Huckleberry Summer (Huckleberry Hill)

by Jennifer Beckstrand

  It didn’t take Aden long to catch up with her. He tromped through the undergrowth, sat next to her in the dirt, and started plucking berries from the bush.

  “Now I’m really sorry Pilot jumped on you that first day. You must have been terrified.”

  She didn’t look at him. The berries required her full attention.

  “Do you want to tell me what happened? I promise, I don’t think you’re a coward.”

  She should tell him, if only so he would stop looking at her with all that pity, but her throat constricted and she didn’t think she could speak coherently.

  He stood and brushed off his trousers. “Cum,” he said, picking up her bucket and pulling her to her feet. “There are plenty of huckleberries farther in the woods.”

  With his hand gently resting on the small of her back, he led her down a narrow path, barely visible under the fallen leaves and undergrowth. They were soon out of sight of the others and into thicker woods. But Aden was right. Huckleberry bushes dotted the way.

  They heard faint voices, walked a little farther, and came in sight of Moses and Lia. Moses stood with his back against a tree with his arms around Lia’s waist. Moses and Lia stared at each other, their expressions overflowing with love, and no doubt whispered sweet nothings that no one else was meant to hear.

  Aden and Lily caught Moses’s eye. He smiled, but didn’t make any move to release Lia. “Can’t a man get a little privacy with his wife? If you want to do a little sparking, you’ll have to find your own tree.”

  Aden winked at Lily. “We’re just looking for huckleberries, cousin, and you two are shirking. You don’t even have your buckets.”

  Lia looked back at Aden and giggled. Moses smiled and waved them on. “Go away.”

  Aden and Lily put some distance and some trees between them and Moses. Once they were out of sight of the newly marrieds, Aden found a nice, smooth log to sit on.

  “I don’t even know which way the huckleberry patch is now,” Aden said.

  “Are we lost?”

  “Pilot will find us. We might have to forage in the woods for a few days, though. I’m sorry a dog hurt you.”

  “You’re going to hate me,” Lily said.

  “Not possible.”

  “I was eight.”

  Aden enfolded her hand in both of his. “And you think I’m going to hate you for something that happened more than ten years ago?”

  Lily pulled her hand away and slid her sleeve up her arm to reveal scars just above her wrist where eight teeth had pierced her skin. She rotated her arm. Five more teeth marks were visible on the underside.

  Aden gasped and reached out for her. Up and down, he caressed her skin with his warm, calloused hand while examining the visual reminder of that horrible ordeal. “My Lily,” he sighed.

  “He clamped on and wouldn’t let go. I thought he would bite my hand off.”

  “He was a big dog, like Pilot.”

  Lily nodded. “I went with my dat to Schneiders’ to buy a plow. He warned me not to wander off. I wasn’t so obedient as I am now. I stuck my hand through a barbed-wire fence. The dog latched on to my arm and wouldn’t let go. I screamed, and my dat came running. He didn’t leave my side for one minute at the hospital, but I could tell he was angry at me for disobeying.”

  Aden traced his finger down the side of her cheek. “Lily, you didn’t do anything wrong.”

  “And when his brother died two days later, he told me I’d end up just like Onkel Zeke if I didn’t learn to obey. I didn’t want to end up like Onkel Zeke.”

  “Oh, Lily.” Aden shook his head and leaned toward her as if to say more, but instead he cleared his throat and slowly rubbed his hand along her scars.

  The pleasant sensation of his gentle caress traveled up her arm even as her heart felt like a stone. “I never meant for any harm to come to that dog.”

  Aden pulled his hand away and gazed at her with sudden insight. “They had to put him down, didn’t they?”

  “Please don’t hate me,” Lily whispered. “I didn’t want him to die.”

  “It wasn’t your fault. They’d have to put down a dangerous dog like that.”

  “But I know how much you love animals.”

  Aden stared at her, his eyes full of wonder. “And here I thought you didn’t want to tell me because you were ashamed of being afraid, when you thought I’d be mad because of the dog.”

  “He died because of my disobedience.”

  “Lily, that dog attacked you, yet you care more about the dog than your arm.” He grinned and rubbed his hand along the side of his face. “That sounds like something I would worry about.”

