As his phone pinged beside him on the seat, Jamie glanced over and saw that a text had come in from his mother. Groaning, Jamie picked up the phone to look at it. He was tired of this too. His mother probably wanted him to pick up milk on his way back or wanted to know if he was going to be home for dinner.

Doesn’t she realize I’m not a kid anymore?

He was getting too old to be living in his parents’ house and running their errands, and he couldn’t wait until this sale was complete so he could move out. When he had originally moved back to Larkin Bay, he’d assumed that he would be living with Kara by now, and the lack of an invitation from her to do so or even to entertain the idea of dating him was both surprising and frustrating. She was certainly no longer the pushover she’d been when he’d dated her back in college.

Scowling, he picked up his phone and read the message about Maeve being taken to the hospital. As he glared down at the text, he didn’t notice that he was pulling the wheel slightly to one side. A few seconds later, the road ahead curved, and Jamie looked up quickly when he heard the blaring horns of the other cars around him. His eyes widened, and he jerked the wheel to the left. In a flash, he crossed over the center line and was now headed directly into oncoming traffic.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Kara leaned over and kissed Maeve on the forehead.

No fever.

Her little girl looked so small in the hospital bed. Kara tucked a curl behind her daughter’s ear and smoothed the blankets again. Maeve stirred for a moment but settled right back to sleep.

Kara sighed. There was nothing she could do right now but wait for Maeve to wake up. Soon, they should get her tests back, and hopefully they would show what was going on.

Pacing around the perimeter of the small hospital room, Kara glanced at her watch and once more wished the minutes away.

I just want Maeve to wake up and smile at me.

When Kara and Mary had arrived at the hospital, Evelyn had been distraught. “I can’t believe this happened while I was watching her,” she wailed as she clutched Kara’s arm. “I’m the one with all the experience in dealing with diabetes, and I still let this happen.”

Mary had taken the older woman aside and tried to comfort her. “I’m sure it’s fine, Evelyn. Since Maeve's diagnosis, I’ve been reading a lot about diabetes, and once her blood is tested and her glucose stabilized, she’ll be right as rain.”

Kara had nodded in agreement, and after a few more minutes of soothing talk, Mary, hoping to further distract and calm Evelyn down, convinced her to go down to the hospital cafeteria with her for a cup of coffee.

Kara had sighed with relief when they left Maeve’s room. She knew Evelyn wasn’t to blame for what had happened, but her repeated apologies and worrying were just adding to Kara’s stress.

Moving to the small room’s window, Kara held up her phone, trying to improve its reception. She had quickly tapped out a message earlier to both Mark and Jamie, letting them know what had happened, but neither man had replied yet.

Frowning at the phone, she checked her signal again. She was supposed to be meeting with Courtney later this afternoon to discuss the details of the sale of the garden center. She might be able to ask the developers for another extension on the offer, but since she had already decided what she wanted to do, it didn’t seem worth the trouble.

Rolling her shoulders to loosen some of the tension, Kara tapped out a quick text message to Courtney and hit the send button. She knew not everyone would approve of her decision, but she would just have to try to accept that she couldn’t please the whole world all the time.

Going back over to Maeve’s bedside, Kara sat on the edge of the cot. She smiled at the little girl and kissed her on the forehead again. Watching hopefully, she silently prayed for a response, but Maeve slept quietly on. Kara sighed and looked back at her phone. Swiping at the screen, she reread the reply to the text she had sent Scott earlier. He had politely thanked her for wishing him well and sent his love to both her and Maeve. There had been nothing since.

“But he texted the word love, Maeve,” she said out loud. “I don’t think we can read too much into it, but wouldn’t it be nice if he meant it and was now on his way here to be with you and me? It’s silly to think about, I know, but your mom can dream.”

Kara sighed heavily as she watched Maeve’s chest rise and fall steadily. Jamie’s actions at the bar had only emphasized how wrong he was for her. Once Maeve was well, Kara would return his ring to him and let him know that while he’d always be Maeve’s father, he would never be anything more to Kara than that.

Nodding with satisfaction at her decision, Kara paced the small confines of the room once more, waiting for the doctor to return with Maeve’s test results and trying not to worry as she kept watch over her little girl.

“The hardest thing about being the mother of a young child with diabetes is trying to keep her sugar levels where they need to be,” Dr. Casey said to Kara when she came into the hospital room to check on Maeve and share her test results with them later that day. “I am going to keep Maeve here for a little while longer just as a precaution and so we can monitor her glucose levels, but I think what your mother-in-law was seeing was Maeve showing classic signs of hypoglycemia. Everyone reacts to it differently, which is why she didn’t recognize the symptoms. It can be scary, so I’m not surprised she was so upset.”

Kara breathed out a long sigh of relief, and Dr. Casey smiled reassuringly at her. “Maeve is going to be just fine. I’ll drop back in and check on her again in a few hours, and we’ll have another look at all her levels, too,” she added, before patting Kara's hand quickly and turning to leave the hospital room just as Courtney arrived.

Courtney moved to the foot of Maeve’s bed to gaze down at the young girl for a long moment before reaching over and hugging Kara.

“I came as soon as I got your text, and the other girls are standing by too. I’m so sorry, hon. Is there anything we can do to help?” she asked.

