Rosemary Opens Her Heart: Home at Cedar Creek, Book Two (8 page)

“Save me a spot in the kitchen,” Emma called after her. “I’ll probably be eating there
with all the parents, you know.”

“Matt Lambright and Emma Graber,” Jonny announced in a loud voice.

Abby turned in the doorway to grin at Emma. “You’d better head outside so Matt can
find you. Have a gut time tonight!”

“Jah, well—” Emma looked flustered yet indescribably happy. “I’ll need to thank Zanna
for her gut taste in pairing us up, ain’t so?”

Abby wondered how Matt would react to this match. However, she was more concerned
about the harried young mother she saw stepping inside her house, trying to control
a wailing, frustrated child. Rosemary and Katie were probably both exhausted. And
it was obvious that as long as Rosemary missed her husband so desperately, she wasn’t
ready to find another one.

“Noah Coblentz and Maggie Ropp,” Jonny continued, reading from his list. Abby was
nearly to Barbara’s kitchen door, walking as fast as her wobbly load would allow,
when she heard, “James Graber and Abby Lambright.”

Abby’s heart stopped. She nearly dropped the stack of pie plates. Luckily, Beth Ann
was standing inside, where she could see how full Abby’s arms were through the glass.
She swung open the door. “It’s a gut thing we saved back a few pies here in the kitchen,”
she remarked as she removed several pans from Abby’s stack. “My favorite has always
been coconut custard. What’s yours?”

Abby carried the rest of her load over to the sink. Sam, Rudy Ropp, and Amos Coblentz
were setting up tables in the front room
for the married adults so the younger folks could have their fun with the bride and
groom in the greenhouse. “If it’s a cream pie, I want lemon with lots of meringue.
But cherry’s my favorite fruit pie, hands down.” Ever so carefully, she set the pie
plates in the warm dishwater. She needed to check on Rosemary and Katie, yet she didn’t
want James to think she had run off. Glancing around the kitchen, which bustled with
women and school-age girls, Abby spotted Ruthie taking a platter of sandwiches from
the fridge.

“Ruthie, can you do me a favor?” she asked. “I’d like to see if Rosemary needs my
help, but the bride and groom have matched me up with James for supper—”

“I wonder who told them to do that?” Ruthie teased. “Come on, Beth Ann! Let’s make
up a wild story about Aunt Abby while we go find James. Nobody ever said that courting
couples are the only ones who can have fun this evening.”

Out the two girls rushed, slamming the door in their excitement. Abby’s mamm and her
sister-in-law, Barbara, were taking the lids from bowls of applesauce and slaw. “You’ve
been helping with meals all day, Abby, so go on now! Eat with James,” her mother insisted.

“Jah, this would be a gut time for me to get better acquainted with Rosemary and that
little girl who seems to think Matt hung the moon,” Barbara joined in. “We saw him
out the window, showing off his dogs. And now he’s chatting with her at your place.”

Abby smoothed her apron, pleased that she didn’t have to keep James waiting any longer.
“Meanwhile, Zanna has paired Matt up with Emma for supper—and Emma also thinks he
hung the moon,” she replied. “That’s fine with Rosemary, who’s missing her husband
today. But Matt’s smiling at young Mrs. Yutzy like I’ve never seen him look at a girl.”

Mamm and Barbara walked with her to the door and peered outside. “Well,” her mother
said, “the thing about young love is, it either works out—”

“Or not,” Barbara finished. “We all have to learn how to handle
that. So you go have a gut time, Abby. Leave things between Matt and Emma—or Matt
and Rosemary—to work themselves out.”

“Could be he won’t court either one of them,” Mamm added as they stepped outside.
“Folks hereabouts all thought Leroy Lambright would hitch up with Alma Bender—”

“The same Alma that Titus Yutzy married?” Barbara cut in.

“Jah, she was just one of the gals who was sweet on Leroy, back in the day.” Abby’s
mother raised her eyebrows. “But catching a man’s a lot like fishing, you see. You’ve
got to toss out the right bait.”