  “But that poor dog—”

  In one rapid motion, Aden wrapped his arms around Lily and stopped her lips with a kiss that left her breathless and forgetful. What had they been discussing? It didn’t seem all that important anymore.

  He kept her close but withdrew his lips. “Denki for caring.”

  “You’re welcome.” You’re welcome for what? Lily couldn’t be expected to remember anything with his face so close. He smelled like mint and leather. That was all that mattered.

  Without warning, Aden stood and pulled Lily to her feet. “We better join the others before I lose myself entirely out here. Huckleberry picking is more dangerous than I thought.”

  “Dangerous? I think it’s wonderful.”

  Aden took her hand and pulled her in the direction they had come. “With you, it’s both.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Lily caught herself doing that thing with her lips again—puckering and unpuckering as if practicing for a kiss. The gesture was almost unconscious every time she thought of Aden. Three weeks ago, he had given her her first, second, and third kisses ever. Four days ago, he had followed up with another kiss. Would life ever be normal again?

  Deftly, Lily threaded the wet clothes through the wringer with one hand while turning the crank with the other. Treva Schrock eagerly held out her hands to catch the clothes coming out of the wringer. She put the wet laundry in a basket at her feet, ready to be hung on the line.

  “I am glad you came to visit today, Treva,” Lily said. “You are a big help with the laundry.”

  Treva held up a damp purple dress. “I like this.”

  “That’s Estee’s. Purple is one of my favorite colors too.”

  Lily put another shirt through the wringer and puckered her lips again. Had she done it right? How many other girls had Aden kissed before? A boy who’d been arrested three times probably kissed girls every day. Was she a disappointment to a boy with so much experience?

  Maybe not. He had kissed her four times. The first one must not have been too bad.

  At least it had been enjoyable on her end. Exactly how much puckering should a girl do? She blew a piece of hair out of her face. If she overthought it, fear would paralyze her and she would grow too anxious to kiss Aden ever again.

  Did he want to kiss her ever again?

  Mama came down the stairs to the cellar. “Lily, the door is for you.”

  “Who is it?”

  Mama grinned and nudged Lily teasingly. “Tyler,” she said in a singsong voice. “He’s looking handsome this afternoon.”

  Lily feigned excitement at the prospect of Tyler coming to see her. She had pushed him out of her mind for the last three weeks. Thoughts of Tyler and Aden and her dat made her head spin, and she’d rather not get dizzy. “Okay,” she said. “I’ll be back, Treva.”

  Mama plunged her hands into the rinse basin. “Treva and I will finish wringing if you’ll help us hang?”

  “Jah, sure. I will come right out.”

  “No hurry,” Mama said, still excessively cheerful.

  Lily trudged up the stairs and found Tyler standing at the front door, straight-faced as always, holding a drill and a bucket of screws.

  She gave him a weak smile.

  “I heard your dat mention last week that some of the planks in your barn were coming loose. I came to fix
them.”

  Lily stared at him in puzzlement for a few moments. “Uh . . . okay. That is nice of you, Tyler. Do you know where to find a ladder?”

  “Is it still in the toolshed?”

  “Jah.” Lily didn’t know what to do next. Was Tyler using work on the barn as an excuse to see her? Should she keep him company while he worked? His presence felt slightly awkward.

  Her heart did a full-twisting backflip when Aden sauntered up her sidewalk with a shovel in one hand and a large plastic bucket in the other. Slightly awkward had just become mortifying. Aden had never been to Lily’s house before. His presence was more bizarre than Tyler’s.

  She felt herself blush. Surely he wouldn’t say anything to Tyler about their kisses.

  Pilot appeared out of nowhere, bounded past Aden, and ran to Lily as if he planned to bowl her over. She raised her hand as she always did to halt him in his attack, but Tyler beat her to it. He stepped between Lily and Pilot just as the dog leaped into the air. Tyler exclaimed in surprise as Pilot knocked him over like a bowling pin, sending his drill to the ground and scattering his bucket of screws. Pilot planted his paws on Tyler’s chest and wagged his tail.

  Lily huffed in exasperation. “Pilot, get down right now.”

