Heart in Hand: Stitches in Time Series #3 (24 page)

Restless, she wandered into the living room to her favorite overstuffed chair and sat there, her legs tucked under her, cradling her mug of tea in her cold hands.

Not quite warmed up by the tea, she set the empty mug on the table beside the chair, pulled one of Naomi’s quilts over her lap, and reached for her knitting in the basket by the chair. Knitted baby hats with floppy bunny ears were going fast at the shop since Easter wasn’t far off.

Her knitting needles clicked, and the pink bunny ears grew. But as the minutes passed, the events of the day came back to haunt her, and she sat in the growing dark, her knitting lying in her lap.

16

Mary Katherine was sitting on the bench in front of the shop when Anna, Naomi, and their grandmother arrived one morning.

“Did you lose your key?” Anna asked as she walked up. Then she stopped and peered at her cousin. “Are you all right?”

“No,” Mary Katherine said through gritted teeth. “But turn and wave at Jacob so he’ll leave.”

Anna did so, but then she turned and sat down on the bench. “Why do you want him to leave if you’re not all right?”

“Something wrong?” Naomi asked as she approached.

“Turn and wave at Jacob!” Mary Katherine hissed.

Naomi did as requested, but then demanded, “What is going on?”

“I just can’t walk right now, but if Jacob knows, he’ll insist I go home.”

“But if you’re not feeling well—“

She closed her eyes and seemed to withdraw from them. “I’m not sick. It’s just that the baby is kicking so hard!”

“That’s good,” said Leah, patting her shoulder. “It means he’s healthy and strong.”

“And going to kick his way out of here,” Mary Katherine said, opening her eyes. “There, he’s stopped. I’m fine now.”

She frowned and batted her arms at her cousins as each of them took one of her arms to help her up from the bench. “Stop that! I’m pregnant, not an invalid!”

Before they could get her inside, a buggy pulled up in front of the shop.

“Good morning, ladies!”

Mary Katherine turned. “I saw you leave!”

“I thought it was kind of suspicious that everyone was waving to me and you weren’t going inside the shop. What’s going on?”

She rolled her eyes. “Nothing. Don’t you need to get going? You have a lot of work on the farm.”

“I need you to tell me the truth.”

“The baby’s just really active, that’s all.”

Jacob looked at Leah. “Is that all?”

“That’s what she says. We have to take her word for it.”

He got out and walked around the buggy to stand before her. “You tossed and turned all night, and you were abnormally quiet this morning on the way here.”

“I’m just uncomfortable,” she insisted. “That’s how pregnant women get sometimes.”

“We’ll see,” he said, scooping her up into his arms.

“Jacob!”

“I’m taking her to the doctor,” Jacob told Leah. “I’ll bring her back after, if the doc says she’s okay.”

Mary Katherine argued with him all the way to the buggy, but Jacob turned a deaf ear to her. As they drove away, she stuck her head out and called to them that she’d be back.

“Talk about romantic,” Naomi said, and she sighed.

“Maybe.”

Naomi blinked at her. “I think he was showing he cared about her.”

Anna shrugged. Seemed to her that he wasn’t listening to Mary Katherine. She had a right to decide how she felt. Then she told herself that she shouldn’t be critical of Jacob. He was just being caring. There was no comparison with Gideon deciding things.

“Anything wrong?” Leah asked, sitting on the bench and patting the place beside her. “You’ve been quiet the last few days.”

“Everything’s fine.” She looked around her. “Spring’s finally here.”

Leah nodded. “Gideon will be busy planting soon.”

Anna nodded.

“He didn’t come for a knitting lesson this past week.”

“No, he couldn’t make it. He dropped off Sarah Rose. But you know that.” She turned to her grandmother and sighed. “You and your questions. You’re relentless.”

“I’ve heard your cousins call you that when you wanted to know something.” Leah smiled. “Where do you think you got it?”

Anna laughed and shook her head. “Not from my mother. She’s one of the quietest women I know.”

“True.” Leah’s smile faded, and she patted Anna’s hand. “What’s happened,
kind
? Are things not working out with Gideon?”

“I don’t know. Something happened last time.” She twisted one of the ribbons of her
kapp
around her finger. “He started saying he wasn’t sure that I was ready to be dating him because he’d heard I often went to the cemetery to see Samuel.”

Leah’s eyes widened.

“I hadn’t heard that. And I think someone would have told me. They’d have been worried about you and think I should know.”

“Exactly.” She hesitated. “I got to wondering if maybe he’s changed his mind and he’s looking for a reason to back away.”

She put her hand to her mouth when her lips trembled. “I’m not going to feel sorry for myself. I think only of him, but if he’s wanting to back away, then, well, I have to wonder if he’s not the man God set aside for me.” She shook her head. “I’m confused.”

“Well, don’t get ahead of yourself,” Leah cautioned. “No relationship goes perfectly smoothly.”

“Mine with Samuel did.” Anna lifted her chin. “We never fought.”

Leah grinned. “That’s because he adored you and let you have your way.”

Anna compressed her lips, and then she laughed and nodded. “Mostly.” She sighed. “And maybe I’m just like so many other widows who remember our late husbands in a better light than we did when they were alive.

“Samuel was everything to me. He was a friend first and a protector of me, stepping in to make another boy stop teasing me in school, and then one day we looked at each other and had that first kiss.”

She blushed. “And I knew then that I wanted to be with him for the rest of my days.”

She drew in a deep breath. “You know, I was so happy with Samuel. I’m not willing to settle for less. God sent someone along for you. He’ll do it for me.”

