The woman nodded. “She was in trouble and needed help.”
He paced back and forth, trying to reconfigure the picture he’d constructed in his head of that turbulent time in his young life. “Why didn’t she call my grandparents?”
Betty sighed—a sad, lonesome sound. “Families can be messy, dear. Your grandparents weren’t pleased when she left. Sabrina had cut off contact with them. I hadn’t heard from her in years either. And then one day, out of the blue, she called and asked for my help. She told me that she had a son and wanted to do better for him. I could barely believe that she’d had a child, but I wasn’t about to turn her down.”
He’d never given his mother much credit. It was easier to peg her as the villain, the addict, the negligent mother. But not every memory was terrible. He glanced down the street and spied a little park. Rusted and overgrown with weeds, a memory floated to the surface of his mind. His mother had brought him here. She’d pushed him on the swings.
Callan goes up so high and down so low.
He blinked back tears. He could hear her voice and see her beautiful face as she wore the dandelions that he’d knotted into a crown for her.
“But my grandparents didn’t know about me until after she’d died,” he said. A whirl of emotions overtook him as the fragmented memories wove themselves together into a loose timeline.
“Your mother made me promise not to tell a soul about you. I drove up to Chicago and helped you two get settled here. Sabrina wanted to get her life together on her own. She could be stubborn like that—like someone I know,” Betty added with that sly smirk in place.
He stared at the weather-beaten blue house with a rickety, torn screen door hanging askew. “But she didn’t get herself together. She died in there.”
“I understand, dear. But addiction is a disease. I’m sure she fought it with all her might. I could see that she loved you, Cal. I wish I’d checked in with her to make sure the two of you were okay. All I can tell you is that somewhere between the time I visited and her death, she’d lost her way.”
He nodded as a child peeked out the window of one of the row houses. All those years ago, that could have been him.
“And that’s why you’ve had such a hard time trusting anyone. And why you’re so set in your ways. That’s what’s got you tied up in knots about Mabel,” Betty added.
He reared back. “Why do you think I’m tied up in knots over Mabel? What’s she got to do with anything?”
Betty chuckled. “Oh, Cal! It’s been obvious for years that you’re head over heels in love with that girl.”
He parted his lips, but nothing came out.
Betty swatted him playfully. “For goodness’ sake! Back when you were a teenager, you used to sit across the street from the diner and stare at her while she worked her shift. When you first started doing that, Sally nearly called the police to report a peeping Tom.”
They’d noticed? He’d thought he’d been so stealthy.
“I wasn’t that bad,” he replied, knowing damned well that he was.
“Cal?” she chided.
He blew out a tight breath. “I didn’t know what to do back then. Between her being Jamie’s sister and then how much she wanted to get out of Elverna, I got stuck. I didn’t know how to tell her—and then Jamie died and…”
“And Mabel left and went to a big city just like your mother did,” Betty finished.
He nodded. “I promised Jamie before he died that I would make Elverna a place Mabel would be proud to live. Muldowney Farms is her legacy. It’s where she’s safe. It’s where I can keep her safe. I tried to explain this to her yesterday when she told me that there was an opportunity for her in New York. But she didn’t listen. She told me that I only loved a part of her—the farm to Mabel part of her—and that wasn’t enough. She needs me to accept all of her—the city, the damned passport. Everything.”
“She was right to tell you that,” Betty shot back.
“How can you say that?” He couldn’t make heads or tails out of why it was so wrong to want to keep the woman he loved safe.
Betty held his gaze. Her hazel eyes, knowing and wise, bore into him. “Because you’re confusing your mother with Mabel.”
Her words hit him like a punch to the gut.
But was she right? Had he equated Mabel’s choices to his mother’s choices?
“It’s heartbreaking and tragic what happened to Sabrina, but Mabel doesn’t need you to save her, Cal. In fact, I’d go as far as saying that it was Mabel who saved you. And in her crazy hats and shiny shoes, she might have also single-handedly saved Elverna,” Betty added, and as much as he hated to acknowledge it, she was right.
With her sass, scarves, and ridiculous hats, she’d forged her own path. She’d taken risks. She’d gotten burned. But she’d picked herself up. He’d fed himself the narrative and cast himself as Mabel’s hero—her white knight galloping in to save her from the big bad city. When, in reality, it was the other way around.
Mabel Ruth Muldowney didn’t require a champion.
In pink Prada heels with a wedge of Sperry Dairy cheese in her hand, she was the champion.
He stared up at the sky. “Betty, I’m such a fool.”
She squeezed his hand. “You’re not a fool, Cal. You care for Mabel, but it was never your job to save her. Your job is to love her. It’s written in the stars, dear. Her Gemini balances your Capricorn.”
A realization washed over him. The type of topsy-turvy recognition that clears away the mental cobwebs. “I need to get back to Elverna as soon as possible, Betty. I need to do something for Mabel, and it has to be big.”
She took his arm. “That’s the spirit!”
And then it hit him. What was he thinking? They were in the middle of Chicago, hours away from Elverna. It wasn’t like he could leave Betty and Margaret here.
“But how will you get home?” He shook his head. “No, I can’t leave now. I can wait,” he added, glancing at his watch as adrenaline coursed through his veins, urging him to spring into action.
She waved him off as a little red hatchback honked twice and pulled over onto the side of the road.
He bent down to look inside and could hardly believe his eyes. “Sally?”
“Hiya, Cal! Nice day for a drive!” the woman chirped.
He turned to Betty. “You planned this?”
She tossed him a wink. “I told you, Cal. It’s written in the stars. Your horoscope says a true transformation is on the horizon. I decided to help fate along a bit.”
Warmth spread through his body. He’d never curse the stars again.
He opened the car door for Betty Young, helped the woman into her seat, but paused before closing the door as he reflected on the last fifteen minutes—fifteen life-altering minutes.
“Thank you, Betty,” he said as emotion thickened in his throat. He held the wise woman’s gaze. “I think this is the most I’ve ever heard you speak.”
She settled herself in the seat, then shrugged. “I only say what needs to be said.”
He smiled at the charmingly small-town quality of her response—the first real smile that had graced his lips since Mabel left. “I’m going to get the girl, Betty.”