“You mean because you’ll be discussing technology and I won’t understand it?”
“Neh! It’s not that. I—”
Arden gave a satisfied grin; she hadn’t realized he’d been jesting. “I’ll go get what I need to purchase and then I’ll meet you by the phones,” he said.
Rachel’s first order of business was to buy Ivan a birthday present, and she knew exactly what to get him: waders so next spring when he went fishing in Serenity Lake he wouldn’t get so cold—which she suspected had played a role in his pneumonia this spring. After selecting a pair, she made her way to the electronics and technology section but couldn’t find a staff person to help her, so she perused the back of the boxes of several different phones, comparing them. She’d narrowed her selection down to four possibilities by the time Arden arrived.
“Oh, wait—that one might be better,” she said, indicating a phone on the shelf level with her chin. “Could you read me what that says about talk time and apps?”
Instead, Arden offered to hold on to the other four boxes so she could examine the fifth option herself. She was reading its list of features aloud when someone in the aisle interrupted.
“Is that you, Arden?” It was an Amish woman and a man who appeared to be her husband—or somebody’s husband, because he wore a beard, as was customary for married Amish men. He also wore a neatly trimmed mustache, which was another anomaly practiced by the Amish in this part of Maine, as well as in a few other communities in the country. Unlike beards, mustaches weren’t required for married Amish men living in Serenity Ridge—Colin and Albert had never grown them—but they weren’t forbidden, either.
“Are you buying a phone?” the man asked, and Arden scrambled to set the boxes back on the shelf so quickly he dropped one of them on his toe. When he bent to retrieve it, he dropped it a second time.
For someone who supposedly isn’t concerned about being seen with me, Arden sure is nervous, Rachel thought.
* * *
Of all the Amish people we’d run in to, it had to be the Rennos. Arden almost would have preferred to cross paths with Hadassah and Colin, because they would have ignored him and Rachel; Eva was going to ask a hundred and one questions.
“Neh. I’m not buying a phone. Rachel is.” Arden felt like a schoolchild tattling on his classmate. “It’s for her bruder, Ivan.”
“Why does Ivan need a cell phone? Is it for work?” Eva asked him, as if Rachel weren’t standing right there.
“He’s going to use it while he’s in the haus to call me at the shop if he needs me,” Rachel said. She was making things worse by explaining. Even though Ivan was sick, most Amish people considered it unthinkable to use a phone at home, much less to use one to call a family member on their own property. “I’m Rachel Blank, by the way.”
Whoops. Arden had been so surprised to see the Rennos he’d forgotten to introduce her, and after a pause he realized Eva and Ike weren’t going to introduce themselves. “This is Eva and Ike Renno.”
“You’re the Englisch schweschder?” Eva questioned.
“That’s not my title, but my name is Rachel, jah.” Arden didn’t blame Rachel for being annoyed to be referred to as the English sister, but her uppity tone wasn’t going to win anyone over.
“Hadassah told us you were visiting. I guess she must have spoken to you about dressing appropriately in her dochdere’s presence.”
“What?” Rachel’s cheeks were going red, so Arden tried to steer the conversation in another direction.
“Eva’s husband works with Colin and Albert,” he said. “How is work, Ike?”
Eva wasn’t to be deterred from her line of questioning, and she spoke over her husband. “I didn’t see your buggy when I came in, Arden. Where did you hitch your horse?”
“I—I—I—”
“He rode with me in my car. It doesn’t need a hitching post,” Rachel quipped. Arden’s one consolation was that Eva wouldn’t catch on to her sarcasm.
“You left your workshop in the middle of the day to buy a phone?”
“And t-t-to get this,” Arden said, displaying the level. It didn’t occur to him to ask why Renno wasn’t at work. “We’re on our lunch break.”
Eva looked at Rachel. “I was considering calling on Ivan. Arden told us he’s had a terrible cough. I can make a honey-and-cider cough remedy that will stop him from hacking, although I’ll have to drop by the organic market for honey on the way home.”
