Love’s Journey Home (16 page)

“How would they do that?” Helen plopped down next to Emma and picked up her glass
of tea. “Trucks and equipment and men streaming in and out of the farm, mingling with
the buggies and the horses?”

“I guess others have done it. On Englisch farms. They have livestock and such too.”
The sadness in Emma’s voice cut at Annie. Her sister had endured so much over the
years. Now this. “But you’re right. It wouldn’t work, even if it were permitted. Even
if Thomas were willing, which he isn’t.”

“Of course he’s not.” Helen’s hands flew up in an emphatic gesture that bumped her
glass and sent tea coursing down one side onto the table. “
Ach
.”

She grabbed a napkin and dabbed at the spill, managing to knock the glass on its side.
More tea soaked into the tablecloth. “
Ach
, I’m such a mess.”

“Try not flailing about so much.” Her voice gentle and soothing, Emma touched the
other woman’s hand. “Why are you in such a state today?”

“It’s Edmond.” Helen dabbed at the tea stains, making the wet spots grow. “He began
his community service this morning. They have him picking up trash along the highway.
Micah wasn’t happy that they made him wear an orange vest, but they said he must,
for safety’s sake. Fifty hours, he has to do.”

“He’ll get this behind him. That’s good.”

“His confession on Sunday…that was hard.”

“He did well.” Annie meant that. Helen’s son had been cleared-eyed and his voice had
never faltered. Facing his neighbors, family, and friends, all gathered in one place
must have been hard for a young man like Edmond. “Very well.”

“He did, didn’t he?” Helen’s cheeks turned pink. “But it’s the deed no one will forget.”

“He’s been forgiven.”

“I know.”

“That was the point.”

“But he’s so wound up now. He rushes around from one thing to the next, talking a
mile a minute. It’s like he’s trying to make up for it all at once.”

“He’ll get over it.” Annie understood Helen’s discomfort. She too would face that
challenge, someday. “Give him time. He’ll calm down.”

The door swung open and in marched Charisma Chiasson, little Luke David on her hip,
Gracie skipping along behind her.

“Charisma! Gracie, you’re getting so tall!” Annie smiled at the happy little parade.
She didn’t get to see the little ones often enough now that Charisma worked full-time
at the Hometown Restaurant and spent her free time courting a certain chief of police.
Annie bustled around the counter and rushed to give out hugs to all three. “I can’t
get over how big Luke David is getting.”

“He weighs a ton.” Charisma plopped the toddler on the floor and shook her arm for
emphasis. “The pediatrician says he’s in the top percentile for his age for height
and weight.”

Annie had no idea what that meant, but it must be good from the proud grin on Charisma’s
face. The woman passed out hugs to Emma and Helen and slid into a chair with a gusty
sigh. “Got any more tea? I’m parched.”

“Can I have a cookie?” Gracie followed Annie behind the counter, her little sneakers
making a smack-smack sound on the wooden floor. “Peanut butter?”

Luke David toddled behind her, mimicking the words in a lisp that turned cookie into
“ukie.”

“Tell me how old you are now and I’ll think about it.”

“Five.” Gracie held up the requisite number of fingers. “I’m five.”

“My, my, then a cookie you shall have.” Annie doled them out and then pulled a carton
of milk from the gas-powered refrigerator to fill Luke David’s sippy cup. “How about
you, Gracie? Milk?”

“Soda pop.”

“No soda pop. Milk.”

“Okay, milk.” Gracie’s sunny smile never faltered. Like her mom, she tested the boundaries,
then learned to live with them. “Chocolate milk.”

“Milk.”

“Milk.” Gracie plopped on the floor next to her brother and took a big bite of her
cookie. A muffled
yummy
followed.

“I’ll get the tea. I want to refill my glass.” Helen popped up and knocked over her
chair. She dove for it and set it upright. “
Ach
, I don’t know what’s wrong with me today.”

“You are a nervous Nelly. What gives?” Charisma patted the other woman’s arm in a
maternal air that seemed funny coming from the youngest woman in the room. “Are you
in love?”

“In
lieb
?” Helen turned radish red. She held up both hands palms out. They shook. “Whatever
would make you say that?”

