Chapter 4

Kat woke up when Joey crawled into her full-sized bed around six am the next morning.

“It’s early!” she complained and rolled over. 

“Mom, I’m starving,” he griped and snuggled closer. 

Kat smiled against her will and stretched. She wasn’t the best morning person, but Joey could always cheer her up. Once she realized it was Saturday, her mood improved by about two hundred percent, and put on her robe, stuck her feet inside a pair of fluffy slippers and went downstairs to start breakfast. 

While they were enjoying oatmeal in the kitchen, they chatted about what they were going to do during the day. There was a light drizzle outside, so anything outdoorsy seemed a bit depressing. They decided on the library and the community indoor pool.  

After a few hours of books and swimming, they returned to the house where Kat found a small bag hanging on her front door. Inside was Tamara’s old phone. 

“Until you get a replacement!” read the scribbled note. 

That was actually quite helpful, so Kat went ahead and called her phone company who transferred her service to the borrowed phone. A voicemail was waiting in her inbox. It was Joey’s dad who asked if he could possibly take him Saturday night since he was traveling again the next week. She asked Joey if he wanted to go to his dad’s, and when Joey nodded enthusiastically, she called her ex-husband back to let him know he could pick up his son.

It was early afternoon, it was raining outside, and Kat’s evening just opened up. Crap. She really didn’t feel like sitting home alone. She texted Tamara and asked what they were up to that evening, and then settled down on the couch next to Joey, who had started on his new library book. When there was a knock on the door, she nudged Joey to open it, since no one was expected at the house except his dad. Joey jumped up and opened the door.

“Hey Daaaa…oh!Mom…” Joey hollered and took a step back from the doorway. 

Katrina looked up from her own book and saw an attractive guy standing in the doorway. He had dirty blonde hair flopping down over his forehead and he was wearing an expensive looking suit, perfectly fitted to his broad shoulders. He reminded her a bit of a younger Brad Pitt. The Brad Pitt look-alike was smiling down at Joey.

“I’m sorry if I disappointed you, little man.”

“He was expecting his father.” Katrina returned his smile and went to the door to greet her visitor. “What can I do for you?” 

“My name is Shane Davis.” The man shook Kat’s hand with a firm handshake. 

She knew it was silly, but she was very picky about handshakes. This was a good one. 

“I work for Theo Collins,” he continued, and Kat felt her hand slip out of his perfect shake.

“Oh...” she responded nervously. “I…” She couldn’t quite find the words so instead, she nodded toward Joey, hoping that this guy would understand not to say too much in front of her son. 

“I see.” Shane winked at her. He got it. 

Kat took a breath. “Would you care for a cup of coffee?” she asked. “In the kitchen?” she added pointedly. 

Shane nodded politely. “Please, if it’s not too much trouble.”

Kat led the way into the kitchen, past Joey who had long ago lost interest in the adults and was engulfed in his book about Percy and the lightning thief. 

“I’m sorry,” Kat apologized. “I don’t want him to hear anything about all this.” 

“I understand,” Shane replied “I will make it brief. Theo asked that I stop by and give you this.” He handed over a muddy cell phone. 

“Oh, you found it!” Kat exclaimed excitedly. “Somehow I doubt it’s in working condition.” She grinned and pulled off a long piece of grass that had gotten stuck in the mud covering her once working iPhone. 

Shane laughed with her. “You might be right. Theo said he will, of course, replace it for you.” 

“No need,” Kat declined the offer. “My friend gave me her old phone, so I’m back in business.” 

Shane nodded. “Listen, Katrina... Can I call you Katrina?” he asked and continued before she had a chance to reply. “I have been Theo’s agent for a long time… and right now he is dealing with some pretty rough stuff. Not just with this accident, but other personal matters.”

Kat nodded and sat down at the kitchen table while she waited for Shane to continue.

“Well, when I spoke to him today, I realized that in all this, he is feeling absolutely terrible about you getting hurt while getting him to safety. Mind you, Theo is not the type of guy that complains or admits to anything like that, but I know him well enough by now. He is having a really hard time with the fact that you could have easily died in that fire.”

Kat looked down at her hands and examined her cuticles. She was finding it difficult to hear about this and thinking about the accident all over again. was exactly what she didn’t want to do. She was trying to think of something to say when Shane came out and just said it.

“Theo really wants to see you again.”

 “Listen…” she started. “I don’t mind visiting him again. Of course I don’t. But I saw the news, and I really don’t want to be involved in any of that craziness.” 

Shane looked at her thoughtfully as he straightened his tie clip which was already straight to begin with.

