Accidentally Amish (36 page)

“Help yourself.”

And then she saw him—a man who looked like Tom Reynolds. But what would Tom be doing here?

Familiar shoulders, the jeans and plaid shirt. He had just passed the nurses’ station, striding toward the exit where automatic doors would wheeze open.

“Do you know that man?” Ruth tried to sound casual.

Tara glanced down the hall, two towels between her hands. “Sure. He comes a couple of times a month to see his mother, Mrs. Renaldi. But I think he changed his name.”

“Reynolds.” Ruth felt the blood drain from her face.

“Yeah, that’s it. Know him?”

His name lodged in her throat as she saw the doors close behind him. For the first time, she noticed the red truck parked in the space nearest the door.

“Tara, do me a huge favor? Clean up the pudding mess in Mr. Green’s room? I’m already late clocking out, and I have an appointment.” Ruth put on her best pleading face.

Tara grimaced at the mess. “I guess so.”

Ruth flew down the corridor. The doors opened slowly, with a hesitancy she found aggravating even on a good day. By the time she stepped outside, she saw only the back end of Tom’s truck leaving the parking lot.

Groaning, Ruth ran back to the staff lounge to clock out and grab her purse. On her way out of the building, the clock at the nurses’ station announced 2:44. He had a seven-minute head start. If he got there first, all her hoping would be for nothing.

Rufus sat in the office in the back of the Amish furniture store. David, who ran the store, was flipping through pages of handwritten notes on a small yellow pad.

“I don’t know why I write down half the stuff I do.” David turned another page. “I’m afraid I’ll forget something important. Then I can’t remember what I thought was so important that I had to write it down.”

Rufus attempted a laugh.

David riffled more pages. “I know I’ve got that special order in here somewhere. The lady was very specific about wanting matching end tables, and she doesn’t want any shortcuts. Of course I thought you were perfect for the job.”

“I’ll be glad to take it on,” Rufus said.
If you ever find your notes.
The little battery clock on David’s desk said the time was 2:45. Now that Rufus had agreed to see his sister, every minute bonged in his head, a reminder of lost time. He imagined Ruth sitting in the passenger seat of Annie’s car, the two of them pulling onto a busy street, stopping at a light, searching store signs.

Her packet of letters was safe in his bedroom, each one read at least three times.

“Oh, here it is.” David tapped the page. “Yes, she admired the one on display. She’d like two, but slightly larger. She gave me measurements. Oh yes, she also wants a hope chest that matches.”

“That sounds fine,” Rufus said.

“How long do you think it will take? She was anxious to know.”

“We’d better say six weeks.”

“She’ll want to hear four.”

Rufus shook his head. “I can’t promise that. We’d better stick with six.”

“All right, six. I’ll remind her that if she wants the best work, it takes time.” David fished around in a desk drawer. “Let me write up the order on an official form with the measurements she gave me.”

In the silence of David’s concentration, the clock turned to 2:51.

Annie turned on the ignition as Ruth threw herself into the car.

“Sorry,” Ruth said. “I just couldn’t get away. I had no idea what the day shift was like.”

“It should only be about twelve minutes.” Annie put her foot to the accelerator. “We should be fine.”

“I saw Tom Reynolds,” Ruth said.

Annie scanned the view ahead, rapidly evaluating which route would be quickest. “Really? Tom was at the nursing home?”

“I didn’t know, but his mother is there recovering from a fall. I guess he usually comes to see her during the day before my shift starts. He left before I did.”

“Uh-oh. Maybe he had another errand.”

They came to a major intersection, and Annie turned right onto the six-lane grid. Almost immediately she slammed on the brakes. Traffic in front of them was at a standstill. Two police cars crossed the lanes, barricading the northbound traffic.

“An accident.” Annie leaned to the left to try to look around the congestion. Behind them an ambulance screamed at a searing pitch. The Prius shuddered as the emergency vehicle weaved past them at high speed.

Ruth moaned. “Can we go another way?”

Annie glanced in the mirrors. In a matter of seconds, vehicles sucked up any space to maneuver. “We’re stuck.”

Rufus gave David a price for the three pieces of furniture, knowing David would add another 15 percent to the number he reported to the customer. They agreed on some other pieces Rufus could make for David’s showroom. Rufus would stop by again in two weeks with two cedar chests he was nearly finished with.

It was after three now. Rufus wandered through the shop one last time and then out the front door. A simple backless bench ran along the stone wall beneath the display window. Rufus took a seat and fixed his eyes in the direction he believed Annalise would come from, though he could not be sure. Across the parking lot, traffic flowed past in six lanes, knotting and unknotting with the rhythm of the well-timed traffic lights.

