In Shining Whatever (Three Magic Words Trilogy #2)(23)

"I'm good for something, chere," he said in a perfect Cajun drawl.

"You calling me a sissy?"

"No, ma'am. Not in my weakened state. I wouldn't dare."

She removed the CD and put the Zac Brown in. She turned down the music when the first song started. "This reminds me of Theron and Fancy. She and Theron had a fight and she went home to her beaches that she loved as much as I do the Bayou Teche. Theron figured out he couldn't live without her, so he went down there and proposed on the beach. She was sitting in the sand and her toes were in the water, so to speak."

"He let her go after a fight?" Hart asked.

"She ... well ... we all said that before we ever got married, the feller we were interested in would have to say the three magic words," she explained.

He looked at her quizzically. "What?"

"Three magic words. Theron had to say them."

"I love you?" he asked.

"That's a given. They aren't magic. Everyone has their own magic words, Hart. Fancy's were `a forever thing.' Theron had to promise her that or she would never marry him, and he didn't think he had it to give, not after that first wife of his. Anyway, he finally figured out he did have the magic words, because he'd never given them to Maria in the first place."

"You aren't making much sense."

"Not to you, but it made perfect sense to me and Sophie," Kate said.

"So what are your three magic words if `I love you' isn't enough?"

"`I love you' won't ever be enough," Kate said softly.

"You going to tell me your magic ones?"

"Not tonight."

They listened to the whole CD and were into the third or fourth song on the mixed tape when a nurse knocked on the window. She motioned that they had to go back inside and led the way.

"Walking in the halls does not mean going outside. You are going back to your room, Mr. Ducaine," she fussed. She had a gray bun on top of her head, and her voice left no room for arguments.

She checked his blood pressure and his heart, took his temperature, and huffed out of the room once she had him safely back in bed with the rails up. She tried to run Kate off by telling her that he needed his rest, but Hart was quick to inform her that he'd check himself out of the hospital if Kate couldn't stay with him.

"I feel like I'm back in grade school and she's the wicked principal," Hart whispered.

"Shhh," Kate giggled. "She'll call your momma and give you a detention slip. She'll tell the doctor not to let you go home when it gets light."

Hart shuddered.

"See, cher, it could be much worse."

"So I'm more than a friend now?" he asked.

"Honey, I'm slap silly. By the time we get you home tomorrow morning, you may be more than you want to be "





The doctor made his rounds before eight the next morning and released Hart, with instructions to go to his attending physician on Friday to have the wound checked and redressed. If everything went well, the stitches would be removed in seven to ten days.

When he left, Kate put on her shoes and jacket. "I'll go see what I can find open, and get you some flannel bottoms to wear home while they get the paperwork ready."

He yawned. "I might take a nap"

"If you do, I'll put a voodoo on you. You're not about to go to sleep until I can," she threw at him as she left.

She was the first customer in the Dollar Store that morning. The only pajama bottoms they had were leftovers from Christmas, printed with Rudolph's antlers tangled up in lights. She didn't care if they had Care Bears or the Disney Princesses on them. She wanted the night to be over so she could go home, take a long hot shower, brush her teeth, and fall into bed for twelve hours. She picked up a package of plain white T-shirts. She thought about socks, but if the pair he wore the day before wouldn't do, he could just shove his bare feet down in his boots.

She went through the Dairy Queen drive-through window and picked up half a dozen sausage biscuits. She was working on the second one when she arrived back in his room. Hart was looking forlornly at the breakfast tray before him.

"I hate oatmeal," he whispered.

She held up the sack. "Want a sausage biscuit?"

He reached for the bag. "You just fell from heaven."

"So are you ready to go?"



"They haven't brought in the paperwork yet. I asked the breakfast lady and she said it'll take an hour or so."

He was on the second biscuit when she held up his new Rudolph britches.

"What the ... ?" he sputtered.

"It's what they had. You have a choice: Rudolph or wearing a gown, or else staying here until I can go to your place and get some jeans," she said.

"Then Rudolph it is," he said.

She was running on raw nerves when the nurse finally came in with the papers to release Hart. She waited outside the room until he was dressed, then the nurse wheeled him out to the door, and, like a limo driver, Kate picked him up.

"Don't get used to this," she said, as she drove a couple of blocks to Highway 180 and turned east. In half an hour she'd have him unloaded and be on her way back into town to her own pillow, which looked better by the minute.