Almost expecting to see foam spewing from her mouth as if she’d turned rabid, I wiped wet clumps of hair out of her face and clutched my phone with my free hand.
Dawn didn’t answer her cell within four rings—and I swear these were the four longest freaking rings of my life. I think I had about three mini heart attacks between each one.
I couldn’t handle waiting for a fifth, so I disconnected and found the next number in line on the contact list. Mason’s cell phone. My fingers shook so badly and my brain was so overloaded with fear, I knew I had to be punching in the wrong digits, but I continued jabbing until a ring echoed into my ear.
I wiped a buttload of tears off my cheeks and listened to the echoing silence after the first ring. I could count each heartbeat as it pounded in my chest. God, if he was with a client right now, I was going to kill him.
Just as the second ring started, he answered, and I swear, his voice had never sounded so wonderful.
“Mason, I need you; I don’t know what to do.” I rushed out the words, making one long, breathless, run-on sentence. “Sarah’s having a seizure, and I don’t know what to do. She won’t stop shaking, and Dawn’s not answering her phone. I’m so freaked out right now. I don’t know what to do.”
Had I mentioned that I didn’t know what to do?
Mason didn’t answer immediately. After a painfully long pause, he said, “Reese?”
Oh, my God! There was no time for introductions. “Yes!” I screamed in a frustrated, get-with-the-program-already kind of way. “Who the hell do you think it is? Did you hear me? I said your sister’s having a seizure.”
“Yeah, okay. I heard. I think. Just…first of all, calm down.”
Calm down? Calm down? Was he mental? This was not a time to calm down.
“You can’t help her if you’re flipping out.”
Shit. His steady, grounding tone trickled past the panic and somehow found the only rational section of my brain. I blew out as calming a breath as I could manage.
“Did you get her out of her wheelchair?” he asked. “Is she lying down?”
I nodded. “Yes. We’re on the floor in the hall. I was giving her a bath when—”
“Good,” he butted in, obviously not needing details. “Keep her there and just stay with her. Talk to her. Let her know she’s not alone. I’ll be home in a minute.”
“Do I call for an ambulance?”
“Is she turning blue or changing any color?”
“No.”
“Not yet, then. This is fairly typical, but I’ll know more when I get there.”
“Okay. Okay.” I clutched the phone gratefully. “Hurry.”
“I will.”
He hung up before I could thank him. And I really, really wanted to thank him for being there and answering my call.
But…later.
Tossing my phone aside, I crawled to Sarah and held her hand, stroking the back of her knuckles where her curled, contorted wrist seemed to wrap around my fingers, begging for help.
“It’s okay, honey,” I cooed. “It’s okay. Reese is here. And Mason’s coming.” Sniffing, I didn’t even wince when I bumped the still tender area around my nose ring when I wiped the back of my hand across my face.
For some reason, I remembered something I’d heard once about epileptic people and how you had to make sure they didn’t swallow their tongue during a seizure. I tried to look into Sarah’s mouth, but her jaw was clamped tight. She didn’t appear to be choking, so I prayed she hadn’t swallowed anything that wasn’t supposed to be swallowed. A trail of drool seeped from the corner of her pressed lips. I wiped it away, figuring no girl would want to be caught drooling, especially if the paramedics who might need to come save her were as sexy as hell.
Then a breath later, she fell still and went catatonic.
“Sarah?”
She didn’t respond. Her eyes were open but they stared sightlessly. My level of scared rose to a whole new level. I checked for a pulse and when I found one, I began to cry even harder. The relief was more than I could handle.
“Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Please be okay, little buddy.”
I didn’t know if unconsciousness was common after a seizure, but I didn’t want to call Mason again; I wanted him to concentrate on the road so he could drive as fast as possible to get here.
Since Sarah was no longer juddering about, I hurried into the bathroom and collected her nightclothes. If I were her, I wouldn’t want everyone to see me in my birthday suit while I was out cold.
With her being wet and unconscious, it took me three times as long as it usually did to dress her. My fumbling fingers, which wouldn’t stop shaking, didn’t help matters. And it was impossible to see clearly through all the tears that kept falling and blurring my vision.
I’d just pulled her shirt on over her head when the front door flew open.
“Reese?”
I wiped my nose with a trembling hand and sniffed. “We’re here.”
Mason appeared in the hallway.