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The wind and sleet had died down a little while she had been speaking with Megan. The calm before the storm, maybe? She should climb into the SUV she could no longer afford and drive back through the mountain passes toward Boise before the snow began in earnest, but she didn’t trust herself to drive right now, with her emotions in turmoil.
With the vague intention of grabbing a bite to eat at one of several restaurants she had spied in the town’s small commercial district, she headed away from the scorched remains of the Lake Haven Inn.
“Was that lady sad because her hotel burned down?” Maddie asked after a moment.
“She was. It’s been in her family for many years.”
Eliza had learned during the interview process that Megan Hamilton had had no inclination or aptitude to run the hotel after she’d unexpectedly inherited it. Her interests lay elsewhere, Megan had told her, which was why she had hired Eliza in the first place.
“We can’t live there now, can we?”
“I’m afraid not.”
“Where will we put all our boxes?”
“Why don’t we grab a bite to eat at that diner across the street from where we parked and we’ll try to figure out our options?”
“Do they have macaroni and cheese?”
“I wouldn’t be at all surprised.”
They headed for the crosswalk and waited for the light to change. Eliza took a moment to look around, cognizant of her surroundings for the first time since she had seen that pile of rubble.
She could see the downtown business owners had done their best to decorate their charming little clapboard-and-brick storefronts. Lights hung on nearly every facade and most had Christmas trees in the windows. A few had ornaments with nautical themes, in keeping with the vivid blue of the lake that dominated the view in every direction.
“Mama, the light is green. Green means go,” Maddie declared.
“So it does.”
Maddie slipped her hand free of Eliza’s and scampered ahead of her into the crosswalk. Eliza followed close behind her, keeping an eye on a black SUV headed down the hill toward them.
The SUV was slowing down, she saw, the driver hitting the brakes in what should have been plenty of braking distance but her insides suddenly froze.
The vehicle’s tires spun wildly, ineffectually, unable to find purchase on the road. He tried to turn into the skid but she could tell in an instant he wasn’t going to be able to completely stop in time—and he was sliding straight for her child.
No. This couldn’t be happening!
“Maddie!” she screamed. Acting on a mother’s frantic desperation, she leaped forward to push her daughter out of the path of the vehicle.
She had only an instant to feel deep gratitude and overwhelming relief that her daughter was safe before the vehicle struck her. Though the driver had almost stopped completely by that time, the impact still stole her thoughts, her breath, and she crumpled like that ragged tissue of Megan Hamilton’s. Her head struck concrete and she knew a moment’s screeching agony before everything went black.
* * *
AIDAN CAINE FUMBLED for the door handle in the unfamiliar SUV he had rented from the paunchy dude at the Lake Haven airstrip. It took him a moment but he finally worked the handle and shoved the door open, panic and nausea roiling in his gut.
He had just hit a person! Maybe two. A woman and a little girl crossing the road had been the last thing he had seen as he frantically tried to pump the brakes during the slide and turn into the skid.
This couldn’t be real. He wanted to rewind the past twenty seconds of his life to that horrible moment the SUV hit that patch of ice and started sliding down the hill, wheels spinning.
When the light changed and the pedestrians had started across, he had tried frantically to turn into a streetlamp or something but the vehicle had been completely out of his control by that point.
He thought he would be able to stop in time, until he heard that horrible crunch.
A child’s cries reached him, strident and fearful. Crying. Crying had to be a good sign, right? At least it meant the girl was alert enough to be upset.
He raced around the vehicle to assess the situation and found the source of the crying was a little girl with wavy dark hair beneath a pink-and-purple stocking cap. She knelt in the snow and slush of the road next to a crumpled, motionless figure.
“Mama! Mama!” she cried out, trying to shake the unresponsive woman.
He knelt down beside the girl and put his arm around her, mostly to keep her from jostling the figure unnecessarily. “Okay. Okay.”
The girl trembled in his hold. “She won’t wake up! Mama!”
“Ma’am?” he called. “Hello?”
She wasn’t dead, at least. He could see the steady rise and fall of her chest. Beyond that, he had no idea the scope of her injuries. He thought he had barely tapped her but that crack as she went down still seemed to reverberate through him like a gunshot.
He reached in his pocket for his phone and with fingers that felt heavy and thick he started to dial 911. He couldn’t seem to make his brain function, which sent icy fingers of fear crawling down his spine.