“Oh, don’t trouble yourself to do that,” Rachel said.
Eva narrowed her eyes. “Neh? You only allow him to take Englisch medicine, is that it?”
“Not at all. Your remedy probably works as well—maybe even better—than an Englisch cough suppressant, but Ivan can’t use one of those, either. You see, after having pneumonia, it’s important he gets the rotz out of his lungs. It’s gut for him to cough it up.”
She wrinkled her nose. “I wasn’t aware of that.”
“You’re wilkom to visit him any time, provided you haven’t been sick. He’s very susceptible to infection right now.”
Eva huffed. “I’m never sick.”
“Gut, then I hope to see you soon. For now, I need to find a sales clerk. As you mentioned, it’s the middle of the day, and we need to get back to work.” Rachel exchanged the box in her hand for one on the shelf, and after they both bid the Rennos goodbye, Arden followed her toward the customer service center.
* * *
Rachel couldn’t believe the interaction they’d just had with Ike and Eva. What did she mean about dressing appropriately of front of Hadassah’s daughters? Rachel had only seen little Sarah very briefly. “Wow, they really gave us the third degree,” she muttered.
“What does that mean?”
Realizing the idiom in Englisch was foreign to Arden since the Amish rarely interacted with the courts or the police, Rachel chuckled. But before she could explain what she meant, Arden snapped, “There’s no need to laugh just because I don’t know that term.”
“Neh, of course you don’t,” she acknowledged, surprised by how defensive he sounded. “It means they gave us a hard time. Interrogated us. Asked a lot of questions.”
Arden didn’t say anything most of the way home. Although he’d told Rachel he didn’t care who saw the two of them together or what they thought if they did, she wondered if he minded more than he first let on. Not that she could blame him; Eva apparently was friends with Hadassah, and Rachel had a feeling Eva would repeat their conversation verbatim to her sister-in-law as soon as she could.
“You seemed a little nervous in the store,” she finally remarked.
“What makes you say that?”
“Well, for one thing, you were stuttering a lot.”
“That doesn’t mean I was nervous,” he barked.
Rachel was puzzled by his increasingly sour mood. Was he angry she’d implied a gossipmonger like Eva could make him nervous? If he wasn’t irked because of the Rennos, it had to be because of something Rachel had said or done, but she didn’t know what that might have been. “Have I upset you somehow?”
“I’m not upset,” he said, scowling as they waited for the light to change. “If you’re taking North Main instead of returning the same way we came, you’ll have to turn right here. One of the drivers told me there’s a detour because Fourth Street is washed out.”
When Rachel put on her blinker and eased into the intersection, he frantically tapped the dashboard, saying, “Neh—other way!”
Waiting until she could safely change course, Rachel laughed nervously. “Someone who isn’t upset doesn’t mix up a simple thing like left and right. Do you want to tell me what’s going on? Are you afraid Ike will tell Colin you were away from the workshop again? Or that you were buying a disposable cell phone?”
“I’m not afraid of anything. This trip was a necessity, not a social o
uting, and I’m on my lunch break. As for the phone, even if I was buying one, Colin would assume it’s for my business. He knows I’d never flirt with buying technology for my own use. It’s not as if I’m in danger of going Englisch.”
That’s exactly what Colin would think and you know it, so why are you defending him all of a sudden? Rachel was crushed. She couldn’t comprehend why Arden was shutting her out like this, but maybe his behavior was the reality check she needed so she wouldn’t continue to entertain the kind of ludicrous romantic notions she’d been having about the two of them.
“Jah,” she said, crossing her arms against her chest. “I can’t picture you going Englisch any more than I can imagine myself staying among the Amish.”
Chapter Nine
Never in his life had Arden felt so humiliated. He stared out the passenger side window, stupefied by how Rachel had pointed out his stuttering, mocked him for mixing up left and right, and ridiculed him because he wasn’t familiar with an apparently common Englisch phrase. And then, after insulting him, she had the good nerve to ask if anything was wrong!