“So if I can get you in and out of the hospital without any reporters spotting you, you will come with me?” he pressed on hopefully.

“Well, I can’t come right now.” Kat looked up at the wall clock. “My ex-husband will be here within the hour to pick up our son, but after that, I suppose I could.”

“Thank you, Katrina. I know he will appreciate you stopping by again. Oh, and this is for you.” 

He grabbed something from the inside pocket of his suit jacket and handed it to her. It was a check. Kat looked at it briefly and handed it back to him.

“Thanks, but I don’t want it. I appreciate the gesture, I really do, but what happened was not a paid service.” She shrugged. “I hope that if anything like that happens to me, or my family and friends, someone will be around to do the same thing. With or without a check in the end.”

Shane thoughtfully folded the check in half and put it back in his pocket before looking up at Katrina who was still seated at the table.

“You are a remarkable woman, Katrina,” he mused with a surprised smile. “I will have someone pick you up in about an hour, is that ok?”

Katrina nodded. She stood up and walked him back to the front door. 

“How did you find me, by the way?” she asked as he stepped outside onto her little front porch.  

“I have my ways.There is very little I can’t find.” 

“Somehow I don’t doubt that at all.” Katrina smiled back at Shane.

Katrina couldn’t help but like him. He was a straight-forward kinda guy, bordering on rudely b****, but he didn’t apologize for it. She continued with a more serious tone of voice.

“Just please make sure no one else finds me. I’m a private person as you can tell,” she gestured around her, where there was nothing but trees, bushes, and the small gravel driveway. 

“I will make sure of it,” Shane promised as he jumped into his Lincoln Navigator. 

He waved, honked twice and drove off while Katrina lingered on the porch for a moment longer. The amount of that check had been beyond generous. It could have made a huge difference for them had she accepted it, but she’d felt no hesitation when she handed it back to Shane. Kat looked around at the trees lining her little driveway. There was a calming sound as the rain pitter-pattered on the brightly colored leaves and she realized she was fully content with what she had. 

She was just about to go back inside when she spotted Patrick’s car coming down the driveway, so she called Joey, got his little backpack from the coat closet and waited on the porch with him. 

Once they were gone, Kat went back inside and quickly estimated that she had about forty-five minutes before someone would be back to pick her up and take her to the hospital. She looked in the mirror. She looked her typical ‘lazy weekend with my son.’ She was wearing jeans and a cute long sleeved shirt. No makeup. Her hair was still in a damp braid from the pool. For a second, she considered changing, but then she realized how silly she was acting. It wasn’t like she was going on a date. 

“I’m losing it,” she muttered.

Kat grabbed her cell phone and texted Tamara.

That accountant guy you wanted to set me up with -  I’m in. 

Then she quickly hit send before she could change her mind. She really needed to get out there and meet some people before she turned into one of those scary old ladies living alone with a bunch of cats. Her phone beeped, and she checked the message.

YES! I will set it up asap. He will love you! Tamara responded. Kat wondered why Tam hadn’t said anything about how she would like the guy, but she brushed it aside and tried to stay positive.

While she waited for her ride, Kat made herself a tomato sandwich. Hospital food wasn’t the best, and she was pretty hungry. Nothing like a sandwich with tomatoes from your own garden, she thought to herself while trying not to spill on her shirt. When she heard a car outside, she grabbed her purse, which had miraculously not been snagged from her unlocked car during the night of the accident and stepped outside. An old green Plymouth pulled to a stop, and Kat walked up to it and peered in the side window. An old woman in oversized sunglasses peered right back. 

“Please, come on in and have a seat.”

Kat walked around to the passenger side and opened the door. She slid in on the cream-colored leather seat and smiled at the woman behind the wheel. 

“I’m Katrina, nice to meet you,” She extended her hand. The handshake very much matched Shane’s and Kat could only assume that this spunky looking lady was his mother.

“Edith,” the woman replied. “Shane’s mother,” she added, confirming Kat’s suspicion. “And this here”—she patted the steering wheel with a very small, but strong looking hand—“is Bobby! He has served me faithfully for twenty-something years!”

Kat grinned. This was her kind of lady. 

“Edith, I can’t tell you how pleased I am to experience Bobby.”

Edith cackled a loud laugh, which was surprising considering she was such a small woman. 

“Young lady, just pray we get there. This piece of j*** breaks when you look at it for too long. I just can’t stand to give him up! He used to belong to my husband, may he rest in peace.”

Kat tried to hide an inappropriate smile as she managed a quick, “I’m so sorry to hear that.”

