“Who’s ready for dessert?” she asked when empty plates were pushed aside. She produced a platter laden with big squares of brownies, and it was passed around.
John bit into chocolate heaven. Man, if the woman went into business selling these she’d make a fortune, he thought.
“Want another?” she asked him.
He nodded vigorously and was sad to see the remaining brownies taken by the others.
Rose Anna smiled at him mysteriously.
The percolator bubbled cheerfully on the stove. As soon as it finished perking, they each had a cup and talked about returning the following week to paint the newly scrubbed walls in the upstairs bedrooms.
David excused himself to go outside to the phone shanty to call Lavina. When he returned, he was frowning.
“Lavina said Mark is running a little fever, so she’s going to stay home,” he told them.
“Oh, nee, I was so looking forward to seeing him today,” Linda said, sounding disappointed.
“We could stop by on the way home,” Jacob pointed out.
A big smile spread over her face. “That would be wunderbaar!”
Sam stood and put his dishes in the sink. “I’ll help you hitch your buggy, Jacob.”
“Oh, but I should help with the dishes,” Linda said.
“I’ll do that,” Rose Anna told her. “You two go on.”
“But how will you get home?”
Rose Anna looked at John. “Would you mind giving me a ride so I can stay and help Mary Elizabeth?”
“Sure.”
“John, maybe you could look at Nellie’s right foreleg before you take off. She’s favored it the last day or two,” Sam said.
“Be glad to.”
He pulled on his jacket and followed Sam out to the barn. After they hitched up the Zook buggy, he looked over Nellie’s foreleg and sure enough, he detected a mild strain. He wrapped it up and, as he did, showed Sam how to do it.
“If it’s not better Monday give the vet a call.”
Sam nodded. “So how’s the job going at Zimmerman’s?”
“Great. Pay is good, and I get to work with horses.” He stroked Nellie’s neck. “I was missing the horses most of all since I left home.”
“I bet. I heard you talking to Nellie in your sleep one night when we lived at the apartment.”
“I don’t talk in my sleep.”
“Do, too.”
“You’re full of it.”
But as he turned to walk out of the barn, he wasn’t so sure about that. When they’d shared a bedroom as kids, David had told him he was talking in his sleep.
Sam clapped him on the shoulder. “Anyway, danki for the help today.”
“Anytime.”
They walked back into the house. Mary Elizabeth and Rose Anna had cleared the table, and Rose Anna was finishing up washing the dishes and putting them away.
“John, I packed some of the leftover chicken casserole for you,” Mary Elizabeth told him. She handed him a loaded tote bag.
“Great. Thank you so much.”
“You know you’re welcome to come to supper anytime. You don’t have to do work to earn a meal here.”
“You’re sweet,” he told her, touched.
Rose Anna dried the last dish and put it in the cabinet. “I’m ready to go when you are.”
John said goodbye to Mary Elizabeth and walked to the truck with Rose Anna. He held her door open for her and then rounded the hood to climb into the driver’s side.
He glanced at the loaded tote bag sitting between them. “Your sister was sweet, but I hope she doesn’t think I starve since I’m a bachelor.”
“I imagine there are plenty of women who bring you food.”
“Not where I live.”
“The Englisch women don’t drop by with a sample of their cooking the way the maedels do in our Amish community?”
“No. They don’t cook as much as Amish women. At least from what I’ve heard.” He wondered if Becky even knew what a kitchen was other than a place for a refrigerator to store booze.
“Well, I have a surprise for you.” She pulled a plastic baggie from her purse and handed it to him.
“Brownies? You saved me some?”
“I remembered you always liked them. You seemed disappointed they went quickly today.”
“I was. Thank you. I might save one to go with my lowly cold cut sandwich for lunch tomorrow.”
“John?”
“Hmm?” He glanced over as he drove.
“You seem happier lately.”
“Dad wasn’t there today.”
“I don’t think that was all of it. You just seem happier.”
He wasn’t surprised it showed. She’d always been able to read his moods, understand them, more than anyone he knew. That was a pleasure—and a pain since he could no longer be with her.
“It’s the new job. Just part-time, but it’s working with horses.”
“You’ve always loved them.”
He nodded. “Nick, Naomi’s husband, let me know Neil Zimmerman was looking for someone to help him. So I’m there around my other jobs.”
“It looks like a beautiful place. I’ve only seen it from the road, of course,” she said quickly when he looked at her curiously.
“The stables are nicer than the homes of some people,” he told her. Actually, the stables were nicer than his current place, but she didn’t need to know that. It made him feel like less than a success that it was so small and in such bad shape. But it wouldn’t be long before he had it fixed up.
“I always like helping Daed with our horses,” she told him.
“I remember how much you like horses, too.” It was one of the things they had in common.
John told her about Midnight and about Willow. He decided it wasn’t a good idea to tell her how Willow reminded him of her and her flirtatious looks.
“Sounds like Willow has you charmed.”
He chuckled. “I think she likes me for the apples I bring her.”
