“Hannah and Auggie are going to be mad we planned this without them,” Tory said.
Parker shrugged. “They’re on their honeymoon. They’re not going to care.”
“Spoken by the most recent authority on honeymoons,” Mabel said, to which everyone agreed.
“I just think we need to give them a heads-up, you know?” Tory lifted a shoulder. “I would feel a little left out if I didn’t even know one of my best friends was getting engaged.”
Weston scratched the top of his head, his face screwing up in agony. “If she says yes.”
That elicited a round of sighs and laughter. “She’s going to say yes!” Mabel insisted with a smile. “And that wasn’t a question, Tory. He asked for questions only.”
That got a nod out of Weston. “Thanks. And thanks to all ya’ll for the help. We’ve got Tory and Liam on videography and photography duty, barring Tory not feeling well enough with the pregnancy and whatnot. Cady’s got teacher’s handwriting, so she’s designing the poster boards, and Hannah can help make them when they get back from the honeymoon. Cady and Hannah will bring up and pass out the battery-powered candles, and they can also fill in for Tory if she doesn’t feel well enough to go up. Mack and August will clear the ground up there a bit the day before and hike up that morning with the firewood. Anj, you’ll wrangle the spectators, just a few family members and friends, making sure they all come up on the trail that’son the backside of the mountain. Zane can bring up the ground mats and tablecloths, and he can rope things off too. I’ll fill him in later. Mabel, you still okay with distracting Ruby for us? You’re going to take her shopping, right?”
Mabel nodded. “I know, I know. I have a hard job.”
Weston leaned toward her, his knuckles grinding into the desk littered with paperwork from the restaurant. “It might be harder to not say something to her, though. Or to not make her suspicious. This has to work, Mabel.”
Gulp. No pressure or anything.
He then turned to Parker and clapped him on the shoulder. Mack and Parker might have been college buddies, and that was a whole ‘nother level in and of itself. But Parker and Weston had become especially tight since Weston started hanging out with them. “Dude. You’re carrying the ring for me. Do not lose it.”
“This is legit, man,” Parker said, and the group let out another holler before Weston shushed them.
“You never know who’s out there in the dining area, you guys.”
Mabel had to hand it to Weston. He’d thought of everything. He didn’t want this to be another run-of-the-mill proposal. He and Ruby might not have been dating too long, but he was sa-mitt-en.
Mabel’s throat grew thick, and she felt on the verge of a giddy, giggly overload. Ruby, one of her very best friends for all of their lives, was so incredibly and wholly loved by Weston. They were a good match, good people with their whole lives ahead of them. And now they could do it together. They didn’t have to feel the pain of loneliness. They were on the same team, side by side.
She wasn’t envious of Ruby, but she wanted the same thing for herself. She yearned for it, like a photographer who lies in wait to capture the sunrise coming over themountain.
It had to be as inevitable as a sunrise, didn’t it? Zane’s love? She felt a dash of hope. She’d seen the love in Zane’s eyes. She’d seen the devotion. And in a sharp moment of clarity, right there, with the smell of Delloyd’s pie and baked potatoes in her nose, she felt again how he’d been devoted to her all along, way before she allowed herself to really see it.
“That’s a wrap, everybody. A week from today, KNOers. Topaz Rock Trailhead, 5 p.m.” Weston looked a little like he was going to go throw up, and a little like he was the poster child for that Pharrell Williams’ song “Happy.”
Anjali tapped her knees with her palms and made a clicking sound of a judge’s gavel with her tongue. “So let it be written, so let it be done.”
“Sounds like we’re in ancient Egypt,” Liam said.
“Yes, and I’m Moses,” Weston said with a glare. “And this is as serious as the Bible.”
“Okay, I’m going to go pick Ruby up now. We’re going to go watch her nephew in a school play. Let’s consider this a trial run for the shopping trip next week.” Mabel swung her keys around, apprehension filling her at seeing the future bride—a title Ruby didn’t even know about yet. Butterflies tickled her middle.
“Mabel, think of a story to tell her in case she asks you what you were doing this afternoon,” Cady said.
“And wipe that silly grin off your face,” Tory said. “She’s going to see it and immediately know what’s going on.”
“No, she’s not. And I don’t have a silly grin on my face,” Mabel said through her silly grin.
But Tory was probably right. Ruby could usually read her moods like a book.
She couldn’t. Simplycould notlet her guard down and spill the beans about Weston’s perfect plan.
Ruby walked out onto her porch, and before Mabel even had a chance to think of her affirmation about not giving the slightest hint about Weston’s plans for the following week, Ruby said, “He said to give this to you.” Her smile was teasing. She held out a bundle of fabric tied up with a piece of yarn.
There was no note, but Mabel knew it had come from Zane.
Gifts already? Flowers the other night, and now this? She untied the yarn, and the soft black fabric unfolded. How come he was the sweetest, the best guy?