  “Good dog,” Aden muttered so softly that Lily wasn’t really sure she had heard correctly.

  Tyler pushed Pilot off his chest and stood with as much dignity as he could rally. “Do you see what I mean, Aden? I don’t care about myself, but that dog could hurt Lily someday. Teach him to behave, or I’ll have to insist that you keep him away from her.”

  Aden stiffened as he grabbed Pilot’s collar and pulled him back. “Pilot would never hurt Lily.”

  “He saved me from a bear,” she said, hoping to dispel the tension in the air.

  Tyler brushed off his trousers and didn’t look up. “Jah, I am grateful.”

  Lily got on her hands and knees and started collecting screws from the porch. Pilot must have taken delight in making people spill whatever they had in their hands.

  “No, Lily,” Tyler said. “I will do it.”

  He held out his hand to help Lily up. Aden crossed his arms over his chest when she took Tyler’s hand. “Denki,” she said.

  Aden sank to his knees and gathered screws with Tyler. “That dog is a nuisance,” Tyler said.

  Aden deposited his handful of screws into the bucket. “Most people would secure that bucket with a lid.”

  “Only people with naughty dogs.”

  Tyler and Aden met gazes, and Aden grinned. “Naughty? What kind of a word is naughty?”

  Tyler’s features softened. “A perfectly good word.”

  Lily breathed easier. The icy resistance dissipated somewhat.

  Tyler retrieved his drill and stood up. Aden patted Pilot’s head and flashed Lily a boyish grin. “You look very pretty today,” he said.

  “I’m doing some work on the barn for Lily’s dat,” Tyler said, as if he’d bested Aden in a game of checkers. “He will be glad to see it finished before the cold hits.”

  Aden lifted his brows and flashed a smug smile. “Somebody plowed into their mailbox three days ago—flattened it. I’m going to dig a nice big hole and cement the post into the ground. Digging holes and pouring cement require a lot of arm strength, so it’s gute this is my job instead of yours.”

  The color traveled up Tyler’s face. “You can’t lift much with that injured arm. How did you get it again? Colliding with a tree?”

  Lily might as well have been a fence post for as much attention as they paid her. Fine with her. She’d rather not get between them.

  She studied their faces and her heart sank. Something told her she had already come between them.

  “I got this cut chasing a bear,” Aden countered. “With my bare hands.”

  Tyler sprouted a reluctant grin.

  Aden chuckled and put a brotherly arm around Tyler’s neck. “I chase animals with my bare hands all the time.”

  “As if you’d ever kill anything,” Tyler said. Every ounce of animosity had disappeared from his tone.

  They turned and walked down the porch steps together, chatting about bears and muscles and mailboxes as if nothing were amiss. Lily scraped her jaw off the ground. What in the world were they up to?

  Aden’s job took longer than Tyler’s, but Tyler wasn’t about to leave before Aden did. Tyler drilled away at the barn while Lily, Treva, and Mama hung laundry. He secured loose boards on the chicken coop, even got up on the roof to check for unsecured shingles. After Treva went home and Lily escaped into the house to help with supper, she could still hear Tyler clomping around on the roof, looking for nonexistent problems.

  She couldn’t keep herself from checking on Aden’s progress too, though in a more furtive way. She stole glances out the window while she dusted blinds in the front room. Blinds took hours to clean properly.

  He wasn’t exaggerating about needing muscles for a job like that. Digging a deep hole and filling it with two bags of wet cement left him dripping with sweat. She could see the muscles in his arms straining as he dropped the mailbox post into the hole and shoveled cement around it.

  She had to tell herself to breathe three times. Aden looked too handsome to live among people who never sought to attract attention.

  She smiled to herself. Was this Aden’s plan to win her dat’s favor? It might work. A girl texting on her phone had leveled their mailbox a few days ago, and Dat was fit to be tied. A new mailbox secured in cement was sure to please him.

  And what was Tyler’s plan? He already had his share of Dat’s favor. Maybe he was determined not to fall behind.

  Lily sighed. She knew what Dat would say about Aden. No daughter of his would ever get caught up in one of that boy’s schemes.