“Mamm!” Abby gasped. “Maybe we’d better save this story for another time—if it’s not
too embarrassing to tell.”

“There’s nothing to be embarrassed about, young lady,” her mother declared. “When
you’re ready for some advice about landing a gut man, I’ll tell you all my secrets.
We want to see you happy at whatever life you choose, Abigail.”

And what was this talk about bait and secrets, coming from her mother? Abby hurried
down the lane toward the greenhouse. Her dat, Leroy, had been gone for more than a
year now, but this was the first time since his passing that her mamm had seemed so…playful.
Happy and ready for whatever life brought her next.

And wasn’t that the best way to spend each day? Happy and ready for whatever God offered?
Abby looked toward the young folks who awaited Jonny’s next announcement. When she
saw James, who was talking to Beth Ann and Ruthie, her heart fluttered. She might
well have a home and a business of her own, but wasn’t there room in her heart for
more love?

J
ames laughed with the two young girls who had concocted an outrageous reason for Abby
being late to join him for the supper. Hadn’t this been a day of surprises? By the
looks of it, Ruthie had taken the Yutzy girl under her wing and they had become fast
friends. Titus Yutzy seemed like a man come back from the edge of the grave, chatting
about his new partnership with Matt. And meanwhile, Matt had taken a very obvious
shine to Rosemary.

And what had come over
him
today? After the wedding ceremony, Abby had told James he was a fine man for accepting
the way Zanna—originally
his
intended bride—had married Jonny Ropp instead. She had been holding Zanna’s baby
to her shoulder, and he had blurted out that Abby surely must be made of love and
sunshine, like little Harley.

What had possessed him to say such a thing? He had seen Abby holding each of Sam’s
four kids when they were babies, so what was different about the way she cradled Zanna’s
infant son?

Didn’t you, just for a moment, imagine Abby was holding her own firstborn? And didn’t
you, just for a moment, put yourself in the role of that child’s father…Abby’s husband?

Now, hours later, such thoughts seemed risky. While it was the right thing to move
beyond Zanna’s rejection, that didn’t mean he was ready to court another woman. He
had loved Zanna with all his heart. He had believed she was the woman God had chosen
for him. A man didn’t recover from such a deep personal wound in days or even weeks.
Lately, James had even been wondering if God intended for him to remain single—to
assist Emma with the care of their parents so perhaps
she
would have the chance to marry.

And yet, as James watched Abby coming down Lambright Lane, it wasn’t hard to imagine
the possibility of spending more time with her. After all, hadn’t Jonny Ropp informed
him last fall that Abby had been sweet on him ever since they’d been scholars coming
up through the grades in school? He had been surprised that other folks had noticed
her feelings for him, too…and how could it be a bad thing, if she felt attracted to
him? Abby was the picture of solid, honorable Amish womanhood, yet as she approached
him her lips twitched with the same playful grin he recalled from when they were in
their teens.

“I didn’t mean to head the other way when Jonny called our names,” Abby said in her
lilting voice. “I had an armload of dirty pie plates and a young mother wanting to
put her fussy child down for a nap in my guest room.” She stopped a few feet in front
of him, clasping her hands at her waist, looking at him in that direct way she had.

Could Abby read his thoughts? Did she have any inkling of how vulnerable and confused
he felt right now where women were concerned?

On such a happy occasion, it seemed better to go with Abby’s lightheartedness than
to dwell on his misgivings. “The way these girls tell it,” James teased, “you kept
back the best cherry pie to eat all by yourself, rather than come to the table with
me.”

Abby’s eyes widened as she laughed along with Ruthie and Beth Ann, and then her expression
softened. “If a woman chooses to eat dessert all by herself rather than join a fellow
for supper, well…she’s
missing out on one of the sweetest parts of a meal—or of a wedding celebration.”

