Page 80 of The Woodcarver's Model
“E—R—T. Hanson. H—A—N—S—O—N.”
“Excuse me,” she said. “Are you Mitch, by any chance?”
“Yeah,” he replied.
“Karen. Rob’s friend? I talked to you on the phone earlier.”
“Oh, hi.” They shook hands. “Thanks for letting me know. I’m just trying to find out from”—he looked at his badge—“Tylor here, where he is.”
“Mr Hanson is currently in the ICU—”
“Great, where’s that?” Mitch asked.
“You can’t just go up to the ICU,” Tylor said with shock.
“Why?”
“Because it’s…the ICU. Not everyone can just go there. You may have germs…or something.”
“Listen to me, Tylor. That man up there, he risked his life to save my home. On top of that, I haven’t seen him since I thought he was a traitor and a killer from Somalia.”
By this time, Tylor was questioning both his volunteer credit placement choice and his attraction to the dangerous man with the gorgeous eyes who stood breathing heavily in front of him.
“Carcross! I wondered if you’d be showing up.”
Another man, with biceps thicker than Tylor’s neck, strutted across the hospital lobby carrying a takeout tray of coffees. Alongside him walked an older woman in high heels, wearing a tasteful cream business suit and far too much makeup.
“You must be Mitchell,” the woman said, holding out her hand. “I’m Rob’s agent, Estelle. So good to finally meet you. I’m assuming you know Eric.”
“Oh, we know each other,” Eric said, then turned to Mitch. “I overheard your conversation with…Tylor here—is that really your name?” he asked Tylor.
“Yeah,” Tylor replied, followed by an almost imperceptible giggle. If he had thought that Mitch was attractive, this tall, muscled guy was drop-dead gorgeous. “I changed the spelling so it would separate me from all the other Tylers born that year.”
“And what year would that be?” Eric fished.
“Eric, you are incorrigible,” Sheila said, crossing the foyer.
“Am I the only one who doesn’t know what happened?” Mitch cried out.
“Probably,” replied Eric. “You go wandering, you miss all the heroics.”
Sheila brought things down to reality. “We’ll fill you in on everything later. The most important thing is you’re here. Rob’s gone off for some more tests. He’s doing quite well in spite of his injuries and they want to release him as soon as he has someplace safe to go.”
“My place, of course,” Mitch piped up. Then his face fell. “If he’ll have me…”
“With what he did, I don’t think there’s any question as to how he feels,” Estelle said.
“But the way I treated him, he must think I hate him,” Mitch replied.
Estelle stared at Mitch. “Just tell him how you feel.”
“Better than that,” Karen interrupted. “You should do something crazy. Something huge, that’ll show him how you feel.”
“A grand gesture,” Tylor added. The others stared at him. “Like inPride and Prejudicewhen Mr Darcy settles all of Mr Wickham’s debts and makes sure that he actually marries Lydia, making her once again respectable.”
There were confused looks all around.
“Elizabeth realises there is more to Mr Darcy than meets the eye and that she does indeed love him. Good God, do none of you read?”
