What was I going to do?
I clutched my chest.
“Harriet,” Cole said, coming to me, hovering at my side.
“Get—” I wheezed a breath. “Away—” another wheeze. “From me.”
Was I having a heart attack?
“You’re having a panic attack,” she told me, answering my internal question.
Panic attack. Okay.
I walked away from her, stumbling out the back porch and down to the steps, falling to my knees, my fingers in the grass.
“You just need to breathe,” she said, crouching next to me, her hand running over my back.
My heart raced painfully.
I tumbled more fully to the hard, cold ground and lay on my side, my vision blurring and pulsing.
“You’re going to be okay,” she said.
I rolled over, Cole and the dark night sky above me.
I focused on the feeling of the ground beneath me.
It seemed to last forever.
As it had started against my will, I had no will in its ending.
I had to ride it out.
Hope it wasn’t a real heart attack.
Cole stayed with me, murmuring that I would be okay, instructing me to breathe more slowly.
And eventually my chest eased, and air returned to my lungs.
I was shaky as I sat up.
Cole’s hands hovered near me like I might keel over again.
“Are you feeling better?” she asked.
My clothes were damp from the ground.
“I’m cold,” I told her as I tried to stand and fell back onto my butt.
“I’ve got you,” she said, lifting me easily.
I wanted to complain. I wanted to tell her to put me down. But she was so warm and solid, and I was so cold and felt like an autumn leaf, so easily crushed.
She carried me into the cabin, sat me on the couch, and silently went about building and starting the fire.
Chapter twenty-four
The Fun Had to End