Abby looked again at the girls, who were following this conversation closely for signs
of—what? Romance? Wasn’t that on most young ladies’ minds at a wedding? “I did save
back the most wonderful-gut cherry pie,” she continued with a straight face, “but
while you two girls have been carrying tales to James, your dats have probably gobbled
it all down. Too bad for you!”

Ruthie’s face fell, but then she chuckled. “Come on, Beth Ann. I think Aunt Abby’s
fibbing about setting a pie back, but it couldn’t hurt to find out before Dat does.”

“Jah, my dat gets Rosemary’s pies all the time, but he’s always ready for a piece
of somebody else’s,” Beth Ann replied. “Let’s go!”

As the two girls hurried toward the house, James nodded toward the guests who were
entering the greenhouse. “Shall we show the rest of them how this is done?” he asked.
“I almost joined my parents for a bite in the kitchen—figured I was too old to be
in on the matchmaking. As I looked around at the crowd of Jonny’s and Zanna’s friends,
it struck me that I remember when most of them were born.”

“Jah, and I changed the diapers of more than a few of them.” Abby smiled up at him
as they walked. “But I was tickled to hear my name called with yours, James, instead
of being matched up with some poor out-of-town Ropp cousin that Zanna didn’t know
who else to pair with. That’s what happens when an unattached woman reaches a certain
age, you know.”

James had often wondered why Abby hadn’t settled down with one of the local fellows.
Perry Bontrager and Mose Hartzler had both been eager to court her at one time, yet
nothing had come of it. Then, when Abby’s dat had helped her build her little home
up the lane, the men had stopped asking her out. Yet Abby was by no means old or mean-spirited
or difficult to get along with. She knew how to cook and sew and organize her time,
and she had a fine head for business, too.

But he had no room to talk about still being single, did he? “Jah, and when a man
reaches that age—”

“You’ll be thirty next month, if I recall.”

“—folks think he’s either too set in his ways for a woman to tolerate him, or that
he can’t find one who’ll look after him like his mamm did,” James continued in a low
voice. “Or the younger girls consider him a gut catch because they assume he’s built
up a big bank account.”

“Unlike the boys their own age, who want to run around with their friends, sampling
all the worldly temptations they’ll put aside when they join the church.” As they
entered the greenhouse, Abby stopped to gaze around the large, airy room. “What a
beautiful place this is,” she murmured. “Look at how the light sparkles on the glass
panes…the way the hyacinths and daffodils glow when the sun hits them. It feels holy
here, like God surely must be present.”

Mesmerized by Abby’s rapt expression, James held his breath. How like her it was to
find something extraordinary about everyday places like her mother’s greenhouse. It
was probably Abby’s doing that Beth Ann Yutzy had come out of her shell, too. And
although Rosemary had gotten upset about being here today, James was certain Abby
had done her best to comfort and reassure the young widow.

Love and sunshine
. Maybe those words hadn’t been so outlandish after all. Maybe his heart was trying
to tell him something and he should listen more closely. After all, if he had truly
forgiven Zanna—he had spent the past six months getting over her rejection—wasn’t
it time to open himself to seeing someone new?

As James stood with Abby, he was aware of other couples coming in around them, yet
he saw only this woman who smiled so steadfastly at him, wearing a dress the shade
of lilacs. “Abby, you have a way of making me look beyond the surface of the situations
I’m in. You seem to see inside me—and everyone you meet—to know exactly what we all
need,” he murmured. “I realize now that as much
as I loved your sister, Zanna and I would have had some major differences and disagreements
once the rosy glow of being newlyweds wore off.”

Abby cocked her head, thinking. “Every husband and wife disagree now and again. Part
of becoming a gut, solid couple is learning how to deal with life’s ups and downs.”

James steered her to a chair at the end of a table, where they would have a few more
moments to talk before the other seats filled. “And how do you know these things?”
he whispered. “Now that I see Zanna standing beside Jonny, holding their child, I
believe God worked it out just right. Your sister would never have found that sort
of happiness with me, no matter how much I wanted to give it to her.”