Snowed in With My Small Town Billionaire

Chapter 23 Sawyer

23

C H A P T E R

Sawyer

S awyer,” someone whispered.

He thought he was dreaming.

“Sawyer, wake up. It’s Zaid. Please come now.”

He was instantly awake. Sawyer jumped out of his warm sleeping bag and rushed into the parlor.

“What happened?” Sawyer asked, trying to keep the panic out of his voice.

“He’s been throwing up. He wouldn’t let me wake you up the first time, but I had to now,” Emilia said.

Sawyer took his temperature and was alarmed to see that it was still at a hundred and two.

Oliver, who was normally up at this time, walked over. “We still have some acetaminophen left. Not a lot though. We also have some ibuprofen, but again, not much.”

Sawyer carefully unwrapped the ace bandage that held the splint on. His heart stopped when he saw that Zaid’s toes were starting to turn purple. He sucked in a deep breath and exchanged glances with Oliver.

“Is the splint too tight?” Oliver asked.

“No, I’ve been checking that,” Sawyer said. “Can you gently massage his foot, as long as it doesn’t cause too much pain?”

Millie and Tessie rushed in.

“What can we do?” Millie asked.

“Do you have any ginger?” Sawyer asked.

“Yes, I have some ginger roots in the cellar,” Tessie said. “I like to grow as much of our food and herbs as I can. Millie and I do a lot of canning, drying, and whatnot in the summer.”

“Excellent. Can you grate about two inches of ginger root into some hot water, and let it steep for about ten minutes and then add a tablespoon of honey. Let’s give that to him every four hours or so,” Sawyer said. “If you have enough, let’s grate a little bit of ginger and mix it with warm water to make a paste. We’ll put that on a clean cloth and put that on his foot, below the toes. We’ll leave it on for ten minutes at a time, every hour or so. It may help with circulation.”

“What else?” Tessie asked anxiously, writing her hands together.

“How much honey do you have?”

“I have a large jar I haven’t opened yet.”

“Good. Give him a tablespoon every hour. Make a water solution of one liter of water, mixed with six teaspoons of sugar, and a half teaspoon of salt,” Sawyer said. “Emilia, will you make sure that he sips the mixture throughout the day? He shouldn’t drink it all at once. Just sip it. That will help keep him dehydrated.”

“He’ll need to keep his leg elevated,” Oliver said. “What do you think about adding another pillow to his pile?”

“That’s a good idea,” Sawyer said. “Millie, do you have any oatmeal?”

“I do.”

“If you could make him some and mix some of the honey in that, it will help with electrolytes and will be easier for him to digest,” Sawyer said. “We’ll alternate the ibuprofen with acetaminophen every three hours. Cool compresses will help, too.”

“You’re going to have to cut off my leg, aren’t you,” Zaid asked.

“If things don’t improve and help doesn’t come soon, we will,” Sawyer answered honestly.

“Maybe you could use an axe. Sharpen it like the old executioners used to do in the old days. That way, the leg will come off in one sharp blow. Just don’t miss, like they sometimes did. It took the executioner three blows to kill Mary Queen of Scots,” Zaid said.

Emilia gasped. “Knock it off. Think positive. Quit being so blood macabre.”

“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that,” Sawyer said. “Emilia, keep me updated on how he’s doing. I’ll check back in an hour or so.”

She nodded. Millie and Tessie headed off to the kitchen to make the concoctions Sawyer ordered.

“How do you know all that stuff,” Lucas asked.

He had heard Emilia come get Sawyer and followed him into the parlor in case he could help.

“I read books,” Sawyer laughed. “I like the idea of using natural remedies if possible. It makes sense not to use a lot of pharmaceuticals if they aren’t necessary.”

Sawyer headed into the library. Darren and Lucas followed.

“Is he going to make it? He’s more like a brother to me than a best friend,” Darren said, anxiously.

“I can’t make promises at this stage,” Sawyer said. “But I promise that I will do everything that I possibly can to help him.”

“That’s all I can ask. It was my idea to come here. If anything happens to him, it’ll be my fault,” Darren said.

“No, it won’t. All of this was just a force of nature. That’s it. Unless you were out there yodeling and caused the avalanche or you pushed him in the snow, you have nothing to feel guilty about,” Lucas said.