Edith huffed. “I am convinced he chose to die so he wouldn’t have to retire and spend unnecessary time with his wife.” Edith cackled again. “But he was one helluva man!”

Kat couldn’t help but laugh. “Edith, I think we will be best friends.” 

“Oh lovely!” Edith remarked as she sped down the driveway with gravel spraying behind them. “I so enjoy girl time! I also make a mean dry martini!” 

“It’s a date!” Kat laughed. “Quite possibly the most exciting date I have had in years!”

Edith looked over at Katrina and tut-tutted and shook her head.

“Now, that’s a damn shame! And a waste too!” she continued as she fiddled around with the radio. “I might have to make it a mission to find you a good man!” Toby Keith started to blare out of the old speakers, and they crackled threateningly. 

“Well Edith, you won’t be the first one to try.” 

“No matter! I will surely be the last!” Edith winked at her.

They chatted about all sorts of things, and before Kat felt fully ready, they were at the hospital. Edith parked in a handicap spot, and before Kat’s eyes, this strong and slightly nutty old lady, turned into a shadow of herself.

“Check this out,” she mumbled with another quick wink as she reached into the back seat and pulled up a cane that nearly took Katrina’s eye out. “Come around the side and take my arm. Now we will look like any mother and daughter coming in for an old biddy check-up!”

Katrina did as requested, and with the speed of a deathly wounded snail, Edith hunchbacked her way up to the hospital doors with a firm grip on Katrina’s arm. A few people were gathered around the entrance and Katrina assumed it was media. Edith paid them no more mind than they paid her and with the butt of her cane, Edith pressed the handicap button and the glass doors to the main lobby slid open. 

Once they had made it to the elevator and the doors closed behind them, Edith straightened back up and said, “Tadaaaa!”

“You were magnificent,” Kat marveled. 

“You learn a thing or two when you get to be my age,” Edith fluffed her wild curls. 

They walked down a long corridor and turned a couple of corners before Edith stopped near a closed door. She smiled at Kat and then pointed over her shoulder down a different hallway, painted a lovely shade of peach, instead of the trademark hospital green.

“The cafeteria is that way, so I will go have some tea and read while you chat with Theo. No rush at all, I can read for hours!” 

Kat watched as Edith gingerly made her way toward the cafeteria. She truly hoped she would age as well as Edith had. When the older lady finally disappeared from her view, she took a deep breath and then knocked quietly on the door to Theo’s room. There was no answer, but she cracked the door open an inch or two and peeked inside.

Theo was in bed. The TV was tuned to some sports channel, and he seemed to be dividing his attention between that and the cell phone in his hand. His hands were huge, Kat noticed. Funny how she had not realized that before. He still hadn’t noticed her, so she stepped into the room and closed the door behind her.

“Hey,” she announced, and he finally turned his head and noticed her.

“Hi!” he smiled. He placed the cell phone over on the side table, where it instantly beeped.

“Sorry,” he apologized and grabbed his phone again, switching it off. “Things are a little crazy.”

“You don’t have to apologize.” . She still couldn’t recognize his face from the pictures she had seen online. It was too banged up and swollen. But she knew his eyes.

“Sit down,” he offered and nodded toward a chair in the corner. “It’s good to see you again. I didn’t think I would after you took off yesterday.”

“I’m sorry about that,” Kat responded, slightly embarrassed, as she pulled the chair up closer to his bed. “I don’t do well with stuff like this. You know... Hospitals. Blood.”

“It seems to me, you did really well with it,” he remarked, and his eyes found hers again. 

There was something about those hazel eyes that seemed to look straight into her soul. It made Kat uncomfortable. She broke eye contact and looked up at the TV. He had a basketball game on.

“How are you doing though?” she finally asked. “Is it very painful?”

“They have me on all sorts of d****, so it’s not that bad,” he, motioned toward the IV, which she assumed contained both nutrition and painkillers of some sort. “I’m guessing I won’t be very pretty when it’s all healed up though.” He chuckled softly. 

“I find that hard to believe,” Katrina argued before she realized she had actually said it out loud. She wanted to s**** herself. “Edith is quite something.” She quickly changed the subject but noticed his lingering smile when she peered back up at him.

“Isn’t she?” Theo grinned. “She pretty much raised me. I grew up with Shane, and when my parents passed away, she took me in.”

“Oh, I didn’t realize. How old were you when they passed?”

