Chapter 16
One of the things about being in a…whatever this was…with Zane was that the man had the ability to infiltrate Mabel’s dreams after a night of solid kissing.
And by solid, I mean insanely good.
Mabel had dreamt, literally and figuratively, of a redo of their first kiss for so long that it had started to feel like it would never happen. The desire for it had become one with her being.
Now, they’d ended their years-long moratorium on kissing.
Which meant dreams of him and his kissing had been a part of her for so long that now that it had happened, it was exciting and comfortable, all at once.
That accounted for her gauzy-mindedness in the backroom of the Clucky Spud with her KNO friends, a few notable exceptions aside. Okay, only one exception that really mattered to Mabel at the moment: Zane was on call for his paramedic job. And she felt his absence like a punch to the gut.
“You guys think we could stick to the task at hand?” Weston’s forehead crinkled.
Weston hadn’t been part of the group for long.
He was the most recent inductee, and that, with his sometimes aloof manner, usually relegated him to “I’m a go pick up the wings and fries for ya’ll” status.
Hey, he had to earn his keep, even though Mabel was pretty sure he’d already earned it within that first night of meeting him when it was clear he was a decent guy who had a thing for Ruby.
Still, with personalities in the room the likes of Tory, Liam, and Mack, it was hard for some of the newbs to get a word in edgewise sometimes.
Okay, Mabel admitted that she could be intense with everyone sometimes too.
Not in an in-your-face way. It was more of a “Let’s do this now and as perfectly as we can” way.
But now? Weston was a man on a mission. It felt like a let’s-roll type of deal. He’d gathered them together in this top-secret meeting because he was about to ask his very important women a very important question and had wisely brought in the talents and visions of all of KNO for help.
“Okay, okay, he’s right, guys.” Cady rocked Henry back and forth, who’d fallen asleep on her shoulder during the last half-hour of everyone hashing it all out. “Let’s get this planned and done with.”
Yeah, sleeping baby on her shoulder? She probably did want to be able to get him home.
Weston pinned everyone in the group with a look. “To reiterate: if anyone says anything about these plans to Ruby, I will have your heads.”
The group groaned, and Anjali raised her hand. “Do Delloyd and Dellynn know about this? Should we be a little quieter?”
The owners and operators of the Clucky Spud were married, adorably in love, and at the center of all things Silver Plum.
“I didn’t tell them what this was. Not in so many words.
But when I asked them if we could hold an important meeting back here in their office and not to mention anything about it to Ruby, Dellynn smiled so big I was worried her face might get stuck like that.
The first thing Delloyd said was, ‘If you all come after the lunch rush and before the dinner rush.’ The next thing he said was, ‘Atta boy!’” Weston’s face went a little red.
“So, I think it’s pretty obvious to them. ”
Weston cleared his throat and began again. “Any more questions for me before we run down the schedule again?”
“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’s on 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 the mountain.
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. Simply could not let 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?
With a sharp intake when she saw the front of the t-shirt, she hugged it to her chest, sniffing it, hoping for a bit of his musky scent. Maybe she was imagining it, but she thought she could smell it lingering, and it was heavenly.
“What is it?” Ruby asked.
Mabel turned it around to show her. “Remember when we all went to his concert in Salt Lake senior year? I wanted one of these but couldn’t afford it! How did he get this?”
“Garth Brooks World Tour!” Ruby grabbed it and looked at it more closely. “Okay, this is a really nice gift.” Her brows went to the sky. “Why? How? And what?”
“What did he say to you when he gave this to you? And when?”
“Nope. You can’t answer my questions with a question.” Ruby’s eyes shined. “What. Is. Happening?”
“I don’t know.”
At Ruby’s snort of doubt, Mabel laughed. “I’m serious. I don’t know, exactly.” Her gaze darted back and forth between Ruby’s eyes. Did she dare speak of the kiss…er, kisses…lots of kisses?
“You kissed,” Ruby breathed. “It finally happened.”
How did she do that? “Don’t tell anyone.”
“It’s hard to keep that kind of secret, though,” Ruby wailed.
Oh boy. Mabel’s conscience perked up. The group was keeping a giant secret from Ruby.
“I don’t know if I can keep this to myself.” Ruby had her hands over her heart, her gaze starry-eyed at nothing in particular.
“Ruby! Please. I need to talk to Zane first.”
“You haven’t talked to him since it happened?”
“No. It was last night. And—”
She had almost said, “And he wasn’t at Weston’s meeting.” Oh my land! She’d almost spilled it. The fear of that had her sitting up straight and pressing her lips together.
Ruby raised a finger, and her voice was in singsong. “But giving you a gift probably means he didn’t hate last night.”
“Will you tell me what he said to you already?”
“Okay, it was maybe a half-hour ago, as I was getting home from work. I saw him parked in his truck, like he’d been waiting for me. He got out of the car and walked up to my porch as I was opening the door and—”
“What was he wearing?”
“Mabel! I have no idea. Whatever he usually wears.” Ruby shook her head. “Girl, you are in love.”
She ignored that last bit. She wouldn’t go there right then.
“Anyway, he told me he was about to head over to the hospital for his paramedic shift and wondered if I could give this to you.”
“Was he smiling? Did he seem down or concerned or anything?”
“You’ve gotta ask him. I have no idea. Zane’s not always easy to read. But if I had to guess, I’d say he was happy.”
Mabel’s chest zinged.
Ruby pulled her into a side hug as they started walking to Mabel’s car. “This makes me so happy. I was worried about you. I didn’t want you to be alone.”
“I’m not alone. Just because I don’t…or didn’t…have a man in my life didn’t mean I was alone. I’m fine. I’ve been fine. And I’ll continue to be fine.”
“You’re right. Absolutely. You don’t need a man. But do you want a man?”
Only if it’s Zane.
“Let’s talk about your man now.” Mabel opened her car door and slid into the driver’s seat.
Ruby grinned lazily as she got in the car. “My man is quite the man.” She shook her head. “This is it for me, Mabel. He is it.”
Mabel willed herself not to say anything about what Weston was planning. But it was still a long week away, and she couldn’t very well be expected to keep the secret any longer than that. These juicy tidbits of information were already burning a hole in her pocket.
Mabel squealed a little, and she squeezed Ruby’s arm. “You deserve this, Ruby. You really do.”
Ruby’s eyes shone. “So do you.”