Page 107 of Pleasure Island

37

Liam

“Bumps, bruises, and scrapes.” That was the pronouncement of the paramedic who had just finished inspecting me.

He’d told Mila the same thing.

We sat in one of the offices tucked behind the check-in counter in the lodge’s main building.

Millie sat on Mila’s other side, clutching her granddaughter’s hand.

At the paramedic’s words, Mila slumped against me, her head lolling as if she no longer had the strength to support it.

While the paramedic stood up and started packing up the supplies he’d pulled out of his bag, I curled my free arm around Mila and buried my face against her neck.

She was here.

She was alive.

Bumped, bruised, and scraped, but alive.

She shuddered against me, and I reached up, tucked the blanket more completely around her before adding mine to it. I felt chilled to the bone myself, but it had nothing to do with my body temperature or the wet clothes, so I didn’t expect a blanket would help.

Mila started to sob quietly.

Over her head, I met Millie’s eyes for a brief moment before closing mine.

Mila squirmed closer.

I eased her into my lap, once more tucking the blankets snug around her. She twisted free of them though and tugged her hand from her grandmother’s, wrapping both of her arms around my neck.

We sat like that for what felt like a very long time, and I told myself over and over again that she was okay.

She was here.

She was alive.

She was okay.

Mila shuddered harder, and I worried she might be going into shock.

I slid a hand under her cheek and eased her head up until our eyes could meet. Her pupils were dilated, but just a little and when she saw me looking at her, she reached up, touching my cheek. “I was so scared,” she said, her voice breaking.

“Me too.”Scareddidn’t quite touch what I felt when I’d seen the guy pulling her into the water.

She shuddered again.

Millie got to her feet. “Child, you’re freezing – both of you. I’m going to get you some coffee.”

“I don’t–”

I pressed my thumb to Mila’s lips. “It will help. I don’t want you going into shock.”

She slumped against me once more, and I hooked my arm around her neck. We clung to each other so tight, nothing but wet clothes and blankets separated us. And that was still too many things between us.

“Mind if I come in?”

I looked up, focusing on the tired-eyed man who’d arrived from the mainland, along with several police officers just as the security team had hauled Mila’s assailant into the lodge.

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