A Simple Autumn: A Seasons of Lancaster Novel (29 page)

“I’ll get him,” Jonah offered.

“No. Sit.” Her eyes didn’t meet his as she spoke, and he felt the chill of her voice
travel all the way down his spine.

This was not the Annie he knew.

In the wintry silence he took his place at the table and waited as Annie went to the
stove to ladle soup into a bowl for him. Daniel caught his eye and cocked one brow,
as if to say:
I’m staying out of this
.

Annie turned away from the stove with a bowl of soup in hand. She was halfway across
the kitchen when there was a commotion out back. Sunny barked and the porch door slammed
and Levi shouted. “No, Fluffy! I told you not to go …”

In a white flash the lamb bolted in the kitchen door and skittered across the floor.

“… inside!” Levi called, appearing at the door with a stricken expression and a shirt
streaked with mud. “Come back!”

The lamb galloped to Annie, its spindly legs struggling to get a grip on the clean
linoleum floor. As soon as it had surveyed the folks around the table, the playful
lamb gallivanted around as if it were playtime.

Annie paused as the creature circled her skirt. “Fluffy, no!” She held the bowl high,
her cheeks rosy with excitement now. “What are you doing in here, little lamb?”

“Get the animal out of here, boy,” Aaron ordered his grandson in a gentle tone that
hinted at amusement.

“I try and try, but she doesn’t listen.” Levi kept reaching for the lamb, even as
it danced away in a game of chase. Fluffy meandered
closer to the table and seemed about to leap onto Aaron’s lap when the older man waved
it off.

“This is why we should have gotten a dog instead,” Daniel muttered.

Jonah grinned, enjoying the chaos. Fluffy had turned a strained lunch into an exciting
calamity. He rose from the table and slipped toward the living room doorway, cutting
off Fluffy’s only other route of escape.

The lamb circled and headed toward Levi, who greeted it with open arms.

“Kumm, now,” the boy said. He reached for the animal, but Fluffy wheeled and headed
in the opposite direction.…

Dashing right into Jonah’s arms.

“Got you!” He pulled the lamb against him and cradled the squirming critter in his
arms.

“Good, Jonah! You saved the day,” Annie cried.

With his back to her as he carried Fluffy to the porch, Jonah reckoned that she must
have forgotten that she was angry with him. He smiled. Maybe he would have to send
Fluffy into the house every day to cheer Annie up.

Lunch was much more lively after Fluffy’s appearance.

“Your lamb is very eager to get into my house,” Aaron told Levi. “If I don’t watch
it, she’ll be sitting in a rocking chair, reading the paper.”

Everyone chuckled, including Levi. “Doddy, she can’t read. She’s just a baby.”

“But she’s a smart one,” Jonah teased. “She’ll learn fast.”

“She is a happy little thing,” Annie said, pulling Levi’s chair closer to the table.
“She reminds me of you when you were a toddler.”

“Except that I’m not a sheep,” the boy said.

“How could I forget?” Annie’s cheeks were pink with excitement now, her lips red as
summer berries.

Jonah admired her simple beauty, created by Gott like a flower or a spectacular sunset.
But he knew her smile and pretty eyes were just a small glimpse of the beauty within,
and that was the girl he had fallen for so many years ago.

The girl inside.

She glanced over and caught Jonah stealing a look at her. Quickly, he looked down
at his soup, smiling over Daniel’s story of a dog he’d once had who always liked to
ride on the seat of the buggy, like a big Amish man.

“One day my brother put a hat on him, and half the people in town were fooled,” Daniel
said. “Folks wanted to know if we had a relative visiting.”

That brought another round of laughter to the table.

Lighthearted talk like this reminded Jonah of his own family gathered round the table
for a meal. How easily Annie would fit in there, with her sense of humor and her easy
laugh. He set his jaw, wondering if his earnest prayers were meant to be. In some
ways, they were closer than they had ever been … but still so far away.

After lunch Annie followed Jonah out past the washroom.

“Wait,” she called as he reached for the screen door. He turned to find her smoothing
her apron down nervously. “Can we talk for a minute?”

He nodded, looking around. Daniel had left for the harness shop, but Aaron was still
in the kitchen, having coffee while Levi cleared the table. “Outside?” he suggested,
wanting some privacy.

She nodded, and he held the door open for her, noticing the slender curve of her neck
as she passed close to him. Sunny stood up when he saw them, probably hoping for table
scraps. Jonah scratched
the dog’s head, then followed Annie around the side of the porch, out of sight of
the kitchen.

“I fled like a wild horse last night,” Annie said. “That was mean, and I’m sorry.”

He nodded. “I’m sorry, too. Truth is, I took this job to be near you, but now, with
everything that’s happened, I understand if you don’t want me around here. I’ll talk
to your dat, and I can be gone from here soon as he finds someone else.”

“No, please don’t do that. Dat needs your help, and he’s real picky about who he’ll
hire. He’ll never find another man as good as you. He’s been slowing down lately,
and it eases his mind having a man with your experience around.”

He frowned. “I don’t want to be here if it makes you skittish.”

“I’m not some jumpy colt.” She put her hands on her hips. “I can manage with you being
here.”

“You manage just fine, but I won’t stay around here if it’s going to make you grumpy
as a bullfrog.”

“I am not grumpy,” she said, scowling.

He rubbed his chin, hesitating. There was no denying the edge in her voice.

