Page 7 of Good Girls Don't Kiss and Tell

“Okay, sir, we’ve dispatched emergency personnel from Rock Canyon Fire Department. It should only be a few minutes. Please stay on the line. Don’t move her if you can help it.”

“Travis, the dispatcher says not to move her.”

Travis’s expression, a raw mixture of fury and anguish, twisted Eric’s guts up. These people were his friends, as close as family. Gemma was a sweet woman, and after all the years she and Travis had spent apart, they deserved their happiness.

Suddenly, Mrs. Andrews was next to him, reaching for the phone. “Eric, I’ll talk to them. You go get Gracie. She needs to be here.”

Eric nodded, handing off his cell to the older woman, who seemed as shaken as the rest of them.

He headed out the back door, yelling for Gracie. “Gracie! Gracie!” She didn’t answer, and he took the steps down to the garage two at a time. “Gracie, fucking answer me!”

She came around the garage with her cell to her ear. “What the hell is the matter with you? I was just—”

“Something’s wrong with Gemma. She passed out and an ambulance is on the way.”

Gracie’s skin turned sheet white, and she dropped her phone. She ran past him up the steps, and he followed on her heels as she burst inside.

“Gemma!” Gracie pushed ahead of him through the crowd and stopped. Eric saw that Gemma was awake but dazed.

“What…” Gemma whispered.

Through the big bay windows, Eric saw the ambulance pull up. Everyone moved into the backyard to make room for the paramedics and the gurney, except for immediate family and Gracie, Mike, and Eric. The EMT’s took Gemma’s vitals and then lifted her onto the gurney gently.

Travis went to his son and hugged him. “I’m going to ride with Mom, and Uncle Mike’s going to drive you, Grandma, and Aunt Dawn to the hospital, okay?”

Charlie nodded, and Travis followed behind the gurney, closing the door behind them.

Eric could tell Gracie was trembling before him. He squeezed Gracie’s shoulders, and when she turned toward him, the tear-filled green eyes were like a sucker punch to the gut.

“She’s going to be okay.” He pulled her against him, squeezing her tight as she cried. “She’ll be fine, I promise.”

“Eric, can you give Gracie a ride?” Mike asked.

Eric nodded at him, and Mike led the rest of Gemma’s family out the front door. When it was just the two of them, Eric bent down and kissed Gracie’s forehead.

“Go on out to my car. I’m just going to let everyone know what’s happening, and I’ll meet you out there.”

Gracie sniffled and wiped at her face as she pulled away. “I can drive myself.”

“I know, but humor me, okay?”

Eric was actually surprised she didn’t argue. “Okay.”

Chapter Three

“There’s a theory that stressful situations can really bring the truth to the surface. This explains all those blurted feelings at the end of romantic comedies.” - Miss Know-It-All’s Gossip Column.

Gracie couldn’t stop tapping her feet in the waiting room of the hospital, the beat of “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” drumming through her head. It might have been a bit upbeat for the situation, but it was song she and Gemma had spent most of their childhood singing at the top of their lungs and it made her feel a little better.

They’d been waiting for over an hour for Travis or Gemma’s mother to come out and tell them anything, and Gracie was slowly losing patience.

Suddenly, Eric’s hand was on her knee. “You’re tapping your toes off over here.”

“I can’t help it. It’s either that or pacing the room.”

“I get it, believe me, but it’s not going to make the time go by faster. We need to stay calm, at least for Charlie’s sake.”

Gracie looked over at Charlie, who was sitting between Gemma’s sister, Dawn, and Mike. The poor kid was pale and his face drawn with worry.

---