Summers' Love, A Cute and Funny Cinderella Love Story (LPC Romantic Comedy Series) (26 page)

Stu swiped over to his author’s page on Amazon. “Shooting up, all of them. Even my hard-to-find self-published recipe book,
Table Scraps for Two,
reached number one status in the culinary books category.”

Hattie went to the narrow closet in the corner, opened it and began yanking his clothes off the hangers. Stu shot one brow up as he watched her. Angry though she was, once his tux and shirt were draped over the chair, she folded them carefully before stuffing them into a plastic hospital bag.

Stu said, “I really don’t think you need to worry about taking my things to the dry cleaners.”

Hattie shook her head as though his audacity was more than she could comment on. “You really think those reporters are going to let you just waltz out of this hospital without bombarding you with a gazillion questions? We need a diversion. Put those on,” she said, pointing to the scrubs.

Stu reached for the bottoms and held them up. “These things are …” he pulled at the tag, “… like six times too large for me. Earl wouldn’t be able to keep these from falling off his butt.”

Hattie gave him her best don’t-mess-with-me look. “Well then I suggest you pull the drawstring tight. You don’t want to expose yourself to any more public embarrassment than you already have.” She jerked her head to the right. “You can change in the bathroom. Meantime, I’m going to make up your bed.”

Stu tossed his phone into the chair. “I think the hospital has people who do that, Hattie.”

“
Go
,” she said, pointing toward the bathroom, letting him know she meant business.

Stu was way past arguing with Hattie. She had the look of a senior citizen on her way to the front of the Denny’s buffet breakfast line. Once he made it into the bathroom, he kept the door ajar so they could continue to talk without shouting. “What sort of diversion did you have in mind?” he asked.

“You know the story about the two spies of Jericho?”

Stu stepped behind the door, pulled at the gown’s ties and let it fall to the floor in a puddle around his feet. He first pulled on the pants, then dropped the shirt over his head. Dressed in blue scrubs, he stepped from the bathroom and gave her a look that suggested he did not know the story.

“I don’t know why I even asked. Of course you don’t. It’s in the Bible.”

“I’ve read some of the Bible.”

“Apparently not enough. The two spies snuck out of the city by climbing out a window.”

He eyed the window of his room, which appeared solid and sealed shut.

“We are going to use a different diversion to get you out of here,” Hattie suggested, handing him a surgeon’s mask.

“You want me to wear this, too?”

“And this hair cap.”

Stu concealed his hair and mouth and looked at his reflection in the over-the-sink mirror. “I look like Papa Smurf.”

“Get back in the bathroom and stay there,” Hattie said as she handed him his phone and his shoes and a pair of shoe covers. “You’ll know when the time is right to walk out. Just keep your ear near the door.”

He pulled the bathroom door shut behind him and slipped his phone into a back pocket. The shoe covers barely fit over his black, polished shoes. He closed the door within an inch of it being fully shut and leaned against the frame. Waiting, he scanned the apps on his phone, looking for what he hoped would be a message—any message—from Kate. He began to wonder if his heartfelt apology and plea for forgiveness had been a huge waste of time. Maybe she hadn’t even heard it. Maybe she was already on the plane, winging her way back home. Or perhaps she
had
heard it and, like the others, thought this was a publicity stunt.

Or maybe she just didn’t care … didn’t love him the way he loved her.

An intercom bonged in the next room. A voice barked over the loudspeaker. Moments later, medical personnel rushed into his hospital room. He could hear the chattering voices on the other side of the door. One in particular, a male baritone, was saying: “That’s the call button, ma’am. If you’re looking for the TV remote, it’s right here.” Momentary mumbling, followed by, “Where’s the patient?”

“Patient?” he heard Hattie ask.

“That’s supposed to be in this bed?” said the male voice.

In all the time he’d known her, Stu had never heard Hattie lie, not about anything. Not even about her age.

