Page 10 of The Beginning

She knew full well who wehad heresince I’d told her I’d taken her suggestion and asked Hattie out, and since I’d brought her here early so I could go get her.

The wonders never ceased with this woman.

“Mom, this is Hattie,” I said. “And Hattie, this is my mom, Carol.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Mrs. Charles,” Hattie said warmly.

My mom’s brow furrowed for a second, and then she laughed. “Oh, honey, Charles is Thatcher’s middle name. His full name is Thatcher Charles Reid. I just pull out the middle name when I need to scold him.”

I groaned. “Right, because your twenty-five-year-old son still needs to be scolded.”

“Thatcher, I’ll be scolding you from my dying bed, and if I have anything to say about it, I’ll be at least a hundred, and you’ll be seventy when that happens. So get used to it.”

Hattie’s sparkle was back when she laughed at my mom’s chiding tone. Even though I wished I could erase this entire exchange from my memory—and hers—that made me happy.

Man, she was beautiful.

“It’s okay, Mrs. Reid. I have a feeling my parents will still be treating me like their baby when we’re that old, too,” Hattie said with an eye roll.

“See?” Mom said to me, wrinkling her nose. “Someday, when you’re a parent, you’ll understand.”

“Got it. Okay, well, this is fun, but I think Hattie and I need to go find our seats,” I said.

Mom checked the dainty gold watch on her plump wrist. “Good idea, sweetheart. The ceremony will begin soon.”

With a nod from me and a wave from Hattie, we moved on, her hand still tucked into the crook of my elbow. I had to admit, it felt a little bit like it was supposed to fit there. Like her hand was made for that spot, or my arm was made to be under it.

I shook the thought away. Her hand and my arm were normal-sized appendages. They weren’t made to fit together. And this was apparently our only date, so it would be best for me to remember that.

We chose a row in the middle of the bride’s side and sat down at the end. Hattie looked around at the other guests, surprising me by waving to a few of them. Then again, Bluffton was a small town, just like the neighboring one I’d grown up in. Everybody knew everybody in small towns.

I tilted my head at her. “You know a lot of people here?”

“I do. I either know them, or I knowofthem.”

“Right, because you watch them from your window.”

She swatted me on the chest. “Stop it, you make me sound so creepy.”

“It’s not my fault you told me you sit at your window and spy on the people below.”

“I don’tspy, necessarily. I just like knowing what’s going on. It’s fun.”

I looked around, searching the faces surrounding us. “I don’t know any of these people.”

“No? You’re the one who was invited.”

“Well, I know the bride. She and my mom go way back. When I joined the Marines, my mom joined a book club here in town. I guess they didn’t have any in Rincon, so she drove over here for it. That’s where they met.”

“Rincon? Is that where you’re from?”

“Yep.”

I hadn’t minded growing up in the tiny town about forty minutes from here, but that was mostly because I’d never known any different. Now that I’d been gone for the last decade, I found I didn’t want to live there again.

Not that I even knew where I wanted to move when I was done with the Marine Corps in another thirteen years, but I figured I’d find out along the way.

“Wow, Rincon is even smaller than Bluffton,” Hattie observed.

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