Kara shook her head. “No, but I appreciate that you’re here. The doctors and all her nurses have told me she’ll be feeling better when she wakes up. She’s going to be just fine, I think.”

Both women looked over at Maeve, who stretched and shifted in her bed before settling back down to sleep. Kara pulled the bedsheets a little higher around her, then turned back to Courtney. “The one thing this has helped make very clear is what I should be doing about the sale of the garden center, though. I need to make sure I have the money to pay for Maeve’s medical expenses over the next few years, but I can’t do that at the expense of Larkin Bay and everyone we love here.”

“And what exactly does that mean?” asked a calm yet angry-sounding voice from the doorway. Both women turned to see Jamie standing at the entrance to the hospital room, glaring at them.

“What happened to you?” asked Kara in surprise, her eyes widening at his torn shirt, bruised cheek, and the large welt forming on his forehead. “I thought you were working in the city today.”

“He was, but on his way back, he got into a terrible car accident,” said Evelyn, who came up behind her son and pulled at his arm. “The police brought him here to be evaluated. He’s hurt and his new car is a mess, but he won’t sit still in the ER long enough to let anyone look at him.”

“Are you okay?” asked Kara, going over to Jamie and reaching out a hand to him in concern.

Jamie glanced at Maeve and turned to Kara. Anger made the marks on his face stand out grotesquely and distorted his features. “Okay? No, I’m not okay. I’ve ruined my car getting to this godforsaken place, and now that I’m here, I hear you saying you’re not planning on selling the garden center? Does Maeve mean nothing to you?” he asked, gesturing to the little girl.

“Of course she does!” sputtered Kara, stepping back in surprise. “What are you talking about? You know Maeve means the world to me! That’s why I’m not selling the garden center. It’s for her one day.”

“If she meant something to you, you’d be selling that place to make sure she has everything she’s ever going to need. And if you were a really concerned mother, you would have sold the land weeks ago and been at home with Maeve today instead of working. If you had been home, she probably wouldn’t even be in the hospital right now.”

Kara recoiled at Jamie’s accusation. But seeing her distress only seemed to fuel his anger. Stepping closer to her, he waved a finger in her face. “You are not fit to be my daughter’s mother. I would have come back to Larkin Bay long ago and taken her back to the city with me if I’d known how you were neglecting her.”

“Jamie, what are you saying? Stop,” his mother exclaimed and, reaching over, tugged on his arm to pull him away.

“Leave me alone, Mom,” Jamie snarled, yanking out of her grasp. “Maeve shouldn’t be left with a mother who doesn’t care about her well-being but instead puts her business before her child. I’m telling you here and now, Kara, I’m getting a lawyer, and when Maeve leaves this hospital, I’m going to do everything in my power to take over custody of her and make sure she gets the care she needs. And that starts with you selling that damn garden center.”

Courtney stepped between Jamie and Kara and looked at him with an exasperated expression. “Just a minute, Jamie! You can’t come in here and make accusations like that. You have no right to bully Kara into doing anything, and there is not a court in the land that is going to let you take Maeve away from her.”

Jamie snarled at Courtney. “You’re wrong. I may have no control over what she does with her business, but I can still control what happens to Maeve. Kara has a choice. If she sells the garden center, I won’t sue her for custody. But if she puts it first, I’ll do everything I can to take my daughter away from her.”

Kara and the other women all looked at him in stunned silence as Jamie turned and stormed out of the room, slamming his fist into the door as he left, startling Maeve awake and causing her to cry out in fright.

Perched on a barstool at Sullivan’s Place, Candy held up her hand and showed Mark the diamond engagement ring Scott had given her years before.

Mark looked at it long enough to be polite before returning to shining the counter so it was ready for the evening dinner crowd that would begin to gather soon.

“I’ve decided that since he gave me such a big diamond the last time we were engaged, I won’t make him buy me another one this time around,” cooed Candy, admiring the sparkles the ring on her finger produced as the pub’s lights reflected off it.

Mark frowned at her. “You just got to town a few weeks ago,” he said. “Has Scott already proposed to you again?”

Candy looked away from her ring and at Mark in surprise. “Well, not yet,” she admitted. “But as soon as he signs the deal doing commentary for the major leagues, you can be sure he will. We’re just too good together at all the fancy functions and celebrity nights that he’ll be attending again soon for him not to. It just makes sense.”

“If you say so.” Mark shrugged. “It just seems unusual for a girl to be wearing an engagement ring when a guy hasn’t asked her to marry him,” he said. “Recently,” he added with a smile when he saw Candy pout in protest. “But if that’s what you want to do and Scott is okay with it, then I guess it’s fine. It has nothing to do with me.”

As Mark left the table to fetch a broom, he also grabbed his cell phone from the back of the office where he’d left it charging. “Hey, Arnie?” he called to his assistant manager after seeing the message from Kara. He hurried back to the front of the pub. “Can you come over here and finish setting up for the dinner crowd? Maeve is back in the hospital, so I need to go over there and see what I can do to help Kara.”

Cursing quietly under his breath for not checking his messages sooner, Mark grabbed his jacket and turned to hand over the broom he was still carrying to Candy. “Here,” he said to her. “Practice sweeping and help Arnie if you’re going to hang around here all the time. Your diamond ring will look better if you’re flashing it while holding a broom, anyway.”