Her brother frowned as she stepped back, crossed her arms, and glared at him. “Arnie, watch the bar for a second,” he ordered his employee, who was approaching them with a tray of food. After Arnie nodded, Mark grabbed Kara by the arm and dragged her over to a corner booth where they could talk with some privacy.

Kara threw herself onto the bench, still scowling at Mark as he took the seat across from her. “What?” she demanded, knowing he wouldn’t have dragged her over here if he didn’t have something important to tell her. “What’s going on?”

Mark scrubbed his hand across his face. “I heard something,” he said finally. “About Jamie, and I don’t know if it’s true or not, but I thought I should warn you about it.”

Kara’s heart sunk slightly. “What?” she asked her brother again, using a more subdued tone.

“Well, it’s probably nothing. It’s just that Elizabeth was in here a few nights ago, and she’d had a little too much to drink, and she was, uh, spouting off about Jamie being home.”

He paused for a minute, looking at Kara apprehensively.

“Go on,” said Kara, fidgeting with a cardboard coaster on the table in front of her.

“Well, Elizabeth said something about him wanting to marry you so he’d get some of money the property guys are offering you to buy Mom’s land.”

“Making us an offer—Mom left the place to you too,” Kara quickly interjected.

“Whatever,” he said, waving away her clarification. “Elizabeth seems to think that the only reason Jamie is back in Larkin Bay is to help you sell the land and see it get developed. She, uh, kind of implied that he’d only shown up to make some money off you.”

Kara scowled at her brother. “Let me make sure I’ve got this right. You think the only reason that Jamie wants to marry me is because he’s after the money I’m going to get from selling Mom’s land?”

“Something like that,” Mark acknowledged. “Not that I don’t think you’ve got many other fine qualities too. You are my twin, after all," he chuckled and then frowned. "But I wanted you to know what Elizabeth is saying so you could be, you know, prepared, just in case something comes of it.”

“Okay,” Kara replied with a sigh. “I have no idea what to do with that information, though. Elizabeth has always disliked me. I can only imagine what she’s saying now that her brother has publicly told the whole town he wants to marry me. She’s probably got even more nasty things to say now than she ever had before.”

“You really shouldn’t have told her you didn’t vote for her to be homecoming queen back in high school,” said Mark.

Kara’s eyes widened for a long moment before she burst out laughing. A second later, her mouth formed an O when she saw her brother’s serious expression. “Oh crap, I thought you were kidding! Is she still mad about that? Really?”

“It might still come up from time to time when we talk,” Mark replied. He slapped his hand on the table and looked over at her. “Now, I have to go back to work. But I’ll leave you with two words of advice.”

“Just two? And what would they be?” Kara inquired, rolling her eyes.

“Prenuptial agreement,” Mark said, accenting each syllable of the two words clearly as he pronounced them. “And I’m not kidding, either.” And with that declaration, he got up, kissed Kara on the forehead, and went back to work, leaving her staring at his back with equal parts amusement and dismay.

Chapter Twenty-Five

“Why are we suddenly so busy?” Kara wondered out loud. She looked around the crowded garden center and frowned. It wasn’t that she didn’t like being busy—her business’s bottom line was, in fact, in dire need of a few days of big sales. It was just highly unusual to have a lineup of customers on a Thursday morning at all the cash registers.

After Kara had helped a customer pick out a shovel suitable for turning mulch around roses, she answered questions and offered reassurances to her outdoor staff, who were suddenly worried about the number of potted marigolds they had in stock.

Kara shook her head in disbelief. A week ago, she had been trying to figure out what she was going to do with the plants from the greenhouse that weren’t selling, and now suddenly she had to worry about not having enough for her customers.

What is going on?

“How’s it going?” called a familiar voice. Kara turned and raised an eyebrow when she saw her brother walking toward her.

“Fine, better than fine, actually. But what are you doing here? Don’t you have a business to open?” Kara asked, glancing at her watch.

He nodded. “I do, but I haven’t been around to see the garden center lately, so I thought I’d just pop by here on my way in to see how things were going.”

Mark looked around at the crowded shop before turning to Kara and smiling at her. “Everything looks good,” he said.

Puzzled by his sudden interest, Kara lifted one eyebrow. “Yeah, it does look good, and it is good. What I’m just trying to figure out, though, is why.”

Mark frowned. “What do you mean?”

“We’re not usually this busy on a Thursday morning. I’ve got the yard men worrying about us having enough stock, and I think I might have to call Mary on her day off and have her come in to help with the cash register lines. I can’t understand why everyone in town suddenly felt the need for garden supplies today.”

Mark shrugged his shoulders, and after shooting him another puzzled look, Kara darted off to help a customer.

The store stayed busy for the rest of the morning. Over the lunch hour, there was a bit of a lull in business, and while Kara was busy restocking shelves, Larkin Bay’s mayor came in.

She went over and greeted the stylish, business-attired woman. “Hello,” said Kara with a smile. “Welcome back.”

“Hi, Kara, I had some time on my lunch hour, so I thought I’d stop by and pick up some impatiens for my garden. How are things?” asked April.

“Things are good,” Kara replied. “For some reason, we’ve had a super busy morning. There seems to have been a run on everything today but I think we still have some flats of impatiens left. How many do you need? And do you have a particular color in mind?”

“Pink, orange, or white would be nice,” the mayor replied. “Anything that looks bright and summery.”

“Come with me, and I’ll show you what we have,” Kara replied, leading her over to the garden center’s back yards where summer flats were blooming brightly in the sunshine. “They’re in really nice shape this year too. The greenhouses we refurbished last fall have helped give everything a real jump start on growing this year.”

April nodded and admired the plants. After a long moment, unable to decide between the colors, she picked out a mixed flat containing all of them.

Kara carried the plants up to a cash register and rang up the sale. As she was finishing, she saw Mary had come into the store and was tying her work apron around her waist while she talked with a customer near their bird feeder display.

“What are you doing here?” Kara asked her curiously after April had left. “Today is your day off.”

“Mark called and said you were super busy and asked if I could help. And boy, it looks like it has been crazy here this morning. Things are a mess! What’s been going on?” she exclaimed.

“I have no idea,” Kara answered. “And I’ve been too busy ringing up sales and helping people with their purchases to figure it out.” She frowned at her friend. “I didn’t want you to have to work on your day off, though. Mark shouldn’t have called you.”

“I don’t mind. Rachel has the day off from school, but she’s mad at me today for some reason only known to a teenager. So I was happy to get out of the house and away from all her teen angst for a bit,” Mary replied, then, turning to a customer, answered a question on how to stop squirrels from digging up spring bulbs.

The rest of the day passed by in a blur, and it wasn’t until very late that evening that Kara could finally pull the store’s front door shut and flip the sign over.

Pulling out the drawers from the cash registers, Kara wearily carried them all to the back office so she could tally the change, bills, and banking printouts. When she got there, she was surprised to find Mary lying on the couch in the office with a throw covering her legs.

“You’re still here?” Kara said to her in surprise. “I thought you had already headed home.”

“I ran out of energy and had to rest for a bit,” Mary replied. “I thought I’d just keep you company while you counted the tills, then help you lock up and head out for home when you did.”

“That’s nice of you. I’ll count up quickly so we can both leave,” Kara replied.

As Mary rested, Kara quickly tallied the day’s receipts. “We did more in sales today than we’ve done all month!” she said, her eyes wide as she turned to show Mary the totals when she was finished. “If the sales stay this high for a few more weeks, I’ll never have to consider selling the store. We’d be doing just great.”