Love By The Book by Dara England Read Free Book Online Page B

“all of that’s gone. There’s just the sunshine and the breeze and you sitting beside me. Almost perfect but for this.” He rapped his knuckles against the arm of his wheelchair.
    I wasn’t going to be sidetracked. “Uh-huh. So, you have no clue where you came from or where you were headed before the car hit you?”
    “None.” He sounded almost pleased at the fact.
    I cleared my throat. “Listen, I don’t want to call an end to your…vacation, but you can’t stay in the hospital forever. Have you thought about where you’ll go when you leave?” A new thought struck me. “Or even how you’re going to pay your hospital bill?”
    “Settling my account, you mean?”
    “Certainly your account,” I exclaimed. “You didn’t expect to be fed and kept for free, did you?”
    “Now that you mention it, I suppose that’s a valid concern.” He looked worried for the first time. “I’ve never been one to leave a debt unpaid. But,” he continued, his expression quickly clearing, “you’re not to worry, Miss Hurst. I’m certain these good people will accept some reasonable arrangement. I’ll write them a note promising to repay the debt as soon as I’m able and I’m sure they’ll be content to wait.”
    I snorted. “I wouldn’t count on it.”
    But he looked so pleased with his solution I hadn’t the heart to launch into a lecture of how bills and payment actually worked in the twenty-first century. He’d find out soon enough. For the first time, I decided that whoever he was, Mystery Man must have come from a financially privileged background. Only the rich could afford to be so carefree about money.
    “So, suppose you do escape the money situation. What next? Where are you going to go?”
    “Naturally I’ll visit this Baltimore Metro you spoke of,” he said.
    I rolled my eyes. I was beginning to realize that good looking and confident as he might be, this guy had a streak of naiveté that was going to get him into trouble—and me too if I wasn’t careful.
    “And after you finish your subway ride, which incidentally you also have no money to pay for, what’s going to become of you then?”
    He frowned. “Are you always so negative? The moment I answer one of your concerns, you meet me with another.”
    Before I could respond, he continued. “I don’t know where I’ll go from there. But that’s a problem for another day. For today, let us simply enjoy the weather and this delicious—what do you call it? Coffichino?”
    “Cappuccino or coffee,” I said distractedly.
    A thought had struck me. “I wish you’d try a little harder to figure out what your name is,” I told him. “I can’t go on calling you Mystery Man.”
    “Mystery Man?” He looked amused.
    “Never mind, just give me a name. I’m past caring if it’s the right one,” I said.
    He looked thoughtful for a minute and then reached into the pocket of his robe. When he withdrew his hand, he was holding the gold pocket watch I had returned to him yesterday. “I like keeping it close,” he said as if I had asked for an explanation.
    I nodded. “It must be reassuring to have some tie to your past identity.”
    “It’s not that. It’s just that a rather lovely lady once gave it to me.”
    “Really?” I asked, interested. “Who?” Then I caught myself, blushing. “Oh, yeah…I forgot.”
    What was with this man? He could recite cheesy lines straight out of a romance novel but say them as casually as if he were simply chatting about his health. Obviously such comments were nothing more than ordinary pleasantries to him, the sort he would offer anyone.
    He flipped the watch open and turned it to face me. “D.C.,” he read aloud. “It’s the only thing I’ve got to go on.”
    “Your initials maybe? Do they sound at all familiar?”
    “Possibly.” His usual assurance sounded like it was wavering.
    “Hey, it’s okay,” I told him, feeling suddenly sympathetic. “They don’t have to be your initials if you