Her gasp of delight was exactly what I wanted to hear. “Sadie,” tears welled in her eyes, “this…this…is amazing.” She twirled around, examining it from every angle. “I love it. I really do.”
I grinned. “I’m glad.”
I was stunned when she tackle hugged me.
“Whoa,” I held her, trying to keep us upright.
“Thank you so much,” she cried against my shoulder, “I know I’ve been such a bitch to you lately, and I’m sorry. Please forgive me.”
I rubbed her back. “There’s nothing to forgive.”
“I don’t know what I’d do without you.” She stepped back, wiping her face.
“I think you’d be just fine.” I laughed and pointed towards the stool. “Stand up there. I need to fix a few things.”
She did as I asked and I grabbed my pins and tape measure.
I turned on some music while I worked and we talked for a bit as I marked things and scribbled notes down.
“Sadie,” she said suddenly.
“Yeah?” I didn’t look up from my notebook.
“I don’t feel so good.”
I looked up just in time to see her start swaying. “Emma!”
She fainted and fell off the stool. By some miracle I managed to catch her in my arms but I sagged under her dead weight.
“Arden!” I yelled. “Arden! Hurry, please!”
The door to my office crashed open and when she saw me holding Emma her hands flew up to her mouth. “Oh my God! Is she okay?”
“I don’t know!” I cried, my body shaking with worry. “Help me lay her down and then call 911.”
Arden nodded and rushed forward, helping me lay Emma down on the floor before dashing away for her phone. I grabbed a bundle of fabric from another project I was working on and bunched it under her head. I felt panicked and I kept trying to run through a checklist of things to do when someone fainted, but my mind was empty.
I sat down on the floor beside her and smoothed her hair away from her forehead.
“Emma,” a tear coursed down my cheek, “wake up. Please.”
“An ambulance is on the way.” Arden burst back into the room and knelt on Emma’s other side. “I thought this might help.” She laid a dampened paper towel over Emma’s forehead.
“Do you think she’ll be okay?” I asked Arden.
Before she could answer Emma’s eyes started to open. When she went to sit up I forced her back down with a hand to her shoulder.
“Just relax. The ambulance is coming.”
“Ambulance?” She asked, blinking her eyes wider. She seemed confused.
I nodded. “You fainted.”
“I’ve never fainted before.” Her voice was nothing but a whisper.
“I know. That’s why the ambulance is coming. I think you need to be looked over.”
She nodded slightly, surprisingly not fighting me on this. Her eyes closed once more, but she wasn’t asleep. Her hand felt around blindly and I reached out to hold hers.
The ambulance arrived and everything from there happened in a blur.
I followed the ambulance in my car since the assholes wouldn’t let me ride in it and then had to park a mile away.
By the time I made it into the hospital and found her room she’d already had blood drawn and was lying in a bed looking incredibly weak. How had I not noticed how thin and pale she’d become? Or the purple rings beneath her eyes? Had I become so absorbed in what was going on in my personal life that I’d stopped paying attention to the things around me?
“Can you…” Her voice was barely above a whisper and she pointed to a cup of water on a tray beside her bed. Some idiot had put it far enough away that she couldn’t reach it.
I grabbed it and held it for her while she took a few slow sips.
When she spoke this time her voice sounded a tiny bit stronger. “Can you call Maddox?”
“Oh! Of course!”
In all the madness I’d forgotten to call him.
“I’ll be right back,” I told her.
I stepped outside of her hospital room and searched my purse for my phone. The stupid thing was buried all the way at the bottom. I pulled it out and rang Maddox’s number.
I never called him and when he answered he seemed to sense that something was wrong. “Sadie?” He questioned, confused as to why I’d be calling him. “Is everything okay?”
I swallowed thickly. “No, it’s not.” I pressed the heel of my free hand against my forehead.
“What’s wrong?” His voice grew high with fear. “Is it Emma? Is she okay? Are you okay?”
“It’s Emma. We’re at the hospital—”
The line went dead.
I really hoped he didn’t get himself killed trying to get here.
Before I could step back into Emma’s room my phone was lighting up. Only the caller wasn’t Maddox.
“Sadie,” Ezra’s voice was panicked when I answered, “are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” I assured him. “Emma was at my store and we were doing a fitting for her dress and she passed out. She hasn’t been feeling well so I made her go to the hospital…although, she didn’t protest, so I think she realized it was past time to see a doctor.”
“We’ll be there in twenty minutes. I’ve got to go catch Maddox before he leaves. I don’t think he should be driving right now.”
“That’s probably a good idea.”
“Bye.” He hung up the phone, but not before I heard him yell, “Get out of the fucking car, Maddox!”
I stuck my phone into my pocket and stepped back into Emma’s room.
She slowly rolled her head towards me. “You look like shit.” I tried to laugh, but it was forced.
“I feel like shit.” She tried to push herself up so that she was sitting, but it wasn’t working. I rushed over to help her, trying to get her more comfortable. I hated seeing someone I loved so miserable. I hoped it was nothing bad. “I should’ve gone to the doctor a while ago,” she mumbled, “but I’ve been so focused on the wedding that I just assumed it was stress.”
“This,” I pointed at her, “is way more than stress.”
“Yeah, I can see that now.” She nodded at the stark hospital room. “God I hate hospitals. They smile like death and bleach.”
I pulled up one of the chairs closer to her bed and sat down. “Do you want some more water?”
She nodded and was able to drink a little more this time. “Did you get Maddox?”
“Oh, yeah.” I nodded. “He’s on his way…or actually I think Ezra was about to forcibly remove him from his car so that he could drive him. He was afraid Maddox might crash his car or something.”
Emma laughed, but it wasn’t her normal one. Instead it was more rough and tired sounding. “Maddox freaks out if I get a splinter. I can’t imagine his reaction to this kind of phone call.”
“He loves you.” I defended his actions.
“I know.” She smiled. It was a small one, but still managed to glimmer in her eyes.
I sat back and we grew quiet. I knew Emma was tired and I hoped maybe she could drift off to sleep for a little while, but a doctor ended up coming into the room.
“Ms. Burke,” the doctor said, stopping at the end of the bed. “We have your results back from the blood test.” The doctor was pretty, maybe in her early forties, with black hair and unique blue eyes that popped against her dark skin.
“That was fast,” Emma commented.
The doctor nodded. “I had your tests fast-tracked.”
That wasn’t a surprise to me. Everyone in this town—unless they lived under a rock—knew who Emma was because of her association with Maddox and the whole band. All of them were practically royalty in this town.
The doctor’s eyes shifted to me. “Would you mind stepping outside for a moment?”
Emma’s eyes widened in fear and she grabbed onto my arm with a surprising amount of strength. “No, I want her to stay. Please. She’s my best friend and I don’t want to be alone.”
“If it’s okay with you…” The doctor paused, waiting for Emma to confirm.
“It is.” Emma nodded, resolute.
I sat back down once more, hoping this was nothing bad. I wasn’t sure I would be the best person to console Emma if the doctor had bad news.