In Shining Whatever (Three Magic Words Trilogy #2)(53)

She bristled. "I don't know why I'm here or how I got here. I went home with Minnette," she said.

"I don't want to talk to you." Hart turned his back to her and shut his eyes. "Wake me when Bubba comes back."

She bounced on the bed and slapped him on the shoulder. "Well, I don't want to talk to you either, so I'm going home. I know where the old pirogue is hiding back behind the outhouse. You want to go with me, I might be nice and let you. You want to stick around till Bubba comes back for you, that's fine by me. What were those people thinking when they put us out here together?"

He rolled over to face her. "Did I hear you say there's a boat that will get us off here?"

"Emergency boat, and I remember the way back out of here. We can catch a ride into town. I've got credit cards in my purse," she said.

"Well, halle-dang-lujah!" He was out of the bed so fast, he looked like a blur.

Kate slipped her feet into her sandals and rifled through the duffel bag for her purse, but it wasn't there. It posed a setback, but nothing she couldn't overcome. Surely Hart had a couple of credit cards or a few dollars in cash in his jeans.

"Those fools didn't bring my purse. What have you got?" she asked.

He stuck his hand in his hip pocket and came back with nothing. No wallet. No comb. He found the exact same thing in his front pockets. Not even a bit of change. Bubba must have picked his pocket.

"I'm orderin' one of Maw Maw's gris-gris bags!" She kicked the wall.

"We'll hitch," he said.

"In different directions, I'm here to tell you"

When he was fully dressed, he picked up his duffel bag and followed her out onto the screened-in porch, where she stopped dead in her tracks. He ran into her backside and, if he hadn't grabbed her, she would have gone sprawling.

"I'm sorry," he said.

She pointed to a piece of paper tacked to the doorjamb. Written in lovely handwriting was a note:

Don't come hunting me down when you get back. Bubba will come and get you both in a few days. It was all Maw Maw's idea. She said if you two were on an island together without any interference, youd come to your senses. We just did what she told its to do. Bubba left supplies with Hart, but I was afraid she'd forget the essentials, so I made Claud bring a garbage-bagful too. It'll he setting on the dock, because I'm pretty sure he'll be in a hurry to get out of there before Hart wakes up. Oh, and one other thing. There's a storm brewing off the coast and the old emergency boat ain't there, there. Bubba hooked onto it as he left and brought it back with him. Looks like a big tropical but not a hurricane. Hang on to that cowboy and maybe you won't blow away. He'll keep you safe. Love, Minnette

"They drugged me, Hart. Some relatives they are," Kate fumed.

Hart read the note and sat down on the porch floor with a thud. Hope that sprang eternal had just been killed with a bullet called a note. If he hadn't been a grown man, he would have cried.

"We are stuck," she whispered.

"Guess so."

"I'm not going to come to my senses, whatever that means. I'm going to live through this, get back home, and take my old job back. Then I'm never speaking to my relatives again."

"I plan on a brawl out in a barroom parking lot. Bubba Boudreaux is going down for this, and I'm never speaking to your relatives again, either."

"What did you bring in with you?" Kate asked.

"It's all inside the door. Mostly beans and rice and macaroni and cheese," he said.

"Whatever Maw Maw had in the cabinet, probably. Well, go on down there and bring back whatever Minnette sent," she said.

"Why should I bring anything back? I toted up the batch left with me. You go get whatever they sent with you," he said.

It was mean, but he didn't care. Look what being a gentleman and resisting Corrine's joke got him. Kidnapped. Thrown out in the swamp with Kate, who hated him.

"Can you cook?"

"Not very much, but I reckon I can heat up a can of beans if it comes to that or starving," he said.

"I can make something out of nothing. So I'll cook; but you have to go get that bag out there," she said.

"I'll live on beans straight out of a can. Right now I don't think I'll need food for a week" He picked up his duffel and went back into the house with it. It was a silly fight, but Kate was not going to dominate the whole week, and if he didn't stop it right there, she certainly would.

She jumped up, stomped the wood floor of the porch, and went back inside to look at what was sitting inside the door. Cans of beans. Two bags of rice. A dozen boxes of Kraft macaroni and cheese. A couple of cans of black-eyed peas. A jar of jalapeno peppers and two onions. Two large cans of ham shaped in an oval.

"Hart Ducaine, if you don't go get that bag, then you can't have a bit of my coffee. Maw Maw didn't pack any for you, and I know Minnette wouldn't leave me out here without any, so there'll be some in my bag down by the dock."

That stopped him in his tracks. He dropped the duffel in the middle of the floor and turned around. "You aren't playing fair."

"All's fair in swamp living. It's the he-man's job to bring in the bag and the she-woman's job to make the coffee."