The empty, almost-finished home echoed as Gideon built the doorjambs. Nothing felt as good as having the strength to work. It was something he never took for granted. Not anymore. Today he could hold a hammer and make a nail disappear into wood with little effort. But what about tomorrow?
He ignored the question and placed a level on one side of the closet doorframe, making sure the casing was aligned correctly. He struggled to keep the wood in place as he shifted from one tool to the next. Work on an oversized closet like this required two men, but the rest of the Beiler Construction team labored to get a new home dried in before winter. If snow or rain hit before the house was complete enough to keep the weather out, they’d have to replace damaged particle board, framing, and insulation, and all work might have to stop until spring.
His brother had promised Beth and Jonah, the owners of this house, that Gideon would be the one to complete it, including the punch list. He still had a ways to go on the job.
“Hello?” Jonah called.
“Master bedroom,” Gideon answered.
Jonah’s distinct tempo echoed through the unfinished place. He was only thirty, but as a teenager he had been injured in a sleigh ride accident that left him walking with a cane. “I came to lend a hand.” Jonah already had on his tool belt. “I’ve cleared my schedule with the boss, and I have the rest of today and most of tomorrow to be your assistant.”
“Good. I could use it.”
Jonah was an artist by trade. He carved beautiful scenery into wood, bringing it to life, but he’d been a lead carpenter while building his previous home. And then he met the woman he lovingly referred to as “the boss.” Now Jonah had little time to devote to working on the new home he and Beth would live in. After they were engaged, Jonah had spent another year living in Ohio, fulfilling contracts by carving doors, chairs, mantels, and cabinets for a cabin resort near him. As soon as he’d finished that job, he’d moved here to be near Beth. Since then he’d spent his days carving large items to sell and helping Beth and her aunt Lizzy expand and operate the dry goods store.
Without needing instruction, Jonah steadied the far side of the closet’s doorframe while Gideon leveled and nailed it into place.
They each added the needed hardware and then hung the folding wooden doors. It took a bit of effort to get them on the runners and operating smoothly.
“So what’s next, hanging more doors or doing trim work?” Jonah asked.
“Baseboards and window casings. Can’t hang doors. There’s some sort of holdup on those,” Gideon teased. The problem was that Jonah hadn’t yet found the time to carve scriptures on them, and Beth didn’t want them hung until they were completed. Jonah was capable of carving beautiful scenery, but since this would hang inside his home, he needed to use caution so that no one in the church considered the visual adornments a graven image.
Jonah laughed. “I’ve assured my fiancée I’ll get to them by the time she and I have two or three little ones running around. But regardless of how busy it gets, it feels so good to be living here now. Beth said you moved from here and lived elsewhere for a couple of years, right?”
“Ya.” Gideon hoped Jonah wouldn’t ask anything else. He did his best not to lie to anyone, but he had secrets to keep. Falsehoods weren’t the only thing he detested. He’d hated living in a city away from everything familiar and only returning for the Christmas holidays.
“Jonah.” Beth’s voice came through the Amish intercom—PVC piping sticking up through the floor and running underground to the store. “Are you at the house?”
Jonah moved closer to the pipe and spoke into it. “Ya. You need something?”
“I’ll walk over. I just wanted to be sure you were there.”
“We’re in the master bedroom.”
“Denki.”
Gideon chuckled while measuring the length of the wall. “I’ve always thought Beth had a good head on her shoulders for business.”
“She does. She’s amazing at it.”
Gideon took note of the length of the wall and released the tape measure. “Then how come every time I turn around she’s asking you for your opinion? It’s like she can’t make a decision lately without your input.”
Jonah slid an uncut baseboard onto a makeshift bench. “In any serious relationship, if you don’t gather your partner’s opinion before making a decision that impacts you both, you’re just storing up trouble for the future.”
Gideon scoffed. “If you figure out a way to avoid trouble in relationships, let me know, okay?”
He measured the board and marked it. Sometimes watching Beth and Jonah interact was like sitting on the porch of an old, run-down trailer while looking at wealthy neighbors. It didn’t matter how much he loved them, the reality of their happy relationship chafed.
Three years ago Gideon had let go of the woman he loved. The only woman, really.
He set the wood on the miter box and lowered the battery-powered saw to the board. He never talked to Beth or Jonah about what he had done or why. Actually, he never talked to anyone about it. His family had put together pieces of the truth, but no one discussed it.
Despite Gideon’s secretive nature, Jonah seemed to see past his silence. Jonah’s perceptiveness was one reason he’d won the heart of the once-wounded and distant Beth Hertzler.
Gideon could only imagine what it’d be like to have the privilege of marrying the one. He’d found his one. Thoughts of Mattie Lane tormented him. She was.
He stopped his thoughts cold. “Good grief,” he mumbled, trying to focus on the work at hand. He took the wood to the base of the wall.
“Having one of those days?” Jonah grabbed one end of the plank, and they set it on the well-placed shims.
“I guess.” Gideon hammered nails into his end of the baseboard while Jonah steadied the other end.
Beth’s steps echoed through the empty rooms.
