He took a deep breath.
“Okay, listen to me. When I say so, press righthere. Five times.” Then Brendan turned Euphoria onto her side. She made no movement on her own, no sound.
Now he opened her jaws and bent to fit his mouth to hers. Then he blew a little breath into her lungs.
Phh.
“Do it now,” he told me. “Press, Jennifer.”
I pressed on the left side of Euphoria’s rib cage, massaging her heart, praying with mine. Then Brendan signaled me to stop. My heart was racing, thundering.
He bent over her and breathed into her mouth a second time.Phh. Then he had me press again. He was working very hard. Being a doctor right before my eyes.
Then I got to see a miracle happen. IfeltEuphoria come back to life under my hands. She quivered and coughed. Then she opened her beautiful green eyes and looked up at me. Her eyes were filled with love. She was breathing on her own.
She finally wobbled to her feet and said, “Yow.”
I grabbed her up in one arm and kissed her. I threw my other arm around Brendan’s neck and kissed him. I hugged him hard, almost crushing Euphoria between us. “You saved my baby,” I whispered.
Brendan sat back on his heels, a look of complete satisfaction on his face. Then he said a very cool thing.
“You gotta know I love you, Jennifer. I just gave the kiss of life to a cat.”
I stared into his eyes with amazement—Brendan had just saidI love you.
Thirty-nine
IT WAS OCCURRINGto me lately that the summer was going too quickly. It was the “magic hour” again—our favorite time to be out on Sam’s dock. Brendan and I were sitting side by side, dangling our feet, leaning into each other. I noticed that he was staring out across the lake, lost in his thoughts, wherever it was that they took him.
“You okay?” I asked. I knew that he was, of course. How could he not be?
“I… uh…,” he said. And then Brendan didn’t say anything.
“You’reat a loss for words? I can’t believe it. Idon’tbelieve it. You… uh… what?” I kidded.
But he didn’t joke back for once. What was this? Was it time for Brendan to share a few secrets, too? Did he trust me enough?
“I have to tell you something, Jennifer,” he said.
I turned my shoulder so that it wasn’t touching his anymore. I could see his face better now. Brendan was averting his eyes.
“You’re not going to tell me that you’re still married?” I asked, and didn’t like those words as they came out of my mouth.
He looked at me. “I’m divorced, Jennifer. That’s not it.… The problem is that when we met a couple of weeks ago, I had no idea that any of this was going to happen. Who could have? I had no idea there was somebody like you out there.”
“What a shame, buddy,” I said. “I feel pretty bad for you.”
But Brendan didn’t laugh. If anything, he looked worried. Not like himself. Now I got it. He was falling for me. “But…”
I had a feeling that I wasn’t going to likebut.I was so sure of it that my body went cold.
“Butwhat?” I asked.
Forty
HE DIDN’T ANSWERmy question right away, and my insides continued to churn. Whatever was happening, it wasn’t good. Brendan wouldn’t, or couldn’t, look me in the eye, and he’d never been like that before.
“Brendan, what is it?”