Annie looked at Emma who shrugged and turned to Helen. “Has something happened?”

“No, nothing’s happened. Nothing at all. I just…I don’t know…it’s the way…I’m sure
it’s my imagination…or something…I never thought I had much imagination.”

“Well, something did happen to me, and I didn’t imagine it.” Charisma jumped in. She
flashed her left hand around, first to Helen and then to Emma. “Dylan asked me to
marry him. I said yes. I’m engaged. Isn’t the ring beautiful?” She screamed a short,
shrill scream after those words, jumped up, and then sat down. “Can you believe it?”

“Wunderbaar!”
Annie rushed to join in the hugging and words of congratulation. “Wunderbaar. That
is good news.”

Charisma’s face shone with a fierce, unrelenting happiness. She ran a finger down
the condensation on Emma’s tea glass. “I never thought, you know.” She glanced at
Annie, who knew all the details of her friend’s life before coming to Bliss Creek,
all about who had fathered her two children. “I never thought I would get to have
this. I still can’t believe it sometimes. I mean, why would Dylan want to marry a
girl like me, someone with two children?”

“Because he loves you. Why else?” Annie patted her friend’s shoulder. “Chief Parker
is a good man and a good judge of character.”

“I wanted you to be the first to know.” Charisma disengaged Luke David’s slobbery,
cookie-covered hand from the pant leg of her faded jeans. “Since you were the one
who pushed him my direction.”

“I didn’t do any pushing.” Heat rose on Annie’s cheeks. What had Chief Parker told
Charisma? Surely not that he’d once admitted to having feelings for an Amish girl
who had quite rightly sent him in another direction. “After what happened with Logan,
he probably felt a responsibility for keeping an eye on you, what with having a new
baby and being alone here with no family. When will the wedding be?”

“We haven’t set a date. Gracie and I will be baptized first. That’s real important.
To get our new life started on the right foot. Plus, there’s been another…development.
That’s the other part of what I wanted to tell you.” The joy faded from Charisma’s
face. She dropped her gaze to the table where she wiped at the tea stains with an
already sodden napkin. “Logan sent me a letter. He wants to see the children.”

“He does?” Annie sank onto the last empty chair next to her sister. Luke David immediately
climbed into her lap. She ran her hand over his soft dark curls, so like his father’s.
The memories flooded her. The gun, the shots, the glass breaking. Logan McKee had
robbed the bakery. Then he’d broken out of the jail and tried to drag Charisma and
the children away from the Shiracks’ farm. Still, she couldn’t bring herself to think
badly of a man who only wanted to take care of his family. “Does he know…about Chief
Parker?”

“You know you can call him Dylan, right? He’s proud to have been promoted to chief,
but he’s also proud to call you a friend.” Charisma dropped the wet napkin and leaned
back in her chair. “I wrote to Logan and told him I’m dating Dylan, but Logan said
it didn’t matter. He’s Luke David and Gracie’s father, and he has a right to see them.
He says he still wants to be their daddy.”

“He does have a right,” Helen pointed out. She seemed happy to have someone else’s
life to discuss. “He is their father.”

“Like I don’t know that?” Charisma sniffed. “They don’t remember him. They only know
Dylan. Luke David already calls him
daddy
. Well, he calls him
da-da
, but you know what I mean. Anyway, I stopped by to tell you the good news and the
bad news.”

“It can’t be bad news that the children’s father wants to be involved in their lives.”
Annie kept her tone gentle. “Logan isn’t a bad person.”

“If anyone knows that it’s me.” Charisma flipped her long, blonde hair over her shoulder.
“I know what he did for me. He stole for me and Gracie. He went to prison for us.
And I can’t do the one thing he wants me to do for him.”

“What’s that?”

“I can’t love him.” Charisma swooped Luke David into her arms. “I can’t go back to
where I was two years ago when he went to jail for me. I can’t go back to living the
way we were living. I like my job. I like my little apartment. I like…I love Dylan.”

“You’ve grown up, Charisma. Logan will see that. It seems to me…” Emma spoke slowly,
her voice soft. “It seems to me he made his choices. Bad choices. You didn’t make
them for him. You needn’t feel guilty about moving on with your life. He needs to
do the same.”

