Page 36 of Finding Home

Outside, the mountains held their position against the pale sky. A pair of ravens crossed the road ahead, low and unhurried, and were gone.

Cole thought about his cardiologist. A few years ago, at a project site outside of Cheyenne, he’d driven himself to urgent care and told the doctor he’d eaten something that disagreed with him. His cardiologist was not happy.

Cole inhaled slowly. The pressure hadn’t gone, but it had steadied to something manageable. But that was what he’d always told himself. The pressure would become manageable, and he’d go on with his life.

Julie spoke into the phone again, answering something the dispatcher had asked. Her fingers were still on his wrist. Cole didn’t want her to move them.

“The pressure,” he said quietly. “It’s not getting worse.”

Julie relayed what he’d said, then asked Cole, “Are you short of breath?”

He shook his head. “No.”

While Julie listened to whatever the dispatcher was saying, Cole looked through the window. For most of his life, he’d believed that if he kept moving forward, the things he’d pushed to one side would eventually sort themselves out. He’d been telling himself the same thing about his health, and as he’d run through the trees to get help for his grandfather. But it had been too late to matter.

He hadn’t been able to outrun death, and he had a terrible suspicion that he wouldn’t outrun whatever was happening to him today.

Julie ended the call and kept the phone in her lap. She didn’t fill the quiet with reassurance, and he appreciated that more than he could have explained.

“I deleted my cardiologist’s appointment reminder,” Cole said.

Julie looked at him. “I know.”

He turned to face her. “How?”

“You mentioned the appointment at the cottage last week and never said another word about it. You would have told me if something was wrong.”

Something loosened in his chest that had nothing to do with the pressure.

The main road into Polson appeared ahead. Cole saw the familiar rooflines come into view, the low-slung stores, the café he liked with its mismatched chairs. He’d driven down this street many times on his way to meetings, but never with this sense of urgency.

Noah turned another corner, and within minutes they were at the hospital. A nurse was already coming through the entrance with a wheelchair. Cole was going to decline the ride, but one look at Julie and he thought better of it.

Noah helped him out the same way he’d helped him in, hand at the elbow, steady, with no comment made about what was happening.

Julie stayed close. She wasn’t hovering, just present, in the same way she’d been beside him on the morning of the fire and when the plans for the resort were falling apart.

What scared him more than anything, was how much he needed her here.

And how much it would hurt if she left.

Chapter 23

After Cole had been admitted, the nurse took him through the double doors at the end of a corridor, and Julie was left in a family waiting room with Noah.

“He’ll be okay,” Noah said reassuringly. “Cole’s a fighter.”

Julie sighed. “Did you know he’d already had a heart attack?”

Noah shook his head. “Cole never told me. Knowing him, he would have shrugged it off and kept going. I’m surprised he canceled his doctor’s appointment, though. That wasn’t the smartest thing he’s ever done.”

Julie couldn’t argue with that. If Cole had gone, it might have stopped whatever had happened today. “We should call Cole’s brother. His name is James, but I don’t know where he lives.”

Noah pulled out his phone. “I’ve got his number. Cole spent last Christmas with his brother’s family. He gave me James’s cell phone number in case I couldn’t get hold of Cole.”

Noah sat beside Julie and called James. The conversation was short and to the point. After telling James what had happened, he promised to text him regular updates about Cole.

When the call ended, Noah turned to Julie. “James is booking the first flight he can to Montana.”