Plain Promise (22 page)

“I grew up in Los Angeles. We don’t see much snow. By the time I saw
real
snow, I was too old to build a snowman.”

“Nonsense,” Sadie exclaimed. “You are never too old to build a snowman. Every year after the first
gut
snowfall,
mei daed
would get up early and surprise me with a snowman outside my bedroom window.” She giggled at the recollection. “Each year, he would come up with a different theme for the snowman, or snowwoman, as it sometimes turned out to be.” She put her finger to her chin.

“One year, I awoke to find a snowman that was built to look like he was standing on his head. Pop put two sticks up top for his feet, and he made the face upside down on the bottom ball of snow.” She laughed. “It was funny. Pop called that snowman ‘Sadie’s silly friend.’ One time, he made two people holding hands. He called them ‘the happy couple.’ Sometimes, he dressed them in clothes, or had them holding brooms or pots, or some other sort of prop. There was this one time—” She stopped and grinned. “This must be terribly boring for you.”

Kade gazed at her with a glint of wonder in his eyes. “Sadie, I don’t think there’s anything you could say that would bore me.”

She pulled her eyes from his and focused on Tyler. “Look at all the circles.” She rummaged nervously through the loose papers scattered about. Maybe it was his tone of voice, perhaps the way he’d looked at her, but . . . the alarms were sounding again.

“Sadie?” He leaned back, resting on his palms behind him.

She didn’t look up and tried to sound casual. “
Ya?
”

“Look at me,” he whispered.

Sadie lifted her eyes to meet his.

“We’re not doing anything wrong, Sadie. You do realize that, right?”

“I know that,” she said with a shrug. She turned toward the fire. “We need another log, I reckon. I can get it this time.” She started to get up.

“I’ll get it.” But Kade didn’t move. “In a minute.”

Sadie took a deep breath and waited for him to go on.

“Do you remember what I told you last night?” Kade asked. “I just want to be your friend. I enjoy your company. Everything is fine, Sadie.”

“
Ya
, I know.” She shrugged again, but Kade was clearly tuned in to her worries

The last thing Kade wanted to do was rattle his new friend—this amazing, intriguing, beautiful woman. And she had the playfulness of a child at times, like when she talked about the snowmen, her face aglow with memories.
She is something.
But Kade knew he’d need to go easy with any comments or looks that might hint at what a wonderful person he thought she was. He was having trouble, though. This woman was stirring things in him that he didn’t quite recognize. In his world, it would only be natural to act on such thoughts, or at least voice them. But this woman’s goodness was so
real
, and Kade knew he would never disrespect her in any way.

“Are you hungry?” she asked Kade. “I can hear poor Tyler’s tummy growling.”

“Tyler’s hungry,” Tyler said, without looking up from his current project—more circles.

Kade glanced at his watch and couldn’t believe it was nearing lunchtime. When he’d sensed that the conversation about the status of their friendship made Sadie uncomfortable, he had changed the subject. Her eyes shone with wonder when Kade told her about some of his travels around the world.

His expression stilled and grew serious. “You know, I’m worried that we might be wearing out our welcome.” He sure hoped not, though.

Sadie nodded toward the window. “If you would rather go out into this weather instead of having peanut butter spread on homemade bread, that’s fine with me.” She grinned.

One minute, she seemed nervous as a cat. The next minute, she was playful and almost . . . flirty. Mixed signals for sure. “I think Tyler and I would much rather stay and have a sandwich with you, as opposed to going out into
that
.” He pointed toward the window. “Besides, I don’t think I’ve had a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich since I was a kid. And even then, it wasn’t very often.”

Sadie stood up, smoothed the wrinkles from her apron, and said, “Actually this peanut butter spread is different from the peanut butter in jars that the
Englisch
use. And we like to put cheese spread on our bread and then top it with the peanut spread, but if you’d like—”

“No, no.” Kade stood up. “We’ll have whatever you’re having. Sounds great.”

Kade followed her into the kitchen. “Can I help?”

