Heart in Hand: Stitches in Time Series #3 (2 page)

“Sorry, the Amish don’t believe in plural marriage.”

Gathering up her sweater and her purse, she walked to the door with him and locked it behind her.

After they climbed into the van, Nick set the cookies on the seat between them.

“You know you’re going to eat them now.”

“They’re oatmeal,” he reasoned. “Just because it’s not hot and in a bowl . . .”

“So very logical,” she agreed, trying not to smile.

“That’s me, logical.”

She opened the bag so he could slide his hand inside, pull one out, and take a bite.

“Please give Naomi the recipe.”

“Are you sure you want to tell your intended that you like my oatmeal raisin cookies better than hers?”

He considered that. “Maybe not. She wasn’t happy when I complimented Leah’s rolls.”

“Exactly.”

“Maybe you’ll sneak me some of these now and then?”

“Maybe,” she agreed with a grin.

Nick glanced at his watch and turned the radio on. “I want to check out the weather forecast. We’re certainly having a cool November, aren’t we?”

Anna nodded as the jingle that announced the news broadcast filled the interior of the van.

“The forecast is partly sunny and cool in Paradise, Pennsylvania. Chance of afternoon showers,” the announcer said cheerfully.

“Tell me how it can be partly sunny. It’s either sunny or it’s not.”

Nick chuckled. “I agree.”

They listened to the quick news report and then the weather before Nick turned the station off.

A yawn overtook her. She covered her mouth and shook her head. “Sorry.”

“S’okay. Rough night?”

“Yeah.”

“Why don’t you close your eyes and try to get a little shuteye?”

“Don’t want to be rude,” she said, stifling another yawn.

“I don’t mind. I might fall asleep in front of you someday.”

She blinked at him. “Don’t do that when you’re driving!”

He laughed as he reached for another cookie. “I saw Abe Harshberger asleep as he was driving the other day.”

“Abe was driving his buggy,” she pointed out. “I heard the horse got him home okay.” She studied him. “How are the lessons going?”

“The last time I remember being around a horse my mother was putting me up on it for a kiddie ride,” he said with a grin. “I was five. I didn’t really like it very much and never wanted to be around a horse again. Now here I am buying a business where I’ll have to work with horses for hours every day. Feed
them, water them, care for them. Hitch them to a buggy, persuade them to walk along a route for me.”

He glanced at her. “Deal with manure.” He made a face, then patted his steering wheel with one hand. “Big change from this horseless carriage.”

“It sure is.”

“Thank goodness I made training me a condition of the sale,” he said.

“How’s the other instruction going?”

Nick reached for a third cookie. “Just as hard. I thought I knew what was involved, but there are so many more rules than I thought . . .”

He began telling her about the lessons he was taking to become Amish. It hadn’t been all that long ago that she’d taken them as every Amish did before joining the church. She found her attention drifting off even as she frowned and wondered why she’d never noticed how Nick spoke in a monotone. Snuggling her cheek against the upholstery of the back of the seat, she heard him chuckle.

“Am I boring you?” he asked. “I never bore Naomi.”

“She has to put up with you.” Anna felt her eyelids growing heavy, and she jerked awake once, then twice.

“You’re chicken-pecking,” he told her. “Relax and shut your eyes. Don’t worry. Your cousins will wake you up.”

“Let her sleep,” Nick was whispering. “I don’t have to be anywhere for another half hour.”

“I’m awake,” Anna said, yawning and straightening in her seat. “There’s no need to babysit me while I nap.”

She saw that they were parked in front of the shop. Turning, she saw Naomi and her grandmother sitting in the backseat, staring at her, concerned.

“Rough night?” her grandmother asked, her eyes kind and a little sad.

“Had trouble sleeping.” She unsnapped her seat belt. “I’m fine.”

Anna stepped out and looked at the shop while her grandmother unlocked the door. The name of the shop, Stitches in Time, was emblazoned on a sign with needles and thread and little quilt squares dancing around the letters. She’d just changed the window display the night before so she stopped to examine it before going inside.

