“Are you frustrated with me for failing to give it to you when I should have?”
“No, it’s okay. It’s hard to be frustrated about not receiving something you never knew existed.”
“An hour from now we can celebrate the brooch over this gluten-free cherry pie I’m making especially for you. How’s that?”
“That’ll work.” Maddie was not one to pass up her mom’s homemade pie. Ever.
Mom slipped the crust into the prepared pan then began crimping its edges. “There’s a legend that goes along with the brooch.”
“A legend?”
She nodded. “I’ll have to think on it. I believe it had to do with the bearer of the brooch discovering true love.”
“Hm?”
“Yes. Isn’t that sweet?”
“You mean to tell me that a brooch that might have the power to bring true love into my life has been gathering dust under baby blankets?”
Mom grinned. “That about sums it up. Not that I believe in the legend.”
“Yet you said that Grandma gave it to you when you graduated from high school. Right after that, you went off to the University of South Carolina and immediately met Dad.”
Maddie’s dad occasionally verged onto overly intense and taciturn territory with his kids. Never with Mom, though. Mom softened him into a cream puff.
The two had become friends shortly after arriving at the university. For more than two years, Dad bided his time while planning his careful strategy to win Mom’s heart. Eventually, he’d succeeded. When he returned to his home state of Washington for med school, he’d brought both an undergrad diploma and a new wife with him.
It was a match made in heaven. Of all the married couples Maddie knew, her parents’ relationship was one of the best.
Come to think of it, Grandma and Grandpa had a wonderful marriage, too. They were both upwards of eighty and had been married close to sixty years.
“It was a coincidence that I met your dad shortly after Grandma gave me the brooch,” Mom said.
“I certainly hope so. If this brooch has the ability to bring my true love to me then I sure could’ve used it a few years back.”
Mom laughed.
“What do we know about the women who owned the brooch before Grandma?” Maddie asked.
“I don’t know anything, I’m afraid. Call Grandma and ask. Her memory’s excellent.” She rolled out a second ball of dough to cut into lattice that she’d lay in a crisscrossing pattern atop the pie. “Speaking of true loves . . . are you dating anyone at the moment, Maddie?” She asked the question with casual innocence, as if she didn’t know very well that Maddie loathed discussing her boyfriend prospects with her mother.
“Nope.”
“Evan over at the post office is nice.”
“He smells like mustard.”
“What about that handsome Zander Ford?”
“Two problems there. One, he’s overseas at the moment and has been for more than a year. Two, he’s in love with Britt.”
“How about Brenda’s son, Drew? Will you let me set you up with him?”
“I’ve known Drew since we were four. If it was a love match between us, I think we would’ve recognized that by now.”
“Russell Goodman?”
“He lives with his mom.”