“A call button, I would have never guessed. And you’re saying if I want to watch television, I need to use …”

“Come with me, ma’am. I’ll help you find your way back to the elevator.”

Stu checked his phone one last time to see if he had a message from Kate.

Nothing.

The murmuring voices and squeaking of shoes receded. He cracked the door and peeped out. At the very last second he slipped out of the bathroom and, keeping his head down, fell in behind a nurse exiting the room. He used the bulk of Earl Butler as a shield and disappeared down the hallway on his way to the stairwell.

* * *

Kate pounded on the door of the shuttle, yelling for the driver to open and let her on. When he finally did, she threw herself inside. The shuttle lurched forward. Kate stumbled down the aisle and took a seat next to Red.

“Thanks for making the driver wait,” Kate said, out of breath.

“Did you get everything?”

“Who knows?” Kate let out a huge sigh and, looking out the window, watched as the shuttle turned onto East Bay Street. “I wish I could have seen the end of the press conference. I’m dying to know what he said about me.”

“Maybe when you get home you can watch it online.”

Home. What home? Kate wondered. The one roped off with crime scene tape? The one I broke into? The home in foreclosure? She found it impossible to believe that it had only been a week since she hosted a stun gun party that led to meeting Stu Summers. Her compulsion to up and visit Ocracoke had been so out of character. Sure, getting the books signed was part of her motivation but she had to admit the idea of personally meeting a famous author also intrigued her.
Only he’s not a famous author. Not really. He’s just a good-looking guy passing himself off as something he is not. Like my fiancé!

With eyes closed, Kate rested her head against the window. Still, he doesn’t
act
like a cheat, Kate said to herself. Who goes on television and admits he deceived his book publisher and the public? Certainly not someone trying to protect his public persona.

“Hey, look what I found!” Red angled her smartphone so Kate could see the screen. “His press conference is already on YouTube.”

Red turned up the volume; Kate leaned in, listening.

“Oh, and to the person who tased me with her stun gun, the woman with whom I am madly in love and want to spend the rest of my life with, to her I want to say: ‘You had me at hello.’ ‘You complete me.’ That there are a million tiny little things that caused me to fall for you and when you add them all up, they total us. Together. The fame thing isn’t really real, you know. Don’t forget, I’m just a boy, standing in front of a bank of microphones, asking a girl to love him.”

“Seriously?” Red said. “This hack can’t even write his own love lines?”

“Hush!”

“I don’t know much, Kate Winston, but I know this.” The cameras zoomed in on Stu.

Kate took note of the softness in his gaze and the way his smile, normally so wide and white, appeared restrained, sad.

“We can only find our true identity when we are joined with another person. And I don’t mean that in a sexual way but on a soul level. God wired us for relationships, for dependence on Him. Before we met, I tried so hard to protect the Stu Summers brand, but you saw through me, Kate. Maybe you didn’t know it at the time, but you gave me the courage to become the man I was made to be. I had to lose myself to find you, Kate. And I would do it again in a heartbeat.”

Red eyed her. “You’re not buying this, are you?”

“I don’t know.” Kate chewed on her bottom lip. “He might be telling the truth this time.”

“Girl, you can’t believe a word he says. He’s in the business of making stuff up.” Red paused the video and shook her head slowly. “He knew everything about you, Kate, and used it in a book. Used
you
. He set up the whole thing.”

“No, he didn’t,” she replied softly. “He may have started out with the idea of using me as a character in his book, but he didn’t make me fall in love with him. I did that on my own. Please, can I hear the rest of it?”

Red pressed PLAY. “I still think you’re getting snookered by this gooberhead.”

“When we first met, I asked if you believed in love,” Stu was saying. “I think maybe I was asking that question as much of myself as of you. But I believe in love, now, Kate. I believe love never gives up; I will not give up on us, no matter how hard things get. Love never loses faith; I will be faithful to you, no matter what. Love remains hopeful. Days, weeks, years from now, regardless of if I ever see or hear from you again, I will continue to wait for you. Regardless of the circumstances, I will love you forever.”

