Love Slave for Two: Family Matters (9 page)

Nevvie looked at her, her eyes red and glazed. “I’ll do it,” she whispered. She finally handed Adam—who was asleep, miracle of miracles—over to Peggy and used her own BlackBerry to call.

She dialed and Peggy held her breath, waiting for her son to answer.

Nevvie shook her head. Peggy knew that meant his voice mail picked up. “Tommy, it’s Nev. I need you to call my cell as soon as you get this. Please. It’s important.” She hung up and looked at Peggy, then burst into tears again.

Peggy laid Adam in his carrier and put her arms around Nevvie. “Shh, honey. It’s okay. He’ll be okay.”

Twenty minutes later, Pete and Eddie raced into the waiting room and rushed to Nevvie’s side. Upon seeing them she broke down again and the friends clustered around her, holding her as she sobbed.

* * * *

Thomas felt his phone vibrate but with all the noise on the site he couldn’t hear well enough to talk. Seeing Nevvie’s number, he silenced it and returned to the conversation with the site manager, going over the project blueprints. He needed to focus on what he was doing so he didn’t make a mistake. A half-hour later it rang again and he silenced it before glancing at the screen. Two voice mails.

A vague feeling of unease settled over him. If it was an emergency wouldn’t Nevvie keep calling back until she got him? Or send him a text message?

When it rang again fifteen minutes later he looked at it. Nevvie. With the heavy equipment running he couldn’t hear even if he did answer. He ignored it, then a few minutes later decided he’d better find out what was up.

“Glen, I need to make a call. I’ll be right back.” Thomas retreated to the air conditioned construction office trailer to call Nevvie.

* * * *

A nurse dressed in surgical scrubs walked in. “Mr. Paulson’s family?”

Pete and Eddie stood up and the nurse walked over to them. Pete pointed to Nevvie. “She’s his wife.”

The nurse knelt in front of her. “Dr. Robertson will come out and talk to you in a few minutes, but we have to take Mr. Paulson into surgery.”

Nevvie sobbed and leaned into Peggy, who hugged her. She looked at the nurse. “Tell me—I’m a nurse.”

“We have to prep him for surgery. His vital signs are strong, he’s doing very well.” She looked up as a doctor walked in. “Here he is.”

The doctor walked over and introduced himself. “Mrs. Paulson?”

Nevvie nodded against Peggy’s shoulder. The nurse whispered in his ear and he addressed his comments more to Peggy than Nevvie. “I expect the surgery to take around four or five hours, possibly less, sometimes more. If it takes longer don’t be alarmed, it doesn’t mean anything’s wrong. From looking at his chart and what I saw in the cath lab, I think he’s going to do very well. I don’t know if he’ll need an implanted defibrillator or not but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.” He explained what he had to do while Peggy asked questions. Nevvie didn’t understand any of it.

With tears streaming down her face, Nevvie cried against Peggy’s shoulder. Peggy stroked her hair and looked at the doctor. “How much damage did you see?”

“The rapid response saved his life. There’s some damage, of course. He’s going to need a cardiac rehab program and medication, but once we get him through the first few days I think he’ll do well. He’s relatively young, in otherwise good health, he doesn’t seem to have any pulmonary problems, so that’s very encouraging. He’ll probably be in the ICU for a few days. From there we’ll move him to a telemetry unit until we’re comfortable discharging him.”

“What does that mean? What’s a telemetry unit?” Nevvie asked.

“It’s not as intense as the ICU, but he’ll be hooked up to monitors and closely watched for any problems.”

Nevvie looked at Peggy. “Mom, if you hadn’t been there, he would have died.”

“Shh. Don’t even think about that. He’s gonna be fine, sugar.”

He glanced at the wall clock. “I need to get back there. I’ll send out updates on his condition. It’ll be at least an hour before the first update, so if you need to go eat—”

Nevvie shook her head. “I’m not leaving,” she insisted. “I won’t leave him. They didn’t leave me when I was hurt. I won’t leave him.”

Peggy looked at the doctor. “Thank you, Dr. Robertson.”

Nevvie’s BlackBerry rang.

* * * *

Thomas borrowed the site manager’s office, closed the door for privacy and played his voice mails. All from Nevvie, the first sounding very strange. By the third his heart pounded and he knew something was horribly wrong.

