Page 127 of Mr. Swoony

Her eyes flutter open.

“Eloise?”

“Oh god, what happened?” She touches her cheek.

“Just stay still, baby.” I hear sirens outside.

“We’re closing. Go find your fun somewhere else!” Ruby screams, and I hear a lot of groans and complaints.

“Eloise.” Jade falls to her knees on her other side and sees the bruise, eyeing me when Eloise’s eyes drift closed again.

“Where is Lila?” I ask.

“She’s at a table with Rowan and Henry watching her. Tweetie went out to lead the paramedics in here.”

We wait for what feels like a million years as Eloise just lies there with her eyes closed.

A paramedic rushes in. “Okay, everyone out. What happened?”

Jade does a double-take at him. “Medic Bianco?”

Henry pops his head in. “How do you know the paramedic?”

“Man, sonic ears,” Tweetie says from the hallway.

“Who the hell cares?” I shout, then look at the paramedic. “This is my girlfriend. She was hit, and I don’t know if she hit her head on the floor too, but she’s got a nasty bruise on her cheek.”

The paramedic nods. “Okay, give us some room.” He bends down where I was.

I pace the small space, biting my fist, then lean against the wall and watch them ask Eloise questions, shine a flashlight in her eyes, and eventually move her onto a stretcher. I follow her out.

The police are here now, asking everyone questions.

“I’ll need to ask you some questions,” one cop says to me.

“Then visit me at the hospital.” I continue walking until I reach the ambulance and watch them put Eloise in the back before I step inside with Medic Bianco.

“So, you’re coming too,” Medic Bianco says, laughing to himself. “I’m kidding, I’d probably be on the stretcher with my wife. Then she’d knee me in the nuts. Well, maybe not the nuts. She’s been begging me for another kid.”

“Thanks. Can we concentrate on my girlfriend?”

He puts in an IV, and the ambulance drives away from Peeper’s. I sit back and watch Eloise doze in and out, missing her amazing gray eyes every time her eyelids shut.

“These things happen. It wasn’t your fault,” Medic Bianco says, not knowing how wrong he is.

This is all my fault.

Fifty-Five

Eloise

I’m taken to the hospital and given a bunch of tests to make sure I don’t have any damage or internal bleeding. She hit me good.

Besides the contusion on my face, I have a mild concussion. The doctor suspects I fell on something instead of going straight to the floor. But they want to keep me here overnight to make sure nothing develops.

The nurse comes in and glares at Conor. “She needs her sleep,”

“Think of me as a teddy bear to a six-year-old. Would you kick a teddy bear out?”

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