Plain Jayne (29 page)

I turned to find Shane lurking a few feet away. “Miss Lynnie would like to meet you.” I gestured for him to come closer.

Shane stepped forward and offered his hand to the tiny woman. She took it and gave it a pat. “What's your name, young man?”

“Shane Colvin.”

“Do you love Jesus?”

“I…” Shane paused, clearly taken aback by Miss Lynnie's directness. I didn't remember her being so direct. Must have been old age. “I have a great deal of respect for Him,” he said finally.

“That's very nice,” she said, still patting his hand. “But so do the demons in hell.”

Shane forced a polite smile. “It's very nice to meet you.” He turned to me. “I'll be waiting in the car.”

Miss Lynnie did not seem sad to see him go. “Mark my words, Jayne dear. Marry someone who loves the Lord.”

I said goodbye to Miss Lynnie and headed out for the car. Shane was standing beside it, hugging his coat to protect himself from the fine, chilly drizzle.

“I realized I don't have a key.”

“I'm sorry.”

“Your Sunday school teacher just told me I'm condemned to eternity in the underworld.”

“She's a ninety-six-year-old Sunday school teacher. What did you expect?”

“You just stood there!”

“What was I going to say? I didn't want to upset her—she's fragile. She could go at any moment.”

“Can we leave, please?”

“I don't have a key either.”

“We should have taken my car.”

Mom emerged from the church moments later, followed by Beth, Gary, and Emilee.

“Beth's joining us for lunch,” Mom said.

“Oh. Okay. Good.”

“We can't stay long,” Beth said. “Emilee needs her nap.”

“No, I don't.” Emilee twirled under her father's hand. “I don't need a nap.”

“Yes, you do, little girl,” Gary said, picking up his daughter. “We'll see you at the house?”

Mom unlocked the car; Shane all but leaped inside.

“Don't worry.” Mom nodded to me after the doors were closed. “I talked to Beth. She said she'll be on her best behavior.”

“I wasn't worried,” I lied.

At lunch we rolled out leftovers from the previous two nights, the microwave buzzing away and bringing renewed life to the lasagna and pork roast.

I helped Emilee with her lunch while Beth talked to Mom and Shane chatted with Gary.

“Would you like potatoes?” I asked

Emilee nodded.

“Broccoli?”

Emilee shook her head.

“Would your mom like you to eat broccoli?” I said, turning to Beth.

Beth looked at Emilee. “Two pieces. Two baby trees.”

I picked out two from the Rubbermaid container. “Two baby trees, coming right up.”

Emilee wrinkled her nose. “I don't like baby trees.”

“They're good for you. Broccoli helps your eyes to see well and helps prevent colon cancer.”

She looked back at me, blankly.

“Broccoli will help you to stay healthy and maintain a svelte, princess-like figure.”

“Broccoli will make me look like a princess?”

I chose my words carefully. “You already look like a princess,” I said, “but eating broccoli will help you to keep looking like a princess, even when you're a grown-up.”
When you're a grown-up, and your hormones are out to get you.

She stood up on her tiptoes and examined the broccoli spears on her plate. “I want three.”

Beth stepped in. “I want three,
please
.”

“Please!”

I placed another broccoli floret on her plate.

Lunch passed companionably. Emilee ate all of her broccoli. When she started getting a bit cranky, Beth asked Mom if she could take a nap in the sewing room.

“Maybe Jayne's old room would be better,” Mom said. “Jayne and I have a quilt on the floor of the sewing room.”

“A quilt?” Beth's eyebrow lifted. She turned to me. “You quilt?”

“I cut quilt squares. Haven't actually made a quilt yet.”

“You will,” Mom said before taking a sip of ice water.

“When are you coming back to visit?” Beth asked.

I paused. When was I planning on visiting again? I hadn't contemplated the possibility of a return; I didn't think anyone would want me to. “Um…” I stalled. “I'll have a lot of work to catch up on come Monday morning.”

Mom's and Beth's faces fell.

“But,” I continued, “I don't see any reason why I couldn't come out weekend after next.”

They both brightened.

Mom took a satisfied bite of lasagna. “The guest room is always available for you.”

“Unless Emilee's napping in it,” Beth said drily, “but it wouldn't be longer than a two-hour delay.”

Everyone laughed.

“Why is that funny?” Emilee asked, sending everyone in chuckles all over again.

After lunch Mom and I cleared the plates while Beth put Emilee down for a nap upstairs. Gary and Shane settled in the den in front of a baseball game.

When the kitchen was cleared, Mom and I went back to work on the quilt while Beth offered her two cents about the layout and design of the squares.

I packed up my things after Emilee woke, cranky and fuzzy, from her nap. Shane carried my suitcase down to the car with minimal grousing while I hugged everyone goodbye. My heart melted when Emilee wrapped her arms around my neck, kissed my cheek, and said, “Goodbye, Auntie Jayne!”

