Taming Casanova (9 page)

Chapter 16

Liz and Lily took a seat on the floor to stretch.  Kevin had a break in his training schedule and wanted to talk to them about Andi. 
He had a smile plastered on his face and the girls giggled when he told them how happy he was. 

“I never thought I would see the day.”  Liz gave him a hug.  “Your sister would be so proud of you.
  So would Daniel.”

Kevin’s eyes filled with tears.  “I think they brought Andi to me.”

“You’re growing up, Kev.  What will I do without my boy toy?”  Lily laughed when Kevin rolled his eyes.

“OK.  Let’s do this.”  Kevin led them to the treadmills.  “Five
minute warm up and we’re hitting the weights.  No lip.  Just do it.”

Kevin stopped abruptly and his eyes widened as he looked over at the women that were his best friends.  The pain brought him to his knees.  He clawed at his chest gasping for breath.  Lily ran to him and was screaming his name. 
Her voice echoed in his head as his vision began to blur.  He grasped her hands and felt a tear run down his face.  As his world darkened, he only had one thought.  Andi. His gorgeous Andi.  She was everything.  She was home.  She had saved him.

“Liz, call 911.”  Lily cried.  “RYAN!  Help me.”

Ryan ran out of the locker room.  His face paled when he saw Kevin’s lifeless body on the floor.  He ran to his side, dropping to his knees and pushing Lily away.  “What happened?”

“I don’t know.  We were laughing and he grabbed his chest and fell.  Please, Ryan, do something.”

Ryan listened at his chest.  Nothing.  “He’s not breathing.  Back up.”  When Lily didn’t move, Ryan screamed.  “Back the fuck up.” 

Ryan titled Kevin’s head back and blew into his mouth.  He threw his phone at Lily.  “Call Jena.  Tell her we’re coming in.  Get Caleb to wherever Andi is.”

Ryan felt like it had been a lifetime when the ambulance pulled up.  He and Liz had done CPR for ten minutes.  It was the longest ten minutes of his life.  Kevin hadn’t shown any signs of life.  Tears poured down Ryan’s face and he pleaded with God the whole time.  The first responders that came on the ambulance were Ryan’s heroes from now until the end of time.  They worked with speed and accuracy, taking over compressions and shocked his heart several times before it started to beat.  They rushed out of the gym in route to the hospital.

Ryan curled his legs into his chest and sobbed.
  The gym had gone still.  People huddled together and prayed.  Lily was inconsolable.  Liz made phone calls on Ryan’s phone.  Mark was the first to arrive and seeing Ryan on the floor, he sat down and curled his arms around him.  Kevin had saved his life.  He gave Ryan his world.  Without him, he would have lost his battle with cancer and there would not have been a happily ever after for him.

“Let me help you up big guy.”  Mark pulled Ryan to his feet.  “Come on.  Let’s get to the hospital.”

Ryan had a hard time putting one foot in front of the other.  He was exhausted and his heart had been ripped from his chest.  “I don’t know if I can go through this life without him, Moretti.”

“I know.”  Mark put his arm around him and helped him to the car.  “I know.”

Caleb stood outside his sister’s room.  The phone call from Mark had been one of the hardest he had ever received. He had to tell her. He needed to be the one to do it but dread filled his body.

Her music blared and he could hear her singing while she was getting ready.  His stomach dropped.  His hands shook as he raised them to knock. 
He wiped his cheeks once more and took a deep breath.

“Come in.”  Andi didn’t look up.  “Make it quick.  I have a date and I’m late.”

Caleb froze, staring at her in the mirror.  She was his world and he was so proud of every second of her life.  When he didn’t say anything, Andi looked up and locked eyes with him in the reflection.  Seeing his face, she bolted up.

“What happened?”  Andi ran to him.  “Is it Jena?”

He shook his head and took her hands.  “Let’s sit down.”

She started to panic.  Her heart raced.  “Is it mom?  Please, Caleb.  Tell me.”

He sat her down on the bed and knelt in front of her.  He grabbed her arms to keep her upright.  “Andi.”  Tears flooded his face.  “They were at the gym.  Kevin was laughing and having fun and he just collapsed.  It was his heart.”

“What?”  Andi screamed.  “Is he alive?”

“Andi.”  Caleb tried to calm her down.

“Is he dead?  Is he dead?”
  Andi pounded Caleb’s chest.

“He’s on a ventilator in the ICU.  I don’t know any more than that.  I want to take you up to see him.  Ryan was there when it happened.  He did CPR until the paramedics got there.  We need to go now.”

She nodded and struggled to breathe.  She walked into the hall in shock.  Caleb grabbed her purse and opened the car door for her.  She slumped into the seat and sobbed.  Her whole body shook in agony.

