Luck Be a Lady - Cathie Linz [83]
He automatically checked his grandfather’s pulse with one hand while calling 911 with the other. Buddy’s heart was still beating, thank God. His breathing was shallow, though, and his color wasn’t good. He’d lost consciousness but Logan kept talking to him anyway until the EMTs arrived. He also kept giving updates to the emergency dispatcher. The ambulance arrived in less than five minutes. The fire station was only a few blocks away.
His grandfather used to joke that’s why he’d bought the house: to be close to an ambulance should he ever need one. It was no joke now as Logan watched the paramedics working on Buddy.
“What medications is he on? Any medical conditions? A pacemaker? Heart trouble?” they asked.
Logan answered as best he could. He handed them the list of medications that the Aunts had insisted Buddy post on the freezer door after they’d read an article about senior safety. “He had triple bypass surgery about ten years ago. No trouble since then though.”
Buddy didn’t regain consciousness until they loaded him on a gurney. He removed his oxygen mask. “Ingrid,” he gasped. “Get Ingrid!”
“You sound better,” Megan told Faith as she entered her cousin’s condo with a care package. “I brought you homemade chicken soup and your fave mac and cheese from the Comfort Café.”
“Do you think you can bribe me with food?”
“Bribe you?”
Faith nodded. “So I’d forgive you for breaking a pinkie swear.”
“I pinkie swore not to do anything foolish. I didn’t consider what I was planning to be foolish. I know better now.”
“Ya think?”
Megan hung her head.
“I was worried sick about you. Well, I was already sick, but you know what I mean. I couldn’t go after you myself. I couldn’t send your dad since I promised I wouldn’t tell him anything about the search for your mom.” Faith grabbed the bag of food from her and curled up on the couch with a comfy microfiber throw. She opened the soup container and used the spoon provided by the café to start eating. “Mmm, this is soooo good. It’s a variation on chicken soup. It’s more like a stracciatelli soup with eggs, orzo and finely grated Parmesan cheese.” She paused to close her eyes in epicurean delight. When she opened them, she said, “Okay, there’s a chance I’ll forgive you but only after you tell me everything that happened. All you said on the phone was that it didn’t go well but that you were okay. Are you really okay?”
“I’m better than I was.”
“And did a sexy Chicago cop named Logan have anything to do with that?”
“I couldn’t believe he flew all the way to D.C. to check on me. He said you sent him.”
“I just asked him if he’d heard from you and shared my concerns about you going on your own. He had me check your credit card records, and the second we found out you’d charged a ticket and a hotel room, he was off to rescue you. We had no way of knowing if things were going well or not with your mom. Logan said if it went well, he’d celebrate with you. Luckily he had the weekend off, because he’d been putting in so many extra hours. And he has a cousin who works for the airlines.”
“Yes, he told me.”
“Tell me what happened with your mom first, then I want to hear every detail about Logan making you feel better. What did your mother do to make you feel so badly?”
“The bottom line is that she didn’t want me looking for her. She told me she was the one who told my dad to say she was dead so I wouldn’t go after her someday.”
Faith’s eyes widened in disbelief.
“Those were her words. She didn’t tell me that until after I’d made a fool of myself, going on about how I’d been searching for her after only recently discovering she was alive. I even brought the photos I got from Fiona of them at Woodstock. She looked at them without any sign of emotion. She showed no emotion the entire time I was there. I thought at first maybe she didn’t believe that I was who I said I was so I showed her my driver’s license. That didn’t really help.”
“Oh, Megan, I’m so sorry. I’d hug you but I don’t want to give you any germs I may still have.”
“You did try to warn