Chapter Three
C athy stirred. She was pleasantly drowsy in the dimly lit hospital room, yet the urge to open her eyes was strong. She’d been awake on and off most of the day. She supposed she should try to stay up a little longer, but the thought of sleep tempted her.
She shifted, trying to get comfortable. Except for a few aches scattered throughout her body, most of the pain radiated from the bump on her head and her injured right knee.
She’d been awake when Dr. Tucker had made his rounds late this afternoon, and he’d explained her condition.
She’d been lucky, he’d told her. She could have died.
Cathy knew that was true. She tried not to think about those horrible minutes while she’d waited for the fire department to come rescue her. If Stone hadn’t stayed on the line with her, she would have lost it for sure.
Stone. She relaxed and smiled faintly. He’d been so good to her, keeping her calm, telling her that she was going to be safe. He’d sent her enough flowers to fill a greenhouse. That was so kind of him.
She missed him and hoped that he missed her, too.
It would be a while before she would be able to work.
The thought of them not being able to talk upset her, so she decided not to deal with that right now.
There were other pressing worries—her job, for one.
Was the company still in business? Plus there was the issue of her medical bills.
She doubted all of them would be covered by insurance.
Her smile faded and with it, her good humor.
She didn’t want to think about any of this. It would be better to sleep.
She drew in a deep breath and forced herself to relax. The pain throbbed in time with her heartbeat, but she was due for a shot soon and that would help. In the meantime, she would close her eyes and allow herself to drift away. Her problems would still be waiting when she was stronger.
“They told me you were awake, but I guess they were wrong.”
The statement hung in the air. Cathy tensed instantly, not sure if she’d imagined the words or if they’d really been spoken. That voice! It couldn’t be. Stone? Here?
Excitement ripped through her, only to crash headlong into the wall of reality. If Stone was really here, then he could see her. Horror flooded her. He might already know the truth, or if he didn’t, he would soon figure it out.
No. This couldn’t be happening. She’d imagined the voice. After all, she’d hit her head pretty hard and she’d been out of it for a couple of days. That was it. She wasn’t in her right mind.
Someone moved into the room. She didn’t dare open her eyes, but she felt a presence —his presence. A chair scraped against the floor, then he took her hand in his.
The contact was warm, gentle and oddly familiar.
Perhaps because she’d imagined it a thousand times, she told herself.
Over the past two years, as she relived their phone calls, she’d fantasized about him coming to meet her, about him taking her in his arms and telling her that he felt things for her he’d never felt for another woman.
Foolish dreams, she thought, not quite able to believe this was really happening. Stone was here?
“Cathy?” he murmured. “Can you hear me? Mary, the night nurse, said you were awake. How are you feeling?”
She didn’t want to open her eyes. If she kept them closed, then he wasn’t real.
But he was. Shame filled her. For the deception and the lies, and for the truth he must now know about her. She wasn’t sure which would be worse. His contempt or his pity.
“Please go away,” she whispered.
“Not exactly the greeting I was hoping for. You could at least put a ‘hi’ in front of it. As in, ‘Hi, Stone. Nice to meet you. Now please go away.’”
Her eyes burned with unshed tears. “You’re laughing at me.”
“No, I’m trying to make us both feel a little better. Come on, try it. ‘Hi, Stone.’ How hard could it be?”
He had no idea, she thought, turning away from him.
A single tear trickled down her temple and got lost in her hair.
She moaned softly. Her hair. It wasn’t enough that she didn’t have the friends she’d told him, but she didn’t look like he thought, either.
He was expecting a leggy blonde with a beauty-pageant figure.
Instead, she was a dumpy, overweight pale woman with plain features and mousy brown hair.
“I thought you might like some company,” he said. “Am I wrong?”
“Not you,” she managed to answer as tears thickened her throat.
“I see.”
He released his hold on her hand. She was suddenly cold.
Silence filled the room. Finally he cleared his throat. “I thought we were friends.”
That got her attention. Involuntarily her head swung toward him, and she opened her eyes.
Stone Ward was really in her hospital room. She saw the outline of him in the shadows. She couldn’t make out individual features, but she saw he was a powerful man, tall with broad shoulders. His hair looked dark.