“Please don’t take him from me.  I just found him.  I need him.”  She whispered as they passed the same scenery that she had seen
the night before.  Her life had been so clear then.

Andi cried
as they made their way to the ICU.  Caleb supported her body as they took the never ending hall that led to their fate.  After all the time they had spent here, it still looked foreign. 

“Don’t let me fall.  Whatever you do.”  Andi wiped her eyes when she saw all her friends lined up outside the door.

“I’ve got you, kiddo.  And when you can’t make it any further, I’ll carry you.  Take a deep breath.  We all love you.”  Caleb locked eyes with Jena.  Her eyes told him everything.

“Jena?” 
Andi’s voice was barely a whisper.

“They aren’t telling me much.  He’s stable.  He’s on the vent and unconscious. I talked to Dr. Hartley and you can go in.”

Andi shook her head and took a step away from Caleb.  Nothing seemed real.  She wanted to wake up from this nightmare.  This couldn’t be happening.  They only had last night.  It wasn’t enough.  One sob left her before pushing the ICU doors open.

It was like a dream.  Machines beeped, nurses ran by, pages sounded overhead.  Nothing registered.  It was as if her feet were glued to the ground and she couldn’t move.  The overhead lights seemed blinding.  She stopped outside his room and put her hands against the glass.  She needed to steady herself before she pulled the curtain aside.  She had spent hours here taking care of her patients. She had seen so many families make
this walk, never to be the same again.

“Deep breath Andi.”  She counted to ten and pushed the curtain aside.

Kevin was too still.  The monitor showed his weak heart beat and the vent was doing all the breathing.  His skin was ashen.  She shivered.  They had placed a crash cart at the side of the bed.  From her hours making rounds in the ICU, she knew that was code for the nurses to know things looked grim.  She placed her hand over his chest.  She would lay down her life for him.  She would give up any part of her body to save him, even if that meant she wouldn’t survive.  Tears ran silently down her face and she struggled to breathe.

“Kevin.”  She whispered before kissing his cheek.  “I love you so much.  Please fight.  For me.  My life means nothing if you aren’t here.  Please, baby.  Please.” 

“Andi.”  She jumped at Dr. Hartley’s voice.  “I’m right out here if you have any questions.  Stay as long as you’d like.”

She pulled the chair up to the side of the bed and held his hand.  “I’m not leaving until you open those amazing eyes.  Sleep as long as you need to, baby.  Just please wake up
sometime and don’t leave me alone.”

Chapter 17

“I cancelled the hotel reservations for this weekend.”  Caleb sat down at Jena’s desk.  “I don’t know what else to do, J.  Tell me what I can do.”

Jena sat down in his lap and pulled his head into her chest.  Her arms were the only place he felt truly safe.  He’d been the rock of the group as they all fell apart in the hallway of the hospital.  He couldn’t hold it back another second.  He
broke.  His shoulders shook as he cried and begged for a way to fix it.  She ran her hands through his hair over and over again.  She whispered how much she loved him and how proud she was of his selflessness.  It was a lifetime before he pulled away from her and kissed her.  He couldn’t breathe without her.

“Have you checked on him today?”

Jena touched his cheek.  “It doesn’t look good.  He’s declined and there’s nothing we can do.  They had to revive him in the middle of the night.  I’m afraid they are going to ask for next of kin to make him a do not resuscitate.”

“We are his next of kin.  He doesn’t have anyone else.  No way.  We aren’t signing that.”  Caleb stood up so abruptly that Jena stumbled to keep from falling.

“Caleb, we need to be prepared in case there isn’t anything else they can do.  Would you want me to be hooked up to machines the rest of my life?”

“If there was a chance you would wake up?  Yes.”  Caleb paced the room.

“That isn’t what I would want.  I don’t want a machine breathing for me.  Caleb, please look at me.”

He stopped at the door.  “I have to see Andi.  I’ll see you at home.”

Steve parked his car in the hospital parking garage and checked his watch.  Four AM.  The hospital would be quiet and he could slip in and out with little difficulty.  Hospitals were his nightmare.  He had lost his brother in a car accident when he was three.  It hadn’t been long after that his dad had been caught with his secretary and left to start a new life with her.  Several years later, he had fought a losing battle with cancer.  His cousin had been like a brother to him but after getting involved with the wrong crowd in high school, he had pretty much disappeared.  As an adult, he had lost both his grandparents, had the scare with Moretti and West and now Kevin was fighting for his life. 