It was nice talking to her this way. She was the only person who’d ever truly understood him. He’d missed this closeness with her, deliberately blocked it because it was something he couldn’t have anymore.
It took him by surprise how much he’d missed her. Suddenly he didn’t want to drop her off and go to his place.
The Zimmerman farm was up the road. What if . . .
He turned to her. Tried to sound casual when he didn’t feel that way. “Do you have to get home right away?”
***
Rose Anna stared at him, puzzled at the question. “Nee, why?” she asked slowly.
“Want to take a look?”
“Are you schur it’s allrecht?”
He nodded. “I stop by sometimes when I’m not working.”
“It’s nice when work’s fun. That’s how I feel about quilting. When I’m not quilting, I’m helping Kate teach it.”
“Kate Kraft?”
“Ya, she’s the one who started the classes at the shelter. I told you that once.”
“Right, I just forgot for a minute. I guess you two are friends, huh?”
She nodded. “I love helping with the class. I do it two mornings a week now since some of the women are making crafts for the shop.”
“Here we are,” he said as he pulled into the drive of the farm and parked near the stables.
“Wow, you’re right,” she said, looking awed as they got out of the truck. “The place is so big.”
He keyed in the code to enter the barn and they walked inside.
Rose Anna jumped when a big black horse stuck his head over the stall door.
John stopped in front of it and stroked the horse’s nose. “This is Midnight. Sometimes I wonder if he thinks his middle name is Magnificent.”
She laughed. “He’d be right.” She reached out to touch him but jumped when he snorted and shook his head.
“You know you want the pretty girl to pet you,” John told him.
He t
ook her hand in his and brought it to Midnight’s head. “There, doesn’t that feel good, boy? Her hands are softer than mine.”
Rose Anna felt a tingle race up her arm at John’s touch. She jerked her head to stare at him and saw him staring at her. So he felt it too, she thought, breathless.
She started to pull her hand away but his tightened over it, drew it to his face so that she touched his cheek.
“I missed you,” he whispered, his eyes darkening.
“I—”
Willow shook her head in the next stall and moved restlessly.
Startled, Rose Anna stepped back, her eyes wide as she stared at him. They drew apart.
A moment later, the barn door was pushed open and bright sunlight poured inside.
“John! Couldn’t stay away, huh?” a male voice called.
John stepped back and turned as a man strode toward him.
“No, I wanted to check on Midnight since he’s feeling a little off the last few days. Neil, this is Rose Anna Zook, a friend of mine.”
“I saw your truck pull in.” He turned to Rose Anna. “How you doin’, little lady?” He stuck out his hand and shook hers vigorously.
“Good, thank you. You have some beautiful horses.”
He stood there, hands on hips, feet wide apart, a portly man who looked to be in his late sixties and who wore the air of a satisfied, prosperous landowner.
“The place is my own little piece of heaven,” he said, nodding. “It’s my hobby.” He looked at John. “So what do you think? Should we call the vet?”
He shook his head. “I think he’s feeling much better. But it’s your call.”
Neil patted Midnight’s neck. “No, I agree. His eyes are brighter, and Bob told me he ate well this morning when he fed him.”
“Well, I need to take Rose Anna home, so I’ll be going unless you need me to do anything.”
“Naw, it’s your day off. Go enjoy with your young lady.” Neil slapped him on his shoulder. “Nice to meet you, Rose Anna,” he told her. “You come back any time.”
“Thank you.”
They followed him out of the barn. Neil waved to them as they got in the truck before he headed toward the big farmhouse.
“Neil seems nice.”
“He is.” He helped her into the truck. “He told me he spent thirty years working in the legal field, and when he retired, he finally got to do what he’d always wanted to—raise horses. Says finding what you love to do means you don’t feel like you’re working at all.”
“Sounds like a wise man.”
She got to do that. She loved to quilt, did it for her living, and then did even more by working on teaching quilting to the women at the shelter.
“So you’re getting to do something you love in this job. How about the others?”
He hesitated as he put the key in the ignition. “I took whatever I could find when I left the farm,” he said finally. “I was grateful for it. I needed—need—the money. But it wasn’t easy. We Amish are known as hard workers, but some of the Englisch think we don’t get enough education only going to school through the eighth grade. So there are some things I won’t ever get to do.”
It was on the tip of her tongue to tell him he could go to school, get a high school degree. She’d heard there was something called a GED test that was accepted as a substitute for a high school diploma.
But she wanted him to come back to the community he’d been born and raised in so she resisted doing that. If he went to school, then he’d be staying in the Englisch world.
If you really love him you should want him to be happy, she told herself. And that might not be with you, with the Amish.
“What would you do if you could do anything you want?” she asked him.
“Do this full time,” he said with a wave of his hand toward the barn. “Work with horses.”
He sighed and turned his attention to putting the truck in gear and backing out of the driveway, then headed toward her home.