He wondered if Ruth had grown thin, how she supported herself, if she was sorry, if she was happy. He squinted as if he might find the answers in afternoon sunlight.

Rufus watched three cycles of the lights before the red pickup maneuvered into the parking lot and rattled Rufus to attention. Tom was back.

Tom opened the cab door, got out, and raised an eyebrow at Rufus. “Ready?”

“I guess I was daydreaming.” Rufus stood up and glanced around the parking lot again, wondering if he should say something to Tom.

“Then let’s get going,” Tom said. “There’s a parents’ meeting at Carter’s school. I promised Tricia I would be home for dinner so we could go together.”

“Of course.” The last thing Rufus wanted to do was inconvenience Tom or cause distress in his family.

The clock in Tom’s truck said 3:17. They probably were not coming anyway, he decided. Annalise would not have waited until the last minute. Ruth must have backed out.

“I got lucky,” Tom said, “and just missed a big accident on my way up. I heard it hit behind me. The southbound lanes should be fine, but I think I’ll find another way out of town just in case.”

“Whatever you think best.” Rufus pulled the seat belt over his shoulder and snapped it into place.
God’s will.

They had moved barely twenty feet in ten minutes, but Annie had her eye on the entrance to a shopping center. If she could just make that turn, they could snake through connecting parking lots and come out north of the jam.

By the time they reached the entrance and Annie made the turn, Ruth burst into tears. The Prius was nimble and responded well to the frequent turns as Annie drilled through back alleys behind restaurants and box stores at a speed for which she deserved to be stopped by flashing lights.

They pulled into the furniture store parking lot at 3:24. Ruth jumped out of the car and ran inside without waiting for a full stop.

Annie parked properly and wondered if she should go in. She did not want to intrude on the moment of reunion between brother and sister, but her own pulse was rapid with the expectation of seeing Rufus. Just as Annie decided it was too hot to wait in the car, Ruth yanked open the passenger door and tumbled in.

“We’re too late.” She used the backs of both hands to wipe tears. “He didn’t wait.”

“He said three thirty!”

“Five more minutes?” Ruth said. “What difference could that make on a two-hour trip back to Westcliffe? He didn’t want to see me.”

“You don’t know that for sure,” Annie said. But she banged a hand against the steering wheel nevertheless. “We’ll try again in two weeks. He comes every two weeks.”

“Is this God’s will?” Ruth swallowed hard and wiped tears from both eyes. “Maybe I’m not meant to see him.”

“I don’t know.” What else could Annie say?

Ruth fished for a tissue in her purse and blew her nose. “Can you take me back to my room? I have a lot of studying to do.”

Annie nodded and started the car.

Two weeks might as well have been eternity.

A
nnie’s instinct was to call Rufus’s cell phone. If it had been anyone else, she would have. Find out what happened. Make a new plan. That was why everyone had phones. The rules were different with Rufus, though. If Ruth wouldn’t call, then Annie shouldn’t.

She sat on her frustration for a week.

Then came the date for closing on the house in Westcliffe. Annie boxed up a few kitchen items, packed several changes of clothes, grabbed a blanket, and stopped by a housewares store on the way out of town for a decent inflatable mattress so she would have a place to sleep that night. The closing was scheduled at the bank at the edge of Westcliffe.

Annie knew the way now. She had been back and forth in daylight and remembered the changes from one state highway to another. She recognized the sequence of small towns—each clinging to its moment of history—that culminated in Silver Cliff and released into Westcliffe at the foot of the mountains. She would sleep that night in a house she owned outright in a town she had not known existed a few weeks ago.

She did the final walk-through with the real estate agent. Happily, the house was no more dilapidated than the day she bought it. Next came the closing, where she signed her name until her fingers cramped. At last the agent dropped the keys to the front door in Annie’s hands. The key to the back door had been lost years ago, the owner claimed. If Annie wanted to lock that door, the locksmith in Silver Cliff would be happy to help.

Annie drove the few blocks from the bank to the house. She parked in the driveway and carried her suitcase in through the back door.

Sitting cross-legged on the floor of the empty living room, she opened her laptop and used her phone to give herself an Internet connection. With a few keyboard strokes, she was logged into her company’s server and looking at everything she would have seen if she had been in her office in Colorado Springs. She could ensure no funny business happened before the business deal closed. Her cell phone signal was strong. Annie turned on the speaker, pressed Jamie’s speed dial number, and set the phone on the floor.