“I guess that will be fine,” Jess said, dropping her hands by her sides. The cottage, with its cosy bedroom and peaceful surroundings, had started to mean more to her than she’d expected. It’d become the symbol of everything she wanted her new life to be: peaceful, orderly, comforting. She’d rather have it all to herself, but she could be reasonable about it.
“I can take the couch,” Nate said, interrupting her thoughts. Jess released a breath she didn’t know she was holding.
13
AFTER LUNCH, JESSheaded to the writer’s room to read through her script again for the afternoon’s filming. Thankfully, she’d just be supervising this time, rather than participating. Although, once she got into it, thanks to Nate, acting was a lot of fun.
The lead writer, Lilia, sat with her head resting on her hands, her flame-red hair spread out on the table. Jess had only ever seen her working at full speed, like the embodiment of her roadrunner tattoo. Concerned by the change, she touched her on the back, lightly.
“Hey, Lilia. Are you okay?”
As if it pained her, Lilia lifted her head and sat up. “I don’t know. I’m feeling pretty dead all of a sudden. Maybe I’m coming down with Sarah’s stomach bug?”
A new fullness rounded out the slim woman’s face. Lilia’s hands rested on the table, also visibly puffier.
“That’s not good. What’s hurting?”
“My head is giving me hell.” Lilia curled back over, her arms wrapped around her stomach. “And my eyes are acting weird.”
“Do you think you’re going to vomit?”
“I don’t think so. My stomach just hurts. But this headache is awful.”
Jess made mental notes—puffy, sore head, blurry vision, pain in the abdomen—the symptoms quickly added up to preeclampsia, a medical emergency she regularly watched out for in her job, but she hadn’t heard Lilia was pregnant. Perhaps she hadn’t announced it yet.
“Any allergies? New medications?”
“No.”
“Are you pregnant, by any chance?”
“No. Not pregnant.”
Whatever it was, it was clear to Jess that the younger woman needed medical attention.
“We need to get you to a doctor, okay? There’s a drop-in clinic in Rangiora. I could—”
“No, I hate doctors. I’ll be fine.”
“It would be good to get your blood pressure checked, at least.”
“Don’t you do doctory things? Can’t you check it for me?” Lilia looked up at her, pleading.
“Um, I have my kit in the car, but—” It wasn’t her place to be the onset doctor, but if her suspicions were right, Lilia could be in serious danger if she didn’t see someone quickly. What choice did she have?
“I’ll be right back,” she said. Jess rushed to her car to grab her medical kit, bumping into Nate on the way back in. He glanced at the medical kit and gave her an ‘everything okay?’ look.
“Might want to hang around nearby,” she said. He nodded, understanding her with nothing else needing to be said.
When she returned, Lilia was still curled forward, hugging her stomach.
“Are you sure you won’t let me drive you to the clinic?” Jess asked again.
“Totally sure. They’ll just make me wait for hours. No, thank you. Have you got the blood pressure whatsit?” Lilia held her arm out, her forehead now against the table.
Wrapping the blood pressure cuff around Lilia’s upper arm, Jess listened carefully with the stethoscope pressed to the inside of her elbow, counting the pulse beats in her head like she’d done a thousand times before. She knew almost instinctively what she’d find and her instincts were spot on. Lilia’s blood pressure was far higher than it should be.
“Can you show me where your stomach hurts?”