Only natural, he told himself. Normal and expected. The accident had severely rattled him, just as it would anyone else. This had nothing to do with his health situation—nor did the accident. He hadn’t blacked out or had a seizure or something similar. He knew that unequivocally as he could remember each second of those terrible few moments.
His head ached like somebody was drilling him over and over with a nail gun, but that was nothing new.
“I already called for paramedics,” someone said. “They’re on the way.”
He looked up and found a young woman dressed only in jeans and a sweater coming out of one of the nearby businesses.
“Thanks.” He shoved his phone back in his pocket as she came closer to them and knelt beside the woman and the little girl.
“I saw the whole thing. You hit the bad patch of black ice at the top of the hill, didn’t you? I’m so sorry!”
“You are?” It was hardly her fault he hadn’t checked the condition of the vehicle before he endangered other people by taking it on the road.
“Three times I’ve told the road crew supervisor we need to have the crews come by and put deicer on that patch. Every time we have a little melt, water just collects there and then freezes, causing all sorts of issues. When I take over as mayor after the New Year, I can promise you, fixing the drainage in that spot is going to be Priority One.”
He didn’t give a damn about the road problems in Haven Point. Right now, his Priority One was the woman who still hadn’t moved.
“Oh,” the shopkeeper suddenly exclaimed as she looked at him for the first time. Her mouth sagged open. “You’re—”
Aidan supposed he shouldn’t be surprised she recognized him. He wasn’t exactly a celebrity on par with Bezos or Zuckerberg, but he had some renown in certain circles. Closer to home, he was quite sure word had trickled out that he had taken over Ben’s property in town, including Snow Angel Cove.
That he was Aidan Caine, founder and CEO of Caine Tech, was the least important issue right now, even less important than the poor precipitation drainage. He cut her off before she could say anything more about it by turning back to the injured woman. “Ma’am,” he said again, gently nudging her. “Ma’am, can you hear me?”
When she didn’t answer, he turned to the little girl. “What’s your mother’s name?”
“Eliza Jane Hayward,” she answered promptly, though her voice wobbled on the words. “My name is Madeline Elizabeth Hayward.”
He tried to give her a reassuring smile, though it was completely fake since he wasn’t reassured by anything that had happened in the past few minutes. He did his best to push away the headache that had become his constant companion the last few months. “Hi, Madeline. My name is Aidan.”
“Why won’t she wake up?” the little girl asked with a worried frown. “Is it her heart?”
He blinked at what seemed an odd question. “Her heart? Oh, I don’t think so. Sometimes when people have an accident and hurt their heads, they can go to sleep for a minute. That’s probably what happened. Ma’am? Eliza?”
Her eyes fluttered a little but she didn’t awaken so he tried a little harder. “Eliza? Come on, ma’am. You have to wake up. Your daughter is here and she needs you.”
At that, long eyelashes brushed her skin again, once, then twice and finally she opened her eyes with what looked like supreme effort.
They were the same rich green as dewy new leaves on an aspen tree, he noted—a completely inconsequential observation but one that couldn’t be helped. Just now they looked dazed, unfocused. She mumbled something incomprehensible and then in the next instant, she blinked rapidly and he watched as full consciousness returned in a mad, frantic rush.
Her gaze shifted wildly. “Maddie? Maddie!”
The little girl moved closer. “Right here, Mama. I’m right here.”
Eliza gave a sob of relief and pulled the girl to her chest, holding her tight. “I thought you were... Oh, honey.”
“You didn’t wake up and I was so scared.”
“I’m here. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” Tears leaked out of those stunning eyes and dripped into her hair and her daughter’s. After a moment, the girl sat up and her mother tried to follow her but Aidan rested a hand on her arm.
“Easy. Don’t get up. The ambulance is on the way.”
“Don’t be silly,” she croaked. “I don’t need an...ambulance.”
“You were hit by a car. My car. You need an ambulance,” he said firmly.
“Where are you hurt? Can you tell us?” the storekeeper asked in a kind voice.
“Everywhere,” Eliza Hayward muttered. “But...I don’t think anything’s...broken.”
She again tried to scramble up but Aidan set a hand on her shoulder, careful not to apply pressure anywhere until they had a better idea of the extent of her injuries.
“Please. Just stay still. By the sound of it, help is almost here.”
She didn’t look thrilled at the reminder as the siren’s wail approached them but she subsided on the cold ground again. Heedless of the weather conditions, he took his coat off and folded it under her head so she didn’t have to lie on asphalt, just as the ambulance pulled up behind his rental vehicle.
