The Mabel RingMabel was 22 when she met James, a navy boy with stormy eyes and a shy smile. He kissed her hand like she was porcelain. Then he left for war, he wrote every week, letters that smelled of ink and hope. When they stopped, so did the world for a moment. She cried once. Then got up, put on her lipstick, and never waited again. She built a life. Opened a bakery and fell in love twice more. But every year, on his birthday, she wore the ring he gave her,