In spite of himself, Darren smiled weakly and raised his eyebrows. “Yodeling?”

“We are in the mountains. I don’t think that yodelers care which mountains they are yodeling in,” Lucas retorted.

“I’m going to keep Zaid company and help Emilia. She’s been a complete doll through all of this.”

Sawyer sat heavily on the couch while Lucas stirred up the fire.

“We’ll need to go get more wood after breakfast,” Lucas noted.

“I know,” Sawyer said.

“I’m sorry I dragged you on this so-called vacation.”

“It’s a good thing you did. Oliver does alright, but I think I was meant to be here to help Zaid. I don’t think Oliver’s ever had much practice in setting broken bones. If we can save Zaid, then it’s worth it.”

“I’ve been praying,” Lucas said.

“You and me, both, Brother,” Sawyer replied.

“Seems like things are going well between you and Gwen,” Lucas said.

“Yeah. I have feelings for her and I’m sure she has feelings for me, too. However, I’m not so sure about what will happen after we go back to the real world. The distance isn’t the problem. I’m sure that she won’t go back to thinking the way her father conditioned her to think. However, everything will be different.”

“I guess you’ll just have to see where it goes,” Lucas said.

Sawyer laughed. “That’s what I told her. The question would be whether she would have the strength to stand up to her father or be willing to walk away from him if our relationship did become serious. I would never give her an ultimatum, but I’m pretty sure that Jerome would.”

“He’s a piece of work, isn’t he?” Lucas said.

“That’s putting it mildly. What about you and Samantha?”

Lucas grinned. “She’s amazing. I love spending time with her. She has a great sense of humor and we can talk for hours about almost anything. We talked about religion, but we haven’t got to politics.”

“There are some couples who never talk about politics, although you can usually get a sense of what the other person’s feelings are on the topic,” Sawyer said.

“I’m pretty sure we’re on the same wavelength.”

Samantha stepped into the room to let them know that breakfast was ready. She and Gwen had helped Millie out in the kitchen, while Millie and Tessie made the concoctions Sawyer suggested for Zaid.

Sawyer checked on Zaid as they walked by.

Emilia looked at them. “He kept some oatmeal down. I just gave him a small amount. If he keeps it down, I’ll give him more.”

“Good.” Sawyer put his hand on Zaid’s shoulder. He thought that maybe the man’s temperature had come down just a hair.

Sawyer enjoyed chopping wood after breakfast. It gave him a way to get out his aggression and tension. He continued to worry about Zaid and hated feeling helpless that there was absolutely nothing he could do to help him.

He also thought about Gwen. She had proven herself. Not once did she shirk when there was something to be done. She helped out in the kitchen, carried wood, and helped keep people calm. She went with them to the hunters’ lodge and helped them scavenge supplies and blankets from the cabin.

Sighing heavily, he purposely pushed away all of the thoughts and counted the swings of the axe. He focused on the sounds of the birds and nature.

Sawyer smiled when he recalled a professor who was giving them tips on focusing in class, trying to meditate, or doing anything else. The professor had said it was important to acknowledge when the mind wandered. Trying to force thoughts away would never work. Then, she had said, “Close your eyes. For the next thirty seconds, under no circumstances are you to think about pink elephants.”

Everyone had failed. Then, she told them to acknowledge that the pink elephants were there, and then focus on the task at hand.

Sawyer realized that he had been thinking about that class and pink elephants so much that he barely noticed he had finished splitting the logs.

He spent the rest of the day tending to Zaid and reading. Gwen helped with lunch and then spent time outside with Brent.

As much as I enjoy spending time with her, maybe a little bit of space is a good thing. It could help put our feelings in perspective.

Lucas and Sawyer sat with Zaid during dinner so that Emilia could eat in the dining room and take a little bit of a break. They talked about television shows, movies, and actors, avoiding any conversation about his leg.

An hour later, Audrey ran up to Sawyer in the library. “Have you seen Gwen?”

“No, why?” he asked.

“She told me that she needed to clear her mind and was stepping outside for a minute. No one has seen her for at least two hours.”

Sawyer’s heart dropped. He realized right then that a part of him would die if anything happened to her.

I fell in love with her.