Their meals came, and the men and the boy dug into the food before them, their conversation stopping almost completely. Ruston helped his new son eat—John Henry became distracted easily, and Ruston got him back on task.
“What do you know about the accident?” Thomas asked from out of nowhere.
“What accident?” Ruston stopped eating, wondering if the man could actually be talking about the only accident Ruston thought about.
“Hazel’s. Or not Hazel’s, actually,” Thomas replied, setting down his fork.
It was exactly how Ruston thought of it. Hazel’s accident. Even if the woman hadn’t been in the accident, she had been so close to it. She had lost so much in it.
“Not a lot, but enough. I know more about the fallout after than the actual accident itself. It messed her up pretty good for a long time. Messed up a lot of people. Why?” Ruston put down his silverware.
“Kit’s brother-in-law was in the accident,” he said.
“I guess she is a Smith, and he was a Smith. I never made the connection before. I wonder if Hazel remembers. I don’t think she would have let Kit watch John Henry for the wedding if she had. She distances herself from everyone in the accident.” Ruston leaned back in the booth. It made sense that there was another family affected by the accident. The third victim was from town as well. His family should be around somewhere. But Kit Nordskov was a surprise. He wondered if Hazel knew or remembered.
“Everyone involved does, guys. I was there that night as part of the volunteer fire department then. I saw it. I try not to think about it, but I understand where you both are coming from on this. Natalie has the scars that show, and others do not.” Sam leaned into the table.
“I think Kit has those inner scars as well,” Thomas remarked as a text from Hazel came that she was on her way to pick them up.
After the bills were paid, everyone got their jackets on, including John Henry, who insisted he could do it himself until the moment he couldn’t. Then he needed Ruston to do it for him.
After waving goodbye to Thomas, Ruston got the boy into his car seat, and the other couple climbed in the back of the car. Ruston got in beside Hazel. In the week since they got married, she had started to drive his SUV most of the time, mostly because he hated her driving the little car since the weather could turn to snow at any moment. So far, she hadn’t said anything about not driving her little yellow bug around. Soon they would have to think about getting her own newer car.
“How was the baby?” he asked as he shut the door.
“Cute. Tess is a natural mom.” She put the car into gear.
“Just like you are, Haze,” Natalie said from the back seat
“No, very different from me. I had no experience with kids when I had John Henry. I just had to figure it out.”
“Didn’t your grandma help?” he asked, then regretted it. So far, the two hadn’t spoken since the wedding. Something happened, and she wasn’t ready to talk about it yet.
“No, I was still in college when he was born, so I was away. She wasn’t happy I had him. They both thought they would have to raise him, so they didn’t help, probably in hopes I would give him up for adoption,” she answered as she drove.
“Like you three?” he said quietly. The entire car knew who the older couple had to raise.
“Yes, Grandma admitted she regretted taking us in. That she should have let my mom put us up for adoption when we were babies.” Her words took him by surprise. The woman had actually told her grandchild that? But she had told a near-stranger, so why not her granddaughter?
“When did she tell you?” He was learning the woman didn’t try to protect the kids’ feelings.
“Many times when we were growing up. Three was too much for them. They were old.” Hazel repeated the excuse her grandmother had said, but the couple wasn’t all that old twenty years ago. The older couple were not as old as they let on. They had to be close to forty when they had taken in the three children.
“Maybe they shouldn’t have said that out loud,” Ruston stated and heard agreement from the back seat. Though the other couple was not participating in the conversation, they were listening.
“They were very good grandparents until the accident. Then they changed. From that night on, they were not the same people who raised us,” Hazel said into the dark windshield.
“Why didn’t your grandma come to the wedding, Hazel?” He hadn’t asked before. It was between the two of them, but today he wanted to know no matter who was in the car.
“She couldn’t be happy for me, so I told her not to stay.” She shrugged.
“Is it me?” he asked. Though he had known the couple for years, maybe they thought he wasn’t good enough for her granddaughter.
“No, it has always been me. Me being alive still,” she said so matter-of-factly that he had to look at her in the dark car.
“How can she blame you for surviving an accident you weren’t even in? I can see her being angry that Natalie survived, but you weren’t even in the car that night.” He had forgotten for a moment Natalie was actually in the car with them, but she didn’t say anything from the back seat.
“We were three, a set. We should have been together. I should have been there.”