Jake cleared his throat and pointedly kept his gaze ahead, like he couldn’t be caught speaking to Ty in public. “Morris. Cute kid.”
“Thanks. I’m just borrowing him, though.”
Even that short of an exchange would probably have the church ladies buzzing. Jake probably knew it too, from the wry smile he managed when their eyes accidentally locked for a second.
Small towns. What were you gonna do, really?
Ty was pretending to consult Theo on which cut of beef to buy when someone shouted for help.
Ty knew a medical emergency tone when he heard one. Instinct kicked in and sent him running toward the shout—and then he remembered Theo.
Theo, who’d lost his mother a few short months ago. Who’d been in a hospital for too much of his life. Who didn’t need to see whatever Ty was running to.
Who had been entrusted to Ty’s care.
Then he saw Eliza beelining toward him down the main aisle and sent up a silent prayer of thanks to the god of first responders. He met her eye and she nodded. “Theo, hey, have you met my friend Eliza? She knew your dad when he was your age.”
“And even younger,” Eliza agreed, holding out her hand to shake.
Ty knelt so he could be on Theo’s eye level. “Okay, buddy, you know I’m a paramedic, right?”
Theo nodded.
“Someone in the store needs help, and I need to go to them. I need you to stay with Eliza, okay? She’s a good friend of mine, she’ll take good care of you.”
Somehow he managed to wait for Theo’s confirmation before he sprang to his feet and booked it down the cereal aisle.
The bystander effect was in full force in front of the Cheerios. Two people in store polos were standing together, both with their phones out,neither dialing. A woman lay on the floor, unmoving, blood pooling on the floor near the edge of a pallet. She must’ve hit her head when she fell.
Ty was already jerking off his jacket as he got next to her on the floor. He looked up long enough to point. “You”—store employee on the left—“call 911, give them the store’s address, and tell them we’ve got a….” He glanced down. Fuck, that was Mrs. Sanford. “Woman in her midsixties, head trauma, possible spinal injury.” He pressed his fingers to her neck. No detectable pulse, so either her heart had stopped or she was tachycardic, and it was racing so fast it couldn’t pump enough blood. Based on the fact that she didn’t seem to be actively bleeding, he was betting on the former. “Possible cardiac arrest. Breathing is shallow.” He started chest compressions.
The store employee Ty had given instruction took a few steps back to make the call.
Ty looked at the other employee, who was wearing a manager name tag that read Christie. “Christie, does this store have an AED? A defibrillator?”
Christie snapped out of her dazed staring at Mrs. Sanford and met Ty’s eyes. “Uh, yeah, we—in the break room—”
“Go get it and the first-aid kit now. Hurry.”
Even as he told her, he doubted it would be enough. Mrs. Sanford’s sternum cracked under his hands.
“Does this store have a pharmacy?”
Phone Guy shook his head.
Ty didn’t think so. “Does anyone know this woman? Does she have any medical conditions?”
The growing crowd of bystanders only looked at each other, shaking their heads.
But Ty recognized one of them, and—well, he’d make do. “Jake, I need you to pick up her purse and open it. Go through it, see if there are any medications in there. Nitroglycerin would be great, but anything you find, let me know. Meanwhile if anyone here has aspirin…?”
“I have Advil,” offered a woman who couldn’t have been more than twenty as Jake dumped the contents of Mrs. Sanford’s handbag on the floor.
Ty stopped CPR long enough to check for a pulse. Nothing detectable. He laced his fingers back together and resumed. “No, if it’s a heart attack, that’ll make it worse. Run to the frozenfood section and get me a couple bags of frozen vegetables. Peas would be best but whatever you find, be fast.” On the slim chance she was tachycardic, cooling her down could help slow her heart rate, maybe give her heart a chance to recover and start pumping more normally. “I need the ETA on that ambulance!”
“They’re saying ten minutes.”
JesusChrist. “Tell them to drive faster.”