A couple of frazzled-looking emergency medical technicians—probably volunteer firefighters, if Haven Point was anything like his hometown of Hope’s Crossing—raced over carrying boxes he assumed contained medical supplies.
The EMTs greeted the woman who had come out of her store to help.
“It’s that stupid patch of ice we’ve had such trouble with this year,” she said. “Mr. Caine couldn’t stop in time and he slid right into her.”
After quick, furtive looks in his direction that made him squirm, the EMTs turned their attention to Eliza. Aidan quickly stepped out of the way to give them more room.
He noticed Madeline—Maddie, her mother had called her—standing to one side, watching the activity with eyes that looked very large suddenly in her pale face.
He stepped closer and leaned down to her. “Don’t worry, Maddie. The paramedics are taking very good care of your mom. Everything’s going to be okay.”
She looked skeptical. “How do you know?”
He could appreciate someone who demanded verification. “Your mom was talking to us. That’s a great sign. She said she was okay. I think we’re going to have to believe her until we find out otherwise. What about you? Are you okay?”
The little girl’s chin wobbled a little, as if she had been trying all this time to be brave and had finally lost the battle. “My knee hurts,” she said with a sniffle. “My mom pushed me and I fell and now I think it’s bleeding.
“See?” She pulled up her purple jeans and he could see she had a scrape about the size of a quarter just below her little kneecap.
“Look at that. You are bleeding. I bet we can find a Band-Aid to put on that for you.”
“Will it have a princess on it?”
She reminded him forcefully of his niece Faith, which seemed odd as Faith was a few years older, slender and blonde. This little curly-haired imp with the big personality and the dimples probably had more in common with Carter, Faith’s younger brother. They seemed about the same age.
But there was something about her, a kind of fragile sweetness, that made him want to blindly promise her everything would work out—and then tuck her against him to protect her from further harm and do everything in his power to keep his word.
“I’ll see what I can do,” he said.
He spent a few more moments talking to the girl while the paramedics were working on her mother and learned, much to his surprise, that she and her mother weren’t from Haven Point.
“We were just moving here. All our things are in boxes,” she revealed. “I was going to sleep in my new bed tonight, but then my mama’s new job burned down. See?”
She pointed down the hill toward the lake, where he could see the charred remains of the comfortable inn where he had stayed on his first visit to the area.
“Your mother was going to work at the Lake Haven Inn?”
Maddie nodded, curls bouncing. “Yes. Only now she can’t and the lady was really sad. She cried and my mama told her not to worry, that we would figure something out. That’s what she always says.”
He was still mulling that and the atrocious luck that had hit Eliza Hayward in the past hour when the woman who had first come out of the store to help after the accident approached him.
She was young, he could see now, no more than twenty-seven or -eight. This was the new mayor of Haven Point?
“You’re Aidan Caine, aren’t you?”
She said it bluntly and without any of the kind of embarrassing awe he sometimes encountered. In fact, her voice and expression were completely devoid of any kind of warmth.
“I am, yes. I’m afraid I didn’t catch your name.”
She wasn’t overtly hostile but there was definitely a coolness in her tone and expression. “I don’t think I told you. I’m McKenzie Shaw. That’s my store over there. Point Made Flowers and Gifts.”
Was she trying to drum up business? This really wasn’t the time.
“I like your Christmas tree,” Maddie said.
The woman smiled at her with considerably more warmth than she had shown Aidan. “Thanks, honey. If you come in with your mom, I’ll give you an ornament made out of a pinecone. I make them myself.”
“Wow! Thanks,” Maddie said.
“You’re welcome.”
Ms. Shaw turned back to Aidan. “I’m also the newly elected mayor of Haven Point and will take office in January.”
“So you said.”
“I apologize again on behalf of the town for the poor road conditions,” she said stiffly. “You can be assured, it won’t happen again.”
Was she afraid he would pursue legal action against the town? The fault was entirely his own. If he had been driving a vehicle with better tires, this wouldn’t have happened. He was already planning on purchasing an additional vehicle besides the ranch Suburban and pickup truck—one with excellent tires—that he could leave at the Lake Haven airport and use for ground transportation on future visits.
Before he had the chance to tell her that, a police officer approached them. “I’m Officer Bailey with the Haven Point police department. I understand you were the driver of the vehicle that struck Mrs. Hayward while the light was red and she was in the crosswalk,” she said sternly.
“Yes,” he answered. By her unfriendly tone and set jaw, he had to wonder if he was going to end up behind bars over this whole thing. He wasn’t sure the town even had a jail but he had a feeling he was about to find out.
