The song ended, and Mabel opened the passenger door. He slid the envelope into the driver’s side door compartment.
“How was the reverend today?” Zane asked her, getting tripped up for a moment at her beauty.
She turned to wave to her father, who drove away in his car. “Insightful.” She climbed into the truck and sighed. “Something is sure helping because my dad seems different. More at peace.”
Mabel and Bryce had been in family counseling with Reverend Taylor for several months.
“Maybe my old man’s still got the touch,” Zane teased.
She clicked her seatbelt closed. “He’d better.” She smiled. “We have our pre-marriage counseling appointment on Monday, and if that goes poorly, I don’t know what we’ll do.” Her gaze dipped down to the ring on her finger.
Zane loved that she still looked at the ring in that way, even though it had been a few months since he’d put it on her finger on Christmas Day.
“So if it’s a disaster, does that mean you won’t become my wife next week?”
She leaned her head back on the seat. “Oh, I’m becoming your wife no matter what.” She clapped her hands. “Next week! It’s finally almost here.”
“What do you mean, ‘finally’? At this time even one year ago, we were barely speaking to one another.”
She shuddered. “Don’t remind me.” Her hand reached up to massage his neck as he began to drive. “Although, somehow, I think things turned out exactly how they were meant to, even if it was hard.”
He looked both ways before turning onto Main. “I was just thinking that. Also, we should make a plaque with those words because they could probably apply to most things in life, I say.”
As they drove past the rowhouse-style businesses, he reached for the envelope and casually slid it onto her lap.
Within seconds, she picked it up and screamed. “It’s here? I think I’m going to be sick!” She stared at it, one hand at her throat.
Zane took a deep breath and was set to offer encouragement, but she had it ripped open before he even had a chance. He laughed at the expression on her face, equal parts nerves and excitement. Her lips moved along silently as she read the words.
Her next scream was one of jubilation. “I did it! I passed!”
Zane braked and threw the truck into park. He held her as they kissed. “I knew you would,” he whispered. “You’re going to make the best nurse.”
“I couldn’t have done it without your support,” she whispered back.
“What do you two think you’re doin’?” A vehicle had pulled up next to them on the road. It was Weston, hanging out the passenger’s side, his wife Ruby in the driver’s seat of their truck. They’d celebrated their one-month anniversary the night before.
“Congratulating Mabel. She passed the NCLEX!”
Ruby hooted, “Wuuuuu!” as she put their truck in park and jumped out. She came around to Mabel’s side to give her a hug.
“What a journey this has been,” Ruby said to Mabel.
Before Mabel could answer, a loud, low honk sounded in their ears.
“What’s going on? We have a celebration to get to!” It was Mack, Cady, and their son, Henry, in an SUV behind them.
The friends laughed. “Let’s continue this at the hospital,” Zane suggested.
The vehicles caravanned the rest of the way there. They arrived, and Mabel jumped out to get the insulated heavy plastic food storage boxfrom the back of the truck. “It’s strange we’re here when neither of us have a shift.”
Zane took the box from her, promising once again not to remove the lid and have a look before it was time.
Before they even arrived to the right room on the Mother/Baby Unit, they saw and heard the crowd of people already forming near the door. A table had been set up in the hallway with paper plates, cups, and napkins.
All of KNO was there, even one-day-old Scout Imogen Olson. Tory sat in her hospital bed, glowing, holding her tiny daughter.
Liam, however, wasnotglowing. He stood like an officer of the law, his arms crossed over his chest, at the door of the hospital room. “As much as I worry about the germs a get-together like this might bring, we’re glad you’ve all come.”
