“Jake, anything in the purse?”
“No, nothing! Sorry!”
Christie and Frozen Peas arrived at about the same time. Ty didn’t stop compressions, just directed the young woman to put the peas along the side of Mrs. Sanford’s face and under one armpit.
“Christie, you know how to use that thing?”
“Um, um, we had a training session on it last year—”
One she wouldn’t remember while she was panicking. Ty walked her through it so he didn’t have to stop until he had to pull his hands away to cut Mrs. Sanford’s shirt open.
God, if she survived this, she would probably send him a bill for it.
The pads went on. How long had it been now since her heart had stopped pumping? Three minutes?
The AED recommended a shock. “Come on, Mrs. Sanford,” Ty muttered.I know you have something to say about how I ripped your shirt off in the grocery store.“Everybody get back—clear!”
Her body arced as electricity raced through it.
The AED did not detect a pulse.
Ty swore and went back to compressions. Ten, twenty, thirty. No pulse. Time to shock her again. “Clear!”
When the on-duty paramedics finally arrived, Ty had sweated through his T-shirt from the effort of the compressions and the pool of blood had stopped spreading.
He gave them a rundown of the interventions he’d tried and let them take over, but by that time they all knew it was a lost cause.
The ambulance didn’t run the siren as it pulled out of the parking lot.
The crowd dispersed.
Ty heaved a long breath and fought the urge to wipe the sweat off his forehead. He had blood on his hands and soaked into the knees of his pants. At least he was wearing dark-wash jeans today.
“Um,” said Christie, who was the only other person left in front of the Cheerios, “we have a staff washroom in the back, if you want to wash up.”
With a little luck, he could get there before Theo saw him. “I would really appreciate that.”
He texted Eliza as soon as his hands were clean, and she brought Theo to the back of the store to meet him as he emerged, as presentable as he could make himself.
“Thank you,” he told Eliza feelingly, “for looking after him while I—”
To his utter shock, she cut him off by pulling him into a hug.
For a second Ty didn’t remember what to do with his hands. Then, after a moment, he folded them around her. “My clothes are kind of—”
“Shut up and hug me, Ty.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
After a moment she pulled away and patted his cheek. “You’re a good boy. And so’s this one.” She put her hand on Theo’s shoulder. “Though between you and me, I think he deserves some ice cream.”
Ty cracked a smile. “Well, that makes two of us.”
“Two who deserve ice cream?” Theo said. “Or two people who think I deserve ice cream? ’Cause that’s actually three.”
“All right, all right.” Ty smiled at Eliza and steered Theo to the frozen section—the long way, so they could stay far out of sight of the war zone in the cereal aisle. “New plan. What about frozen pizza and ice cream for dinner?”
“And we can do bulgogi tomorrow?”