He didn’t know Kevin that well.  Their relationship had been in passing over the last few years.  But when he gave up his bone marrow to save Ryan, he had become a permanent fixture in their lives.  They had their pissing matches over the past few months, most of them stemming from his desire to torture Kevin with his friendship with Andi.  He was an easy target and he couldn’t
help but take his shot whenever possible. 

Bottom line, Steve was jealous.  Kevin lived his life like there was no tomorrow and now
, there might not be.  He traveled, he had a huge support system, women dropped at his feet, and he had somehow stolen Andi’s heart. 

Steve had spent so many years dedicated to Amber that he had missed out on the fun part of life.  When he imagined his life at thirty, he pictured a house full of kids in a crazy neighborhood where they spent their weekends with neighbors having cookouts and pushing baby strollers.  But today, he turned thirty.  No wife, no children, a house on the market and a group of friends
that was broken because one of their own was fighting to live through the night.

Steve was relieved to see the halls were deserted.  He steadied his breathing.  He knew he wouldn’t be able to go into the ICU to see Kevin unless Jena or Andi were on duty.  Somehow just stopping by made him feel a little better. 

When he rounded the corner, he saw her.  She was sitting on the floor across from the ICU doors.  Her legs were curled into her chest and her blond hair was falling in waves around her face.  Her blue eyes met his and she attempted to smile.

“Lily?  It’s four in the morning.  Is everything ok?”  He slid down the wall to take a seat next to her.

She shook her head.  “I just needed to be here.  Andi has been in there all night so I haven’t bothered to let her know I’m here.  I just wanted to be here if something happened.  Last night was a bad night.”

“I heard.”

Lily put her head on his shoulder.  The contact was surprisingly intimate and Steve pulled away.  “I’m sorry.”

“No.  I’m sorry.  You just caught me off guard.”  He patted his shoulder
, inviting her to try again, and she smiled. 

He had spent very little time with Lily.  Mark and
Sofie’s wedding weekend had been their first contact.  He had been instantly struck by her beauty.  Her laugh was big and her heart seemed even bigger.  Since that time, they had very few run ins.  She had stirred an emotion in him that was confusing and he had pulled away because of Amber.  Now the thought of pursing any woman seemed disastrous. 

“Do you think he’ll be ok?  He and
Soph are my best friends here.  I don’t know what I would do.”  Tears formed in her eyes but she pushed them away.

“I think we just need to have faith.  He’s the strongest mother fucker I’ve ever met.  If anyone can kick this thing in the ass, it’s Merck.”

Lily smiled and laced her fingers through his.  This man, with his mysterious eyes that were full of sex and mischief, had been her fantasy since the first time she saw him.  Tonight, she was just happy someone was sitting with her that understood her broken heart.

It had been seventy-two hours without a glimmer of hope.  Kevin had been unresponsive to everything they had tried. Although his heart was still beating, his pulse was weak and he had been revived more than once.  His hands were so cold.  Andi had hardly left his side.  Her brain told her that they needed to make some decisions but her heart wouldn’t let her give up hope. 

She had called Ryan and asked him to meet her this morning so they could talk.  Kevin didn’t have a next of kin and she felt Ryan was probably the closest to that.  She curled into his body to wait.  She was so angry that she couldn’t sleep.  Life was completely unfair.

“Hey.”  Ryan sat in the chair next to the bed and touched Kevin’s hand.  He pulled
back instantly.  “Any change?”

Andi pushed herself off the bed and curled into Ryan’s lap.  “We need to have this talk, Ryan.  I know you don’t want to but I think it’s time.”

Ryan looked away.  “I can’t.  I’m not ready.  It’s too soon.”

“Ryan, I love him more than anything on this earth.  As his girlfriend, I will regret this for the rest of my life. 
I want him to wake up.  I want him to insult me just one more time.  I would do anything for that.”  Andi wiped her eyes.  “As a doctor, I know this situation is grim.  He’s not responding.  The vent is breathing for him.  He’s got a feeding tube for Christ sakes.  I don’t want to remember him like this.  I’m not strong enough to make the choice.”

“And you want me to make it?”  Ryan’s voice was a whisper as he stared at his best friend lying lifeless in the hospital bed.  “What about a transplant?  What about a pace maker?  Is there anything we can do?”

“He’s in a coma because his brain was deprived of oxygen.  They aren’t going to give him a transplant.”  Andi ran her hand down his face.  “We don’t have to decide anything now.  I just want to do it together if it comes to that.”

Ryan shook his head.  “You’re asking me to give up on the one
person that never gave up on me.”

“No I’m not.  I’m asking you not to give up on me.
  I can’t do this alone.”  Andi broke.  She sobbed into his chest with the familiar sound of his cardiac monitor in the background.  With each slow beat, a part of her died along with him.