Mom promised to take good care of my quilt squares in my absence. Beth gave me a hug and didn't utter a single insult, even professing to be looking forward to seeing me next.

Shane and Gary exchanged man hugs, with a good deal of thumping on the back for extra measure.

I retreated to the car as my eyes grew damp; I didn't want to leave.

I sighed as Shane drove around the corner and the house completely left my sight. “That was wonderful.”

Shane nodded. “Yeah. Gary's a cool guy. Things seemed like they went better with your sister today. And your mom…she makes a really good lasagna.”

“What about little Emilee? She's so cute.”

“Yeah. She's a great kid.”

“You know, I never really thought I'd want to do the kid thing. I mean, kids, you know, they ooze, they smell, they're terrible communicators. Why would someone create them on purpose? But then I meet Naomi's kids and Baby Ruby, and now little Emilee. Even if they don't have a complete vocabulary, they're excellent at showing how they feel. They're better at body language than, I don't know, a mime.”

“A mime?”

“Or something like that. They're very expressive.” I turned to him. “I never thought I'd want kids. But now I think I do.”

I almost missed how Shane's hands tightened on the steering wheel.

“We've never talked about kids before,” he said.

“No, I don't think so.”

“I like kids, don't get me wrong. I've just never wanted any of my own.”

“Even a little girl like Emilee?”

“No.”

His words started to sink in. “You really don't want children, do you?”

“I don't.”

I turned to stare out the window.

We didn't speak again until we were nearly back to my apartment.

“Jayne, what do you think about us?”

I looked at him. “I…I like us. I like you.”

“Where do you see us in the future?”

I tried to imagine us dating for another year—I could visualize that. After dating though…

“What I'm trying to say is, do you
want
to marry me?”

My eyes widened. “Are you proposing?”

“I'm asking. Sometime in the future, do you want to be married to me?”

“You don't want children? Not ever?”

“No.”

Miss Lynnie's words floated back to me.
Marry someone who loves the Lord
. I couldn't begin to call myself a good Christian, although I had asked Jesus into my heart two decades ago. As much as I liked Shane…

“I don't think I could marry you,” I said, in sudden realization.

He sighed. “I didn't think so.”

“It's not just the kids,” I blurted out in a rush. “It's…”

He held up a hand. “I know. The church thing. I thought you were over that.”

Believe me, I thought I was too. “Being with the Amish—it made me realize things about myself. About my life.”

“I noticed. Quilting?”

I gave a half smile. “I know. Who saw that coming?”

“Not me.”

“So…are we breaking up?”

“I think…yes.”

“Huh.” I ran a hand through my hair. “I feel like one of us should be yelling or something.”

“You yelled a couple days ago.”

“We didn't break up a couple days ago.”

“I think we both saw this coming.”

All I could think of was Levi. “Maybe.”

Shane and I broke up so graciously, Nora Ephron would have been proud. He drove me to my apartment and helped me carry up my luggage. I found a couple of his books that had been lurking on my own shelves, as well as a jacket he'd left behind a few months prior.

He promised to bring over my copy of Ken Burns'
Jazz
, my volt meter (for my motorcycle battery), and the fleece blanket I'd loaned to his couch since his apartment ran so cold.

I gave him a hug. He leaned in for one last kiss and I couldn't turn away.

He rested his forehead against mine when the kiss ended. “I loved you, you know.”

I laid a finger on his chin. “I know.”

I just hadn't loved him back.

After Shane left, I lay down on my couch and stared at the ceiling.

Huh. I hadn't been single for so long, I'd forgotten what it was like.

For starters, Shane wouldn't be calling to make plans with me anymore. True, he had a few things he needed to bring by, but we weren't headed to dinner and a movie anytime soon.

Interesting.

I unpacked my bags, really and truly this time, taking care to check my garments for damage and wear. After starting a load of laundry, my stomach rumbled. I walked to the kitchen to investigate the food situation.

I shouldn't have been surprised. My freezer was full of labeled leftovers from Martha. My pantry was more full than I'd ever seen it.

On a whim, I picked up the phone and called Gemma, Joely, and Kim. “I have tons of food,” I said. “Come over and eat with me.”

Somehow, everyone was available. Joely was the first to arrive. “Look at you with your all-weather wrist brace! You look great. And I've never seen your apartment this clean.”

“Yeah, I decided the open sewage finally needed to be taken care of.”

“You survived the Amish okay?”

“They were wonderful. Challenging, but wonderful.”

“You called just in time. I just got off my shift and I'm starving.”

“Did you break speed laws getting here?”

Joely had the grace to turn a bit pink. “I was really hungry.”