Everything about the display was designed to say “fall.” Anna had knitted warm woolen mufflers, caps and gloves in earth tones of brown, gold, and green. Cupcake hats for babies featured little pumpkins, owls, and forest animals.

Naomi’s log cabin quilt had been tucked around Leah’s handmade Amish dolls. A little fireplace complete with a glowing “flame” made a cozy scene.

Mary Katherine had spent hours weaving placemats and napkins for tables set for holiday feasts. She’d made sturdy woven tote bags to carry home all the fall fruits and vegetables from the farmer’s market and roadside stands.

Jamie’s contribution was a wall hanging with a scene of the Amish countryside at harvest time. She’d used a traditional image but worked in pieces of bittersweet, pussy willow, and twigs.

And there were kits for customers to get started on their Christmas gifts.

She started to go inside and then realized that Naomi still hadn’t gotten out of Nick’s van. There was nothing she liked
better than teasing—not just the two of them but particularly them. Marching back to the van, she knocked on the window.

“Hey, you two, no PDAs!” she called.

Naomi rolled down the window. “You are so obnoxious! All we’re doing is exchanging a good-bye kiss!”

“You’re steaming up the windows,” Anna said with a grin. “Get inside before you get arrested.”

Nick leaned over and gave Naomi one last kiss. “Have a great day.”

“You’ve been cheating on me!” she exclaimed, licking her lips. “Whose oatmeal cookies have you been eating?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he told her as he brushed crumbs from his tie.

“You!” Naomi said, pointing a finger at Anna. “You’ve been tempting him with your oatmeal cookies.”

“Guilty,” Anna agreed, grinning. “Maybe if you help me with a design idea I’ll share the recipe.”

Naomi climbed out of the van. “Maybe I should rethink this wedding if my
mann
can be so easily tempted.”

Nick got out and rounded the hood. “You know you don’t want to do that,” he told her, his eyes alight with mischief.

He swept Naomi up into a kiss that had some tourists laughing and clapping as they stood observing on the sidewalk.

She beat her hands on his chest. “Stop that! You know you can’t behave like that!”

“I’m not Amish yet,” he told her, unrepentant.

Backing away, Naomi tried to look stern. “And at that rate, you’re not likely to be.” She glanced around her. “What if the bishop had seen you?”

He winked at her before strolling back to his side of the vehicle and getting in.

“Men!” Naomi huffed, and she walked inside the shop.

“
Ya
, men,” said Anna, suddenly feeling like a balloon that was deflating. She sighed and went inside.

The interior of the shop, crammed with colorful fabrics, yarns, and supplies, raised her spirits. What would she have done if her grandmother hadn’t asked her and her two cousins to join her in opening it? She wondered about this as she walked to the back room to store the sandwiches in the refrigerator.

She’d needed the creative work, the company, the daily routine so much after Samuel died. What did people who were grieving do when they didn’t have the support of their loving family and community, the people they worked with in a job that fulfilled them?

Chiding herself for the way she’d vacillated between self-pity and sadness during the sleepless night, she stopped, closed her eyes, and thanked Him for reminding her that she should be grateful for all she had and not focus on what she didn’t.

Determined to live with a grateful heart—even if today it meant moment by moment—she walked back into the shop to ask her grandmother what she should do first.

2

If business is as good this afternoon as it was this morning, this may go down as one of our best days,” Leah announced as she turned the sign to “Out to Lunch” and locked the door. “I don’t know about you two, but I can’t wait to get off my feet for a few minutes.”

“Me, too,” said Naomi.

They walked to the back room where Anna insisted that her grandmother allow herself to be waited upon.

“You look as tired as I feel,” her grandmother said.

“That’s the second time I’ve been told I look tired,” Anna said, frowning as she got out the sandwiches. “You’re just making me feel worse.”

