But as time passed and the Justice boys got older, it was clear that Earl’s wrong-headedness hadn’t taken root, but the damage of the curse had been done. None of the Justice boys would touch a woman, not even when they were deeply in love. Cane broke Astor’s heart when they were teens because he believed in the curse. Calder refused to marry.
The Sew Be It ladies, who had started the rumor, found that they had to end it. They hunted down Birdie and convinced Earl to write her into his will. He was older at the time and longed to have a legacy, someone of his own reigning at the Justice ranch. He’d come to believe the curse, too, and thought Calder would marry Birdie and then she’d die, leaving all of the money and property back in the Justice coffers. It didn’t matter to him that Calder would be heartbroken. People just didn’t matter at all to Earl.
Calder and Birdie proved him wrong, though. Birdie’s well past the age of thirty, the age at which the Justice women were supposed to pass as were all the other Justice women.
Tammy and the Sew Be It ladies smile secret, happy smiles and raise their drinks. “To love,” Tammy says.
“To love,” the ladies echo.
“It’s the true justice,” Tammy says.
The glasses are clinked together, and the liquor is downed as the words ring clear as a bell in the small sewing shop. Love is the true justice. May we all live happily ever after.