It was already nine o’clock in the morning, and the garden center still wasn’t open. Usually, the store was open by eight on Saturdays. And often, someone was propping open the old double wooden doors and hanging out the welcome sign even earlier. The fact that Kara wasn’t there already welcoming customers, setting up new displays, or potting plants was definitely strange.
“What do you think we should do?” Rachel asked Evan, another part-time employee, who was sitting at her feet. His forehead was resting on his knees, and loud music emanated from the AirPods hidden under his long, dark hair.
When he didn’t respond, Rachel sighed and gently kicked the boy’s boot with her worn sneaker to get his attention. Her job only paid minimum wage, but she enjoyed working at the garden center and with Kara, so she always did her best to arrive on time and do what her mother called an honest and hard day’s work. Evan’s indifference to the garden center not being open, even though the gate from the road was already unlocked, annoyed her.
“Um, call someone?” the boy finally suggested and blinked up at her, squirming under Rachel’s long, hard stare.
She rolled her eyes and turned away. She had already called Kara’s cell phone twice and tried the main garden center number too. But no one had answered her calls. “I hope nothing happened to Maeve,” Rachel said as she paced around the front of the store once more. Maeve, Kara’s young daughter, was another reason Rachel loved working here. It was part of Rachel’s job to keep an eye on the little girl when the garden center was busy, and now that Maeve was three years old, keeping the little girl out of trouble was sometimes a full-time job in itself.
Rachel flipped her long, shiny hair back behind her shoulders, slipped her cell phone into the front pocket of her jeans, and used both hands to peer through the garden center’s front windows again. Squinting through the glass, the only thing she could see that looked out of place was a large potted planter sitting near the front of the store on a dolly.
“Where is everyone?” Rachel asked aloud. She sighed as only the distorted rap music emanating from Evan’s headphones answered her.
Hurrying back over to the large, ornately carved wooden front doors, Rachel tapped on them again. When there was still no response, she banged a little harder just in case Kara was in the back or busy with Maeve and hadn’t heard her knocking the first time.
There was still no reply.
Scowling, Rachel once again fished her phone out of her pocket and, after glancing again at Evan and quickly deciding that he would be of no help at all, she decided she was going to have to call her mother.
Rachel’s mother, Mary, and Kara had been friends for a long time. Mary had even looked after Kara and her twin brother, Mark, after their mother had passed away. If anyone knew what to do, it would be her. As Rachel punched in her cell phone’s passcode, she walked back over to the parking lot where she’d left her bike. Kara’s old truck was in its usual spot, she saw, but Kara herself was missing. Rachel felt a chill run down her spine as she considered the possibility that maybe she should be calling the police. Shuddering at the thought, she hurried back to the garden center entrance and tapped her foot impatiently as she peered through the windows and waited for her mother to answer her call.
“It was only four stitches, he told me,” Kara exclaimed to her brother. “The doctor said only four stitches like it was no big deal that my baby needed any stitches at all! I mean, what kind of a mother am I that I’m so busy with a sale I’m not paying attention to my daughter, who then hurts herself badly enough to need to go to the ER?”
Kara was shaking. Mark put his arm around her and pulled her closer as he looked over at the hospital bed where his niece was happily scribbling in a coloring book provided by the hospital nurses.
“Maeve is okay, and you’re a great mom,” he reassured Kara. “Look at her. She’s fine. But sometimes, no matter how many precautions you take, kids are going to get hurt. You can’t wrap her in bubble wrap. She needs to be free to experience things, and yes, kids roll off couches. It was just bad luck that she fell and hit her head. You can’t protect her from everything. Besides, the nurse told us that the cut is high up enough on her head that her hair will cover any scar. She’s going to be fine.”
Mark hugged Kara again, and once she was steadier, he released her to return to Maeve. He then looked curiously at the man sitting patiently in a chair in the corner of the small hospital room.
“I don’t think we’ve met,” said Mark, extending his hand and taking a step toward him. “I’m Mark Sullivan, Kara’s brother.”
Scott got to his feet and shook Mark’s hand. “I’m Scott Davidson. I drove your sister and Maeve here. Kara was a little panicky, so it seemed best that I drive.” He ran a hand through his hair and looked over at the little girl. “I thought I should stay until someone else was with them; they were both pretty shaken up.”
Mark nodded and chuckled. “I can only imagine what it was like. Kara gets a little crazy when it comes to Maeve. I appreciate you being there for them.”
He looked over at his sister. “What’s going on with the garden center, anyway? Did you call Mary to ask her to come in and help Rachel?”
Kara’s eyes widened in dismay and she quickly flipped over the watch on her wrist to look at the time.
“Crap,” she gasped, smacking her forehead with her palm. “I had no idea it had gotten so late! I did nothing at the store. We just ran out of there with Maeve bleeding all over me. Do you know how much head wounds bleed?”
