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“Sounds fun,” Mia said.
“It might be, I don’t know. I didn’t find a swimming suit that covered all my scars.” Most of her body except her face and legs had scars from the car accident when she was seventeen, the accident she was not supposed to have survived.
“Do you have to cover the scars? They’re a part of you.” Mia leaned back on her hands and looked at Natalie.
The scars were something she never talked about. All her new friends knew about the accident—that was the good part of living in a small town. It had been up to Natalie to talk about it, and so far, she hadn’t. With Hazel there, she wouldn’t. Her pain from the accident would never match Hazel’s.
“Jason doesn’t like them. But the ones you can’t see when I’m dressed are a lot worse. I quit getting the surgeries that would clean them up, make them look better. I was tired of being in pain.” Natalie touched the unusually high neckline of her wedding dress, high enough to cover the scars.
“Those scars prove that you are a fighter and can make it through anything.” Mia put a positive spin on it. She was way more positive than Natalie, but Natalie lived with a spattering of scars while Mia’s body was still perfect.
Over the last few months, Jason had started hinting about Natalie going in to try to correct more of the scars. Just the ones he deemed ‘upsetting.’ Mostly, she had ignored him when he said it, but when they were married, she was worried his opinion was going to have her back in surgeries she didn’t want. But she knew how she was with peer pressure, even if she hated it.
“Tell me some gossip,” Natalie demanded of her friend, wanting to change the topic. That usually was not a problem with Mia, who worked at the café she owned almost every day and talked to just about everyone in town. Landstad had around 1500 people living in it, and Mia knew everything about everyone. The woman had a personality that made everyone feel special in her presence and loosened lips easily.
“About anyone in particular?” Mia asked.
“Anyone. Well, maybe someone I know.” Not that there were many people in Landstad she didn’t know.
“You cannot tell anyone. Not even your husband or the book club.” Mia demanded loyalty. Which only meant that the gossip was exceptionally good. Mia was a gossip, but she could keep a secret when needed.
“Okay,” Natalie whispered, hoping she could keep the promise.
“Nobody, Natalie. It never leaves this room,” Mia said again as she moved closer.
“Jesus, Mia, if it’s that much of a secret, maybe tell me something else.” Natalie looked at the clock on the wall in front of her, wishing time would slow or speed up—whichever made her stomach stop twisting. The clock only mocked her by telling her it was 10:05 a.m. Broken.
“Fine. Okay. I took Hazel home last week after her panic attack, and we talked for a long time. She has the hots for our minister.” The three of them actually went to the same church every Sunday. This church, to be exact.
Looking up at the ceiling, she smiled for the first time in what felt like a lifetime. The minister was young and hot but not her type at all. He was totally Hazel’s type, though. “Pastor Ruston?”
“Yup. But she is having some problems with religion right now and doesn’t see a future with him.” Mia shrugged.
“What about him?” Natalie had almost forgotten about her wedding. It would have to wait until Mia was done with her story. This was good.
“I don’t know how he feels, but from his reaction to her last week, I would say he is just as interested. Now the biggest secret is that Hazel went to a party over the summer and ran into him. Like a college party with drinking and drugs and … well, a college party. So, they ended up having sex at a party. Like, at the party.” Mia said sex in a whisper. Probably because they were in a church.
“Holy crap.” Little mild-mannered Hazel and their sexy pastor getting busy at a party. Natalie couldn’t even see that happening.
Some of Natalie’s earliest memories were of the May twins, and Hazel had always been the shy one compared to Hanna’s outgoing nature. From kindergarten onward, Hazel had been quiet and in the background the entire time. Even when they had partied together in high school, Hazel had been the sober one, the somber one, the disapproving one. Though she had a son out of wedlock, she hadn’t changed as far as Natalie could tell. But maybe Natalie wasn’t noticing enough about her old friend.
“No kidding. And now you get to walk up the aisle and look into his face. You will have to spend your entire wedding thinking about him and Hazy getting busy.” Mia laughed at Natalie’s expression of horror.
“Holy crap, Hazel is going to Hell.” Natalie slammed her hand to her mouth, then added in sudden fear, “Holy crap, I have to get married.”
“Hazel will be fine. They both need a little shaking up. And I think it did the trick. And you do not have to get married.”
“Of course, I have to get married. Everybody is here expecting me to get married in a few minutes.” She gestured above them at all the people she knew were there because she had invited them. Addressed every envelope, then counted and recounted the RSVPs.
“Doesn’t mean you have to get married. The most important person here is you. If you want to ditch this party, you can.” Mia jumped off the table.
“What about my dad?” Natalie was warming to the idea but didn’t want to hurt her dad. He, after all, had been looking forward to today just as much as she had.
“He’ll be just fine. You have put him through a lot more crap than a ditched wedding,” Mia pointed out.
Natalie knew she had been hard to raise for the single father whose wife died not long after their only child had started kindergarten. Looking back on it, she could see she had been wild and uncontrollable for many years. Through it all, her dad had never wavered in his love for her. He never let on that it had been a challenge.
“I cannot just walk through the church and walk out.” For sure, someone would notice. Would someone actually stop her?
