LITMIR.BIZ

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Kate Marlowe looked tired and worn. Tired she’d seen before, but in her experience, her mother had never looked worn. Something was wrong. “But you are lying, aren’t you?”

      To Kelsey’s surprise, a hint of embarrassment colored her mother’s cheeks. Another first. One that made her uneasy.

      “I didn’t want to upset them,” her mother told her.

      “But you’re okay with upsetting me?”

      Still dazed by what the doctor had told her, Kate chose her words carefully. “No, but I know I can count on you. You’re a woman, too.”

      Kelsey stared at her, stunned. She’d fought most of her life to be thought of as anything other than “a little girl” or “the baby of the family.” She would have taken pride in the breakthrough moment if it wasn’t for the nagging feeling that something was really wrong.

      Kelsey glanced toward the patrolman standing at the foot of her mother’s hospital bed. Why was he still here? Had he given out his quota of tickets for the day and now had nothing to do? It was on the tip of her tongue to ask him. She had never fully mastered tact. That was her mother’s domain.

      For her mother’s sake, she did her best to sound polite. She succeeded. Moderately. “Just how do you figure into all this?”

      “Kelsey.” Dismayed, Kate chided her only daughter with the tone of her voice.

      The officer raised a hand in her mother’s direction, indicating that he didn’t mind being questioned. “That’s okay, Kate.”

      “Kate?” Kelsey echoed, her mercurial temper flaring. She hated figures of authority who patronized those they felt were beneath their station. “That’s Mrs. Marlowe to you.”

      “Kelsey.” This time the reprimand was a little more obvious. Her tone was sharper. “I’m sorry, Morgan. My daughter tends to be a little hotheaded.”

      “Daughter,” Morgan repeated, impressed. “When she first came in, I thought she was your kid sister.”

      Kelsey rolled her eyes. Just what did this cop hope to gain by flattering her mother? Granted the woman had a youthful aura about her, she always had, and she really didn’t look near her age, but that didn’t change the fact that she thought the man was up to no good. She felt it in her bones. Whatever it was, he wasn’t going to get away with it. Not while she was around.

      “Thank you for the compliment,” Kate said, “but I still want to apologize for her.” Again she linked her fingers with her daughter’s. “She doesn’t mean to sound rude. She’s just upset.”

      Morgan dismissed the need for an apology. “That’s all right. I run up against that all the time.” He turned to look at Kelsey. “Just not usually from someone as pretty as your daughter.”

      Kelsey heard a little bit of a twang in his voice. A transplant, Kelsey thought with the pinch of snobbery reserved for those who were California natives.

      “Flattery’s not going to get you anywhere,” Kelsey informed him flatly. Her hands were on her hips as she turned toward him. “Now, once and for all, why are you here?”

      His eyes shifted over to Kate. The mother was far less combative than her daughter. “I’m just making sure your mother’s all right, that’s all.”

      Kelsey turned to look at her mother. “Then something did happen.” Kelsey ignored the policeman’s presence as she took both her mother’s hands in hers. Her mother’s fingers felt cold. “Mom, what’s going on? Talk to me,” she pleaded. “What happened and why is he hovering over you like some tarnished guardian angel?” Her eyes narrowed, hoping to get at the truth quickly. “Were you in an accident?”

      Kate reached up to cup her daughter’s cheek. “Almost,” she confessed. “But I’m all right now.”

      Kelsey glared at the officer expectantly. He didn’t disappoint her.

      “Your mother ran into a hedge right off University Drive.”

      Her mother was an excellent driver. She, not her father, had taught all five of them how to drive. This didn’t make any sense. “On purpose?”

      Kate searched for a way to explain without upsetting Kelsey any further. But there just wasn’t any other way. “I fainted.”

      Fear rose up like a huge black shadow, blotting out everything else. It gripped her heart. Her imagination instantly envisioned all sorts of awful scenarios.

      “Mom!”

      Her eyes quickly swept over her mother, searching for telltale signs of the injuries her mother must have sustained. But except for her unnaturally pale color, Kate Marlowe looked as lovely as ever. Just shaken.

      “It’s all over, honey,” Kate soothed. “Officer Donnelly was kind enough to come to my rescue. He insisted on bringing me to the hospital instead of making me wait for the paramedics to arrive.”

      The last remnants of Kelsey’s anger and protectiveness faded. Instead, she felt vulnerable and unarmed. To make matters worse, she knew that she needed to apologize.

      “Thank you,” she said as warmly as she could manage. “I’m sorry I jumped to conclusions. It’s just when I saw you looming over my mother—I mean, standing over her like that—I just—”

      Morgan waved away her halting apology. Kate’s daughter appeared far too uncomfortable. “No need to apologize. If it makes you feel any better, I was following her to give her a ticket. When I noticed her ahead, she was weaving erratically on the road. My first thought was that she was driving under the influence.”

      Kelsey’s temper was back, flaring before she could rein it in. “At ten o’clock in the morning?”

      “Oh, you’d be surprised,” he told her. “It’s always five o’clock somewhere.”

      Kelsey didn’t bother acknowledging his statement. Instead, she asked her mother, “You’re not taking any new medication, are you?” Kelsey had moved out of the house three months ago and had been busy setting up her new life. That meant she was no longer privy to her parents’ day-to-day lives. She felt a sudden pang at that. Maybe if she were still living at home—

      Kate laughed softly. “Now you sound like the attending physician.” She went over the same thing she’d said to the E.R. doctor. “No, no meds, no fever, no explanation. I only fainted once in my life and that was when I was first pregnant with you.”

      “Well, then—”

      Kelsey stopped abruptly, her mind brought to a skidding halt by the thought. Her mother wasn’t—No, she couldn’t be.

      The next moment, she banished the very idea as being far too ridiculous to voice out loud. “Maybe it was something you ate.”

      Kate pressed her lips together, nodding. “Maybe.” There was no conviction in her voice.

      Kelsey took a deep breath. “So, can I spring you now?” The sooner she got her mother out of here, the better they would both feel.

      Kate was anxious to leave herself. She looked out toward the aisle. “Just as soon as the doctor discharges me.”

      Kelsey glanced around, but the only hospital personnel she saw in the general vicinity were nurses. “And what’s the doctor waiting for?”

      “He said he wanted to examine the results of a few lab tests and the X-ray he had me take,” Kate said.

      Was it her imagination, or did her mother sound evasive? Kelsey thought.

      Across from her, the stony-faced policeman seemed to come to life. “Well, there’s no point in my hanging around any longer. I’m still on duty,” Morgan told Kate. “Be careful out there, Mrs. Marlowe,” he said politely. Casting a side glance at Kelsey, he looked down at her left hand before adding, “You, too, Ms. Marlowe.”

      Turning

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