that, focused on the truth Melissa spoke, and hoped like hell I was right.
He’d realize that in his anger he’d just been an asshole to the woman he loved, and he’d make it right.
Chapter TWENTY-FIVE
SHANNON
Melissa looked down at me, her pretty little nose all crinkled. “You smell.”
“I’ll shower later.” I rolled my eyes at her before staring back at the television set.
ESPN was now the only way I was getting any updates on Oliver or Sean other than the texts Beaux got from the team manager’s updating the team on Sean’s condition. He was getting released from the hospital that night.
It had been two days and I hadn’t heard anything from Oliver. I hadn’t received a single text message, not a phone call. And after I sent one message the day before, asking him how his dad was doing when I’d heard he made it out of surgery via Beaux, I hadn’t gotten a response.
Was it possible for a heart to actually break? I understood he was busy. I understood he needed to be with his dad, and I had originally believed Melissa: he’d freaked out on me because he was scared and angry that he hadn’t known about it as soon as it happened.
Two days later, and radio silence from him, and I no longer believed her.
My chest hurt. After we’d left the hospital, Melissa and I had gone to Beaux’s house. I didn’t want to be alone in my apartment.
He freaked out and shouted when Melissa had relayed what happened and then he’d stalked off to be with the team at the hospital. Visions of him giving Oliver a black eye for being a dick to me popped into my mind, but I pushed them away. Beaux wouldn’t do that to him…not yet, anyway. But if I knew my brother and his protective instinct, it’d come at some point.