The Proposal: A Sweet, Small Town, Military Romance (Brides of Beaufort Book 1) by Jess Mastorakos

Author:Jess Mastorakos [Mastorakos, Jess]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-12-29T00:00:00+00:00

13

Shelby

The doorbell rang right on time, and my heart thumped wildly in my chest as I stared at my reflection in my floor-length mirror. I pressed a hand there to calm it—as if that would be possible. I was used to chest pain. Shortness of breath. Abnormal heart rhythms. Even dizziness and lightheadedness. So while none of those symptoms were foreign to me, it was kind of amazing how knowing that Paul was on the other side of my front door for our big date could make all of them happen at once. Was this what love felt like for other people? Or was I totally overdoing it and on the verge of a fainting spell?

It wouldn’t be the first time I’d fainted, but thankfully, it wasn’t common, either. Fainting when you had HCM was a sign that things were in rough shape, potentially a warning of impending heart failure. Both of the other times it had happened, Paul had been worried sick.

The first time, we were in high school. It was the infamous cafeteria scene where Paul carried me out in front of the whole school. That was before I was on any kind of medication to mitigate the progression of my condition. It was a time when they thought they should just keep an eye on it so they could figure out whether or not it would even impact my health. Many people had HCM and never even got symptoms, so maybe that would be the case for me too. So many student athletes got dizzy or tired just from how hard they trained, so maybe that explained those times for me. But maybe it wasn’t simply over-exertion, so I’d needed to take it easy to be safe. And out of sheer rebellion, I often didn’t. I’d been on medication ever since.

The second time I’d fainted, Paul had been on deployment. I’d passed out right in the middle of a preschool dance class, scaring the crap out of the girls and their parents who were observing. I’d hit my head on the ballet bar on the way down. The whole thing landed me in the hospital with a concussion and an adjustment to my meds, since something wasn’t right if my heartbeat had become that irregular.

Paul had tried to get them to fly him home from deployment to be with me, but the Marines were mission over everything, especially if it wasn’t for a spouse or family member. I knew it killed him not to be with me, but at the time, my perception of his concern was totally a best friends vibe. Now I couldn’t help but wonder if he’d felt more than friendship for me back then, and what that must have been like for him if so.

I must have taken too long to collect myself because another knock sounded upon the door. This time it wasn’t as tentative. It was louder and urgent. Leave it to Paul to have the same fear I’d just had. He knew the risks of sudden heart failure were ever-present, even with my meds managing everything.

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