“I saw the whole thing from my shop window, Wyn,” McKenzie Shaw said. “He wasn’t speeding and definitely tried to stop in time.”
He blinked, shocked by the would-be mayor’s unexpected defense.
“It’s that stupid patch of black ice,” she went on. “How many times have I tried to get the road department to lay down extra salt solution there?”
“Plenty,” Officer Bailey said. “Regardless, it’s still considered a failure to yield situation. I’m going to need to see your license and registration.”
“You know who this is, don’t you, Wyn?” McKenzie said, giving him a significant look.
The police officer—who looked only a few years older than the new mayor—gave a shrug. “Sure I do. No matter what Mr. Caine might think, owning half the town doesn’t give him any special privileges, as far as the law is concerned.”
Why the hell were all the women in this town pissed at him? This was only the second time he had even stepped foot in Haven Point. What had he done?
“I don’t expect special privileges,” he insisted.
“Good.” She smirked. “Then you’ll understand that I have to give you a citation with a hefty fine.”
“Absolutely,” he said, with a coolness to match hers.
“Mr. Aidan! Where are they taking my mama?” Maddie spoke in a frantic voice, adding several progressively more insistent tugs on his shirt for emphasis.
While he was talking to the new mayor and the police officer, the EMTs had started to load the stretcher into the back of the ambulance, he realized.
“Where is the closest medical facility?” he demanded of the two women.
“Lake Haven Hospital,” Officer Bailey answered. “It’s the closest and only medical facility around here. You’ll find it at the halfway point between Haven Point and Shelter Springs.”
Maddie tore away from him and raced over to the ambulance. “No! Don’t go, Mama. Don’t go!”
Eliza looked equally distressed. “Please. My daughter. I can’t leave without her!”
One of the EMTs, a man with a completely bald head and a bit of a paunch, gave her an apologetic look. “It’s against our department policy, ma’am, to take uninjured minors in the ambulance. But Officer Bailey over there can transport her to the hospital in her patrol vehicle. She might even beat us to the hospital.”
“I want to go with my mama!” Maddie exclaimed. “I’m hurt, too! I scraped my knee!”
“It’s true,” Aidan offered solemnly. “She definitely needs medical attention.”
“I’m sorry, but—”
“She’s a little girl who’s been through a terrible ordeal, seeing her mother hurt like that. It’s cold out here and she’s frightened. What’s the harm in letting them stay together?”
“The rules—”
“Just let her ride the bus, Ed,” the police officer said, her voice weary. “I’ll clear it with Chief Gallegos. He’s too busy dealing with the fire at the inn to mind a little breach in protocol this once.”
After a moment and another whispered conversation between the EMTs, the bald dude shrugged. “Fine. Come on up here, little lady. You have to promise not to touch anything, though.”
“I won’t,” she promised.
Aidan lifted her up into the ambulance and she paused in the door opening to give him a little wave before the EMTs climbed in after her and closed the door. A moment later, the ambulance pulled away, lights flashing, and drove away from the scene.
He shivered a little and realized his coat had disappeared somewhere. Maybe they had used it to cover the woman in the ambulance. He hoped so.
“Mr. Caine. I need your license and registration, please.” The police officer’s expression had once more returned to a stern, uncompromising line.
He found the necessary information inside the rental vehicle—not an easy task since the glove compartment was packed with all kinds of paperwork, from the last time the tires were rotated to a receipt for pizza from a place called Pie Guys Pizza.
By the time they finished, he was freezing. The mayor had long since returned to the warmth of her store, with its cheery Christmas tree in the window.
“That should be all,” Officer Bailey said, still without smiling once. “You can find all the necessary instructions for paying your citation or where and when to appear before the judge if you want to contest it. If you have any questions, there’s also a number there you can call.”
“Thanks. Am I free to go, then? You’re not going to arrest me?”
“Not today, anyway.”
Was that a joke? It was tough to tell, since she seemed completely humorless.
“Can you tell me again how I get to the hospital?”
“Take a left and go a block until you hit Lakefront Drive, then head north about a mile. You can’t miss it. Big redbrick building. The storm is picking up. Drive slowly and leave plenty of room to stop, especially with those tires.”
He nodded and climbed back into the rental SUV. His headache had ratcheted up about a dozen notches. He wasn’t in any hurry to drive anywhere except his lodge at Snow Angel Cove after the trauma of actually hitting a person, but Dermot and Margaret Caine had raised him to do the right thing, even when it hurt.
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