by Casey Hagen
She grabbed her mama’s arm. “You went to a strip club? You just went into the parking lot, right? Not actually inside.”
“Oh, no. We went in,” her mama said with an enthusiastic nod. “Interesting place.”
“He has good reasons why he works there, Mama. Don’t hold it against him.”
She reared back and eyed Mabel Lee in that mamaly way of hers. “Do I look like I’m holding it against him?”
“Well, no. I guess not.”
“Look. He made me look at some ugly parts of myself I couldn’t see. At the very least, I’ll always appreciate him for that.” Her face softened as though she’d dug up a treasured memory. “But I’m kind of hoping I get a chance to get to know him better, and maybe one day, we’ll be at a shindig like this for you two.”
Despite the hundreds of times she reminded herself not to get her hopes up, her breath quickened at the possibility that maybe, just maybe they could save this after all. “I don’t know, Mama. I was awful.”
“And he thinks he was awful. It’s time for you both to apologize for being stubborn and move on. This is just the beginning of challenges to come for you two, but when you love each other, and you’re both willing to do the work, there’s nothing you can’t accomplish.”
Her mama glanced over her shoulder where Cassidy and Kellen talked about twenty feet away. “He reminds me a bit of your father. He loves you. Not just for now, but for forever. All you have to do is leap, honey.”
She wrapped her arms around Mabel Lee, and for the first time in so, so long, she had her mama back. She’d lost them both when her dad died and everyday her mama remained out of reach, was another day the hope of ever getting her back died too.
So much time had been lost, but no more. Mabel Lee held on and tried to fight the tears of relief at finally being able to lean on the one parent she had left.
“Now, now,” her mama fussed when she let her go. “No crying. Go put that boy out of his misery.”
Music came to life, and the emcee took the microphone. “Ladies and gentlemen, please put your hands together and welcome for the first time as man and wife…Mrs. and Mr. Cane!”
The room filled with the sound of cheers, clapping, piercing whistles, and laughter.
Her mama leaned in and whispered, “What on earth? He took her name?”
“Mama, no judging.”
“Not judging. It’s just in my day, a wife took pride—”
“Mama, that’s judging,” she said with a snort.
She patted Mabel Lee’s hand. “I’m working on it, Mabel Lee. I’m working on it.”
She leaned her head on her mama’s shoulder. “And I appreciate it more than you can know.”
“Now, at the couple’s request, they’d like all their friends and family to flood that dance floor with them for their first dance.”
“Mabel Lee.” His voice vibrated right next to her ear, and before she could even answer him, her mama sidled off.
Taking her hand and with a quick flick of his wrist, he spun her around and into his arms.
Jumbled pieces slid back into place with every step. “You won over my mama.”
“What makes you think she didn’t have to win me over?” he asked staring down at her, a twitch on those sultry lips of his that had the power to turn her to mush.
“Because that’s not you. How did you do it?”
“Complete honesty. The truth hurt us both, but after a little breaking, we put it back together a whole lot stronger than it was before.” His hand slid around her neck, and he drew her to him. “I’m hoping I can do it again…with you,” he said quietly.
“I think I’d like that.”
“I had four perfect chances to tell you the truth, Mabel Lee, and I chose wrong every single time. I was selfish and stupid. I told myself that since I paid the debt back for my dad, there was no reason for you to ever know. But worse than thinking I could get away with it was not trusting you with the truth.”
She pulled back so she could look into those olive eyes. “Mr. Johnson was right about that? You’re the one who paid it back?”
“Yeah,” he said, running his finger inside the collar of his dress shirt, looking uncomfortable taking the credit.
Pushing up to her tiptoes, she brushed her mouth on his, lingering just long enough to savor the relieved sigh that slipped from his lips.
“You forgive me?” he whispered, his forehead pressed against hers as they swayed in a sea of bodies.
“When you chose to keep that secret, you also chose to forfeit the glory for what you’d done. I was too hurt to recognize that.”
