Elyse, call 911!” Caleb shouted, rushing to Penny’s side and easing George off her.

George’s eyes were wide and frightened as they laid him out on the floor, and he was clutching his chest like he was in pain. Penny snatched his jacket off the stool, balled it up, and slid it under his head to try to make him more comfortable.

“George, can you tell me what’s wrong?” Caleb asked, kneeling over him.

“My chest,” he wheezed. “Hurts.” Penny took his hand, feeling useless and frightened.

Caleb pressed his fingers under George’s jaw. “You have a heart condition?”

George nodded, grimacing in pain.

“Was that nitroglycerin you just took?”

George nodded again.

Caleb touched Penny’s arm. “Do you have any aspirin?”

She shook her head. “Only ibuprofen.”

“He needs aspirin.”

Penny’s mind raced. She could run down the block to Rite Aid, but that might take too long. Or maybe… “Is there a first aid kit here?”

Caleb nodded. “Behind the counter. Under the register.”

She pushed herself to her feet and ran around the counter. Elyse was talking into her cell phone, giving the address of the coffee shop to the 911 operator. She stepped back so Penny could reach the red plastic case under the counter. Frantically, Penny dropped to her knees and tore through it, sifting through the Band-Aids and alcohol swabs until she found a small packet of aspirin. “Here!” She stood and tossed it to Caleb.

He caught it and tore it open with his teeth. “George, I need you to chew this up and swallow it, okay? You think you can do that?”

George gave a weak nod, and Caleb lifted his head a little as he slipped the tablet into his mouth. George grimaced as his jaw worked. When he’d swallowed, Caleb gently laid his head back down.

“Ambulance is on its way,” Elyse said, the phone still pressed to her ear.

“Tell them it’s a probable heart attack,” Caleb said.

George’s eyes fluttered closed as Penny crouched beside him again and squeezed his hand. “George?”

Caleb reached up to pat George’s cheek. “George, wake up. Can you hear me? I need you to keep your eyes open if you can.”

George’s eyes opened halfway, and Penny let out a relieved breath.

“There you go,” Caleb said, sounding impressively calm. “Concentrate on my voice, okay? I need you to stay awake for me.”

George’s mouth moved like he was trying to talk, but no sound came out. His hand felt cold and clammy in Penny’s.

She rubbed it between her palms, trying to warm it up. “Don’t worry, George, you’re going to be fine. The ambulance is on its way. They’re going to take good care of you.”

George’s hand squeezed hers weakly, then went limp as his eyes rolled back in his head.

“George!” Caleb slapped his cheek lightly, trying to rouse him. “George, open your eyes!”

George’s eyes stayed closed this time.

Caleb pressed his ear to George’s chest. “Shit,” he muttered under his breath.

“What?” Penny asked as Caleb positioned his hands over George’s heart and started doing chest compressions. Panic sliced through her gut. Had his heart stopped? Was he breathing? Oh, God—was he dying?

Her Girl Scout troop had taken a CPR class when she was in middle school. It was so long ago, she’d forgotten most of it, but she remembered the instructor telling them to time chest compressions to the beat of “Staying Alive” by the Bee Gees.

It was all she could think about as she watched Caleb bounce up and down, pressing on George’s chest at a hundred beats per minute, in perfect time with the song in her head.

One. Two. Three. Four. Staying alive. Staying alive.

One. Two. Three. Four…

Oh God, please let him stay alive.

The next few minutes felt like an eternity. Penny and Elyse watched in anguished silence as Caleb performed CPR. A bead of sweat formed on his forehead, and Penny wiped it away with her sleeve before it could fall into his eyes.

How long could he keep this up? How long did George have?

Where is the ambulance?

Finally, she heard a siren in the distance. It gradually grew louder and louder, until it was so loud it hurt her ears. A heavy diesel engine rumbled outside. Flashing red lights shined through the window, and the engine and siren cut out at once, leaving an unsettling silence in their wake.

Penny got to her feet as the paramedics came through the door.

“We’ve got him now,” one of them said, laying a hand on Caleb’s back. “I’ll take over.”

