SCOTT HAD SEEN this same thing a dozen times in his years as a firefighter paramedic. It was serious, but the man had a shot at living if they got him to the hospital. Where is that ambulance? He’d heard Evie call it in, noticed her trembling voice but clear directions. Maybe there was a reason she was the Hamilton in charge of safety forces. Or maybe she’d lost the draw in the family lottery.
He put a mask on the victim and loaded him with oxygen. Monitored his vital signs. Listened for an approaching ambulance. Getting the man to the hospital before he went into full cardiac arrest was his only hope.
It would be a lot easier to hear the victim’s heartbeat through the stethoscope if the wife wasn’t sitting there crying. Blaming herself. And the kids… They looked like they were soon going to need medical attention themselves.
Scott laid his hand on the wife’s arm. “Trust me,” he said, “we’ll get your husband to the hospital and there’s a great cardiologist on staff there. They’ll take care of him.”
The woman nodded, eyes locked on Scott as if he could single-handedly determine the fate of her husband.
“I need you to do something for me,” he said. “Breathe slowly and deliberately, and get your husband to do the same thing. Count two seconds in, two seconds out. Do this together and it will help all of us.”
She nodded. Turned her attention to her husband and counted slowly, breathing in and out.
“Good job. You’re doing great,” Scott said. He turned to the kids. Wished he could think of something for them to do.
Where is that ambulance?
“What can I do?” Evie asked, leaning over him so that her long blond hair fell across his shoulder. She placed a hand there and he could feel her breath on his neck.
It was oddly reassuring to have her beside him.
“Radio Dispatch and get an ETA on the squad.”
He assumed she’d straightened and moved away because her touch, her hair, her warm breath, were all gone. He heard her talking with the dispatcher on the radio.
A police officer raced up and dropped down next to Scott. “I’m a first responder,” he said. “Trained in CPR.”
“Good. Stand by. But I hope I won’t need your help.”
The officer glanced at the access road leading to the ride. “Here’s the squad.”
Scott let out a breath, relief rushing through him. He had to get this victim to the hospital to improve his chances of recovery, to relieve his family of the agony they were suffering. And there was another reason. He took a quick look at Evie and didn’t like the expression on her face. Shock. Fear. Grief? He had no idea if she’d ever witnessed something as terrifying as this, but it was obvious she wasn’t taking it lightly.
She would need someone to talk to when this was over. At the fire station, the team did their own form of group therapy after calls that were ugly. A heart attack like this was, sadly, quite common. But they needed the camaraderie, the dark humor, the friendships born of hardship.
The squad pulled up and Scott’s shift partner jumped out and opened both back doors. He rolled a gurney over without asking. Together, Scott and his partner loaded the victim.
“Can we come along?” the man’s wife asked. “We’re not from around here. I have no idea where the hospital is.”
Evie stepped close. “I’ve arranged a ride for you and your kids.”
Scott hoped Evie was not driving. The vulnerable look he’d seen on her face a minute ago was now replaced with a professional expression, but he wondered about her. Worried about her.
“We have a company car waiting right outside the gate,” she continued.
When had she arranged that? Must have been when she was talking to the dispatcher. She thought ahead. He respected that.
Scott climbed into the back of the ambulance and signaled his partner to start driving. He hoped the precious minutes they’d wasted locating the man and getting an ambulance hadn’t jeopardized his chances for survival.
That was something he needed to discuss with the head of safety at Starlight Point.
* * *
THAT EVENING EVIE sat on a bench in front of the train station at Starlight Point. Guests breezed past her on their way to several more hours of fun before the park closed for the night. A few families lined up for the old-fashioned steam train that would take them on a circular tour of the peninsula and entertain them with a staged shoot-out along the tracks in the Wonderful West. Despite its sedate speed, the train had the highest passenger count of all the rides at Starlight Point, probably because of the large number of people it could accommodate at one time.
Evie wasn’t boarding the train tonight. She was thinking about her ride to the hospital earlier in the day with the family of the heart attack victim. One of the security guards had driven the “courtesy car,” a large sedan they used for minor things like delivering guests back to their hotels when their own cars wouldn’t start.
On the way to the Bayside Hospital, Evie had gotten a description of the heart attack victim’s car and a set of keys so that she could arrange to have the family’s vehicle driven to them later in the day. Given the man’s condition, Evie was not surprised when she’d heard he had been transferred to one of the larger hospitals in the area with a cardiac intensive care unit.
As she’d tried to offer comfort and support to the family, she’d thought about Scott alone in the back of the ambulance, doing what he could to save the man’s life. She remembered the compassion he had shown to the man’s wife and family. It was a side of him she had not seen before. Knowing him, he’d done everything according to the book, even though there was nothing textbook about the situation.