“I was thirteen. They died in a car crash.” Theo explained, and she saw the muscle in his jaw twitch again, before he looked away. A sure sign that he was bothered she had come to realize. “And now it almost happened to me…” he continued.  “I almost made my girls go through what I went through. If you hadn’t done what you did—” 

“Hush,” she interrupted him. “You are ok, and that’s what matters. Your girls will have you for a long, long time.”

Theo looked at her in silence. He reached out and gently touched her cheek where the bandage still covered the stitches. Kat smiled at him. 

“It doesn’t hurt anymore,” she reassured him.

He nodded slowly, and his thumb caressed her cheek right below the swelling. Kat felt herself blush, but she couldn’t really move away. 

“Shane said you didn’t take the check?” Theo told her as he lowered his hand from her face.

“It wouldn’t feel right,” Kat explained. 

“I’m not really sure how else to repay you for what you did?” He looked bothered. 

“You don’t owe me anything, Theo.It could have been anyone in that car, and I would have reacted the same way.  I acted out of instinct, not to get a check.”

“You know, Mrs. Collins…you are a pretty amazing woman.” 

“Oh God…” she laughed. “Let’s just be happy that it all ended well, and now you can focus on getting better.” 

Theo nodded. 

“There is another reason I wanted to talk to you,” he admitted then. There was tension in his voice, making it sound deeper than before. 

“Ok,” Katrina asked. “Well, I’m here...”

“There is all this talk in the news about d**** and that I was drunk.” He paused and sighed. “I just didn’t want you to think that’s true. I might have been speeding a bit, but I wasn’t drunk. I remember a bit more now, and a deer came out of nowhere. I tried to avoid it, but the gravel got the best of my car and that’s when I went off the road.”

“I didn’t think you were drunk anyway,” Kat reassured him. “Maybe Ferraris and dirt roads aren’t the brightest of ideas though?” she suggested and raised an eyebrow.

“Haha,” Theo grinned. “Yeah, I think I learned my lesson.” He took her hand again. “I’m just so grateful. I wish there was something I could do for you. Anything at all?”

Kat shook her head. “I can’t think of anything. But I promise to let you know if I do, how’s that?” 

“As long as you promise.” 

“Pinky swear.How long are you stuck in this depressing room before they let you go home?”

“About a week they think.” Theo looked around the small room. “It is pretty depressing, isn’t it?” 

“Very. I’m not big on hospitals at all.” Kat shuddered. “Smells like disease and death.”

“Yet here you are,” he teased. 

“Shane can be very persuasive!” She smiled. “And I’m glad now, or I wouldn’t have met Edith. She is my new hero.” 

“And you got a ride in Bobby! That’s a double win, right there!” Theo laughed. “My God, she has had that car for as long as I can remember. Let me tell you, between Shane and myself, poor Bobby has seen way too much for his own good.” 

“I don’t think I want to know!”  Kat laughed. 

“Hey, I used to be quite the charmer back in the day,” Theo boasted with a convincing smile. 

“Not too much has changed then.” Kat smiled back. “In a few weeks, you will be as good as new. You can steal Bobby and pick up chicks at the mall!” 

“You know, that doesn’t sound half bad!” he joked. They laughed again. 

“Thanks for coming back,” Theo mentioned again, his voice deep and somewhat emotional sounding. “I really wanted to see you.” 

Katrina nodded. “Well you know, I had to cancel some pretty important plans.” 

“Are you serious? I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean for Shane to hound you that bad!” 

Katrina started laughing again. “I was joking. It was a popcorn and movie on the couch kind of night.”

“Damn it, you totally had me! I’m usually not this easy…it must be the d****.”  

“Oh, I’m sure!” Katrina teased.

They talked some more. He was easy going with a good sense of humor. She stopped noticing his bruised and swollen face and saw only his intense hazel eyes. When they started drooping a little, Kat realized it was time for her to leave. She told him so.  Theo grabbed on to her hand again. 

“Hey, can I maybe call you? It’s just that with everything going on, it feels really nice to talk to someone who was there. I could really use a friend, you know? My God, I sound pathetic, don’t I?”

“No, you don’t. Of course, you can call me. I’m sure things will be back to normal before you know it.”

Kat stood up and walked over toward the door.

“Hey...” Theo called out, and she turned to face him. “Your ex-husband must be some special kind of stupid to let you go.”  

“Maybe it wasn’t his choice?” Kat smiled back.

“I wouldn’t have let you go,” Theo insisted. “You wouldn’t have had the option.”

Kat blushed and as always when she didn’t know what to do, she left the room without saying anything else. 

Not until she was in the car almost all the way home, did she ask herself how he had known that she was divorced. Maybe it was just a lucky guess?