“Glen got to see what he was getting into, and he still wanted to be a part of it. To this day, I can’t tell you why, but I’m happy about it.” Joan grinned behind her coffee cup.
Maybe she and Ruston’s mom had something in common, that they were ending up with men they didn’t think they deserved. Except she assumed Joan was the perfect minister’s wife, something Hazel knew nothing about.
“Are you telling stories about me, Mom?” Ruston walked into the room with a tall, dark-haired man. A brother? Though they looked nothing alike, he could be a stepbrother.
“Good to see you, Thomas,” Joan said to the man and jumped up to give him a hug.
“Hi, Ruston’s mom. Are you ready to adopt me yet?” The man joked with Joan and kissed her on the top of her head.
“I think your mom would be upset if I did.” Joan laughed.
“Hazel, this is my friend, Thomas Harstad. My best friend since I was three.” Ruston introduced her to the man, though he had wrapped an arm around her as he did.
“Before or after you almost destroyed your mom’s chances with Glen?” Hazel teased him.
“After.” He smiled and kissed the top of her head. “Thomas is going to be my best man.”
“Nope, I’m going to marry you two. You’re not so special, Ruston. I can marry people too. And since she’ll probably want to get married in your church, and you can’t do it, I will.” Thomas spun a chair around, straddled it, and sat between the women.
“I guess I have to look for a best man then,” Ruston said with a laugh.
“You will never find a better man than me, but good luck trying.” He had barely been sitting a minute when he quickly got up and put the chair right. “Nice to meet you, Hazel. I’ve been waiting to meet you for a while now. But I only took an hour off, so I have to get back to work.”
“Nice to meet you too, Thomas.” She shook his hand and tried to catch her breath. He was nothing but movement.
“Just want to tell you that you have a beautiful voice,” he said and left the room.
Hazel’s eyes met Ruston, and her eyes went wide. Thomas was at the party. Did he remember her? Did he know what happened after she sang? Had Ruston told him? She could feel her cheeks turning red and saw Ruston watching with amusement in his eyes.
“Mom, can you watch John Henry so I can take Hazel out to eat and buy her a ring?” Ruston asked. It was something they hadn’t discussed. Mostly because she had no idea what this trip was going to entail. And as long as she could ignore the entire wedding, the better.
“Of course, I’ll spoil him rotten.” Joan picked up the boy and rested him on her hip. John Henry went willingly and without even noticing it was nearly a perfect stranger holding him.
“Good. I don’t know when we’ll be back,” Ruston called as he pulled Hazel out of the house. Hazel tried to protest leaving her son but stopped when he didn’t even notice she was leaving him alone with strangers. But were they strangers? They were going to be his grandparents, after all.
The first stop had been the jewelry store, where Ruston spent too much on a ring that she loved. She tried to protest, saying he was spending too much since they still had to plan the wedding. He wouldn’t listen and had her wear it out of the store.
Next, they went to a restaurant that Hazel had never heard of for a late lunch. Once they had ordered, Ruston took her hands in his and looked at her new ring. “I love your ring, Hazel. Do you like it?”
“You know I do. The book club says it’s nice.” She had texted them while they drove to the restaurant. Well, first, she texted them that she had agreed to marry him. Then had texted a picture of the ring because she had to show someone.
“Only nice?”
“Verynice.” Hazel smiled.
“I love when I get to see that dimple.”
She put her hands over her cheeks. She’d always hated her dimple.
“Did Hanna have a dimple?”
“Yes, we were identical. Everything was the same.” She grinned because the boob incident with Natalie in high school popped into her mind.
“Are the girls getting everything ready for the wedding?”
“They’re starting the process. I don’t know what to do. Natalie is an expert, though.” She hoped that it wouldn’t be as elaborate as her wedding had been. If so, she might go through the window just to avoid everything.
“That she is,” Ruston agreed.