Page 102 of The Honorable Texan
“Funny thing, that’s just what I was thinking,” Leo replied, tongue-in-cheek.
Meredith didn’t say another word.She finished her breakfast, waited until they finished theirs, and put the dishes in the dishwasher.Then she dressed in jeans, boots, and a long-sleeved flannel shirt with a down-filled vest and a bib cap, and went off to let Rey show her how to shoot a shotgun.
* * *
The target rangewas unusually busy for a lazy Friday afternoon in November.It was a cool day, with a nice nip in the air.Meredith felt good in the down vest.It was one she’d often worn when she went to the firing range with Mike in cold weather.Coats were cumbersome and often got in the way of a good, quick aim.
Rey and Leo stopped to pass the time of day with two elderly shooters, both of whom gave Meredith a warm welcome.
“This is Jack, and that’s Billy Joe,” Rey introduced the white-haired men, one of whom was tall and spare, the other overweight and short.The short one had walked briskly the short distance from the red pickup truck parked at the clubhouse, and he was out of breath already.“We all go to district, state and national shoots as a team from our club.”
“But we get honorable mention, and Rey wins the medals,” Billy Joe, the shorter man, chuckled, still trying to catch his breath.“We don’t mind.We’re just happy that somebody from our club breaks records!”
“Amen to that,” Jack agreed, smiling.
“All right, let’s get to shooting,” Billy Joe said, turning back to his truck.“Stay where you are, Jack.I’ll bring your gun, too!”
He turned back toward the truck, rushing and still breathless.Meredith frowned.His cheeks wereunnaturally pink, and it wasn’t that cold.His complexion was almost white.He was sweating.She knew the symptoms.She’d seen them all too often.
“You might go with him,” Meredith said abruptly, interrupting Jack’s banter with Rey.
“Excuse me?”Jack asked.
Just at that moment, Billy Joe stopped, stood very still for a minute, and then buckled and fell forward into a crumpled heap at the door of his truck.
Meredith took off at a dead run.“Somebody get me a cell phone!”she called as she ran.
Leo fumbled his out of the holder on his belt and passed it to her as she knelt beside Billy Joe.
“Get his feet elevated.Find something to cover him with,” she shot at the other men.She was dialing while she spoke.She loosened the man’s shirt, propping the phone against her ear—the worst way to hold it, but there was no other way at the moment—and felt down Billy Joe’s chest for his diaphragm.“Get his wallet and read me his weight and age from his driver’s license,” she added with a sharp glance in Leo’s direction.
Leo dug out the wallet and started calling out information, while Rey and Jack stood beside the fallen man and watched with silent concern.
“I want the resident on duty in the emergency room, stat,” she said.“This is Meredith Johns.I have a patient, sixty years of age, one hundred and eighty pounds, who collapsed without warning.Early signs indicate a possible myocardial infarction.Pulse is thready,” she murmured, checking the second hand of her watch as she took his pulse with her fingertips, “forty beats a minute, breathing shallow and labored, grey complexion,profuse sweating.I need EMTs en route, I am initiating cardiopulmonary resuscitation now.”
There was a long pause, and a male voice came over the line.With her voice calm and steady, Meredith gave the information again, and then handed the phone to Leo as she bent over the elderly man and did the spaced compressions over his breastbone, followed by mouth-to-mouth breathing.
Rey was watching, spellbound at her proficiency, at the easy and quite professional manner in which she’d taken charge of a life-or-death emergency.Within five minutes, the ambulance was screaming up the graveled road that led to the Jacobsville Gun Club, and Billy Joe was holding his own.
The EMTs listened to Meredith’s terse summary of events as they called the same resident Meredith had been talking to.
“Doc says to give you a pat on the back.”The female EMT grinned at Meredith as they loaded Billy Joe into the ambulance.“You sure knew what to do.”
“Yes,” Rey agreed, finding his tongue at last.“You’ve obviously had first-aid training.”
He probably meant it as praise, but it hit Meredith in the gut.She glared at him.“What I’ve had,” she emphasized, “is five years of college.I have a master’s degree in nursing science, and I’m a card-carrying nurse practitioner!”
CHAPTER SEVEN
Rey stared athis new cook as if she’d suddenly sprouted feathers on her head.His summation of her abilities was suddenly smoke.She was someone he didn’t even know.She was a health-care professional, not a flighty cook, and certainly not the sort of woman to streetwalk as a sideline.
She nodded solemnly.“I figured it would come as a shock,” she told him.She turned her attention back to the EMTs.“Thanks for being so prompt.Think he’ll be okay?”
The female EMT smiled.“I think so.His heartbeat’s stronger, his breathing is regular, and he’s regaining consciousness.Good job!”
She grinned.“You, too.”
They waved and took off, lights flashing, but without turning on the sirens.