“Stop the bus!” Kate charged to the front of the bus.

The driver, looking at her in the rearview mirror, said
“Here?
We’re in the middle of an intersection.”

“I need to get off!” Kate lunged toward the side door next to the luggage rack, pounding her fists.

“Okay, lady, all right.”

The driver braked. The shuttle door opened. Kate jumped out, eyes scanning the sidewalk for a bike or scooter, anything she could use to get to the hospital.

“Hey, where you going?” Red yelled from the door.

“To tell the man I love that I believe in him.”

Out of the corner of her eye, she spied a bicycle-type rickshaw with “PediCab” stenciled across the back of the passenger seat’s canopy. Its driver stood next to the vehicle, his back to Kate.
Breaking and entering, assault with a deadly weapon, defaulting on her mortgage
… Kate quickly considered her growing rap sheet. “Oh, why not?” she asked out loud. She snatched the handlebars of the PediCab and leapt onto the bike. Without another thought, she pedaled as fast as her legs allowed.

It wasn’t until she heard screaming behind her that Kate realized she had passengers.

Chapter Thirty-two

For the umpteenth time, Kate craned her neck and glanced around the PediCab’s bonnet canopy. A police car was behind her, coming up fast, weaving around traffic with ease. Not good, she thought. Not good at all. She threw a quick glace at her hijacked passengers. The elderly couple huddled together, looks of terror on their faces.

“I’m sorry,” she said, “but I didn’t have any choice. I’m desperate.” The woman, who reminded Kate of Betty White, squeezed the man’s arm tighter and began sobbing.

Kate peddled faster. Her calves and thighs burned. Bangs damp with sweat blurred her vision. As she approached the intersection, the light turned red. “Crud,” she muttered, tapping the brakes. Kate peeked into the PediCab’s small, round mirror attached to the handlebar. Less than a block behind her she saw the police cruiser, blue lights flashing, blow through a red light. “Crud,” she said, again.

Boosting the PediCab was a reckless and dumb idea, but she had to get to the hospital. Had to tell Stu she was sorry. About all of it. While still waiting for the light to change she rehearsed her speech. “I’m sorry, so very sorry, that I tased you. I’m sorry for thinking you loved your career more than me, for accusing you of using me as a prop in your story. I should have been flattered. I should have known you would never do anything to hurt me, but I’ve lived with doubt, distrust, and deception for so long, —”

From the backseat, the elderly man said, “I need to use the restroom.”

Kate called over her shoulder. “We’ll be at the hospital any minute. It’s just a little bit further.”

“We’re going to get out here.”

“Come on,” she muttered under her breath, “change, already.” A city bus pulled out, blocking the intersection. “Crud, crud, crud.”

The light turned green; the bus had her boxed in. Kate peeked at the mirror and saw the police car half a block back. She gripped the handlebars, heart pounding, willing the bus to move. The man helped his wife out and, clasping hands, the pair waddled toward the sidewalk. As the bus accelerated, a plume of diesel exhaust engulfed the PediCab.

“Finally!”

Kate stood, pumping the pedals hard. The hospital couldn’t be far away. Please be there. Please, please, please.

* * *

Stu slid into the cab of Hank’s pick up.

Hattie, revving the engine, glanced over and asked, “Anybody see you?”

“Don’t think so.” Stu slammed the passenger door shut and pulled the hair cap from his head. He’d already ditched the surgical mask in a lobby trashcan.

“Where to?”

Stu removed the shoe coverings and stuffed them under the passenger’s seat. “Airport.”

Hattie put the truck in gear. “Alrighty then. Better buckle your seatbelt.”

Hattie stomped the gas pedal. The truck sped across the parking lot toward the hospital exit. Stu was still trying to latch the belt buckle when they turned eastbound onto Calhoun Street.