“You’d be astonished at what I See and never pass on to the family. Half of it they wouldn’t believe and the other half they don’t need to know. You may still be all about sharing and caring, but I live in hope that you’ll stop diving to my granddaughter’s lure when you’ve been Wild a little longer.”

“If you already know about the babies, then why did you call, Auntie Catherine?”

“I can’t call just to talk?”

“You don’t.”

“True. There’s a Calgary . . . What is the politically correct label for bums now? Economically disabled? Never mind,” she continued before Charlie could answer. “Let’s go with personality. There’s a Calgary personality known as Doomsday Dan.”

Charlie felt a cold touch along her spine. The odds of it being a coincidence that she’d seen Dan on the same day Auntie Catherine called and mentioned him were slim to none. The universe didn’t work that way, not for Gales. “What about him?”

“He’s right.”

“What’s he right ab . . . Auntie Catherine?”

“She hung up.”

It wasn’t a question, but Charlie answered anyway. “Yeah.”

“And you’re leaving.”

“How did you get that from yeah?”

With Evan on her hip, Allie couldn’t fold her arms, but her entire posture screamed that, had she been able, they’d have been crossed with extreme prejudice. “Are you?”

“Well, yeah.” Although she still didn’t get how Allie’d figured it out. “There was a crazy street dude on television this morning before you got up, ranting about . . .” Charlie edited the end of the world out of her explanation. Since the babies, even joking about death and disaster had been taken off the table. “. . . all sorts of weird shit. Your grandmother just called to say he was right.”

Allie’s left foot began to tap. Edward watched it, fascinated. “She’s Seen a crazy street dude talking about weird shit?”

“Apparently.”

“Crazy street dude talking about weird shit? Really, Charlie? You’re thirty, not thirteen.”

“And thank you for reminding me.” But, yes, it sounded idiotic repeated over and over. “Mentally unstable homeless person making obscure prophecies about the future.”

“Was that so hard?” As Edward grabbed two handfuls of Allie’s jeans and began to haul himself up onto his feet, she shifted position and even Charlie, third circle though she was, felt her anchor herself in the city. Her gaze blanked for a moment—checking on the rest of the family, Charlie assumed—then refocused on Charlie’s face. “Why did she call you about it?”

Because I’m Wild and she’s Wild and we’re not like you. We don’t dig in and wrap ourselves in family to the exclusion of all else. But we’re still Gales and we still need family . . .

“Charlie? Charlie, are you having an epiphany in front of my children?”