“No, it’s fine. You can play with Tyler while I get things ready.” She walked toward the cabinet and pulled out a jar of peanut spread, then a jar of cheese spread. Kade plopped himself down on the bench in the kitchen.

“So, it’s homemade bread, topped with cheese spread, and then topped with peanut butter spread?” he asked.

“
Ya
. We serve this after Sunday church service, but I eat it sometimes for lunch.” She twisted the lid on the peanut spread and placed it on the counter, but the lid on the cheese spread wasn’t budging. After banging the edge on the countertop, she tried again.

Kade was on his feet and standing next to her right away. “Here, let me,” he offered. The lid unwound with ease, and Kade handed it back to her, but he was in no hurry to leave her side. She smelled so clean and fresh, not bathed in perfume, like most of the women he knew. He breathed in the smell of her one more time before he headed back to the bench.

“Tyler, are you ready to eat?” Sadie walked into the den to find Tyler still occupied with his drawings.

“Tyler hungry.”

“You come right this way,” she said. “I have a special lunch prepared for you.”

Sadie returned with Tyler by her side. “Why don’t you sit by your pop—I mean, your
daed
—and I’ll get you some milk.”

Tyler slid in beside Kade. “You sure have been a good boy, Tyler,” Kade said. He was surprised at how self-entertaining his son had been.

“Tyler’s a good boy,” Tyler said as he reached for the salt in the middle of the table.

“Oh, I don’t think we need any salt.” Kade reached for the salt shaker in Tyler’s hand. Mistake. Tyler began to scream at the top of his lungs.

“What’s wrong?” Sadie was quickly by his side.

“He’s trying to pour salt all over everything,” Kade said, struggling to get the salt shaker from Tyler.

“Maybe you should let him have it,” Sadie said.

“In Monica’s notes, it said that he’ll scream to get what he wants, but that if you give in, he’ll always do that.” Kade pulled the salt from Tyler’s grip. “You can’t have this, Tyler,” he said in a firm voice. Tyler screamed even more and began to bang his head on the table in front of him.

“Oh, man.” Kade ran his hand through his hair. “Tyler, please don’t do that.”
Think. Think
. “The itsy-bitsy spider walked up the waterspout . . .” Kade began, recalling that Monica had mentioned that he liked that particular song. Tyler stopped crying and wiped his eyes. It was working. “Down came the rain and washed the spider out . . .” Kade was surprised he remembered the song from his childhood. He even remembered the hand motions and began to dribble the rain with his fingers. Tyler started doing the same thing, with a big smile on his face.

Kade was ending the song when Sadie put a plate in front of Tyler. “Here you go, Tyler. My specialty.” Then she looked at Kade. “See, you are learning Tyler’s ways.” Then she giggled.

“What?” He loved the way she laughed.

“It’s funny, and nice, the way you sang to him.” Her face lit up the playful way it did sometimes. Kade nodded, a little embarrassed.

Tyler dug in almost immediately. “Good,” he said, his mouth full.

Sadie placed Kade’s plate in front of him. It was the most interesting lunch he’d ever been served. In addition to the sandwich, there was something on the side that looked like applesauce, and something else he’d seen in his refrigerator at the cottage but hadn’t tried.

“That’s applesauce and chowchow,” Sadie said when she saw him eyeing his plate. She sat down across from them at the table. “It’s
gut
. Try it.”

The applesauce was fine, but he didn’t care too much for the chowchow—mixed vegetables in some sort of pickling sauce. He wasn’t much of a pickle eater. “It’s great,” he lied. The peanut butter and cheese spreads on the bread were delicious, though.
Who would have thought?

“
Danki
,” she said.

After lunch, they resumed their places in the den. Sadie had found several things to entertain Tyler. Two decks of cards, a doll, which oddly didn’t have a face, and a bag of building blocks she said she kept on hand for visitors’ children. Tyler loved the blocks and stayed entertained for the next four hours, during which time Kade and Sadie swapped stories about their childhoods, their parents, Alicia, Ben, and a host of other topics.

“You are so easy to talk to,” Kade said during a break.
I could
stay here forever.
He was so detached from the life he knew, and he couldn’t remember being happier.

