In Shining Whatever (Three Magic Words Trilogy #2)(18)

"So do I," Kate said.

"They aren't going to let me drive to the Dairy Queen. It's your call. We eating out or staying in for Jell-O and broth?"

She stood up and walked out to the nurse's desk where Steve was doing paperwork. She asked him about food for the patient, and he said Hart could eat whatever he wanted, but if it nauseated him, to ring the call button.

She stuck her head back inside the room and said, "Steve says you can eat. What's the order?"

"Double cheeseburger, two large fries, and a chocolate malt. That might get me by until midnight when I'll need a snack, so stop by the convenience store or the grocery store and get us some junk food. Pretzels and chocolate cupcakes and a six-pack of soda. Surely they have ice here. Take my wallet. It's in the drawer, and there's money in it."

"No thanks. I'll pay for it. You can get it next time." Mercy! Why did crazy words keep coming out of her mouth? There wasn't going to be a next time.

He smiled. "I'll hold you to that. Dinner on Saturday night, then?"

"Hamburgers when I'm laid up in a hospital bed overnight," she shot back as she disappeared out the door.

Not until she was outside did she realize she was several blocks from the Eagle's Nest, where her truck was parked. Hart would have to go hungry a little longer, but a walk would work the tension knots out of her body. She would have run if she had on the right shoes, but since she'd opted for black flats that afternoon for the career thing at school, she set off at a brisk pace. Two blocks up Gregg Street she made a turn onto Fisher, and kept going the better part of five more blocks until she reached the Eagle's Nest, where her truck sat waiting.

She fished around in her purse for her keys and almost panicked when she thought she'd lost them. But there they were, tangled up in the center zippered pocket, the very place she never put them. Leave it to Hart to tie her up in knots so tight she couldn't even put her keys in the right place. She unlocked the truck and slid inside, moaning aloud when she saw her holster and gun lying right out in plain sight. It was a wonder someone hadn't bashed in a window to steal it.

Before starting the engine, she put the weapon into the glove box and locked it. Then she drove to the Dairy Queen, ordered from the drive-through, and waited in line for takeout. She stopped at a convenience store on the way back to the hospital and picked up two small bags of pretzels, several candy bars, and four packages of chocolate cupcakes.

She locked the truck when she got back to the hospital and went in through the front doors. She carried three bags of food in one hand and a cardboard drink holder in the other.

Hart was sitting up in bed, eating Jell-O. "Don't give me that dirty look. It's barely enough for an appetizer."

Steve pushed a machine into the room. "Time for vitals." He checked Hart's blood pressure; it was slightly elevated. "Little higher than it was this afternoon."

"With good reason" Hart waggled his eyebrows at Kate.

Steve chuckled. He was a short, round man with a spare tire around his middle.

"My wife does the same thing to me. Any time she gets all dolled up to go out on the town with me, my blood pressure hikes up-twenty- points"

Kate fought the blush, but she lost the battle. "We're not married. I just said that to get into the emergency room with him."

"You fight like you are," Steve said, as he pushed the machine out into the hallway.





Thank goodness for that rule about not talking with food in your mouth. At least while they ate supper, Kate didn't have to think about conversation. She carried the empty containers to a trash can outside, so the room wouldn't smell like burgers and grease all night. She checked the big clock on the wall behind the nurse's station: seven o'clock.

She fished her cell phone from the pocket of her jacket, leaned against the wall a few doors down from Hart's room, and called Fancy.

"Is he all right?" Fancy answered.

"He's fine, but the doctor would still like him to stay awake through the night if possible. I've got a problem," Kate said.

"Spit it out"

"When you rode all the way to Decatur with Theron and then got iced-in all those days, what in the hell did you talk about?"

Fancy giggled. "We had a little kid with us. You want to borrow Tina?"

"It's not funny," Kate snapped.

"Sorry, but it is funny. When I called you to get in touch with my mother and the beauty-shop ladies when I was iced-in at that cabin, you thought my predicament was pretty humorous. It's my turn to laugh," Fancy said.

"Well, get it over with and tell me what to do," Kate said.

In November of the previous year, Theron called Fancy one night and asked her to drive to Decatur with him to get his daughter. It was supposed to be a quick trip to Decatur to pick up Tina and then return to Albany, but the weather turned bad. They spent the better part of a week stuck in the cabin.

"Well?" Kate said after a few seconds.

"Pretend you are on a stakeout in Louisiana. What did you talk about with your partner?" Fancy said.

"That was my partner. He was bald and married and had four kids and grandkids to boot"

"Pretend Hart is bald and married. What would you talk about now?"

"You're no help at all," Kate said.