“How can you say that?” she asked. “You have to know the truth about me. About what I told you.” She sucked in a breath and caught at the hem of her sheets. “About the lies.” The last three words came out as a whisper.
He moved toward her, captured her hand and laced his fingers with hers. She felt warm again. Warm and comforted, not to mention confused. She squinted, wishing the room weren’t so dark so she could see him.
“None of that matters,” he told her.
“But—”
He cut her off with a quick shake of his head. “I mean it, Cathy. No distressing subjects for conversation. What matters is that you’re getting better. The rest of it can wait. How do you feel?”
She wasn’t sure how to answer the question.
She felt lost and uncertain. Her entire world had shifted, and she couldn’t find her balance.
Stone Ward was here, talking to her, holding her hand, acting as if she was important to him.
He didn’t seem to care that she’d lied about who and what she was.
But he had to care. She’d misled him and—
“I don’t understand,” she said softly. “Why are you being so nice to me? You should hate me or at least despise me.” She blinked, trying to see him more clearly. “Or did you always know it wasn’t true? Were you laughing at me?”
The grip on her hand tightened. “Cathy, no. Don’t think like that. I didn’t know anything. But that’s all right. Don’t you see? It was never the places you went or what you looked like that made me want to talk to you on the phone. It was how we always had a good time together.”
She wanted to believe him. The edges of her brain felt fuzzy and she supposed it was the painkillers they’d given her.
Suddenly she was too tired and out of it to argue.
Later, when she could really think, she would find a way to make sense of all this.
For now it was enough that he was here and she wasn’t alone.
“All right. Thank you for understanding.”
“My pleasure. Now, how are you feeling?”
“Sore.”
“Your knee?”
“And my head.”
“According to your doctor, you’re going to need surgery on your knee.”
She rubbed her temple. “He said something about that when he was here earlier. He said it won’t be any big deal, but I’ll be on crutches for a while afterward.”
Crutches. She didn’t want to deal with that, or the physical therapy he’d talked about. She had insurance through her work, but she wasn’t sure how good it was. Maybe the building owners would cover some of the expense, or their insurance would, because of the fire. Or maybe—
She bit her lower lip. She didn’t want to think about any of this now. Everything hurt too much, and she was too confused.
“Cathy?”
That voice. She still couldn’t believe that Stone was actually here, that he’d seen her and didn’t seem angry about her deception.
“Yes, sorry. I’m kind of out of it.”
“I understand.” He leaned close, but not close enough that he moved out of the shadows. “I don’t want you worrying about anything,” he said. “Everything is taken care of. The doctor, the surgeon, the physical therapy.”
“But it can’t be.”
“It is. I’m taking care of all the details. All you have to worry about is getting better.”
She looked at him, at the shape of him, and tried to figure out why he was being so nice to her. “I don’t understand.” Any of it, including him.
“It’s very simple. When they release you in a couple of days, I want you to come stay with me.
My house is large, and you’ll have plenty of room.
I’ve already arranged for a physical therapist to come by and help you.
My housekeeper will be there, too, and she’ll make sure you’re completely taken care of.
I want to do this, Cathy. The fire really scared me.
I was afraid something had happened to you. ”
She couldn’t have been more stunned if he’d suddenly started speaking a foreign language while performing a folk dance. “You want me to stay at your house?” Her voice was a squeak.
“Yes. The doctor said you shouldn’t be alone for a few days. Unless you have someone else who can look after you, you’re coming home with me.”
Someone else, she thought dully. As in family or friends. She had neither. “I can’t,” she told him.
“Of course you can. We’re friends. Friends look out for each other. You’d do the same for me if you could.”
He sounded confident, but she wasn’t so sure. She couldn’t imagine having anything that someone like him wanted or needed. She was just boring Cathy Eldridge. Nothing about her life was exciting or even the way it was supposed to be.
“My housekeeper will be there all the time,” he said. “So you don’t have to worry about being alone with me.”
Oh, yeah, that was her big concern. That Stone would suddenly lose control and want to attack her in the night. If she hadn’t felt so weak and tired, she might have smiled.
“It’s not that,” she managed to say.
“Then what is it? You’ll like the house. It has a nice view of the ocean. Think of it as a vacation.”