Page 58 of A Match Made In Evan
“Wha—?” I start, and my voice sounds weird to my own ears. Groggy and strained.
“You’re in the hospital, love.”
Hospital?
Still squinting, and feeling dizzy and disoriented, I ask, “Why?”
Mumtsks. “You don’t remember?”
I’d tell her I wouldn’t ask if I did, but that would take up too much energy. I manage a mumbled, “Nup.”
“There was an accident. You got hit by a car.”
I…what?!
“James said it came out of nowhere. You were just stepping off the footpath at the doctor’s.”
James…
“You chose a pretty good place to get into an accident, at least,” Dad’s voice pipes up from the other side of what has to be my hospital bed.
“That’s not funny, Den,” Mum scolds him.
If I had the energy, I’d laugh, because it did appeal to my lame sense of humour. Dad’s where I get it from.
“Ev thinks it is,” he defends himself, “don’t you, bud?”
“Uh huh,” I force the answer out as my struggling eyelids get heavier.
Mum pats my hand again. I know it’s her, because the touch is soft. Plus it’s on the same side of the bed as her voice. “The nurse said you’ll sleep a bit, yet. It’s okay. We’ll all be here when you wake up again.”
“J’mes?” I ask, because I haven’t heard his voice yet and I need to.
“He took Mia home,” Mum explains. “He’ll be back soon, love. Just rest.”
I give in to the heaviness of my eyelids and drift off.
When I wake up again, there’s less pain and my head feels less foggy. There’s also a big, warm hand closed over mine, and I squeeze it the second I realise that it’s Jay.
“Hey,” he sounds relieved and tired.
I slowly open my eyes and he comes into focus as I adjust to the light. “Hey,” I greet him back. I want to reach out and cup his face, but my limbs feel heavy.
I close my eyes as he cards fingers through my hair. “How are you feeling?”
“Sore.” I frown, vague memories of talking to my mum filtering back to me. “Was I…was there a car?”
Jay’s handsome face falls and he nods. “Guy came flying around the corner just as we were leaving the doctor’s. You’d already stepped out to cross into the carpark. You shoved Mia and me back, but you didn’t have time to get out of the way. He saw you too late. Slammed on the brakes, but…” his voice is thick with emotion. “It was awful, Ev. You were in surgery for hours. I thought…”
“It’s gonna take more than some idiot who can’t follow road rules to get rid of me, baby,” I tell him, and he swallows hard.
“I love you,” he says, then he looks down and mumbles, “I told our parents about us.”
Warmth spreads through me. “Yeah?” He nods. A smile curls my lips. “I’m so proud of you, Jay.”
The blue of his eyes pops against the red rims and dark circles underneath them as he looks back up at me. “You are? Even if I outed you to our parents? All of them?”
I chuckle and then wince at the pain that blossoms in my abdomen and chest. “Yeah, babe. All of them. How’d they take it?”