“I’m not looking for praise, Mabel Lee. I just…I lost my dad to addiction, but it wasn’t fair for complete strangers to lose as well.”
She nodded and swallowed the lingering doubt still hovering inside. “I guess the only question is, do you forgive me?”
“There’s nothing to for—”
She pressed her finger to his lips and silenced him. “Don’t dismiss it. I was cruel. I saw my words hurting you, and I still chose to say them. And I’m more sorry than you’ll ever know.”
“I forgive you.” He caressed her by running his lips along her cheek, planting whispered kisses along the way. “You were breathtaking up there today. It made me kind of anxious to get up there and marry the woman I love.”
“Even if that means I want to be married at Willette Baptist?” she asked, kissing his chin. Lord in heaven, she missed that spot and the way he let out a funny little laugh every time she pressed her lips to it.
He dipped her back until her sash brushed the floor under her. “Can Willette Baptist handle a stripper marrying the preacher’s daughter?”
A laugh bubbled out of her as every last ounce of sorrow evaporated until she was sure her feet no longer touched the floor. “Well, if my mama can change…anything’s possible.”
Epilogue
“Just a few more steps,” Kellen said as he guided her around the bed and into a chair. Holding her elbow, he waited for her to settle in, the creaking of old wood the only sound.
“It smells funny. Like an antique shop,” she said, wrinkling her nose.
“That’s just me; I’m getting old,” he said with a laugh.
“Stop that!”
“Are you ready?” he asked right next to her ear as he’d done a hundred times before just to watch her shiver.
She nodded and bobbed in her seat as he slid the blindfold free.
“Oh my God!” She covered her mouth with her hands, her wide-eyed gaze darting around the room. “Is this?” She stood up and spun around. “No way! This is Flannery O’Connor’s bedroom.”
“Just for you,” he said, leaning against the window frame content to watch her excitement breathe life into the still room steeping in history.
“I can’t sit in her chair,” she said, backing away.
“Actually, you can. And I’ve got something else for you.” He collected the leather satchel from the wardrobe standing behind the desk. “I called in a favor and got approval for her collection of letters to be brought over from Emory.”
“Her words? In her very own handwriting?” she whispered.
“Yup.” He laid the thick binder on the wood surface next to the heavy black typewriter on display.
She blinked down and bit her lip. “I’m afraid to touch it.”
“You have a rare opportunity, Mabel Lee. Don’t waste it. Take your time. I’ll stand right over here and keep an eye on you.”
“Your eyes are always on me,” she said with a laugh.
“Get used to it, Mabel Lee.”
He loved to watch her, the passion coming to life and bursting free with even the most mundane things like making dinner together or cleaning up afterwards. It was as if every last minute was a treasured experience where she found something new to glorify in.
He’d given her space to rebuild the bond with her mama, and now that mama and daughter formed a united front, the troubl
emakers in their congregation had reluctantly laid the past to rest.
He couldn’t help but grin watching the way she tentatively touched the letters, as if she could damage them despite the protective film.
“I can feel the grooves from her pen,” she murmured, a look of pure wonder and delight filling her eyes as her fingertips gently skimmed over letters that may very well have not been handled in decades.
“I know you wanted a picnic here—”
“No,” she said with a wonderous shake of her head. “This is perfect. Just perfect.” She read passages from every page, Flannery O’Connor’s words a reverent whisper on her lips.
With each secret smile crossing her face, the words etching on her soul right before his very eyes, he fell harder and harder for the woman before him, until he knew that if he ever lost her, he’d be done for.
“Faith comes and goes…” she began, the words full of wonder as the passage connected with her heart, her spiritual curiosity, and the search for a new place with her congregation.
With God.
He’d never been one for religion—even now—even with her, but every day, he whispered a thank you that he got to see it through her eyes if for no other reason than the knowledge and understanding made him a better man.
“There’s a tiny envelope attached to this one. It’s on the outside. Do you think I can open it?”
“I won’t tell if you won’t,” he said with a grin.
She peeled the flap back, the tip of her tongue darting out as she gently slid in her fingernail.