Jonah looked up and gave her a welcoming smile that ended quickly. “Something wrong?”
“Remember me telling you about my cousin Mattie, the one I wanted to make our wedding cake?”
Gideon kept pounding in nails as if he had no interest in hearing this conversation. The fact was, he always wanted to know what was happening in Mattie’s life. But he could bet money on what Beth was going to say next. Mattie had once again turned down their offer to pay her way home for the wedding and had declined making a cake for their big day.
She didn’t return to Apple Ridge often. He knew she had too much business in Berlin, Ohio, to close up shop and come here for a wedding. Even if she could hire someone to fill in for her, she wasn’t likely to do so, not even for Beth. He could thank himself for that. Mattie Lane avoided him at all costs. She didn’t have to be the one to leave home. He’d left, and he hadn’t planned on coming back.
Beth cleared her throat. “Her place burned to the ground this afternoon.”
Gideon wheeled around. “What happened?”
“I don’t think anyone really knows.”
“But Mattie Lane must have some idea how it started.”
Beth glanced at Jonah. “She’s in the hospital, unconscious.”
Dizziness hit Gideon full force, and the hammer in his hand fell to the floor with a thud. God, not Mattie Lane, please. “What happened?”
“I can’t say for sure. Her sister-in-law called the dry goods store. Aunt Lizzy’s taking a message to her parents.”
“Beth,” Gideon said, “did Dorothy give any indication of how Mattie’s doing?”
“She said she has only minor burns, but she inhaled a lot of smoke.”
“Smoke inhalation can do as much damage to the insides as flames do to the outside. I don’t understand. Her place had excellent smoke detectors.”
“How would you know?”
Gideon had made sure Mattie’s brother had installed good ones, but he wouldn’t tell Beth that. “Go on, Beth.”
“Oh, ya.” Beth shook her head, as if to refocus her thoughts. “Dorothy
said a friend of Mattie’s told her that Mattie wasn’t at the shop when it caught on fire.”
“Then how did she inhale so much smoke?”
“When Mattie arrived, she thought her niece was inside, so she ran into the building, but the shop was empty.”
“That’s just like her, risking her own life to help when it’s not even needed.” Gideon wasn’t far from having a raging fit.
Beth tilted her head, studying him. “I don’t understand you. If you feel this strongly about her, why’d you break up with her to date other girls?”
He rubbed his forehead, trying to control his emotions. “Even though we aren’t together, that doesn’t mean I don’t care about her well-being. I want what’s best for her, and until now that’s exactly what she’s had. Ya?”
Beth’s face creased with lines of concern. “Ya. She loved building up her business and getting better at making decorative cakes.” She chuckled. “From the time she was little bitty, she used to get into such fixes, and you always managed to get her out of them.” She turned to Jonah. “Mattie is six years younger than me, about three years younger than Gideon. Her ability to create cakes seems boundless, but she can be as flighty as a sparrow.”
Beth grinned at Gideon. “Remember when she was fourteen and she won the Hershey’s Cocoa Classic contest for her age group? She was so excited that a few minutes after the announcement, she walked straight into a metal pole and about knocked herself unconscious. You grabbed her before she hit the ground and carried her all over those grounds searching for the medic.”
Gideon hadn’t thought about that in years. “That’s classic Mattie Lane.” He drew a breath, knowing he had to see her, even at a distance. “Listen, I know you want your home done in time for the wedding to take place here, but I need to check on her for myself. I won’t hang around. I just … need to see her.”
“We’re fine.” Jonah picked up the hammer in front of Gideon’s feet. “You do what you need to.”
Beth pressed a small piece of paper into his hand. “This has the name of the hospital and her room number.”
Gideon hurried to the dry goods store and wasted no time calling driver after driver, trying to find someone who could drop what they were doing and take him to see Mattie Lane, hopefully one who didn’t mind pushing the speed limit a little.
Sol went ahead of the other three hunters, going deeper and deeper into the woods. He could hear them talking as they trailed behind.
He took a deep whiff of the air around him. Cold and earthy. He loved the outdoors. The restlessness of the nocturnal creatures after the sun began to slip behind the horizon. The brilliance of stars at this time of year. The beauty of being in a tree stand as dark yielded to the first rays of the sun. The exuberance of the animals at daybreak.
He wished Mattie would come with him just once. They didn’t have to hunt. A perfect spot on a hill or in a tree stand and a pair of binoculars was all she’d need to learn that everything worth doing in a day didn’t take place inside her cake shop.
He spotted the clearing of the campsite some twenty feet ahead. As soon as he arrived at the camp, he quickly set up his tent, and while the others put up theirs, he gathered wood and started a fire. The campsite had level ground, a fire pit, and a creek that provided both fresh water and the gurgling sound he loved to hear while falling asleep.
Within an hour they’d had a simple meal of hot dogs and were sitting around the fire ready to talk about nothing.
“Hey, Sol.” Amish Henry sat on a nearby rock with his forearms propped on his knees. “The three of us have been wondering about something.”
“Ya, what’s that?”
“You couldn’t get a girl before Mattie, and now that you have her, others are looking your way. It’s like you had to get a girl to catch the eye of a girl.”
