Lord, for this family of mine.”
For his small, core family of six, and for the large extended Hammond family of at least sixty. For his brothers. They were crazy, yes. Loud and obnoxious too. But they were his, and he was theirs, and he loved them powerfully.
Chapter 25
Molly stood on the sidewalk, her hands tucked in her pockets, as Beverly Hammond’s casket got loaded into the back of the hearse. She stood close to her mother and father, not daring to get too near Hunter.
He hadn’t seen her, and she didn’t want him to. He was already in enough distress, and she didn’t need to add to it with her presence at his grandmother’s funeral. Seeing him cry made her heart break right in half, and she wished she could be the one at his side, holding him up and whispering things to keep him strong.
She watched Elise do that, and then they walked with Gray and the littles, as Hunter called them, over to a minivan.
“Are you going to the cemetery?” Mama asked.
Molly shook her head. “No, I’ll go to the church and start getting things ready.” She gave her mother a quick smile, holding back the tide of tears. They weren’t all for Bev, though she’d known her well enough to weep over. “I spoke to Elise, and she gave me some instructions.”
“We’ll be along in a few minutes,” Mama said, turning with Daddy to talk to the Housers, long-time members of their church.
Molly hadn’t seen Hunter in three weeks, since she’d broken up with him. If he came to church, he sat behind her and slipped out before she could stand at the conclusion of the sermon and sweep the back of the chapel. She missed him so much and seeing him today reminded her of how much she loved him and wanted to support him.
But he’d been announced as the next Chief Executive Officer of Hammond Manufacturing Company two days ago, and it sure felt like he’d taken another dozen steps down a path where she couldn’t follow.
The suit he wore today looked like it belonged on a CEO, and Molly finally turned away from him. She drew in a deep breath of the crisp mountain air and started toward her sedan. The plain, four-door, navy blue car epitomized everything about Molly’s life.
Mundane and boring. Predictable. Sensible.
She couldn’t help who she was or what made her comfortable, and she’d never felt like she had to apologize for being herself. Now, as she unlocked the car and got behind the wheel, she wondered why she’d ever thought she could be with a man like Hunter Hammond. The man was extraordinary, and while some said opposites attract, that didn’t mean the couple ended up together.
At the church, Molly shed her coat and hung it outside the kitchen. She tied an apron around her waist and looked at the bags and boxes of food covering every available inch of counter space.
She started removing the items from the bags and lining them up. It was simple work, and it comforted her. Her mind felt less frenzied as she put bagged salads together and grouped the bottles of dressings nearby.
Long, covered aluminum trays sat on the stove, and Molly heated the three ovens in the kitchen to two hundred and fifty degrees and slid the meat and mashed potatoes inside to keep warm.
She went into the attached gymnasium, where her father and two deacons from their church had set up the tables and chairs earlier that day. Three tables had been pushed end to end to make the buffet, and Molly began bringing out paper plates, plastic cutlery, a huge bowl for the salad, the bottles of dressing, and serving spoons for the hot food.
She found a basket for the bread and started untwisting the ties on the bags. The back door opened, and Mama and Dad came in, talking in low voices. Molly flashed them a smile, glad when Ingrid and Kara bustled in from the cold too. Lyra hadn’t made the trip from Utah, and Molly missed her, the hole she’d left in their family so large in that single moment of time.
“I’ve got things set up out in the gym,” Molly said. “Just cutting the bread now.”
“Did you get the drinks?” Mama stepped over to one of the fridges and opened it. “Ingrid, everything in here.” She opened the oven next. “Okay, good. This is warming.” She looked at Kara and nodded to the other fridge across the