Chapter Text
Dinner was strained from the first bite.
Audrey passed the mashed potatoes, Jim commented on traffic, Cece babbled happily in her highchair, but Mandy sat across from Georgie with a loaded silence in her eyes.
Georgie knew something was coming. He could feel it.
“So,” Mandy said, keeping her tone breezy and her eyes on Audrey, “I’ve been looking at jobs outside of Medford.”
The words dropped like a hammer.
Audrey’s hand paused mid-reach for the green beans. Jim frowned. Cece tossed a spoon on the floor. And Georgie… stared.
“What?” he asked slowly, almost daring her to say it again.
“Just… looking,” Mandy said, trying to sound casual. “There are bigger markets. I saw a few leads in Lubbock. Even Amarillo.”
“You’re gonna take a job in Amarillo?” Georgie said, fork halfway to his mouth. “You’d move Cece out there? Away from me?”
“I didn’t say I was moving tomorrow, Georgie. I’m trying to find a way to give our family stability.”
Georgie scoffed, pushing his plate away. “Right. Because me working sixteen-hour days at the shop just ain’t cutting it for you.”
“Don’t twist my words! I see how hard you work, Georgie. That’s the whole point. You’re breaking your back, and it’s still not enough. We can’t keep doing this.”
Audrey looked between them, worried. “Mandy—maybe now’s not—”
“No, let her talk,” Georgie cut in. “Let her say what she really means.”
Mandy’s eyes flashed. “I’m trying to fix this, Georgie. You think I want to move? I just want to be able to afford groceries without counting quarters!”
“So you’re just gonna bail. Nice.”
“I’m not bailing, Georgie! I’m thinking about what’s best for our daughter!”
They were standing now—Georgie on one side of the table, Mandy on the other, the space between them suddenly a chasm.
Audrey looked at her son-in-law. “Georgie, sit down. Please.”
But he didn’t. He grabbed his keys and muttered, “I’ll sleep at the shop tonight.”
Then he turned for the door.
“Georgie,” Mandy called after him. “Don’t walk away from this.”
But he didn’t turn back.
⸻
He was halfway down the porch steps when it hit.
The first wave felt like a sucker punch straight to the center of his chest — a dull pressure, almost like someone sitting on him.
He froze.
He gripped the rail. His left arm started to tingle.
“Just stress,” he muttered to himself. “Just mad. Just gotta drive. Clear my head.”
But as he slid into the driver’s seat of his truck, the pain intensified. Not sharp, not yet—but tight. Restrictive. His breath caught.
He started the engine, knuckles white around the wheel. The dash lights blurred for a second, and he blinked hard.
It’s nothing, he told himself.
You’re fine. You’re nineteen.
But five minutes down the road, his jaw began to ache. Sweat beaded along his brow. His vision fuzzed at the edges, and panic clawed its way up his throat.
He barely made the turn into the hospital parking lot.
His door swung open and he stumbled inside the ER, hand pressed to his chest.
A nurse looked up from the counter.
“I—can’t—breathe—” Georgie gasped. “Chest—my chest hurts—”
He felt hands grabbing his arms, guiding him into a wheelchair. Someone yelled “code alert.” The world tilted.
And then—nothing.
⸻
The first thing he registered was the beeping.
Soft. Rhythmic. Then the cold.
Sterile air. Something tight across his chest. Wires. A pulse oximeter clipped to his finger. He opened his eyes slowly.
Fluorescent lights. White walls. The hiss of an oxygen line.
Hospital.
He tried to speak, but his throat was dry.
A nurse noticed and came over. “You’re awake. That’s good.”
“What—happened?” he rasped.
“You had a heart attack. You came in last night around 10:30. You were lucky you drove yourself in when you did.”
Georgie stared at the ceiling.
A heart attack.
He was nineteen. He changed oil for a living. He had a wife. A daughter. He wasn’t supposed to have a heart attack.
“Is anyone—here?” he asked weakly.
“Not yet,” the nurse said. “We only found your wallet and ID this morning. We called your emergency contact—someone named Audrey?”
Georgie closed his eyes.
God.
Mandy.
⸻
Back at the house, Mandy was pacing. She hadn’t slept. She kept looking out the window, waiting for Georgie’s truck to pull up.
Instead, the phone rang.
Audrey answered it in the kitchen.
“Mandy,” she called, voice tight. “It’s the hospital.”
Mandy’s heart dropped. She crossed the room in two steps.
Audrey listened, nodded. Her eyes welled.
“They said he had a heart attack,” she said quietly, after hanging up. “Last night. He drove himself in.”
Mandy swayed where she stood. “What?”
“They found his ID this morning. That’s why no one called sooner.”
Jim grabbed his keys. “Let’s go.”
⸻
The hospital was colder than she remembered.
Audrey stayed in the waiting room with Jim and Cece while Mandy was led up to Room 214.
She stepped into the room—and stopped cold.
Georgie looked pale and drawn, hooked up to more wires than she could count. There was an oxygen tube in his nose, and an IV in his arm. He looked nothing like the man she’d fought with last night.
His eyes fluttered open.
“Mandy,” he croaked.
She rushed to his side, tears already falling. “You idiot. You absolute, stubborn idiot.”
He tried to smile. “Hey.”
“You had a heart attack, Georgie!”
“I thought it was heartburn. Honest.”
“And you didn’t call? You didn’t even try to tell me? I was home thinking you were mad and sleeping in the shop.”
“I didn’t want to make it worse,” he whispered. “Didn’t want to… give you another reason to leave.”
Her face crumpled. “I was never leaving you.”
“You said you were looking at jobs—”
“I was looking at ways to make life easier for all of us. Not an exit plan.”
He closed his eyes, tears slipping out.
“I thought I’d die in that truck,” he said hoarsely. “And all I could think was—I didn’t say goodbye.”
She sat down and grabbed his hand tightly. “You don’t get to say goodbye, Georgie. You get to come home. You get to take your meds and listen to the doctors and eat your damn vegetables.”
He gave a shaky laugh.
“I don’t care about Amarillo. I don’t care about Lubbock. I care about you. But if you ever hide something like this again, so help me, I will drag your butt back here myself.”
“I won’t,” he promised. “I swear.”
She leaned in and kissed his forehead, then rested her own against his.
“I’m not going anywhere,” she whispered. “So don’t you go scaring me like that again.”
“I’ll try not to,” he murmured, his fingers curling around hers.
⸻
Audrey and Jim peeked in an hour later, relieved to see him awake.
Jim sniffled as he walked over and took his other hand.
“You just about gave me a heart attack of my own,” he whispered.
Georgie looked up at his father in law and then at Mandy, then closed his eyes, overwhelmed by the love in the room and the sudden, terrifying realization of how close he’d come to leaving it all behind.
This time, he wouldn’t push too hard. He wouldn’t try to carry it alone.
This time, he’d ask for help.