Everything had taken too long. Locating the victim. Getting an ambulance to him. As a one-third owner of Starlight Point, she wanted to make her mark by capital improvement projects like the marina and hotel, but she was also the overseer of the safety department. And therefore responsible for the lives and safety of her guests. A heavy weight settled on her shoulders, stealing the air from her lungs.
They had to do better. And she couldn’t do it alone. Tomorrow, she would sit down with the Starlight Point fire chief, Link Harlan, and review their emergency response plans.
Evie closed her eyes and listened to the familiar sounds. The whistle of the train as it left the station. A child laughing. People screaming on roller coasters. Music. A games employee on a microphone trying to draw people into the weight guessing contest.
I hate those games encouraging people to throw away their money. They’d be better off spending five bucks on a hot dog and fries.
If only all decisions were a clear either-or choice. It would be so simple.
She breathed in the smells of Starlight Point. The lake, the food, sunscreen, the flowers planted aesthetically behind her bench. She loved it here at the junction where the midway split into two sections. The main part near the entrance was lined with shops and restaurants on both sides, but the train station marked a dividing point. If guests veered down one path, they would go past roller coasters on their way to the Wonderful West. If they chose the other path, they would have a quiet walk down the Western Trail.
This bench had been her father’s favorite place to take a break. He’d said it was the heart of Starlight Point, a spot where he could see the front gates in the distance, hear the train behind him and watch families stream past.
Evie closed her eyes, wishing her father was there next to her on the bench—even for just a moment so she could pretend she was a little girl again and the Point was magical.
“Funny place for a nap,” a man’s voice said, interrupting her childhood flashback.
Evie opened her eyes. Scott Bennett sat next to her on the bench. He wore a green T-shirt and shorts. Sneakers. A black backpack rested next to him on the ground. He looked like an average resort guest hoping for summer fun.
Except that he was far more attractive than the average male. Dark hair and eyes, broad shoulders and muscular arms exposed by the T-shirt.
“What are you doing here?” Evie asked. She didn’t mean to sound rude, but he’d surprised her. In several ways.
“I work here.”
She smiled. “I know.”
“My shift ended a few minutes ago and I’m headed for the ferry dock.”
She glanced at his T-shirt and shorts.
“I changed at the station,” he said. “I like to take the long way, walk up the Western Trail and relax. Sometimes I get junk food. Sometimes I call it dinner if we’ve had a busy shift.”
“And you like to be undercover,” she said. “So people don’t stop you and ask you to put out fires or remove splinters.”
He cracked a small smile. “Do you ever go undercover so people don’t ask you to hand out free tickets or keep the park open later?”
“I’m doing it right now,” she said. This was mostly true. She was too dressed up to be a tourist, but her black name tag was in her purse. Along with her father’s name tag, which she carried for luck and memories.
Evie crossed one leg over the other and waited. There had to be a reason Scott had decided to sit with her. She noticed him staring at her exposed ankle.
“How did you get that scar?” he asked.
Personal question.
Evie shrugged. “Growing up in an amusement park comes with all kinds of temptation.”
“I would imagine.”
“One summer my brother and sister and I decided to climb out to the end of the break wall even though it’s officially off-limits. Our parents only found out because I sliced my ankle open when I went down between some rocks.” She smiled at him. “You may have noticed the locked gate and fence where it meets the beach.”
“Was it fun growing up here?”
“Every single day. We had free rein of the place.”
“You still do,” Scott observed.
She laughed. “Yes, but the risks we take now are far more complicated than sneaking out onto a break wall.”
How true that was. Financial risks were one thing, but inviting thousands of people to Starlight Point every day and being responsible for their happiness and safety was way beyond risky. Sometimes it was downright dangerous.
“Have you heard anything more about our patient?” Scott asked.
Evie shook her head. “He was transferred, but that’s all. Patient confidentiality is serious business.”
“I know all about that. There are often times I wish I could find out what happened to the people I treated. We talk about that at the station quite a lot. We always review runs when they’re over.”
“Do you ever second-guess yourself?” Evie asked. “Wish you’d done something differently?”
“Sometimes,” he admitted. “And sometimes there’s nothing else you could have done.”
He put an arm across the back of the bench and half turned toward her, as if he wanted to say more. Or ask her something.
She could wait. She had no plans to hurry home and sit in her lonely flat. Jack would go home with Augusta. June would go home with Mel. Her mother had become an expert at filling up lonely evenings by serving on boards and charities and making friends her age, many of them widows, too.
What did Evie have? She glanced down the midway and could barely see the carousel making a circuit at the front gates. She had Starlight Point and a basket full of big plans. Were they foolish and risky plans? What would her father say if he could see the money she was pouring into capital improvements?
He would probably love it. And that frightened her when she remembered the shock of discovering the debt he’d left behind. Ford Hamilton’s habit of borrowing money for projects and piling up loans was unknown to the rest of family. It had taken them two years to dig out, and Evie hated risking their financial recovery.
