Page 36 of Mr. Swoony

“That’s between her and me.”

Nobody fights me on my plan.

“Well, you’d better shower and get that horrible smell off you if you want her to forgive you,” Rowan says.

Tweetie slaps me on the back. “I’ll get your kneepads.”

“I’m disgusted that you have kneepads,” Henry says with disdain.

“I’m a gentleman. I want my girls to be comfortable.” Tweetie winks.

We all groan, and I head to my bathroom to shower. As the warm water runs over my back, I consider what I’m going to say to Eloise to try to get her to forgive me. I can’t believe I was such a selfish asshole. Hopefully she’ll see that it was a moment of temporary insanity.

Sixteen

Eloise

The door to the bedroom I’m staying in opens, and my mom stands in the doorway.

I slide up the bed and lean my back along the headboard. “Hi, Mom.”

“I brought some donuts and bagels. There’s coffee downstairs too.” She sits on the edge of the bed. “How are you?”

I nod, tears welling in my eyes. “Did that really happen?”

She gives me a small smile. “Yeah, sweetie, it did.”

I tip to the side and bury my head in a pillow. “I can’t believe I did it.”

“Technically you didn’t. Can you tell me who this Conor boy is? Sam says he’s some hockey player?”

Oh, my mom, she watches sports about as much as me. “He plays for the Falcons.”

“Okay, but that doesn’t tell me who he is to you.”

She pulls the pillow out from under me, and I sit back up, grabbing it again and hugging it to my chest. “I have no idea why he came yesterday, but I met him the night of my bachelorette party. Nothing happened between us, not like that. He knew I was getting married.”

“Something must have happened if he thought you might pick him.”

I shrug and roll my eyes. “I liked him. Being with him felt comfortable, and it seemed like maybe we shared a connection. But I mean, it was one night.”

She remains quiet.

“And I don’t know. It was a nice night.” I shrug again. Still she doesn’t say anything, so I continue to fill the silence. “And he’s a good listener.”

Nothing.

“And he took me stargazing because he saw this list I made of things I wanted to do before I was thirty, and he wanted to help me cross something off.”

“Nice.” She smiles at me.

“He’s got a sweet tooth.”

Back to her silence.

“He told me not to settle. That I shouldn’t come second.”

My mom sighs. “Yesterday I hated him, but today I kind of like him. He’s right. But…”

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