“I’m a lucky man,” Jamie replied loud enough so most of the restaurant’s customers could hear him clearly. “I’m back where I belong, with people who love me, and that beats out everything else.”
“That’s true,” Mark replied in a considerably quieter voice. “But I must admit, I’m a little worried about what your intentions are regarding these people you’re professing to love. Maeve and Kara mean the world to me. They’re my family, and if I can help it, I’m not going to let anybody hurt them.”
“Well, then you and I are of the same mind, Mark. I never want anyone to ever hurt them, either.”
Mark scowled at Jamie and leaned closer. “You didn’t look after them too well all those years ago when Kara was expecting Maeve. If I remember correctly, you left town as fast as you could and never looked back until a few weeks ago.”
“I know, and you’re right. I’m not proud of how I acted back then. But a man can change, and I have. And whether or not you like it, Maeve is my daughter. She’s my family too.”
“Yeah, but that’s only true in terms of biology. She doesn’t even know who you are. If you want to make it work with Kara, and if she wants that too, then I’m glad you’re here. But I also want to warn you I will not let you hurt Kara again. I will do whatever I need to do to protect her and Maeve. So if your intention is to just use either of them to further your own agenda, I’m telling you to reconsider that right here and now.”
“Really, Mark? You’re threatening me?”
“Yep, and I should have done it years ago too, when you first left Kara alone and pregnant. I wanted to come after you and hunt you down then, but Kara begged me not to.”
“Oh.” Jamie shifted slightly away from Mark on his stool.
Mark nodded. “So let’s just say I’m not threatening you. I’m warning you. Those girls are happy, and Kara’s built a good life for her and Maeve here. You just make sure you don’t do anything to mess with that. Got me?”
“Understood,” Jamie answered. “Now, can I finish my beer?”
“Yep, and it’s on the house—this time,” Mark replied. “Next time you pay, though, just like everyone else.” Standing, he placed a heavy hand on Jamie’s shoulder and squeezed it hard enough to leave Jamie wincing as he watched Mark walk away.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Sometimes there’s a difference between doing the right thing and doing what’s right. At least, that’s the way things seemed to Kara after she left the garden center and climbed into her truck. Today, Kara was meeting with Mark and Courtney at the offices of Blackstone and Davidson.
Pulling open the oversize glass front door, she wondered with a pang if she might run into Scott. She forced herself not to fluff her hair or bite her lips as she reminded herself she wasn’t here to see him. Scott was moving on to bigger and better things, and Kara supposed she was dating Jamie. At least she figured she should be—he had proposed in front of the whole darn town.
She shook her head and drew her shoulders back.
She might have said yes to avoid embarrassing Jamie, but she was in charge of her life, and she didn’t have to marry or date anyone. But since most of the town had heard her say yes to Jamie’s proposal, if she didn’t want to start tongues wagging, she had to try at least to contain her emotions when she was around Scott in public. No one needed to know how just being around him caused her heart rate to accelerate.
With these thoughts top of mind, Kara kept her head down as she hurried through the law firm’s front door. She was so focused on keeping her emotions firmly under control that she walked straight into the solid chest of the very man she was trying to avoid thinking about.
As Scott helped her regain her balance, Kara looked up and saw he was smiling. “Well, hello there,” he said.
Kara blushed. “Hi,” she replied. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t looking where I was going.”
Scott kept his hands on her shoulders a few seconds longer, and she wondered, as her cheeks flushed even darker, if he, like her, was remembering their kisses.
“What are you doing here?” Scott asked, finally releasing his hold on her and stepping back.
Kara shivered as she looked up at him. She blinked, trying to remember the answer to his question. Seeing him again seemed to have made all her thoughts disappear.
“She’s here to see me,” said Courtney, joining them. She shot Kara a questioning look. “She’s only got a few days left on her extension to decide what to do about the potential sale of the garden center, so we, including Mark, are having a meeting to discuss her options.”
Scott nodded at Kara and frowned. “It’s a tough decision,” he said. “I’m sure you’ll make the right choice, though.”
Kara quirked one side of her mouth in a half smile. “I hope so,” she replied before bidding him a short thank-you and turning away. Raising a hand, she hid her still-burning cheeks and hurried to follow Courtney toward the firm’s meeting room. Sitting in a comfortable chair behind the boardroom table, Kara admired the view over Lake Street and willed her heart rate to return to normal.
“I’m here,” Mark announced a few minutes later as he joined them. “Let the celebrations begin.”
Kara rolled her eyes as Courtney laughed and welcomed him. A minute later, he had settled into a seat, and Courtney flipped open a file folder. “The offer is quite straightforward,” she explained. “The firm wants to buy the garden center land from you, including all the historical buildings on it.”
“What do they want to do with the land?” asked Mark.
“Well, it is a property development firm that has made the offer, so I can only speculate that they are going to build some sort of residential high-rise on it.”
“How tall?” Kara asked, her eyes widening at the suggestion.
“I have no idea. But if you sell the land to them, they can do whatever they want with it, pending the approval of the town’s planning office, of course. That’s what Mayor April and the council are concerned about. And they may not need any approval from Larkin Bay because of how the parcel is situated.”
“So selling it could be terrible for the town.”
“Well, that depends on your perspective.”
“But to protect the town, the best thing to do is not sell the land,” Kara said firmly.
Courtney nodded. “Well, yes, you could put it like that. Still, the land is yours to do whatever you want with. Your mother left you both the garden center specifically so you could sell it and use the proceeds to provide for your families. By selling it, you’re, in reality, doing exactly what she wanted.”
“And there are probably other parcels like it in town too,” Mark added. “If we don’t sell to the developers, there are other people in town who most likely will sell their land to them.”
“So you think we should sell?” Kara asked, turning in her seat to look at him in surprise.
Mark sighed. “Yes, I think we probably should. You’re a single woman with a child to raise. You’re going to need that money, especially now that Maeve might need some specialized health care.”
“This is becoming a private family discussion,” Courtney declared. “Remember, we have no proof that the buyers are going to do anything to jeopardize Larkin Bay’s heritage vision.”
Kara felt tears well up in her eyes as she looked from her brother to her friend. Courtney laid a gentle hand on her shoulder and passed her a tissue. “As your lawyer, all I can tell you is that it’s a clean offer. As your friend, I think you should follow your gut feeling and do what you feel is right.”
Kara tried to smile back at Courtney but knew she was failing. Swallowing hard, she fought to control the jumble of emotions that threatened to overwhelm her—the emotions that were only making it more difficult for her to decide exactly what the right thing to do was.
“Thank you for watching Maeve again tonight,” Kara said to Rachel and Mary as they shook off their raincoats and hung them by her front door later that night. “It’s nice that we’ll be able to do something spontaneous and fun together without having to worry about keeping her out past her bedtime.”
Mary kissed Kara on the cheek and pushed her toward the door to meet Jamie at Sullivan’s Place. “Enjoy,” the older woman said, “and hug your brother for me.”
When Kara arrived at the bar, she quickly relayed Mary’s words to Mark. He smiled at the message but frowned and gave his sister a searching look when she told him she was meeting Jamie.
“I didn’t know you were getting together with him here tonight,” he said gruffly, leading her toward an empty booth and placing two draft beers on the table.
“Yeah, it was a last-minute thing.”
“Be careful,” her brother said, squeezing her shoulder quickly before turning away and returning to work.
Kara sipped her drink slowly and looked around the pub. She smiled and waved at a few couples she knew who were having dinner there. A couple of minutes later, Jamie arrived and sat down across from her.