Leah smiled and squeezed Anna’s hand. “Good for you.”

A woman walked up and stopped in front of them. “Oh, I must be early. I thought you were open at eight.”

“We are. Naomi’s inside, and we’ll be right in, Mrs. Selby.”

“No hurry,” she said. “Oh, look, she’s in the window.” She walked inside the shop.

“Window?” Anna said, momentarily confused. Then, when she glanced over her shoulder, she saw Naomi wave, then go back to redoing the display window.

“It’s time to get to work.”

As mistakes went, Gideon figured he’d made one of the biggest of his life.

Not only did he miss Anna, but his daughter had been registering her disapproval of him all week.

He stirred the soup in the pot on the stove and shut off the gas flame beneath it. “Supper’s ready. You’ll have to finish your homework after.”

The night before, he’d tried making her finish, but all that had accomplished was to make him wait a half hour for his meal.

Her lower lip stuck out as she scribbled on her paper. “I’m almost finished.”

“Five minutes,” he compromised. “If you’re not done then, we’ll eat and you can do your homework and go to bed.”

She looked up, her eyes stormy. “No bedtime story?”

“Not if there’s no time.”

The lower lip pushed out even more.

“Watch out, you’ll trip over it,” he murmured.

“What?”

He bit back his grin. “Nothing.”

She lifted her head and sniffed. “What are we having?”

Here it was. The big question. So far this week he hadn’t pleased her once. “We’re having Three Bear Soup and grilled cheese sandwiches.”

She opened her mouth to object and then, to his surprise, shut it. Her pencil zoomed across the paper, and one minute later she was done and closing her notebook. She got up and started setting the table. When she put three bowls on the table, his heart sank. Would it be Anna she hoped would appear for supper?

Or the imaginary kitty she’d invented when he hadn’t let her bring Anna’s kitten home?

“Who’s the bowl for?” he asked, hoping she wasn’t going to bring Anna up again.

“It’s not for her. It’s for Kitty.”

“Sarah Rose, put the bowl back. You don’t have a kitty, and if you did, it wouldn’t be allowed to eat at the table.”

She stared at him for a long moment and then, with a long-suffering sigh, picked the bowl up and flounced over to the cupboard to put it back.

Gideon carried the pot of soup to the table, then piled the sandwiches onto a plate and set it next to the soup. They took their seats and bent their heads in prayer, then he served her soup and half a sandwich.

“Why do they call it Three Bear Soup?” he asked as he tasted a spoonful.

“Because it’s what the three bears had on the stove when Goldilocks went to their house,” she said, taking a big bite of her sandwich. “And it wasn’t too hot; it wasn’t too cold; it was just right. Just like the beds.” She slurped some from her spoon.

Before he could admonish her on her table manners, she smiled at him. “It’s good, all warm in my tummy.”

He decided to hold off on the table manners lecture. Maybe his making her one of her favorite meals was thawing her out a little.

“Are you going to see Anna tomorrow after church?”

“I am. Do you want another half sandwich?”

“Yes.” Then, “Thank you,” she added. “Where are we going?”

“You’re going to visit with your grandmother, remember? She told me she has something planned for the two of you to do.”

“I’d rather go with you and Anna.”

“Sorry, not this time.”

“But why?”

She was
so
persistent, he couldn’t help thinking for probably the thousandth time since she’d started talking. Where had she gotten such a trait? He wasn’t like that. Mary hadn’t been.

“Sometimes adults need to spend time with each other.”

She frowned and started to say something, but he got up quickly, went to the refrigerator, and pulled a carton of ice cream from the freezer. A war immediately raged in his daughter—sulkiness warred with an interest in the ice cream Gideon had brought to the table.

“Do you want some?” he asked her casually as he filled a dish with scoops of butter pecan.

“Yes!” She got up and took their plates to the sink.

By the time she came back to the table, he’d set the dish at her place.

“Kitty just said she wanted some.”

Grateful for the change in subject, Gideon got a saucer from the cupboard, placed a small scoop on it, and set it next to Sarah Rose’s. “Just this once,” he said.

“Sarah Rose told me you made her Three Bear Soup last night,” Jenny Bontrager said as Gideon went into the kitchen after church. “I’m glad she likes it so much.”

“I appreciated you giving me the recipe,” he told her, bending to hug his daughter. “It’s easy to make.”

She smiled. “I wasn’t the best cook when I got married.” She gave her daughter Annie a sharp glance. “No comments from the peanut gallery.”

“Peanut gallery?” Sarah Rose looked up at Gideon. “Why is she calling you that?”

Annie laughed. “
Mamm
talks a little funny sometimes. She was
Englisch
before she became Amish.”

“I do not!” But Jenny was smiling as she worked with the other women to set out the after-church light meal.

“But what’s a peanut gallery?” Sarah Rose, persistent as ever, wanted to know.

Gideon couldn’t help thinking he wished it was as easy to get Anna to forgive him as it had been Sarah Rose last night. If only Three Bear Soup, grilled cheese sandwiches, and butter pecan ice cream . . .

Instead, she regarded him with some wariness as they got into his buggy after church and set out for a ride. He glanced at her a couple of times as they pulled away from the Bontrager house, and he felt her look at him.

“I brought a picnic lunch,” he told her. “Or we can go to a restaurant if you’d rather.”

“No point wasting food.”

He nodded. “Let’s go to that little park with the pond.”

When she stiffened, he remembered that was the park where they’d had the picnic. Maybe it wasn’t wise to take her back there . . .