They passed farms with fields that lay dormant. Here and there she glimpsed a sign of spring—a few green buds on a bare-limbed tree, a few hardy crocus and daffodils poking their heads up. It wouldn’t be that long before Amish farmers brought out their plows and workhorses and the land would be planted.
Silence stretched between them. She searched for words. It was easy to say that God had a plan for him and everything would work out all right, but right now she was having trouble believing that about her own life so how could she speak the words?
“I think it’s wunderbaar that you’re getting to do what you love,” she began. “Even if it’s part-time. Who knows where that’ll lead?”
He merely grunted.
“David didn’t think he had a future when he left home,” she reminded him. “But when your dat got sick and he returned, he ended up taking over the farm. Sam wanted a farm and didn’t think he could afford one. But he was able to buy one after all, and we were there today helping to work at it.”
She let the words hang there in the space between them.
John said nothing—didn’t even grunt this time. But she knew he heard her.
“I believe in you. God does, too. He’s got a plan for all of us even when we can’t see it.” She stopped, stared at her hands clasped in her lap. “I do believe that even on days when it’s hard.”
He pulled into the driveway of her home and stopped the truck. She gathered her purse and the tote bag she’d carried packed with brownies earlier that day. “Danki for the ride. And for taking me to see the horses.”
She turned to open the door and felt his hand on her arm. Turning, she stared at him.
“Thank you for the brownies. And I’m glad you enjoyed visiting the horses.” His gaze dropped to his hand. “Rose Anna? Do you want to go for a drive maybe tomorrow after church?”
Her heart leaped into her throat. “Does this mean you want to go to church?”
“No, sorry. But I’ll pick you up after.”
It was a step. She nodded slowly. “I’d like that.”
And when she climbed the steps to her house she felt her spirits soar.
10
Rose Anna felt like a teenager again waiting for John to show up on Sunday after church.
Her plan was coming true.
Since it was a church day, she spent three hours in a service at the Miller house, then helped serve and clean up the light meal afterward.
John waited for her a block from the home that hosted the service. He’d suggested it out of consideration for church members who might be offended by his driving a truck so close to the services.
When she climbed inside, she set her purse down on the seat between them, buckled her seatbelt, then withdrew a waxed paper package and handed it to him.
“What’s this?”
“I thought you might like a sandwich made with church spread.”
He shot her a quick grin. “One of my favorites.”
“I know.”
“I have peanut butter on hand most of the time. I should get the marshmallow crème next time I’m at the store and make it at home.”
When he had to stop at a traffic light, he unwrapped it and took a big bite. “Good stuff.” He slanted a look at her. “Thank you.”
She just smiled at him, thinking the way to a man’s heart . . . and it was such a pleasure to feed those you loved. “It was no trouble. So where are we going?”
“No place special. I thought we could take a drive in the country.”
“Sounds gut.”
A Sunday drive was one of the favored activities of Amish couples. Not that they were a couple, she reminded herself. A buggy ride was an inexpensive way for a couple to spend time together, be private, and get to know each other. If there was a covered bridge it was also a way for them to sneak a very private kiss away from the eyes of passersby.
She felt heat rise in her cheeks at the thought of them kissing and had to shove the image away. Instead, she cast a surreptitious gla
nce over at him and watched him enjoying his sandwich as he drove.
“So do you like driving the truck more than a buggy?”
“Yeah. I just have to be careful to watch the speedometer.”
He gave her an odd look but didn’t say more.
“It’s nice to go fast, I suppose,” she allowed as she watched the scenery speed by. “But there’s something about taking time and enjoying the ride.”
“You can’t go as far in a buggy,” he pointed out. “That’s how the church keeps its sheep close at hand.”
“Sheep?” She’d never heard him be so critical of church.
He shrugged. “Let’s face it. A buggy limits how far from home a person can roam.”
“But why would anyone want to leave here?” She half-turned in her seat. “You’ve seemed happier since you’ve been working with horses. But are you really happy living away from the community?”
“It’s okay.”
“Tell me about the place you live now. I know you gave up the apartment you shared with Sam.”
“It’s not much, just a little caretaker’s cabin on a nearby farm. I’m fixing it up as part of my rent.”
“You don’t ever get lonely?”
He jerked his head to look at her and looked surprised. “No. Why would you think that?”
“I’m so used to having family around.” She paused and wished she could take back her words. Family had never been a comfort to him the way it had for her.
“It does get quiet sometimes without Sam to nag me,” he acknowledged. “Big brothers do love to nag.”
“And big schweschders.”
“Funny how we each had two siblings to nag us, huh?”
She nodded. She’d always thought it was one of the things they had in common. They’d shared many a complaint about being treated like the less smart, less mature member of the family.
“Would you like to stop for some hot chocolate?”
“Schur.” Had he remembered it was one of her favorites, or was he only asking because it was cold out?
He stopped at a diner, left the truck running so she’d stay warm with the heater on, and ran in to get their drinks. When he returned, he had a drink carrier and a brown paper bag.
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