She looked down at the ground, then prodded a knot of grass with the toe of her shoe.
“Okay, I’m grumpy, all right. But I’m not a bullfrog, and that’s not the best thing
to say to a girl you want to court. Just so you know, in the future.”

In the future … 
when I’m courting you?
He wondered, his heart leaping in his chest at the notion. “I’ll remember that,”
he said. “Bullfrogs are off the list. Skittish colts, too.”

She heaved a wistful sigh and looked up at him. Was that pain or amusement sparkling
in her eyes? He couldn’t be sure. “Oh, Jonah, you do have a sense of humor. I’ve enjoyed
getting to know you these past weeks. It’s just that … you took me by surprise.”

But you like surprises. You like practical jokes and birthday cakes and
snowstorms that blow in unexpectedly and paint the world white
. He knew all these things about her, but he didn’t want to gush and scare her.

“I never thought of you as someone to court,” she said. “You were always just Mary’s
brother.” Her blue eyes were a glimpse of summer sky and cornflowers in a meadow.
“I didn’t notice you that way but … I wasn’t really looking at you.”

“I’m invisible,” he said, trying to keep the misery from his voice. “It’s a problem.
Folks can’t see me. They run right over me with their horse and buggy.”

She chuckled. “See that? You are so much funnier than anyone knows.”

“There’s humor in some very serious things.”

“And you see it all. But that’s something your family is big on—finding the joy and
humor in things. Every time I had dinner at your house when I was growing up, we were
laughing over something. Once, I laughed so hard I almost choked on my beets. I was
so worried about what Adam would think when he saw me spit out a mouthful of beets.”

Adam again
. He gave a half smile, holding back his disappointment. He was a good listener, and
Annie seemed to want to talk.

“When Mary and I were little, I used to love spending time with your family.”

And I liked having you there
.

“Even when I was a girl, I longed to marry into the King family. That probably sounds
silly to you, but it’s the truth. That’s how I set my sights on Adam, and you know
how long I held on to that dream.”

The wind picked up, making one of the quilts hanging behind her flap, and Jonah thought
of how ridiculous it was. All those years, Annie had waited for Adam, while Jonah
was waiting for Annie. Such a waiting game, like two quilts hung out to dry, flapping
alone in the wind.

“I waited so long for him. There was one last burst of hope when
he finally came back from his rumspringa, but by the time I got his attention, he’d
already fallen for Remy. That much I knew. And so I gave him up. And that meant giving
up your family, too.”

He wiped his palms on his pants. If he was ever going to ask, now was the time. “What
about now? Would you ever consider courting me?”

“I can’t,” she said quickly.

Hope drained from Jonah’s heart. “But you said you always wanted to be a part of my
family.”

“It’s true, but I can’t stay here in Halfway much longer. Please don’t tell anyone,
but I trust you, Jonah. You’ll keep my secret, won’t you?”

His mouth was suddenly too dry to form words, but he nodded. Yes, he would keep her
secret. Hadn’t he kept his own for most of his life?

“There are so many closed doors for me here.” Her eyes sparked with something akin
to pain as she looked over the rolling hills. “But I think the Heavenly Father has
opened a window for me somewhere else.” She smoothed her apron, nodding with resolve.
“I’m going to New York.”

The ground dropped away under his feet, as if he had fallen into a hole. “But Halfway
is your home,” he said. “Your family and friends are here. Your church is here, and
you know half the town. You can’t leave.”

“Perry and Sarah are there. And an Old Order church, too. It’s a scary thing, to move
so far, but this is what I have to do.”

He didn’t see it. Why would she think Gott was sending her to New York?

But the ache clogging his throat kept him from asking any more questions, and Aaron
was calling from behind him.

“Jonah?”

“You’d better go.” When she took a breath and looked up at him,
the flash of her blue eyes seared straight through to his aching heart. “Denki, Jonah.
Thanks for listening and for keeping my secret.”

Remember this moment … this day
, he told himself. If she was moving away, it would have to be enough. Memories like
this would have to be enough to last a lifetime.

That night, after dinner, he poured a box of jigsaw puzzle pieces onto the table and
sat there staring at the chaotic mess that was his life. Everything in pieces … one
thousand pieces.

Jonah ran his hand over the mound to level the pieces, then stopped. Suddenly, it
was too much … too overwhelming.

“Are you starting a new puzzle?” Ruthie came over and picked up the box. “Such a pretty
picture, but the little boat looks lonely.”

“Let me see.” Simon leaned over her shoulder to get a look at the picture. “That’s
not in America. See? It says Norway.”

“Norway is in Europe.” Susie sat down at the table beside Jonah and started turning
over pieces, one by one, so that the colored side was facing up. “How many pieces
are in this puzzle?”

“One thousand,” Simon said. “That’s what it says on the box.”

“Can we help, Jonah?” Susie asked as she continued to flip pieces.

Dear Gott, I need all the help I can get
. “Ya. The more the better,” he said, looking up at Simon and Ruthie. “You, too?”

“Sure.” Simon took a seat. “Did you ever go to Norway, Adam?” Simon asked their older
brother, who was sitting in a rocking chair, reading
The Budget
.

“No. I only got as far as Rhode Island. It’s a long way across the ocean to Europe.”

Still studying the box, Ruthie wandered over to another chair at the table. “What’s
a fajord?”

“It’s called a ‘fiyord,’ ” Leah said, looking up from her book. “That’s
what they call it in Norway. It’s a narrow blue sea with high land all around it.”