But mostly, Arden was disgusted with himself for ever giving her the benefit of the doubt, especially after he’d overheard her talking on the phone. Whether or not she was referring to me, she was calling someone dumb, and that should have shown me enough about her character to recognize how truly arrogant she is, no matter how unpretentious she appears on the surface.
Not only had Rachel made fun of Arden, but she’d indirectly scorned the Rennos by rejecting Eva’s offer to bring Ivan a homemade cold remedy. Eva might have been a blabbermouth, but her intention toward Ivan was kind. It wasn’t as if Rachel actually had to administer the remedy to her brother, but why couldn’t she have accepted it graciously instead of acting like a big show-off and delivering a lecture on phlegm? If anyone should feel embarrassed, it should be her, not me!
“I’m going to go show Ivan how to use this cell phone before I begin painting,” she announced when finally they pulled to a stop in the driveway. Arden was already halfway out of the car.
“That’s fine. I’ve got an errand to run. I’ve set the paint by the doghouse. The customer wants black trim, the rest in blue. I’ll be back by three thirty or so.” Then, as more of a demand than a statement, he added, “You should be finished painting by then.”
“An errand? Why didn’t you tell me?” Rachel questioned, her voice tremulous. “I could have taken you when we were out.”
“I wanted to go by myself.” Arden slid the rest of the way out of the car and shoved the door shut without a backward glance.
After getting his lunch bag from the workshop, he hitched his buggy and guided his horse toward Serenity Lake. It didn’t matter to him how long he was gone; if necessary, he’d work from the time he returned until midnight rather than be in the same room with Rachel. Cutting across town toward the valley, Arden journeyed down a dirt road only the Amish were allowed to use, per the private landowner, to gain access to the water. After stopping at the edge of the woods to secure his horse, he followed the foot path to where the trees opened to a small clearing. There, jutting into the lake water loomed a boulder the Amish called Relaxation Rock, because its flat top was an ideal location for reclining. But Arden was far too wound up to relax. Pacing the narrow stretch of sand along the water’s edge, he picked up a few stray stones and hurled them as far as he could into the sparkling clear lake.
As he chucked them, he snickered bitterly, thinking, Too bad Colin and Hadassah or Eva and Ike aren’t around to catch me playing hooky now. He knew he should feel guilty, but he only felt tired out and fed up. His energy waning, he gripped the lunch bag between his teeth and scrambled to the top of the boulder. He ate his lunch slowly, reveling in the view until his eyelids grew so heavy he set his hat beside him, leaned back, folded his arms behind his head and fell fast asleep.
* * *
The last thing Rachel wanted was to be in the workshop when Arden returned, so she completed painting the doghouse as quickly as she could and cleaned the brushes and tray and put away the rest of the supplies. Then she gathered the ledger, a folder of invoices, two supply catalogs and the scheduling calendar, along with the business phone. From now on, she was going to stay far away from Arden for as long as possible. If he wanted her help, he was going to have to ask for it, because she was sick of volunteering and even sicker of his moodiness. He wants to be by himself? Fine, he can be by himself. I’d rather run into the moose again than to cross his path!
Thinking of the moose reminded Rachel she still had to take in the laundry. No sooner did she bring it inside than she changed out of the lavender dress and into her navy blue Englisch skirt and white blouse. As she put the dress she’d made on a hanger, Arden’s compliment—“Her eyes look pretty in any color”—flitted through her mind, quickly followed by what he’d said about her being effective with patients. How could he go from saying such lovely things to behaving like such an oaf? The more she brooded about it, the more addled she became until she finally gave up trying to figure it out. Why am I wasting my time speculating about Arden? Whatever happened to me being an independent and career-focused woman? she chastised herself.
If only she could go to the bookstore to purchase the medical book on assessments and management protocols she’d been wanting to read, perhaps she could get her mind back on her future. But going to the bookstore would have meant leaving Ivan alone, and even though they both had phones now, Rachel was reluctant to be away from the house for that long. She’d noticed her brother’s coloring looked off and she was convinced he was overly tired, especially later, when he turned in for the night at seven thirty.
