Saving Katie Baker by H. Mattern Read Free Book Online

are way less painful than this.”
    “Oh, really? So Katie Baker has a tattoo.” Blake smiled as he attempted to keep her thoughts distracted.
    “Not that it’s any of your business, but yes, my husband and I had gone together and gotten small matching script on our honeymoon: the word ‘forever’. I regret it. I didn’t get his name because a friend had told me that it’s bad luck. I guess that goes with other words too. We didn’t get our forever.”
    Blake fell silent at her response and finished up. “All done with the stitching, I’m putting some ointment on it now and want you to keep it covered. Got it?” Blake stuck a big bandage over the wound and picked up his shot of Patron. He chugged it back as Katie slowly started to put her shirt back on.
    “Your shirt is covered in blood, I’ve got a t-shirt that you can use instead,” Blake offered.
    Blake watched as Katie seemed to debate it for a brief moment, but changed her mind, she shook her head and finished carefully putting her arm through the bloodied sleeve.
    “I’m fine in this. You’ve already helped us enough.” She replied.
    Blake was perplexed. What was it about him that disgusted her so much she’d rather put on a dirty, blood-covered shirt than a clean one of his?
    “Hey, can I use your cell phone?” Katie asked, pointing to Blake’s smartphone that was sitting on the floor in front of the couch.
    “I usually keep mine in my back pocket but for some reason I had just pulled it out and put it in the center console of the car before . . . well, before I left Kansas for Oz.”
    Blake smiled, handed the phone to Katie and watched as she attempted to make a call, but received no answer. Katie then tried to call someone else but with the same end result.
    “I tried calling a few of my friends, too, but got busy signals, I’m guessing the cell towers are overwhelmed with everyone trying to make contact. Maybe we’ll have better luck in the morning,” Blake tried to give her some comfort.
    “We don’t have any power but I’ve got a generator I can hook up that should give us lights and a few other things. I don’t know how long it’ll last, but I’ll work on getting it up and running in the morning. In the meantime, your daughter is already asleep in my bed, I think that you guys should stay here.”
    “Thanks, but no thanks. We can’t stay here. I’m NOT going to stay here,” Katie protested.
    “Listen. The roads are blocked; neither of us can get out, we can’t go anywhere. Where do you suggest you and your daughter spend the night?”
    Katie glanced out the window and back at Blake. He was her only option, and no matter how much Katie wanted to change that fact, she couldn’t. Blake waited while she realized all this for herself. She was just going to have to accept that for tonight, they’d be sleeping here in his house.
    “I guess it’s fine, just for tonight. Surely by morning we can get out of here.”
    Blake quickly realized he was logical and she wasn’t. You would assume a single mother would be strong and more mature, but Katie was stubborn. He didn’t see Katie going anywhere for a while. No car, no house, and as far as he understood, no other option.
    “I just realized, I don’t know your daughter’s name.”
    Katie looked up at him in confusion, as if not understanding what it was that he was asking. “Huh?”
    “Your daughter. I don’t know her name.”
    “Micah. Her name is Micah. She has her father’s name.” After Katie answered the question she collapsed on the couch, as if the reply took her remaining energy, she lay stretched out amidst the cushions.
    Blake stood watching Katie’s every move. She was very much a mystery to him. This beautiful young woman who was lying on his couch, seemed to be so strong one moment and yet so weak in others. He wondered what her story was. What adventures had she endured before this one? He hoped that perhaps he would glean more insight to some of her