Sadie wrinkled her nose. “Not our preferred location obviously, but we’ll take what we can get.”

“You?” Lincoln pointed to Tyler. “You make the pee-pee, too?”

Tyler cleared his throat and Sadie was willing to bet that her cheeks matched the Lobster Shack sign swinging over her head. “Okay then. Well, on that note, we’re really running late to see Dr. Hanlon. See you around.”

At this rate, they were going to be twenty minutes past their appointment time. It would take a miracle for Dr. Hanlon to still see them, but rescheduling would be yet another item on her ever-growing to-do list.

She only made it a few more steps before another interruption.

“Where’s the fire?” Essie Park called from a bistro table in front of Morning Joe’s Coffee Shop, the Cove Herald opened next to her delicious-looking latte. Even though Essie was forty-something, she looked a decade younger with her light peach skin, jet-black hair, and chocolate-brown eyes. While the town’s number-one real estate agent always attributed her good looks to her Korean genes, Sadie couldn’t help but wonder if Botox played a helping hand.

“Can’t chat.” Sadie refused to stop a third time. “We’re so freaking late.”

“Well don’t slow down my account. I only wanted to pass along the latest bit of real estate news—the Old Red Mill finally sold. Isn’t that something?”

“For sure!” Why in the world would that interest me? The question vanished as she finally barged through the front door of the Coastal Kids Medical Group. The walls were a calming shade of marine blue, and a saltwater fish tank lined an entire wall. Two children were standing in front of it, their breath fogging the glass while they inspected the clown fish and anemones.

As usual, Renee Rhodes was perched at the reception desk in her high-backed ergonomic chair and she smiled brightly in greeting.

“Hey, neighbor.” Sadie straightened her posture. “I know being fashionably late doesn’t apply to doctor visits, but it’s been a morning. Is there any chance we can still be seen?”

Her next-door neighbor, Renee, would never be late to an appointment. Sadie used to babysit her daughter, Tansy, and she’d always arrived to an impeccably clean home that smelled of peonies and fresh-baked snickerdoodles. Renee would leave something delicious for dinner and have checked out the latest cartoon from the library for the girls to watch. The perfect mother. The kind of “together” woman Sadie had always imagined that she’d be

“It’s late,” Renee admitted, after a glance at the clock. “But don’t worry, I’m sure Dr. Hanlon can squeeze you—”

Before Renee could finish her sentence, another wave of nausea hit. This one meant serious business.

“I’m sorry, can you take him for a sec? Please?” Sadie shoved Lincoln at Renee, bolting to the restroom.

Before the door latched shut, she fell to her knees, vomited into the toilet, then slumped against the tile wall. Pressing a clammy, cold hand against her forehead, she gasped. “Stupid chicken thighs.”