the only male, so he’s naturally quite popular.” She hit all the consonant sounds really hard. “He asked me to dinner last week, and it was magical.” She sighed as she smiled down at the phone. “Kissed me on the first date.”
“Ingrid,” Kara said with a giggle. “What does he look like?” The three of them crowded around her phone while Ingrid pulled up her gallery and showed them a couple of pictures. A man with light hair smiled at them, his teeth straight and white, his eyes a brilliant shade of blue.
She flipped to a picture of the two of them, and Molly said, “You guys are adorable together. He’s handsome, Ingrid. What’s his real name?”
“Hans Sellers,” she said. “Isn’t that a great name?”
“Oh, boy,” Kara said, rolling her eyes. “She’s really smitten.”
“Ingrid Sellers,” Ingrid said, a long sigh coming from her mouth.
Molly giggled and stepped back. “I’m happy you like him so much, Ingrid.” She moved over to the doorway and peered out. “But what about you not getting married until you’re thirty-five?”
“Well, plans aren’t set in stone.” Ingrid joined her in the doorway.
Cy still stood at the microphone. “…used to say that work would do our souls good.” He smiled around at everyone. “Anyway, I learned a lot from my mother, but the thing I learned best was how to love.” He smiled around the gym, and Molly felt the love he spoke of way down deep in her chest.
She couldn’t help looking for Hunter, and he sat at a table near the front, his father on one side and his grandfather on the other. He held his youngest brother on his lap, and one of his uncle’s little girls as well.
Molly watched him while Cy said one of his uncles would say the prayer over the food, then they’d be eating from the buffet at the back of the gym. An older gentleman stood up, and he did belong to the Hammonds, though he wasn’t nearly as dark as Hunter and all of the men in his family.
Molly folded her arms and bowed her head, studying the pattern on the tile at her feet, adding her own prayer for peace and comfort for this good family.
Several days later, Molly’s phone rang as she pulled into the parking lot at school. Matt’s name sat on the screen, and her heart beat out a couple of extra thumps. She quickly tapped the icon to open the call. “Matt, hi,” she said.
“Good morning, Molly,” he said, and she calmed slightly. “I was wondering what you’re doing this weekend. Chris and I have lunch quite often, and he asked about you.”
Molly turned into a parking spot and put her car in park. “He did?”
“He said Bev spoke of you often, and he found something she’d set aside for you.”
“Oh.” Molly stared out the window at the stormy sky, wondering what in the world Bev Hammond would’ve set aside for her. She thought quickly through her schedule for the weekend as Matt continued to say he and Gloria ate lunch with Chris almost every day.
“I can come tomorrow or Sunday,” she said, hoping with every fiber of her being he’d say tomorrow. Hunter surely went to the family farm on the Sabbath. “Tomorrow would probably be best,” she said. “My mother’s been feeling a little under the weather, and I’m cooking on Sunday for my family.”
“I’m sorry about your mother,” Matt said. “Is she okay?”
“Yes,” Molly said, swallowing. She’d gone in for another round of tests just yesterday, and hopefully they’d all hear the results very soon. “She’s just…run down.” Molly didn’t know how else to describe it. Mama wasn’t sick with a virus or anything like that. She was just exhausted, and Molly had seen her this tired when she’d gone through her chemotherapy treatments.
She really didn’t want to watch her mother go through that again, and she pressed her eyes closed as she said a quick prayer.
“Tomorrow’s fine,” Matt said, breaking into her thoughts. “Gloria’s right here, and she says if you wear the right shoes, she’ll give you another lesson.” He chuckled, and Molly joined in with a giggle.
“She’s got a deal,” Molly said. The call ended, and she faced the day with a better mood than she’d had a few minutes ago.
The following day, she showed up at the farm wearing blue jeans, a sweater, cowgirl boots, and a coat. She pulled a knitted hat over her ears as she got out of her car, and she