She blinked down at the page, then she shot him a look, then looked at the page again.
Pink bloomed on her cheeks, the same way it did when he made love to her.
Pushing away from the windows, he crossed to her, and got down on one knee. His heart threatened to explode from his rib cage as he reached in his mind for the words he’d finally decided on after months of agonizing over it. “I finally found acceptance in what my father did. It led me to you. For that, I will be forever grateful.” He cleared his throat as the words lodged there, thick with so many emotions he couldn’t express but would spend a lifetime trying. “Will you marry me?”
Tears streamed down her face, and she lunged for him. “Yes!” she said around happy tears. “A thousand times yes.”
His hand shook as he reached for the ring and slid it on her finger. Everything he told himself he’d say to her if she accepted faded away.
None of it mattered.
His heart anchored to hers, and she became his forever home.
Thank you, readers for choosing my book out of the vast buffet of awesomeness out there to read. Mabel Lee is near in dear to my heart for so many reasons. She’s unlike any character I’ve ever written and I loved the challenge. Anyone who knows me knows for sure I’m not even close to being like her. Like, not even a little. Okay, dentures in my bra could totally happen, but I’m more like Aurora…and maybe that’s fitting.
Because this book was inspired by my childhood best friend (who is a whole lot like Mabel Lee), and a real-life experience we had at a strip joint in Canada. If you’re curious to know more, I’m going to do a Facebook Live to talk about it in mid September. I even have souvenirs from that very night…you know, because proof or it didn’t happen…am I right?
So, if you want to catch that live where I hang out in my reader group, probably with some Rumchata or whiskey, and tell the real story of thump, thump, thump, thump, thump…well, join:
Beautifully Brutal Anonymous.
COMING NEXT OR NEXT IN THE SERIES…
PREORDER: COVER ME
(Formerly Operation: Girl Next Door)
*new expanded version*
Trevor Myers knows how to make it big in the business world: a charming smile, connections, and balls-to-the-wall fearlessness. The master of all three, a partnership with his firm is all but in the bag. That is, until his boss dangles it over him and his coworker like a prize on a game show. Trevor will do whatever it takes to lock in what is rightfully his, even if that means calling in a doozy of a favor from his best friend that crosses bro code lines.
Piper Bradley is on the precipice of making a career-altering decision. Agonizing over impending change and letting go, Piper decides a weekend trip to clear her head is just what she needs to be sure of her decision. Before she can so much as dig out sandals and sunscreen for some much-needed fun in the sun, her brother calls in a favor from his best friend…Trevor Myers.
Assumptions. Surprises. A battle of wills.
…and so begins the battle between Trevor’s playboy ways and the elemental pull of the girl next door.
ABOUT CASEY HAGEN
Casey Hagen pens her snarky, passionate stories from the salty air of Kennebunk, Maine. She’s a born and raised Vermont native, a New England girl to the core, with Ben & Jerry’s in her heart and real Vermont maple syrup pumping through her veins.
She’s the proud mother of three girls and a new, first-time grandma with an insatiable addiction to Fall Out Boy, and a new, rather concerning obsession with tattoos and piercings. Can you say “cool grandma?”
The inked and pierced grandma spends her time tucked away in her office, coated in cat hair, alternating between tearing her hair out trying to find the perfect words and being one step ahead of her three scheming fur babies she is positive are plotting her demise with every swirl around her ankles at the top of her office stairs.
She loves writing stories about real people, with complicated histories, relatable everyday problems, and giving them the hard-won happily-ever-afters they deserve.
And she thanks every last one of you who picks up one of her stories.
Casey is done talking about herself in the third person.
*Casey out*
CONNECT WITH ME
You can find me online at:
www.CaseyHagenAuthor.com
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BOOKS BY CASEY HAGEN
TALLULAH COVE SERIES
FIERCE PROTECTORS SERIES
SO WRONG IT’S RIGHT SERIES
PARANORMAL
WOLVES & WARLOCKS SERIES
For the full Casey Hagen reading order click here!
Casey in the wild…