“Sorry,
kind
, you’re right.” Leah sighed. “Wonder when Mary Katherine’s going to get here? We really could have used her help.”

“Where is she?” Anna asked as she passed around plates and sat down.

“I don’t know. She just asked for the morning off.”

“Don’t go asking if she’s pregnant when she comes in,” Naomi warned.

“Don’t look at me,” Anna told her, making a face at her cousin. “I’m not the only one who’s been asking her.”

They heard the shop door being unlocked, and Mary Katherine called in that it was her. A few moments later, she walked in with Jacob.

“We just got the most amazing news,” Mary Katherine announced.

Anna, Naomi, and Leah exchanged hopeful looks.

“The farm next to ours came up for sale,” Jacob announced. “We put in an offer, and it was accepted!”

Anna, Naomi, and Leah exchanged disappointed looks.

“I thought you’d be excited for us,” Mary Katherine said, frowning.

“We were hoping for different news,” Leah told her gently.

“Different news?” Jacob sounded puzzled.

“I think she means they were hoping we were going to say I was going to have a baby,” Mary Katherine said.

“Oh.”

“We’re happy for your news,” Leah gave Anna and Naomi a look.

“Yes, of course,” Naomi said, jumping up to give Mary Katherine and Jacob an enthusiastic hug.

Suddenly everyone was talking at once. It was like looking into a mirror to see her cousins, Anna thought. Mary Katherine and Naomi looked more like sisters and were just as close as if they were siblings. Mary Katherine was taller and her hair a bit more auburn but other than that they might have been triplets.

But things were changing. Her cousins would be doing more with the men in their lives—had already been doing so—and soon much of Mary Katherine’s time would be taken up with a baby when she had one.

Anna felt a mixture of joy and melancholy. “I’m so happy for you both,” she said, rising to give Mary Katherine and Jacob a hug.

“Jacob, can you stay and eat with us?”

He looked to Mary Katherine. “I was going to take Mary Katherine out to celebrate—”

“I’d rather stay here,” she said quickly. “Can we?”

Jacob didn’t even need to say anything. Anna didn’t think she’d ever seen any man so hopelessly in love with his wife.

Her heart actually hurt at that moment. Samuel had looked at her like that. Anna looked away, and as she did, she saw that her grandmother was watching her. She smiled to show that everything was okay because she was determined not to behave in any way that would take away a moment of her cousin’s and her husband’s happiness.

Mary Katherine walked out to say good-bye to Jacob, and Leah went to open up the shop.

“I can clean up,” Anna told Naomi as they cleared the table.

“I know.”

Anna glanced up at her as Naomi continued to help.

“I know that you can do whatever you have to,” Naomi said quietly. She touched Anna’s shoulder. “But I want to make sure you’re okay.”

“I’m fine,” Anna said. “People have been getting married and having babies all around me since Samuel died.”

“I know.”

Naomi held out her hands for the dishes Anna held, and for a moment there was a tug-of-war over them until Anna was forced to look at her.

“I’m proud of you for how you behaved just now. You thought of Mary Katherine and Jacob and not of yourself.”

She set the dishes in the sink and then surprised Anna by hugging her.

Anna hugged her back, and then she turned to the dishes. “Why don’t you go see if anyone’s come in before we think about doing these?”

“Good idea. Be right back.”

She ran water into the sink and squirted in dish soap. When she heard footsteps behind her, she reached for a dish towel and held it out. “I’ll wash, you dry.”

A hand took the towel, and then Anna felt herself hugged from behind.

“I’m okay, really,” she said. “Come on, we don’t want Mary Katherine walking in and thinking I’m not.”

“Mary Katherine’s afraid that you’re not and you’re protecting her feelings.”

Anna closed her eyes. It was Mary Katherine.

She turned, and her cousin kept her in her embrace. “I’m happy for you. I truly am.”

“I know. Because you’re a good person, Anna. But I’ve seen your face when you hear this kind of news, and it can’t help but make you think of Samuel.”