Mark nodded patiently and pulled out his phone to check for a signal.
“I’m not even sure if we closed the door behind us at the nursery,” Kara added, twisting her hands together.
“Um, I did,” said Scott. “I turned the lock and closed the door behind us, but I didn’t shut the driveway gate. You were pretty upset and insisted that we get Maeve here as quickly as possible, so I didn’t stop.”
Mark nodded again and bit back a smile as he squinted at his phone. “I can’t get a signal here,” he told them. “But I’d better go out and call Jessica and see if she can go over and help Rachel at the store. What time was Rachel scheduled to show up anyway? If the store is closed, then she’s going to be calling Mary, and if Mary gets involved…”
“Mary is already involved,” came from the doorway and everyone turned to watch a tall, attractive, gray-haired woman walk into the room. “And as you were about to say, Mark, Mary is very annoyed that no one thought to call her and tell her what happened. She had to find out instead by a text from a friend who is an ER nurse.”
She placed her hands on her hips and glared at the siblings before reaching for the little girl on the bed, who, when she saw Mary, instantly launched herself up into the woman’s arms.
“Maeve!” cried Kara. “You’re not supposed to be getting out of bed. The doctor hasn’t cleared you from possibly having a concussion yet.”
After hugging the little girl, Mary sighed and carried her back over to the bed and sat down on the edge, cradling the child in her arms.
“There,” she proclaimed. “Maeve is back in bed. Now, tell me, what happened to my baby? She looks okay, except for this bump on her forehead, which is more than I can say for you two,” she added, gesturing toward Scott and Kara.
Kara looked down at herself and then over at Scott.
“Um, Maeve fell off the couch in the garden center office and managed to cut her head,” she answered. “The doctor wants her to stay here for a few hours for observation, but she isn’t dizzy or throwing up or anything, so I think she’s fine.”
Mary nodded and looked pointedly at Kara’s bloodstained shirt.
Kara sighed. “And, as for us, I think I just got the scare of my life when I saw all this.” Tugging on her shirt, she frowned down at it. “It’s Maeve’s blood that we’re both covered in, believe it or not. I’m still amazed at how much a little kid’s head wound can bleed!”
Scott looked down at his blood-splattered pants and shirt and grinned. “Yeah, it looks like we were in a 1940s murder mystery or something,” he said.
Mary chuckled and kissed the little girl on the forehead before looking over at Kara. “I stopped off at the store and opened things up and left Rachel in charge. Fortunately, they weren’t too busy, so I called Jessica, who should be there now to help manage things. Evan is there too, but I’m not sure how much help that boy is going to be.”
“Thank you,” Kara replied, but her eyes didn’t leave her daughter as she watched Maeve squirm away from Mary’s embrace and reach for her crayons and coloring book again.
“Yes, it’s the one time I can honestly say I’m glad the center wasn’t busy. Jessica and Rachel should be fine until one of us gets back there to help,” Mary added.
Kara frowned.
“Thank goodness nothing is seriously wrong with Maeve,” Scott said, smiling at Kara as he got to his feet. “But now that you’ve got your family here, I should be on my way.” Leaning over, he gently touched Maeve on her arm, causing the little girl to look up and shyly smile at him. “Goodbye, little one,” he said. “I’m very glad you’re feeling better.” Straightening up, he addressed the rest of the room. “And it was nice to meet all of you. I just hope the next time I see you, it’s under less dramatic circumstances.”
Kara looked over at Maeve, snuggled once again in Mary’s embrace, and watched as Mark went over to stand protectively beside them.
“Let me walk you at least to the elevator,” Kara said to Scott. “I want to thank you again for everything you’ve done this morning. I was panicking when I saw all the blood, and it was so nice of you to drive me all the way over here.” She twisted her hands together and looked up at him. “I hope you’ll let me pay for any cleaning you need to have done to your car and to your clothes too,” she added, grimacing as she noticed again how badly blood-splattered his shirt was.
Scott waved away her suggestion as they left the hospital room. “It’s fine. I’ve never liked this shirt all that much anyway,” he said with a grin. “And since you had Maeve all wrapped up in her blanket, I don’t think my car was stained at all. I’m just glad I was there to help.”
“Even so, thank you,” Kara said and reaching up squeezed his arm in gratitude.
Yowzah!
She immediately yanked her hand back. Stumbling back in surprise, she gazed up at him, shocked by the spark that had jumped from his arm to hers. Her mouth dropped open as she realized her knees suddenly felt shaky.
What the heck?
Scott looked down at her, and Kara watched his eyes dilate and darken. She opened her mouth and then closed it tightly again.
How could just a simple touch cause such fiery sparks to fly?
Kara and Scott stood at the end of the hall in front of the nurses’ station, gazing at each other speechlessly when a loud, authoritative voice broke the moment.
