The Christmas Wedding Quilt: Let It Snow\You Better Watch Out\Nine Ladies Dancing by Emilie Richards

Author:Emilie Richards
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2013-09-27T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIX

ELLA HAD NOTICED that when Brett’s phone rang, he mostly glanced to see who the caller was and ignored it. Late that afternoon when it rang, he glanced, frowned and answered, steering at the same moment to the curb. “Mom?”

As his mother talked, Ella saw his expression change into something she could only call stricken.

“Where? Okay, yeah. I’m on my way,” he said, and set the phone down. He looked at Ella. “Dad may have had a heart attack. She’s following the ambulance to the hospital. I need to go, too.”

Ella’s heart squeezed. “Oh, Brett.” She reached out to touch his forearm, corded with tension. “Where is he?”

“Swedish Medical Center.”

“Drop me anywhere and I’ll take a bus home.”

He didn’t say anything for a moment. When he did, he sounded uncertain. “Is there any chance you’d come with me?” His shoulders moved uneasily. “If it drags on, you can take off.”

“Are you sure you want me there?”

Filled with fear, his eyes met hers. “Yeah. But if you’d rather not—”

“Don’t be silly. Of course I want to be there.”

“Okay.” He bent his head for a moment. “Thanks.” He let out a long breath. “My dad. Oh, man. What am I sitting here for?”

He drove fast, but carefully. When they got stuck at red lights, his knuckles turned white on the steering wheel. Once parked at the hospital, she had to trot to keep up with him. They burst into the E.R. He scanned the waiting room then headed straight for the counter.

“Don Hollister. He came in by ambulance.”

They had to wait five minutes before a nurse came out to get them.

“His room’s getting crowded,” she said cheerfully.

She was right. His father was propped in a near-sitting position in the bed, bare-chested and covered with electrodes. A technician was wiring him up, and Ella recognized that Brett’s father was getting an EKG. An older woman hovered nearby, along with a younger woman accompanied by a man who couldn’t be over forty. He stood to one side, looking anxious.

Every single gaze turned to Brett and Ella when they entered. Ella would have hung back if Brett hadn’t been holding her hand as if that grip was all that sustained him.

For an instant nobody moved. Only the technician went back to his monitor. The other four people stared in obvious astonishment at Brett and Ella.

“Dad!” Brett exclaimed. “Hey, you don’t look too bad.”

His father gave a rueful smile that reminded Ella of Brett’s. “They gave me nitroglycerin when I got here. Did wonders.”

Brett’s mother, an attractive, pleasantly plump woman with a short crop of curly brown hair, came around the foot of the bed to hug Brett and smile at Ella.

“Aren’t you going to introduce us?”

He did. His mother’s name was Helen. The young woman was one of his sisters, Grace, and the man at her side was her husband, Tony.

Grace said hi, then shook her head in apparent bemusement. “You brought a girlfriend.”

Ella tried to shrink toward the door. “It really is crowded in here.

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