He called her back and tried not to crush his phone as he waited for her to answer.

“Nevvie, sugar, what’s wrong?”

She didn’t answer him at first. When she finally did her voice sounded flat and soft. “Tommy, you have to come home. Right now.”

“Baby girl, you’re scaring me. What’s going on? What’s wrong?”

Again she paused. “Tyler.”

“What? Honey, tell me. What’s going on?” He fought to control his voice and heard her choked sob, then a noise that sounded like the phone being dropped. His mother came on the line.

“Thomas, sugar, I need you to sit down.”

He stood up. “Momma, dammit, what’s wrong with Tyler?” He couldn’t control his fear and his voice rose in agitation.

“Sugar, he’s going to be okay but he’s in surgery right now.”

“
What?
Momma, what the hell happened? What’s going on?”

“Baby, he had a heart attack this morning. They’re doing surgery on him.”

His legs failed him. Stunned, he collapsed into the chair.
Ty?

“Oh my God.”

“Now, you need to stay calm. He’s gonna be in surgery for at least four hours the doctor said, maybe longer. Can you have someone drive you, or rent a car?”

He still couldn’t feel his legs. “What happened?”

“Hold on.” It sounded like she moved to a quieter location. Her voice also dropped. “He wasn’t feeling good. He was standing in the kitchen with Nevvie when he collapsed. I started CPR and the ambulance took him to the hospital—”

“
CPR
? His heart stopped?”

“Sugar, you need to settle down. I’m having a hard enough time keeping Nevvie calm. She needs you, and she needs you back here in one piece. Don’t you dare drive that bike back here. You get a car or you have someone drive you.”

“Where is he?”

“Tampa Community.”

Thomas closed his eyes. That’s where Nevvie was taken after Alex stabbed her. It was also where Adam was born. “How is Nevvie? How’s the baby?”

“The baby is fine, you leave him to me. I called Bob for you already, he’s on his way. I have the folder of paperwork here for y’all. I also got Karen coming down, and Pete and Eddie are here. But I need you here for Nevvie. She’s not doing good. She needs you.”

“Let me speak to her.”

“You need to keep it together on the phone with her or I won’t. Promise me?”

“Yes, just let me speak to her.” He felt too numb to be upset.

After a moment, Nevvie came back on the line.

He took a deep breath and tried for what he hoped sounded like a strong, steady tone. “Honey, you let Momma and Pete and Eddie and Bob take care of you. I’ll be back in a few hours. Hang tight. Are you okay?”

There was a long pause. He almost thought the call had dropped. “No. I’m not.”

Thomas closed his eyes, struggling with his tears, fighting to keep his voice steady. “You know as well as I do that he’s strong, he’s tough. Our boy will make it just fine. If Momma says he’ll be fine, he’ll be fine. Right?”

“Tommy, I love you.”

“I love you too, sugar. If you get to see him before I get there, you tell the evil genius I love him, okay?”

“I will.”

“Okay. Put Momma back on the phone for me.”

There was yet another pause before Peggy spoke. “Tommy, take your time coming back, you hear me?”

“I’ll be there in about five hours. I’ll come straight to the hospital.”

“You’re not driving that bike.”

“Don’t worry. Please take care of Nevvie for me.”

* * * *

Thomas waited a moment to try to stand but ended up crying with his head on his arms on the desk. Dammit, he couldn’t lose Tyler. He should have been home, should have sent Kenny down here for this. He should be there for Nevvie and his guy.

It took him time to compose himself. When he finally did he walked to the outer office where Glen waited.

“I’m sorry Glen, I’ve got to go. I’ve got a family emergency.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Tyler had a heart attack. He’s in surgery.” He grabbed his bike gear from the chair he’d left it in and pushed out the door, Glen on his heels. “Call Kenny, please. Tell him what happened. He can come down tomorrow and work with you.”

“Don’t worry about this. You go take care of your family.”

Tom’s hands shook so badly he almost couldn’t zip his jacket. He finally managed it, pulled on his helmet and gloves and mounted the Harley. Now he wished he’d taken the truck instead. No, he had to be a fucking stubborn asshole and not let his mom tell him what to do.

