Chapter 17：The Ocean

After finishing up the pictures, Hazel kicked off her sandals and let the sand squish between her toes. She couldn't remember the last time she had been to the beach. It was probably at some point during college so she could paint the waves.

She had done a couple different paintings at the same beach once. One was at sunrise when the ocean was as still as it gets. Another was at sunset when the waves were fairly high.

She had parked herself in the sand with an easel, canvas, and paints and sat there for hours. Once her rough sketch was done she made sure to capture the fading colors of the sunrise and sunset first before she could forget them or it got too dark to continue.

Both of those paintings had been sold on Etsy. Most of her paintings had been sold that way. The few times her work had been shown in student galleries nobody wanted to buy them.

Hazel didn't know which random people on the internet were interested in her work but she was grateful to them regardless. Parting with her works had been painful—she was more attached to her craft than other people—but she needed to put food on the table. Still, every time it felt like she was losing a friend.

Shaking those thoughts away, Hazel breathed in the salty air and focused on the sound of the waves. She loved the ocean. There was something so serene yet powerful about it.

Frigid water rushed over her ankles as she stepped closer to the incoming tide. She let out an involuntary gasp before giggling. She was enjoying herself too much to notice that Will was watching her with a fond expression on his face and had secretly taken a candid shot of her laughing.

A minute later he removed his own shoes and joined her at the water's edge. "Having fun?"

Hazel nodded with a big smile on her face. It was a bit silly but she loved splashing around in the shallow water. Sometimes it was nice doing things that made up for the childhood she had lost.

"I love the ocean," she sighed happily. "It's so beautiful."

"Have you ever been snorkeling or scuba diving? It's even more beautiful underneath the surface."

"No I haven't. What's it like?" Hazel asked, unable to mask her eagerness at the thought.

"Like a whole other world more mysterious and colorful than you can imagine unless you've seen it for yourself," Will replied. "I can take you sometime if you like."

There definitely were not places to snorkel or scuba dive in landlocked Utah. Did this mean he intended to take her on vacations with him? Would she be able to travel after all?

Hazel's heart grew lighter. Maybe marrying a stranger hadn't been such a bad idea.

"I would love that!"

Will's crooked smile reached his eyes and made them glow gold in the morning sun. Her heart momentarily stopped at the sight. His eyes were as beautiful as the ones that haunted her memories.

She had to stop comparing him to Billy. She had only met him yesterday and he had shown no signs of recognizing her. Will wasn't the one she had been looking for but if things continued on the way they were, she wouldn't mind being married to him one bit.

They walked down the shoreline at the edge of the tide in silence for a good while before turning around and heading back to their shoes. Once they were sufficiently de-sanded they got back into the rental car and headed to Ghirardelli Square.

Before they got there, Will randomly pulled over at a strip mall.

"What are you doing?" Hazel asked, confused. She was looking forward to her chocolate!

"Since we are married we should probably get rings," he said with a shrug.

Once they made it inside the chain jewelry store he told her to pick whatever she wanted. Hazel frowned. All of the engagement rings she saw were pretty similar to what Billy the Liar had given her.

She found herself gravitating towards casual fashion rings instead. Nothing really caught her eye until she saw a sparkling crescent moon on a sterling silver band. Little diamonds helped fill the space inside the moon and the ring itself wasn't completely closed. The other end consisted of a tiny silver star that didn't quite touch the moon.

It was perfect. The moon had been Hazel's silent companion since she was four years old.

"Will, I want this one," she said as she pointed to it.

He walked over from the men's side of the store and scrutinized it with an unreadable look on his face. He then asked a store employee to let her try it on.

The ring was more than a little bit big. She should have known. It was so hard finding things that fit her because she was such a shrimp.

The employee frowned and said it would be difficult to size something that was this huge but that he could check in the back and see if there was one closer to her size that could be adjusted more easily. He came back a few minutes later.

"You're in luck. I found a size 4 that should fit you with a little adjusting."

This ring was much closer to her actual size but was still in danger of slipping off. The employee was able to adjust it for her easily since the ring wasn't a closed circle. Hazel slipped it back on her finger and admired it as Will paid.

They both walked out of the store with new jewelry. Will's sterling silver ring matched hers fairly well.

"Chocolate now?" she asked hopefully.

"Sure. I'm getting kind of hungry too."

They got sandwiches at another restaurant in Ghirardelli Square before stepping foot inside the chocolate shop. Hazel wasn't even sure what to get. Everything looked so good!