As helpful as Grace had been by bringing meals and staying with Ivan in Rachel’s absence, Rachel worried Ivan was sacrificing his sleep in order to visit with her. But how could Rachel broach the subject? The young couple were clearly in love. Besides, Grace was the only person who had come to see Ivan since he’d been discharged. Although he never mentioned this conspicuous lack of visitors, Rachel was disappointed by it. “That goes to show how wrong Arden was when he said the community would be hallich to help during Ivan’s recovery,” she said aloud to herself as she turned off the lights and went to sleep early, too.
Both she and Ivan were up at the crack of dawn the next morning, and he looked even livelier than Rachel did.
“You really don’t have to stay at the haus with me today. You can go down to the workshop,” he said when Rachel returned from collecting eggs and milking the cow. “I’ll be fine on my own.”
“Something tells me you won’t be on your own for long,” Rachel absently replied as she counted the eggs. She was craving angel food cake but was one egg short.
Ivan chuckled. “You’re right. Grace is stopping by with more supp. You and Arden should join us for lunch. I don’t know how I’ll ever eat it by myself.”
“Denki, but since you’ll have company, I’d like to go to town.” It would be the perfect opportunity for Rachel to get the book she wanted. Maybe she’d even treat herself to an iced espresso and a muffin at the popular coffeehouse in town. Or buy eggs from the grocery store. She might even wear lipstick—no more plain dresses fastened with straight pins for her; Ivan was getting better, and Rachel needed to start acting like an Englischer again.
But her afternoon plans were thwarted when Ivan was taking a shower and Grace arrived with a large pot of soup in hand but wouldn’t enter the house. Teary-eyed, she explained her mother had a mild fever again. “I don’t know if it’s a recurrence of her lupus symptoms or if she’s coming down with something, but if it is an illness, it’s possible I’ll get it, or that I’m already carrying it. Which means I might have exposed Ivan to it!” she wailed.
Rachel took the pot and set it aside before calmly leading Grace to the porch swing. After asking about her mother’s symptoms, as well as about her own health and hand-washing practices
, she ventured Ivan didn’t have much to worry about; Rachel’s bigger concern was Oneita’s lupus. Remembering she’d promised Arden she’d speak to his mother about keeping her upcoming doctor’s appointment, Rachel provided Grace a face mask and asked her to stay with Ivan until she returned from checking on Oneita. By the time Rachel retrieved her keys and purse, Ivan had joined Grace in the kitchen, where she was setting bowls on the table.
“I’ll be back soon. Remember, no kissing, you two—it spreads germs!” Rachel cautioned on her way out the door to make Grace and Ivan blush. Teasing her brother was something she’d never outgrow. Besides, she wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to prompt Ivan to ask to be Grace’s suitor, if he wasn’t already courting her. Grace’s bruder may be a grouch, but Grace is a wunderbaar woman.
As she was getting into her car, Rachel spotted Arden helping an elderly couple load the doghouse into the back of a pickup. His curls were springs of light in the noon sun, and a damp spot bloomed across his bright blue shirt between his shoulder blades. As she watched him dexterously hoist the structure, Rachel remembered how he’d swept her into his arms after she fainted. She pinched her eyes closed to block the memory and exhaled heavily. When she opened them again, Arden was gone.
* * *
Arden stood by the desk, chugging down a cup of water. It was seeing Rachel as much as it was the humidity that had made his temperature rise. As steamed as he still was at her, he needed her help. In the past day alone, he’d received a dozen phone calls about orders, delivery dates and supplies, as well as a voice-mail message from the bank requesting a return call. Even if Rachel had left the relevant paperwork behind, Arden still would have been hard-pressed to field the inquiries and process the information he was receiving. He just couldn’t read and write fast enough, and he was tripping over his tongue more often than usual today, on account of having had insomnia the night before.
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