Page 55 of Always Meant for You
“Do they have names?” I ask.
“Park and Eastfield,” he says, nodding to the orange pair. “Cow’s the one with spots. Main is the gray. And you met the kitten earlier.”
“Mabel the Cat,” I say softly, a smile tugging at my lips. “You named most of them after streets in town.”
He shrugs. “That’s where I found them.”
I glance at the kitten. “Where did you find Mabel?”
“The town square.”
“Why didn’t you call her Square?”
His jaw flexes.
I don’t push. “What’s Cow’s story?”
He scratches Cow behind the ears as the cat slurps his milk with noisy satisfaction. “He was living at the Sperry Dairy. Sherri said he made the herd anxious. But he settled in with us.”
At the mention of the dairy, I chuckle. “I forgot how everyone in that family looks like they’re genetically related to dairy cows.”
He huffs out a breath, part laugh, part surrender.
I’m about to ask something else—light, small, anything to keep this thread going—when he checks his watch.
“I’ve got to head out,” he says, standing. “I can’t hang around talking about cats all night.”
The walls are up, and I can’t figure out why.
I follow him to the office. “Where are you off to?”
“Town council meeting.”
“You’rerepresenting Elverna now?”
He doesn’t rise to the bait. His focus stays locked on the whiteboard behind his desk, as if the answers he needs are buried somewhere in the smudged marker lines. “I’m trying, Mabel,” he says quietly.
His words land heavier than I expect.
I take in the threadbare tablecloth. “Do you ever think about leaving, Cal? About starting over someplace new.”
In a heartbeat, he’s standing in front of me. The space between us shrinks to nothing.
I shift instinctively, but he steadies me with both hands at my elbows.
“No, Mabel,” he grits out. “I don’t think about that. I don’t cut and run.”
I throw back my shoulders. “Is that what you think I did?”
“Let me ask you this. What have you done that wasn’t for yourself?” His eyes are locked on mine. “What have you given up? What have you built?”
I don’t answer.
My pride won’t let me. Because I did build something. And then I ruined it.
I force myself to maintain a composure I don’t feel. “You don’t know me anymore, Cal.”
He leans in. “Oh, I know enough, Mabel Ruth.”
