Page 21 of A Soldier's Return

She didn’t want to talk about her sketchy workout habits. She’d done yoga twice. Counting that and her run a week ago when she’d met him on this very beach and today, that made four days in a week. That had to count for something, didn’t it? Especially when she had an injury.

“How is your dad?” she asked to change the subject. “When do the doctors say he can go home?”

“He’s doing great. The orthopedic doctor says maybe this weekend, but for sure by the middle of the week.”

“That’s terrific. I can only imagine how tough it must be to have double knee replacements, but I’m sure he’ll be happy he did it.”

“He already says it’s less pain than he was in before.”

The sun peeked through the steely clouds to pick up highlights in his hair. She ignored that, too—or at least she tried to tell herself she did.

“How’s your wrist?” he asked. “I’ve been meaning to ask, but things have been so crazy this week as I try to settle in that I keep forgetting.”

“It’s been a wild week, you’re right. You are getting a baptism by fire. We haven’t been this busy in a long time.”

“How did I get so lucky?”

She smiled. “Maybe all the women in town just want to meet the young, handsome new doctor.”

He made a face. “Nice theory. It doesn’t explain the food poisoning or the stomach bugs.”

“Good point,” she said.

Before he could respond, a cry rang out across the beach.

“Help! Please, somebody, help!”

For a split second, Eli went instantly on alert, muscles taut as he scanned the area.

An instant later, he took off at a dead run toward the older couple Melissa had seen earlier. Max wanted to chase after him, thinking it was a game, but Melissa took a moment to secure both dog leashes. As she sprinted after Eli, she saw the woman was kneeling beside the prone figure of her male companion, who was lying just at the spot where the baby breakers licked at the sand.

“What happened?” Eli was asking as he turned the man over to keep his mouth and nose out of the sand and the incoming tide.

“He was just standing there and then he fell over, unconscious. Please. What’s happening?”

The man didn’t appear to be breathing and his features had a gray cast to them. Melissa suspected a heart attack, but she didn’t say so to the woman.

“What can I do?” she asked Eli.

“Help me move him up the beach, out of the water,” Eli said urgently. The two of them tugged the unresponsive man six or seven feet up, just far enough that he wouldn’t continue being splashed by the incoming breakers.

“Call 911,” Eli instructed to Melissa as he started doing a quick first-aid assessment.

Adrenaline pumping, Melissa pulled out her phone and did as he asked.

“Does your husband have any history of heart trouble?” she asked while waiting for the dispatcher to answer.

“No. None,” she said.

“Nine-one-one. What’s your emergency?”

“We’ve got a nonresponsive male approximately sixty-five years old...”

“Sixty-seven,” the woman said, her gaze fixed on Eli and her husband.

“Sixty-seven. He has no history of heart trouble but apparently collapsed about one to two minutes ago. Dr. Eli Sanderson is here attending to the patient, currently starting CPR. We are on Cannon Beach, near the water’s edge about three hundred yards south of the access point near Gower Street. We’re going to need emergency assistance and transport to the hospital.”

“Okay. Please stay on the line. I’m going to contact paramedics. We’ll get them to your location as soon as we can.”

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