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,