“It’s easy to talk to you too.” Kade could tell it was hard for her to say, and her eyes avoided his. She glanced out the window. “This is supposed to be the worst of the blizzard,” she said. “Tomorrow morning should be much better, but we might be snowed in for a few days.”

Excellent
, he thought.
Just me, Tyler, and Sadie.
The thought brought him a sense of comfort.

Sadie started to help Tyler build his fortress, and Kade sat watching the two of them. Every once in a while, both Sadie and Tyler would laugh out loud, like when the blocks came tumbling down around them. It was a vision, for sure.

Kade realized that Monica had been put to rest by now, and he’d missed it. His heart ached about missing the funeral and about Monica’s death. He was feeling a little guilty that he hadn’t thought more about it during the course of the day. To Kade’s surprise, he hadn’t thought about Alicia in several days either. He wasn’t thinking about much of anything—except Sadie and Tyler.

Sadie was at her most beautiful when she laughed. He didn’t think he’d ever tire of hearing her laughter. When she looked up unexpectedly and found Kade almost drooling over her, she stopped smiling and looked uncomfortable.

“I’m sorry,” he blurted out, shook his head. “It’s just . . .” He wanted to tell her that she was a beautiful person, inside and out. But he knew he couldn’t. She’d fold up with embarrassment. “Nothing,” he said instead. His thoughts were venturing into a forbidden zone, and he kept forcing himself not to look at her lips. Kade knew he needed to leave.

“Tyler, we’ve outstayed our welcome,” he said in a regretful voice. “I should take him and go home. I mean to the cottage.”

Sadie’s mouth flew open. “The weather is awful outside.” She nodded toward the window.

“I know. But at least it’s daylight. And it might not get any better. Probably best to go now, before it gets dark.”
And before I
say or do something I shouldn’t.

“It won’t be dark for a bit yet.” Kade was more than a little glad that she didn’t want them to leave, but just the same, he knew he needed to leave.

He bundled up Tyler, and Sadie retrieved an extra blanket for Kade to wrap around Tyler.

“I wish you didn’t have to go out in this, especially with the boy,” she said with concern.

“It wouldn’t be fair to leave Tyler here with you again,” he said. “And actually, I missed the little guy last night.” Kade found this thought somewhat surprising, but true.

“I will miss him too.” She smiled at Tyler.

“Tyler loves Sadie,” Tyler said.

Sadie grabbed her chest, and her eyes lit up. “Tyler, I love you too!”

“Wow. He’s never said that to me,” Kade said, not hiding his disappointment.

“He will.” Sadie smiled.

Before Kade put on his heavy coat, he pulled her into a hug and held her close, begging her with his embrace not to push him away.

And she didn’t. Sadie clung to him as tightly as he was clinging to her. Something was happening. They both knew it.

“Thanks for everything,” he whispered.

“You are welcome.”

But neither of them pulled away. Not until Tyler began to stomp his feet, and Kade forced himself from her arms.

“Bye,” he whispered. And Kade picked up Tyler and headed into the storm, protecting his son the best he could.

It wasn’t until they were settled in for the night that Kade had a thought. An idea that brought a smile to his face.

Sadie Fisher is in for a big surprise.

13

SADIE SAT ON THE EDGE OF HER BED AND YAWNED. There had been no sleep in between the thrashing winds and her all-consuming replays of the hug she had shared with Kade—the feel of his body next to her, the way he clung to her, as if letting her go would sever whatever it was that was happening between them. And Sadie knew that something was happening, a thought that terrified her. But it had been so long—so long since she’d been held by a man.

She shook her head. A grown woman—an Amish woman, at that—should fend off such temptation, no matter the attraction. But Sadie couldn’t deny her attraction to Kade, a man she at first thought to be shallow and arrogant, an
Englischer
she assumed had no regard for anything except his money. In reality, Kade was a lost man struggling to renew his faith and to find his place in this world, not so unlike Sadie in that regard. And now Kade would face those challenges while raising a special child who he didn’t know very well. She reached down to tie her shoes and noticed that for the first time in two days, the wind wasn’t howling outside.