Thomas cranked the bike then waited a moment for his nerves to settle before pulling onto the highway.

Emotionally numb, he returned to the hotel he was staying at and quickly packed what little he’d brought. He checked out before making his way to the interstate and heading north on I-75. When he stopped for gas near Punta Gorda, he called to check on Tyler. Bob answered Nevvie’s cell.

“What’s going on? Where’s Nev?”

“It’s okay, Tom. Your mother and Eddie finally talked her into going to the cafeteria. She hasn’t had anything to eat all day. I’m here with Pete and the baby in the waiting room.”

“How is he?”

“They just gave us an update, everything’s going fine, his vital signs are stable and strong, that’s all we know right now. Where are you?”

“Punta Gorda.”

Bob hesitated. “Are you on the bike?”

“Yeah, but don’t tell Momma or Nevvie, okay? I didn’t want to screw around waiting for a car. I need to be up there for them.”

“Don’t get yourself killed, Tom. Take it easy. I already paid a visit to administration and have been assured there will be no problems.”

“Thanks.”

Thomas pulled onto the highway. Yes, he remembered. Alex had stabbed Nevvie, putting her in the ICU. A nosy, self-righteous prig in administration was upset by their unconventional relationship and tried to convince Nevvie she was being mentally abused by them. Bob got the bitch fired.

If the hospital wanted to give them trouble about their relationship, they could. Bob did all he could legally with paperwork—powers of attorney and the like—to hopefully prevent any issues. But if someone wanted to really be an asshole it could cause them problems.

Tom tried to focus on the traffic, not worry about Tyler or stare at the phone clipped to his gear bag on the tank. He needed to focus. Nevvie needed him.

His guy needed him.

Mile marker signs flew past at increasing regularity. By the time he reached Brandon, he’d tied a knot in his last nerve and was barely hanging on. Resisting the urge to floor it, it kept the Harley at seventy and silently chanted, “He’ll be okay. He’ll be okay.”

With no small measure of relief he turned off at the
Fletcher Avenue
exit and worked his way through traffic toward the hospital.

I’m almost there, buddy
, he thought.
Hang on.

* * * *

Antonio felt more than relief to finally clock out. He’d filled in for a buddy in housekeeping and hadn’t slept in over twenty-four hours. Exhaustion didn’t begin to describe how drained he felt.

He checked his cell as he slid behind the wheel. Shit, he’d forgotten to call his girlfriend and tell her he’d worked a double shift. She would have his balls. Maybe it was time to think about ditching her. She acted crazy jealous about every little friggin’ thing. He didn’t need that kind of stress in his life.

He dialed her cell as he started the car and put it in reverse with a careless glance behind him.

She answered after two rings. “Where the fuck you been? I been callin’ you.”

“I’m sorry. I worked a double.” He jammed on the brakes and waved an elderly man across in front of him. Damn, he’d nearly hit the dude. “Dave’s wife just had a baby, it arrived two weeks early. I worked his shift for him.”

“Why the fuck you can’t call me and tell me this?”

He weaved his way through the parking lot toward
Fletcher Avenue
. “Because it was last minute. I’m sorry, but I’m freaking exhausted. Look, I don’t want to fight with you right now, okay?”

* * * *

Thomas spied the hospital and fought the urge to speed up. He was almost there. It would be okay. Everything would be okay. He’d spent plenty of time here, between Nevvie’s hospital stay, and then when she had Adam, and he knew his way around. He decided to cut through the employee lot instead of swinging around to the main entrance.

* * * *

“What the fuck you mean you don’t want to fight with me right now? Maybe we should just call it quits, is that what you sayin’?”

Antonio groaned. “Look, baby—”

“Don’t you look baby me!”

He glanced to the left, didn’t see anything, then looked to his right. He had to wait for an oncoming car so he could make a left hand turn across Fletcher.

* * * *

Thomas glanced down at his cell phone to check the time and popped his helmet strap off to scratch his chin. He’d be taking it off in less than a minute anyway. When he looked up, an old shit-brown Ford had pulled out in front of him. Thomas had time to register the shock on the young driver’s face, as well as the fact that the guy was talking on his cell phone, before the Harley plowed into the driver’s door.

Thomas’ world went black.