Maddox Lovelace
I can’t help but grin at my best friend. He’s so fucking smitten. It’d be embarrassing, except I know exactly how he feels.
Ruth laughs at something, then she waves her hands in a wild gesture at Chelsea.
Chelsea rolls her eyes, then changes course toward the hostess stand. Her girlfriend is working tonight, and since she practically lives at our house when the girls aren’t working or in school, it’s only fitting that she sits with us too.
“We need two chairs.” Ruth looks around.
“Here’s one,” Waller says as he hauls Rosie out of her chair and onto his lap.
“Aww.” Ruth beams.
I roll my eyes.
“You’ll have to help me out, Honey, but you can sit in my lap,” Willard, the birthday boy, says to my mother-in-law.
She blushes but stands from her chair and settles herself in his lap.
Hannah groans good-naturedly, and I chuckle.
Willard retired from my company last year, and at 5:01 on his last day, he asked permission to ask Ruth out on a date.
I always thought he was married, but turns out he was a widower, much like Ruth, and just kept his ring on.
It took some getting used to, just like it took some getting used to calling him Willard and not Donut Guy. But they’re happy, and he’s a fun guy to have around.
And according to Ruth, if they’re still an item when Chelsea moves away to college, she’ll move in with him.
I’m not sure what it’ll be like suddenly having half of the household gone, but I know I won’t be bored.
Not with Hannah at my side.