Fated by Carly Phillips Page B

sick.”
    Mike shot his sister a knowing look. Their mother acted like Superwoman, stepping up and handling everything without complaint. Perfection personified, Mike thought. But he knew she had to be exhausted. He opened his mouth to argue that she needed rest too, but Erin shook her head, telling him to let it go.
    Fine, he’d listen for now, but at some point his mother would have to give in and let someone else help her out for a change.
    Suddenly the telephone rang, and Ella rose to answer it.
    â€œDon’t pressure her. She likes feeling needed,” Erin whispered as their mother spoke on the phone. “I’m coming over to sit with Dad one day this week so she can go get her hair done. Sam promised to play chess with Dad one afternoon this week. She’s getting breaks.”
    â€œWhy didn’t anyone ask me to help out?” he asked, too petulantly for his liking. The fact that he hadn’t thought to relieve his mother had him feeling out of sorts and selfish. As usual, he’d fallen short compared to his siblings. So what else was new?
    â€œWe figured you had your hands full taking Dad’s place and getting up to speed,” Erin said.
    â€œIt’s been a month. I’m as up as I’m going to get. The rest depends on everyone accepting how I want to do things.” He’d have made time for his mother. He was about to say as much when Ella returned.
    One look at her pale face and Mike shot to his feet. “What’s wrong?” he asked, placing a bracing arm around her shoulder.
    Erin came around her other side. “Mom?”
    â€œSam’s been in an accident.”
    Heart pounding hard in his chest, Mike eased his mother into the nearest chair. “What happened?”
    â€œThat was Cara,” she said of Sam’s partner. “His car crashed into a tree. He’s at University Hospital now.”
    â€œCara was with him?” Mike knew for a fact they weren’t on duty today, but it wasn’t surprising they were together. Those two made a mockery of the notion that men and women couldn’t be just friends.
    It was Mike who couldn’t just be Cara’s friend, not after an explosive one-night stand three months ago that he’d yet to get out of his head. “Are they both okay?”
    â€œCara sounded fine. Sam’s being assessed,” his mother said, still trembling.
    Mike swallowed hard. His mother’s fear wasn’t an easy thing to deal with, not when she was usually so strong. But she’d been hit with too many things at once lately.
    â€œI need to go to your brother, but I can’t leave your father. I don’t want to drag him out there and put him under all that stress, around sick people and germs . . .”
    This was something he could do to help. “I’ll head over to the hospital,” Mike said, glancing at his sister.
    She nodded. “And I’ll stay here with you and Dad.”
    â€œNo.” Ella shook her head. “You go with your brother. You two should be together when you get news on Sam.”
    Mike immediately thought of a solution. “I’ll tell you what. I’ll call Aunt Louisa to come over,” he said of his mother’s sister who also lived in Serendipity a few streets away. “That way you and Dad won’t be alone.”
    â€œI don’t want to be a bother to her.”
    But Erin had already reached for the phone and begun dialing over their mother’s objections.
    A few minutes later, their aunt was on her way over while Mike and Erin headed for the hospital.
    * * *
    Officer Cara Hartley paced outside the emergency room, hoping for news on her partner and waiting for his family to arrive. She didn’t know which members would come, given Sam’s father’s condition, but her gut told her his brother, Michael, would be one of them. As laid-back as he appeared, when it came to doing his job or caring for