  Aden took off his hat, wiped his brow, and took a swig from his water bottle. He yelled something to Tyler on the roof and then dazzled the afternoon with his smile.

  Lily didn’t take her eyes from his face.

  The blinds had never been so clean.

  Estee scored the cucumbers with a fork while Mama arranged the fried chicken on a platter. “They’re thinking of putting Mrs. Deforest in a home,” Estee said. “I heard her son on the phone before he left for work this morning.”

  “Does she need to be in a home?” Mama asked.

  Lily only listened with one ear as Mama and Estee fretted about Mrs. Deforest. Lily’s hands shook slightly as she grated carrots for the salad. She had never been so anxious for Dat to come home. He wouldn’t see the new mailbox because he always came in through the back door after parking his bicycle in the barn.

  She wasn’t sure why she felt so nervous. It was only a mailbox. After supper, she would walk Dat out to the road and show him the beautiful new post anchored into the ground with two whole bags of cement. Dat would nod thoughtfully, stroke his beard, and decide that Aden Helmuth was not such a bad young man after all.

  “Neither Floyd or I think I should work after we get married,” Estee said, “but I am worried about Mrs. Deforest.”

  Lily managed to finish the carrots without grating her fingers. “Estee, will you hand me the mailbox—I mean—the mayonnaise?”

  Estee retrieved the mayonnaise from the refrigerator. “She’s able to get up and down, but she shouldn’t be on her own during the day.”

  Lily must quit fretting about Aden’s mailbox, or Mama would know something was amiss, or worse, Lily would end up ruining the salad.

  At five o’clock sharp, Dat came through the back door, and Lily’s pulse raced. Dat hugged Lily and Estee at the same time. “How are my gute girls today?”

  Mama’s eyes twinkled as she set the fried chicken on the table. “Lily, go show your dat the improvements in our yard.”

  So Mama had noticed Lily’s agitation. Her heart pounded in her throat.

  Dat raised an eyebrow. “Improvements?”

  Mama laced her fingers together and winked at Estee. “A certain young man has been
hard at work today.”

  Lily’s heart wanted to gallop down the road. Mama’s support for Aden would go a long way toward securing Dat’s approval.

  Dat smiled as if he knew the secret. “Shall we go after supper? You don’t want the chicken to get cold.”

  “It’s already cold,” Mama said. “I made it this morning. We will wait for you.”

  “Okay,” Lily said, suddenly breathless. She so wanted Dat to be pleased. “Cum, Dat. I will show you.” She rinsed her hands and headed for the front door.

  Mama giggled and pointed the other way. “The barn is that way, dear. My, but you have been ferhoodled all afternoon.”

  Oh. The barn.

  Tyler’s project.

  A pile of stones settled in the pit of her stomach. Of course Mama gushed about Tyler, not Aden. Did Mama even care that Aden worked here today too?

  Lily quickly changed course and went out the back door. Dat would see the barn first and then she would show him the new mailbox. It was better this way. Tyler’s work was good, but the mailbox would have taken Dat hours to put up.

  Dat followed her to the barn. “Tyler fixed the loose planks,” she said. And used a fancy drill to ensure they wouldn’t come loose again. And walked around on the roof for more than an hour. He’d done a good share of work, but Lily wasn’t about to embellish it for Dat.

  Dat ran his hand along the barn wall. “How thoughtful of him to use a drill. Nails come loose so easy.” Dat ambled all the way around the barn, inspecting Tyler’s work closely, wanting to be impressed. He pointed to where the eaves met the wall. “He even knocked down that wasp’s nest. That boy thinks of everything.”

  Lily felt a tinge of guilt that she couldn’t muster any enthusiasm for Tyler Yoder, even though her dat burst at the seams with admiration. Tyler had done good work today. The least she could do was show some appreciation. “Jah, he does not do a job halfway.”

  “That’s right,” Dat said, putting an arm around her shoulders and leading her toward the house. “He sets himself apart by his good works.”

  Lily stopped walking. “Wait, Dat. I want to show you something else.”

  “There’s more? Tyler was busy today.” Dat smiled. “That is a good sign for you, Lily. Not many boys know how to impress a girl’s father.”