Chapter 1 #2
The North Haven Coffee Shop was three miles from the little corner café Kara normally frequented.
Central to where the sisters had to be that day.
Close enough to Stella that she could ride her bike.
Kara saw the familiar two-wheeled transportation locked to a pole just outside the door as she pulled into the parking lot a minute before she’d have been late.
Taking the third seat at the table where Stella and Melanie were waiting, she said, “I’m sorry for the drama, but I need to talk to you two before I go home to face Ben tonight.”
Kara could almost hear Stella’s inward groan.
Her older sister by ten years, Stella was the activist, the middle child, with her sassy, layered, short reddish-gold hair and blue eyes.
But she had a heart that bled for anyone who was suffering.
Kara had long ago figured out that Stella was the most sensitive of the sisters.
Melanie, the oldest at forty-five, leaned forward, her brown eyes brimming with their usual compassion. “If you lost Celia, sweetie, you have to know it wasn’t your fault.”
The French bulldog had been Kara’s very first patient when she’d opened up her own practice.
“She produced six healthy puppies,” Kara told the two of them, glad that there was good news to open what was going to be a difficult conversation.
One she’d tried to have so many times over the years but had always chickened out on.
But now, with her own birthing abilities being called into play, she no longer had a choice.
Still, a minute or two to build up to the main event wasn’t a horrible idea.
Since Melanie had presented the opportunity.
“Her vitals are fine and she’s contentedly nursing,” she continued.
Thinking she’d end it there. But didn’t.
“I’m actually thinking about fostering a couple of the puppies if she doesn’t have enough milk.
” The idea popped out before its time. She hadn’t even mentioned the possibility to Ben yet.
Melanie’s smile was supportive, and accompanied by lines on her forehead, too. “What does Ben have to say about that?”
Yeah. Leave it to the sister who’d raised her to figure out there was trouble in paradise. With a serious glance between the two of them, Kara said, “I haven’t said anything to him about it yet.” Their clue not to spill the beans in the event they talked to Ben before she did.
Stella picked up her soda-filled stainless steel mug and said, “Kara, you know I’m not going to be much help if we’re here to talk about husband trouble.”
“This isn’t about Ben. Not directly, anyway.”
She had their attention. And both sets of eyes focused on her. Exactly what she’d come for. And wasn’t ready. “Ben’s great. It’s me…”
“What? Is something wrong? You’re not sick, are you?” Melanie piped in.
“No.” Kara took a long sip from the iced-caramel-and-vanilla-cream drink sitting in front of Melanie.
A move she hadn’t made since she was about six.
Pushing the drink closer to Kara, sharing without comment, Melanie pinned her with the look that had always pulled the truth out of Kara. “What’s going on?”
“It’s about Mom.”
Stella shared an immediate glance with Mel. Not just a glance. Some kind of silent communication. The same as they’d done Kara’s entire life.
Stella had only been ten the last time she’d seen their mother. Melanie had to have spent a lot of time consoling her.
“What about Mom?” Mel asked, all nonchalant and innocent sounding, as though she was talking to her fifteen-year-old son, not her twenty-nine-year-old veterinarian sister.
Melanie had always been the keeper of the Mom secrets. The unofficial Tory Mitchell spokesperson for the family. The one Kara had gone to when she’d first had questions. Before she’d quietly started looking for them on her own. And had found far too little. And too much, too.
Too little to tell her anything. And too much to be able to let go.
“I need to know more.” Kara’s eyes wide, she implored both of them.
“It’s like I’m stuck in this place between where I came from and where I’m going.
I know her death, the suddenness of the accident, was horrible for you both, and that it hurts to talk about her.
But Ben…wants to have a family and I… I feel this void.
Once I have kids…will I be there for them?
I think I need to know my own mother before…
” She shook her head, not quite tearing up, but feeling close enough to it. Stella was watching more closely.
“What do you want to know?” Mel’s question came softly, filled with her usual empathy.
“She baked great chocolate chip cookies,” Stella burst out.
“And had a beautiful voice, too,” Kara added, nodding. “I know those things…you’ve told me many times. You just never say…was she…a good mom?”
“She was a great mom,” Mel said, and Stella took another sip of soda.
“She sure adored you.” Mel’s smile seemed genuine as she looked at Kara, and then, including Stella in her glance, said, “All of us. She loved being a mom and was always the first to volunteer when hair had to be done for dance recitals, or drivers were needed to get our softball team to an away game…”
Half-laughing, Mel glanced from Kara to Stella.
And Kara had the distinct impression her oldest sister’s good humor wasn’t completely natural as Mel said, “Remember that summer we took a family road trip to Yellowstone and when we stopped at the roadside place for lunch, she pulled out a tablecloth and napkins and stuff before she’d let us dig into the cooler?
Dad about flipped his lid because he was eager to get to the hotel before dark… ”
Stella shook her head. “No.”
They didn’t have a lot of time. And Kara didn’t need to revisit all the stories she’d already heard. She couldn’t allow them to sidetrack her anymore. “I have to know more about the accident.” Her tone, the determined look in her eye drew Stella’s gaze straight to her.
“I’ve been through every newspaper I can find in the entire states of Georgia, Tennessee, Florida, and Louisiana—and did a countrywide search too—and I can’t find any mention at all of a car accident attached to Mom’s name.
Or to the date she died, either. None that involved the death of a woman Mom’s age…
“I found the obituary—not that I needed it since you’d already shown it to me,” Kara continued, shooting her gaze back and forth between the two of them. “But even that…it was so…short. Just said that she died in North Haven, Georgia, as a result of injuries sustained in a car accident.”
With another long, serious look, Kara said, “Aunt Lila told me a few years back that knowing the details would serve no purpose, and I tried to trust her judgment…but… I need to know. Did Mom kill herself?”
Lila. Honorary aunt. Her mother’s best friend.
“No!” The word burst out of Stella. And Mel, too. Simultaneously. Glancing at her oldest sister, Kara felt her stomach clench. Mel wasn’t known for outbursts.
And when it came to their mother, Mel had always been…calm.
Almost eerily calm, Kara realized, now that she thought about it.
She stared back and forth between the two women who’d been her role models—and trusted advisers—her entire life. Melanie’s face was suddenly expressionless.
Driven by something stronger than herself, Kara held her ground.
And said, “I need the truth.”
Stella slid down lower in her seat.
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