“I think he’ll make it,” Scott continued, still on the subject of the medical emergency. “They’ll probably do an angioplasty, put in a stent, stuff like that. People survive heart attacks every day.”
Not always. Sometimes they die so suddenly no one even has a chance to say goodbye.
Evie ignored the pain squeezing her heart and focused on the entrance to the Sea Devil, a roller coaster partway down the midway. On a beautiful summer evening like this, the line stretched beyond the turnstile. People getting in line right now wouldn’t be riding the coaster for a good hour and a half. She did the math in her head, considering the wait time and the length of the actual ride, doing the ratio of wait to fun. Calculations kept her mind busy.
And kept her thoughts off her father’s sudden death over three years ago.
On a warm spring day weeks before the park opened, his heart had given out. Seeing the man having a heart attack today had made her wonder about her father’s passing in a way she never had before. What had it been like for him to know he would never see his wife and children again? What would he have said if given the chance?
Evie felt heat in her cheeks and tears made her eyes heavy. She would not cry about it now. Not in front of Scott Bennett.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“Of course. I just remembered I have to do something.” She leapt to her feet and slung her purse over her shoulder.
Scott stood and stepped in front of her. “I thought we could talk about what happened today.”
Evie looked down, unwilling to meet his eyes when she didn’t trust her own not to betray her.
“We just did.”
“There’s something more,” he said.
Of course. And she was certain it had to do with safety issues. He probably believed it was somehow her fault that a poor man had suffered a medical emergency in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Well, guess what, I already knew that, genius.
“I plan to meet with my fire chief tomorrow to review our procedures. I think that should make you happy.”
“That’s not what I meant,” Scott protested.
Evie held up a hand and stepped around him. “See you later.”
She stalked away, hoping her punishing pace would discourage him from following her. Instead of walking straight toward the ferry dock, she stopped by her office. Rearranged her desk. Did some file management on her computer. Sharpened every pencil she could find in her desk drawer. She pulled out her hotel plans and tried to focus on them, but she kept thinking of her father and what he would have said about the marina project, the hotel, everything.
It was time to go home, put on her purple fleece bathrobe and eat chips right out of the bag. At least two ferries should have departed for Bayside by now and, hopefully, Scott Bennett had been on one of them.
She strolled across the peninsula and exited the marina gate. The peaceful trip across the bay as the sunset colors streaked the sky was just what she needed to calm her mind after a tumultuous day. She walked down the long dock at the marina and felt satisfaction. The gas docks would open tomorrow. The restaurant would open next week at the latest. Things would be fine.
She stepped onto the ferry and headed for her usual single seat next to the wheelhouse, but there was already someone in it.
Of course. Him.
She strode quickly around the boat to the other side where a similar seat was a mirror image. She sat and hoped like crazy Scott would not have the nerve to follow her. Passengers were free to change seats as long as the boat remained in dock. Only a few more minutes. She was afraid to look up for fear Scott would intrude on her solace. Again.
The boat horn signaled its departure and pulled away from the dock. She breathed. As she leaned against the engine compartment and felt its soothing vibration, she pictured Scott doing the same thing on the opposite side. That was not so soothing. She leaned forward and put her chin in her hands as she watched the waves slip past.
Next to her, a little girl played with the ribbon on her balloon. The balloon bounced around and bumped against the ceiling of the ferry, the post, other passengers. Adding balloon sellers to the midway was a new idea this year. Evie had seen the incredible revenue other theme parks earned from the souvenirs and decided to give it a try. Who didn’t like balloons? So far, she estimated that almost a quarter of the children who left the gates in the evening left with a balloon with the park’s logo. Not a bad return on investment.
She never thought about what happened to the balloons when the children got home. Because they were the heavy-duty Mylar kind, she assumed they lasted for weeks until children or their parents got tired of them.
The little girl’s father warned her to stop annoying people, but the girl continued to hold the string and jerk the balloon back and forth like a punch ball Evie had once been given at a birthday party.
The father gave up and pulled out his cell phone. He scrolled through screens. It was a weeknight and they were probably locals if they were riding the ferry. Evie watched the girl play with the ribbon tied around her wrist and thought back to the simple joys of her childhood—not that many years ago, but sometimes it seemed a lifetime.
Suddenly the balloon caught a breeze and pulled taut. The loosely tied knot around the girl’s wrist unraveled and the balloon sailed off the ferry. The father jumped up and leaned precariously over the rail, trying desperately to grab the balloon, but it was gone.
“Please remain seated,” the captain said over the loudspeaker.
Evie expected tears would be next. She’d seen it before. But the little girl surprised her. She leaned over the rail and watched her balloon float away.
And she laughed.
Evie risked a glance over the engine compartment. Scott Bennett was standing, also watching the balloon float away. A small smile lit his face in the evening sunset and Evie realized how handsome he was when he let down his guard.