All eyes were on the man who had spent a lot of money on this get together. “I guess we have ten minutes to wait then.”
All the women started to breathe again.
“Okay, Mandy, Tess, and Ruth, go back and sit down. Look natural and wait for the announcement. Haze, I need you to tell Ruston what’s happening. You will have to go outside and go in the back way to the room behind the alter. He will need to know what’s happening, that the wedding is off.” Mia gave out orders to everyone.
“Why me? I can’t take the baby with me.” As the others left the room, she looked out the window at the rain pouring down still.
“Because nobody will notice that you didn’t come back. They’ll just think the baby needed out of there. Nobody will think anything of it. Mr. Beckett, your jacket, please.” Mia took the jacket Natalie’s father had instantly taken off without question. Then she threw it on over John Henry’s head. Then pulled it off again, making the boy giggle. “You have to go out the window.”
“I will not, I’m wearing a white skirt.White.” She looked at the little window. If Natalie had made it out, she knew she could. But did she want to?
“For Natalie,” Mia said, as if she owed anything to the woman. Years of friendship meant she couldn’tnotdo it, even if it meant getting wet and dirty.
“Fine. When I am out, send him out with the jacket on him.” She climbed onto the table in front of the window. Sighing, she opened the window and felt cool, wet air on her face. Then, with no grace at all, she slid out the window onto the wet grass. She was completely dirty and wet in seconds.
John Henry was sent carefully out the window by Patrick Beckett himself. Pulling him into her arms, she ran up the stairs behind the church and hoped that it was actually unlocked. Prayers answered, she opened the door and threw herself into the little room, then kicked the door closed. As if the rain chased her.
As far back as she could remember, the room had held the communion wine, a big draw for her brother and sister in their teens.
“Hazel, what are you doing here?” Ruston squatted down and pulled the jacket off John Henry’s head. The boy smiled at the preacher and said, “Peekaboo.”
She watched his blue eyes light up and answered back to her little boy, “Peekaboo to you, too.” Then he turned his blue eyes on her. “Hazel?”
“Natalie bolted. We’re stalling for time so that she can get out of here,” Hazel revealed in a rush, wondering if she needed to explain it better. But what more was there?
“Okay, what’s the plan?” With a nod, he got to his feet and pulled her to hers.
“That is the plan. I don’t know anything beyond that,” Hazel hissed at him. How much planning did he think went into this? The bride was gone, and the wedding was off. That was everything.
All he did was smile at her, which made her a little madder. With ease, he lifted the boy from her hip and moved him to his. John Henry said nothing as a strange man took him from his mother. The boy pulled back a little and looked at Ruston’s face, then leaned into him, raising his hand to Ruston’s almost curly hair and said, “Bless you.”
Ruston’s blue eyes lit up with laughter at the little boy and then turned those laughing eyes on her. She couldn’t stop the smile on her lips if she tried.
With his free hand, he touched her cheek as she smiled at him. “You have a dimple. I’ve never seen it before. Then his lips lowered and touched hers lightly. It was nothing more than a chaste kiss. A light kiss and his breath on her face, but it made her want more. Way more.
Behind them, the gentle music stopped playing. Ruston seemed reluctant as he pulled away and headed out to the sanctuary. It was time for him to inform everyone that the wedding was off.
“Ruston,” she called, and he stopped to look at her in question. “You can’t take John Henry with you. It would look weird.”
He smiled at her as he handed her back the boy. “You stay in here for a while. Your shirt is wet and is now see-through.”
Looking down, all she saw was dirty streaks on her white skirt and pink blouse and the perfect outline of her lacy bra. Groaning, she leaned against the table to wait until everyone was gone. She wasn’t fit for public anymore.
But the minute everyone was gone, she could hightail it home and get out of the hot church. And away from the hot preacher.
CHAPTER7
Ruston washappy to finally see the last of the invited guests depart the church. Patrick had invited everyone to the reception since the food had already been paid for. Then people would have the chance to talk to others about what had happened. Then, by the time Natalie resurfaced, most of the gossip would be over.
Walking to the back of the now silent but still hot church, he opened the door to the room he had left Hazel in around half an hour ago. There she sat on the table in the room, playing on her phone. John Henry was on her lap, but he was sound asleep. He had half expected her to be gone, to have snuck out while he was busy. Again. But here she was, still looking a little worse for wear from climbing out the window into the rain. Mia had told the story to him, and he was amazed Mia had gotten the young woman out the window. Both of them, actually.
Giving her a smile, he whispered so as not to wake the boy, “Everyone’s gone except the wedding party. They’re changing still.”
“Good.” She did not whisper.
Sitting up, she started to shift the little boy so she could carry him. But Ruston grabbed the little guy from her lap before she could get him and lifted him into his arms, resting him on his shoulder and offering his hand to help her off the table.
He could tell she hesitated a little before she placed her hand in his and let him pull her off the table and onto the floor. Watching her sliding back into her sandals she had kicked off at some point, he didn’t let go of her hand.