The book club had been a huge help. Natalie had just gone through all the wedding preparation stuff, so she was priceless in the process. Even Hazel’s relationship with Natalie had improved, and they were able to talk and joke together. Just like old times, he assumed.
Pulling away from her, he slid out of bed, grabbed his phone, and went out to the living room. He had to text Natalie to say Hazel was with him because it was better than waking up his bride-to-be. In the living room, he saw why it was so easy for Hazel to get past Thomas—he wasn’t there.
He started coffee and sent the text as Thomas snuck in the house carrying a brown bag, which he set on the counter. Handing him a cup of coffee, he asked, “You found someone in less than twelve hours?”
“I can’t keep the ladies away, Rusty.” Thomas took the coffee from him.
“Did you even try?” Ruston filled another cup.
“I don’t kiss and tell.” Thomas took a sip of the hot coffee and smiled.
“Yes, you do.” Too much information sometimes, way too much.
“You got a nice little town here. I was looking for my own Hazel.”
“Did you find her?”
“We’ll see what I can make of it.”
“Good luck.”
“So here we are. You’re marrying that crazy good singer you met, well, you know, at a party. I’m not surprised you had it bad the night of the party. If you had been able to find her, you would have married her that day.” Thomas sat down on the couch with his coffee. He seemed well-rested after his night out.
“I knew where to find her already. But if I knew she would’ve agreed, I would have,” he confirmed with a grin.
“Any doubts?” Thomas’s eyebrow went up in question.
“Not really. I worry that she’s only marrying me because I kind of forced her.”
“If she didn’t want to marry you, she wouldn’t be marrying you.” Thomas’s words mirrored the ones he had been trying to believe for weeks.
Hazel can be bullied, but not into something she doesn’t want.
“She worries about being my wife. Or actually just the wife of a preacher,” he told Thomas, something that he hadn’t told anyone. Even his dad.
“Are you going to force your religion down her throat?” Thomas asked.
“Of course not, it’s up to her. It would be nice for her to attend my services and be a part of the church.” He’d had a vision of what his wife would be, but he didn’t know if Hazel would conform to that vision. Or even if that vision was a reality for any woman.
“Does she?” Thomas looked into the cup he was holding with a questioning expression on his face.
“Not since her grandfather went into the hospital.” Ruston rolled his eyes at his friend.
“Have you asked her to?” Thomas handed him the empty cup.
“Every week.” Getting up, he refilled his friend’s cup.
“Have you asked her to go for you? Not for her?” Thomas smiled at the full cup.
“I don’t want her to go just becauseIwant her to go. I want her to go because she wants to go.” He had thought about it many times over the weeks they had been together, and the ones when he had wanted them together. He had no real answers.
“Maybe she has to go for you for a while, and that will turn into her going for her. Maybe that first step is going to be the hard one, the one she needs help with,” Thomas suggested.
“I never thought of it that way,” Ruston said.
“That’s why I’m better at this than you. And I am on the outside looking in. You’re right in the middle of it.”
Ruston looked at his best friend and knew he was right. He was too close to see it. He wanted Hazel to instantly realize that God did love her and that she loved him, but it was going to take time, days, months—maybe years. He had to be there to help her along the way, sometimes beside her and sometimes leading or pushing.