Caleb stood up and stepped back so they could work. “He started having angina about fifteen minutes ago and took one of the nitroglycerin pills in his pocket. A few minutes later he collapsed, and I gave him 325 milligrams of aspirin. I started chest compressions when he lost consciousness.”

“How long’s he been down?” one of the paramedics asked as he inserted an IV needle into George’s arm.

“Three minutes,” Penny said when Caleb looked uncertain. “It was three minutes ago.” She’d been watching the clock on the wall obsessively, counting the seconds while they waited for the ambulance.

She watched the EMTs transfer George onto the gurney and prepare him for transport.

“You did good.” One of the paramedics squeezed Caleb’s shoulder as the others wheeled him toward the door. “You might have saved his life.”

“Which hospital are you taking him to?” Penny asked.

“Brotman. You know if he’s got family?”

“They’re in San Jose.” His son’s name was Mike, she knew that much. If she could remember the name of the company he worked for, she could get in touch with him to let him know what had happened.

Caleb stood beside her, watching through the window in silence as the paramedics loaded George into the back of the ambulance. It had stopped raining at some point and the sun was shining.

“Is he going to be okay?” Penny asked when the ambulance was out of sight.

Caleb nodded, still staring out the window. “Hopefully. They got to him really fast. That’s important.”

Penny sniffled and swiped at her eyes. Caleb put a hand on her shoulder and turned her toward him.

His brows drew together as his eyes roamed over her face. “Are you okay?”

She nodded again, trying to make it look convincing. She’d never seen anyone have a heart attack before, or even seen anyone taken away in ambulance. What if George died? What if she never saw him again?

Caleb’s arms enveloped her, and she sagged against his chest and drew a hitching breath. His hands rubbed comforting circles on her back. “It’s going to be okay.”

She sniffled, trying not to get snot on his T-shirt. “How do you know?”

“Because he got help right away. The odds are in his favor.”

She nodded against his chest. “You were amazing. You knew exactly what to do.”

The bell on the door announced the arrival of a customer and Caleb let go of her.

Penny turned her face away and stepped back, putting some distance between them. She dug in her purse for a tissue as Elyse greeted the customer in a hollow voice. She was probably just as shaken up as Penny, poor thing. The woman at the counter ordered a mocha, oblivious to the fact that she’d walked into the middle of a tragedy.

Penny pressed a tissue to the corner of her eyes and made a decision. When she turned back around, Caleb was picking up the trash the paramedics had left behind. “I’m going to the hospital,” she said to him. “Do you want to come?”

He straightened, looking conflicted. “I can’t. I can’t leave Elyse on her own. And I need to call Roxanne and Reema to tell them what happened.”

Penny nodded and hiked her purse onto her shoulder. Her eyes fell on George’s newspaper lying on the counter. She remembered the look on his face as he’d crumpled to the floor. How fragile he’d seemed.

“Will you call me if you hear anything?” Caleb asked.

“Sure. Of course.” She fumbled in her purse for her phone. “What’s your number?”

He recited it for her and she added him to her contacts. C-A-L-E-B. She didn’t know his last name, so she left it blank.

Which reminded her… “I don’t suppose you know the name of the company George’s son works for in San Jose? I wanted to call him. I thought he should hear it from someone who knew his dad. I thought it would be better—not that anything can make this better. Easier, maybe. For him.” She realized she was babbling and pressed her lips together.

“Bargello,” Caleb said. “He works for a software company called Bargello.”

“Right.” Penny nodded, staring at her phone. She didn’t need to write that down. She could remember it. Why was she still staring at her phone?

“Hey.” Caleb moved closer. He lifted his hand like he was going to touch her cheek, then stopped and let it drop to his side. “Maybe you should sit down for a few minutes before you try to drive. There’s no need to rush off. It’ll be a while before they know anything.”

Penny shook her head. She didn’t want to sit around here, seeing George falling to the floor over and over again. “I’ve got to walk home first. I’ll be fine.”

Caleb nodded, but he didn’t look happy about it.

Why would he? There was nothing to be happy about today.