Kara blushed. “Nothing. He was just at the garden center a few days ago when Maeve fell and needed to go to the hospital for stitches—she’s fine now,” she added quickly as the other ladies interrupted her story with concerned questions about what had happened. “It was pretty minor, but I freaked out a bit—you should’ve seen all the blood. I didn’t know head wounds bled that much!”
Amanda nodded. “They do. Remember back in high school when Danny fell on the bleachers at the football game senior year?”
“Not now, Amanda,” interrupted Jaycee, rolling her eyes. “He’d just drank too much vodka—it’s a totally different thing. Carry on, Kara.”
Kara shot Amanda an apologetic look. “Yeah, well. Scott was at the garden center when it happened, and he drove us to the hospital so Maeve could get stitches. He stayed with us, too, until Mark got there. I was freaking out, but he was so calm. Down-to-earth and sweet, even. I never knew he was a famous baseball pitcher or anything, though.”
“But Maeve’s okay?” asked Amanda, reaching out and grabbing Kara’s hand. “And why didn’t you call and tell me? I would have driven you both to the hospital and stayed with you.”
Kara waved away her friend’s concern. “Maeve’s fine. I just totally lost it, and Scott kind of took over. I barely had time to register what was happening before he had Maeve bundled up in his car and we were on our way to the ER.”
Jaycee shook her head and frowned over at Kara. “And why are we just hearing about this now? You know we’re here for you if anything ever happens to Maeve, right?”
Kara waved her hand in a dismissive gesture. “Sure, and vice versa. But Scott called Mark, and Mary found out what had happened from Sasha, who was working in the ER that morning, and then Mary showed up at the hospital, and, well, you know how she is. She just took over everything from there.”
The other women nodded. Mary had mothered all of them at various points in their lives.
“Well, as long as Maeve’s okay. You know you can call us if you ever need help, though,” Amanda scolded.
“I know, and I will. This time, Scott just happened to be right there,” Kara replied.
“Well, I haven’t met or even seen the man yet, but from what I hear, he’s gorgeous with a capital G. So I may just have to stroll by Courtney’s new law office sometime soon and check him out for myself. I must need some sort of legal work done,” said Amanda, winking.
“Sure, bring along your toddler and your pregnant belly and that enormous diamond that Danny put on your ring finger on your wedding day. I’m sure he’ll be totally interested in you,” Jaycee said with a broad smile.
The girls all joined in her laughter, and then, to Kara’s relief, the conversation turned to other things, so she was able to simply sit back, sip her drink, and reflect on all that she had just learned.
The girls’ laughter and reminiscing was cut short an hour later when Kara looked around the crowded bar and got to her feet.
“What are you doing?” asked Amanda, watching Kara pick up her purse and jacket.
“I’m going to have to call it a night, I’m afraid. Mark is getting slammed here,” Kara replied, waving a hand toward the entrance. “Look, there are people lined up out the door and his staff is running every which way. I’m going to throw on an apron and help for a bit. Just let me know what I owe, and I’ll settle it up at the bar before I leave.”
Amanda sat back in her chair and looked around them. She frowned. “Mark needs to hire some more help. You can’t work all day at the garden center and then come here and wait tables too.”
“I know. I’ll talk to him about it. But right now, I’m going to pitch in. This place is hopping tonight.”
“And that’s great. Let us know if we can do anything. I’m good at working behind a counter,” Jaycee said with a grin.
“Will do. Thanks, guys. I’ll see you soon,” Kara said, hurrying away to stash her things in the small back office and grab a dark green apron embroidered with the pub’s name and logo.
A few minutes later, she exited the office with an order pad in hand, and Mark flashed her a tired but grateful smile. “Thanks, Kara,” he shouted over the live music and chatter around him. “I’m going to get the grill order that’s up for table three. If you could take over the food orders for the booths at the back, that would be a great help.”
“On it,” answered Kara, not needing any further instruction. One of the great things about being a twin was that they usually understood what the other needed, even when they didn’t have time to articulate it.
Rachel lifted her camera and lined up the shot. It wouldn’t be great, but she clicked the shutter anyway, knowing that often what didn’t look good through her lens looked great after she tweaked it in Photoshop.
Whistling to herself, she continued to wander through the nursery while keeping a careful eye on Maeve. The little girl certainly didn’t seem affected in any way from her fall a few days ago, but Rachel didn't want anything like that to happen again, especially not when she was responsible for her.
As Maeve played with her dolls in a corner of the garden center, Rachel took a few more close-ups of the little girl. She started by zooming in on one of Maeve’s enormous eyes and then moved on to her tiny, chubby hands. Squinting, she pressed a few buttons and looked at the pictures on her camera’s small viewfinder. They were cute photos, and if she enlarged and printed them out, they could be striking shots, especially if she added a filter. Kara would love them.
While Rachel was crafting intriguing pictures of Maeve, Kara arrived through the front doors of the garden center and Rachel clicked off several frames, catching the little girl in motion as she raced toward her mother, obviously eager to be scooped up and cuddled in her loving embrace.
Kara hugged and kissed her daughter hello before smoothing back her hair to check on her stitches. Frowning, she studied them for a second before quickly fluffing Maeve’s curls to cover them once again and setting the little girl back down on her feet. She smiled at Rachel before turning to greet Mary, who’d appeared from the back office.
“Things are quiet still?” Kara asked. Her lips were pressed together as she looked around the empty store. “I hoped we might start seeing some of the spring business soon. It’s just about time for the spring flower flats to start selling.”
“It was a little busier earlier,” answered Mary, placing a reassuring hand on Kara’s shoulder. “The boys out back have been busy loading mulch and grass seed for people too. There’s just a lull right now, and it’s always quiet inside the store at this time of the year as it’s the outside flowers that people are thinking about. Don’t start fretting. Sales will pick up soon.”
Kara nodded. Mary was right. She should be looking at the outside traffic, not the lack of it inside. Kara forced herself to smile as she leaned over and kissed Maeve on the head again. “I’ll just head outside and see how the guys are doing with the seasonal stuff,” she said. “Thanks for watching Maeve for me, Rachel, and thanks for keeping an eye on the store, Mary.”
Mary waved away her words and turned to Rachel to give her directions on putting out stock as Kara took Maeve by the hand and headed back out the garden center door to check what was happening outside.
Chapter Five
In the garden center’s back office, Kara sighed as she sorted through the mail.
I hate this part of my job.
Quickly, she placed the junk flyers in one pile for recycling and put the bills that needed to be paid in her in-tray to be dealt with later. She paused when she picked up an official-looking envelope that was addressed to Kara using her full legal name.
What do we have here?
Kara carefully ripped the envelope open, skimmed the letter it contained, and then went back and read it more slowly. The words she was seeing made little sense. Someone had written her a letter, with the help of an attorney, asking if she would be interested in selling the garden center. Kara turned the letter over carefully and then looked inside the envelope it had come in to see if she had missed something. But all she found was the single-page letter printed on heavily embossed paper with a phone number at the bottom. The last paragraph of the letter requested Kara contact the legal firm that had written it to discuss their proposal at her earliest convenience.
“Isn’t this funny, Maeve? Someone thinks I want to sell the garden center. Don’t they know this place isn’t for sale and never will be?”
