Louie approached.
Or maybe it was Axel, I wasn’t sure. Just they both were there all of a sudden.
I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
“Who would do this?” I whispered. “Who would destroy an old woman’s dream?” My knees started to quake, and the world turned upside down.
That’s when I felt warm arms wrap around me.
It was like everything floated for a second.
“I got you, honey.”
“I’ll call Celestial Springs,” I heard someone say.
Everything felt fuzzy.
Quiet.
But not.
Like
I blinked and looked around.
A light flashed in my eyes.
“What the hell?”
“She’s coming around,” came a voice I didn’t know.
Then my mom swam into my line of sight.
“Mom?”
“Hi there, princess. How are you doing?”
I pushed myself up. “Wha—what happened?”
“I believe the technical language is you went into shock and fainted,” Louie said.
I felt something and turned, realizing someone was taking my blood pressure. “It’s coming back down now.”
“I fainted?” I repeated.
The fireman who was taking it pulled the cuff off. “Miss, over here.”
I nodded, smelling smoke everywhere.
“Is there a fire?” I started to bolt up. “The smoke, I smell—”
Mom put her hand on my shoulder. “Calm down, Winter. It’s the coat.”
“Coat?” I looked around, and everything started to come into focus.
I was sitting on the floor inside Shaun’s shop, a fire fighter’s coat laying over my legs—my bare legs. I leaned down and smelled the residual smoke.
“It’s the coat,” I muttered.