All of them looked at the baby boy on Annie’s lap. Sometimes moving on meant figuring
out a way to do what was best for someone else. Charisma had moved on. Annie wondered
if she would ever do the same. How could she give Noah the father he would need to
grow up a good Plain man? If Helen still lamented George’s passing after seven years,
how could Annie be expected to move on after one?

“I’d better go. I have to drop the kids off at Deborah’s and hightail it to work.”
Charisma stood, snagged a chocolate chip cookie from the plate on the table, and lifted
Luke David from Annie’s lap. “Did I tell you Naomi made me a shift leader? I oversee
the other two waitresses when she’s out running errands, stuff like that.”

Amid the congratulations offered by her sister and Helen, Annie took the opportunity
to give Charisma another hug. “It’ll be all right,” she murmured. “You’ll work through
it. With Dylan. And with Logan.”

Charisma nodded, but her lips tightened as if she held in a sob. “I know. That’s what
Dylan says,” she whispered. “I feel terrible even laying this on you, knowing what
you’ve been through, but I knew you’d understand.”

“I do.” Annie felt a stab of pain in her chest, thinking of what Logan must be feeling.
“Congratulations again on the engagement.”

She watched as Charisma shooed Gracie out the door and down the street.

“What are you thinking?” Emma asked.

“What do you mean?” She started to turn away from the window. “About what?”

“You’re standing there, shaking your head. What are you thinking?”

“It’s sad when families are broken apart. Dylan is a good man and he’s good for Charisma,
but Logan is the father of those children. I’m glad our ways are not their ways. It’s
too heartbreaking. I…” A woman getting out from a blue car across the street caught
Annie’s gaze. Catherine. She was crossing the road and making her way toward the bakery.
“I love Charisma and her babies. But I still feel bad for…”

The door opened once again, this time bringing Catherine. She held the usual leather-bound
notebook in one hand. A large handbag hung from a long strap over her shoulder. “Gudemariye.
Perfect. Just the people I wanted to see,” she said, a big smile on her face. She
slid into the chair that had been occupied by Charisma and laid her notebook on the
table. “I’ve been looking forward to a visit.”

G
abriel slapped another shingle down in front of him, pulled a nail from the pouch
fastened around his waist, and hammered the shingle in place. Swinging the hammer
occupied his mind and his body. No need to think about anything else. Shingle, nails,
hammer. Shingle, nails, hammer. They had been fixing the Brennamans’ roof, damaged
by the July Fourth storm, all day. Muggy heat shimmered from the roof, and the sun
beat down on the back of his sweat-drenched shirt. The billowing heat made it hard
to breathe, the air hot in his nose and throat and lungs. Sweat ran down his forehead
and dripped from his beard. He leaned back on his haunches and wiped at his eyes,
but the salty drops only burned them more.

“Time for a break?” Thomas hollered from where he squatted over the row he had placed.
He straightened, a dark, towering figure with the brilliant sun behind him. “I could
use a long, tall glass of water myself.”

“Jah. We may not have enough shingles after all.” Gabriel stood and eased down the
slant of the roof, careful to plant each step until he reached the eave. He squatted,
swiveled, placed a boot on the second rung of the ladder, and clamored backward down
to the ground. “We only have one pallet left.”

Thomas followed him down the ladder and reached for the towel he’d left on the porch
railing. His face ruddy with heat, he wiped down his face and neck in a vigorous motion
like a man drying himself after a bath. “You’re right. I’ll head into town in a few
minutes. I want to get more nails and some two-by-fours to patch that spot in the
barn. The fence needs some work too. Might as well make a list and get everything
at once.”

“No rest for the weary.” Gabriel grabbed one of the tumblers of water Emma had left
on the porch before heading into town for a few supplies at the grocery store and—he
suspected—a visit with her sister at the bakery. She’d left Abigail to watch the younger
children and set off right after the noon meal. She and Annie would have much to discuss
regarding the future of their family, perhaps divided by many miles. She hadn’t said
a word at the supper table when the sale of the property had been discussed. In fact,
she hadn’t said a word that entire evening. Biding her time until she had a moment
in private with her husband? “Do we need to get the boys back in from the field to
help?”