Nothing felt as right as having Mattie. He had someone to think about wherever he was and someone to go home to.
“You know, what Amish Henry said is true,” Daniel added.
Sol hadn’t really thought about it but had noticed a few girls looking his way during singings and at church services. “I’ve never asked to take a girl home from a singing. Not even Mattie.”
“Plenty of older single guys were ready to fight over her,” Daniel said. “What’d you do different?”
“Nothing. When she came up to me after the singings, I talked to her. She didn’t mind that I didn’t have much to say. I wanted to ask to take her home, but I couldn’t. Not then. I think I could now. Maybe it’s not having a girl to get a girl as much as having confidence.”
“Ya,” Daniel said. “You’re confident you’re not interested in anyone else, and suddenly other girls are looking your way.”
“Wait,” Amish Henry said. “You mean she asked you?”
“Hey,” Sol said, trying to change the subject, “Mattie packed five cupcakes.” As Sol rose to his feet, he noticed shafts of light splashing here and there. “I think I see flashlights coming toward us.” Sol strode that way. “Hello?”
“We’re looking for Sol Bender.”
A beam of light flashed in his face. “You found me.”
“We’ve been looking for you since four o’clock. Mattie’s brother sent us …”
Their voices muffled in his ears. The night air closed in around him, and everything that had seemed right about coming here became heavy.
After forty-five minutes of calling every driver he knew, Gideon found one. Twenty minutes later Gary arrived at the dry goods store, and they began the trek to the hospital in Berlin. Gary flipped radio stations and tried to engage Gideon in conversation the whole way, but it was the longest, most miserable six-hour trip he’d ever made.
Thoughts of Mattie Lane tormented him. He didn’t care how cliché it sounded—there was not another woman like her.
She had a smile that all but swallowed her. When she was tickled about something, which happened often, her cheeks turned a color similar to her reddish-blond hair. It wasn’t a blush as much as her enthusiasm glowing from within.
She had a gentle side and would do anything for those she loved. Even as a little girl and teen, when she was given the slightest chance to get free of the heaviness and concerns over her mother’s chronic illness, Mattie Lane radiated joy—like sunlight streaming through storm clouds.
But when her mother had become seriously ill six years ago, Mattie Lane struggled. She’d deny it, but he knew the truth, had witnessed it time and again—the tragedies of others weighed more on her than on most folks. And he imagined that the destruction of her property would be crushing.
Gary yawned as he entered the hospital’s parking lot. It’d been dark for most of the trip here, but the clock on the dashboard said it was only eleven. He stopped the car near the front of the hospital. “I’ll park and then go to the waiting room on her floor.”
“Thanks.” Gideon jumped out and hurried through the automatic doors. He barely took note of anything as he rode the elevator to the third floor. He walked past the nurses’ station, found Mattie Lane’s room, and opened the door.
His chest physically hurt when he saw her. She didn’t look like herself at all. Her face was pale, and she wore no prayer Kapp. A large patch of gauze was taped to the side of her neck, and it continued down past the edge of her hospital gown. A small white tube hung from the side of her mouth, and a larger beige one was attached to her arm. A plastic apparatus on her right index finger glowed.
“Hello,” said a female voice, and he looked up. The woman, wearing a blue uniform, stood at the head of Mattie Lane’s bed, messing with a bag of liquid. She smiled. “Visiting hours are over. I sent the rest of her family home awhile ago.”
“I came as soon as I heard, and it took me hours to get here.”
“Ah, then I suppose you can stay for a little bit.”
“Is … she okay?”
“She will be.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes,” she said quietly. “D
r. Grady said she’s a lucky young woman. Emotionally traumatized, but she sustained relatively few physical injuries.”
Relief hit so hard it made his legs weak. A machine behind her head indicated that her heart rate was strong and steady. And other than the gauze traipsing down the right side of her neck and shoulder, she didn’t have many outward signs of wounds. But fresh fears began to surface.
“Any internal injuries?”
“I can’t give out that kind of information, but I can say that she’s had every necessary test run and is receiving the proper treatment.”
“Has she woken up?”
“Yes, for a few minutes here and there, but she’s groggy from being put to sleep for some of the tests. I imagine she’ll be released in a day or two.”
Gideon sank into a chair, whispering thanks to God as the woman left. He missed Mattie so much it hurt, but he’d done the right thing. He knew he had.
Her face reflected pain as she shifted. Her eyes opened for a brief second, then closed again. “You’re here,” she whispered hoarsely.
“I’m here, Mattie Lane.”
A faint smile crossed her lips, and she reached for him. His heart thudded wildly, latching on to these few moments. Desire for a life with her swept him away, and needlelike pinpricks ran over his skin from his head to his feet.
Just a few more moments with her—surely God would grant him that much.
He took her limp hand in his and was rendered powerless by the connection. It’d been so long since he’d felt the soft, delicate skin of her fingers. Confusion enclosed his thoughts. What was he doing? He’d broken up with her for good reasons, ones that stood almost as insurmountable today as they were then.
Almost.
She squeezed his hand. His mind went crazy with longing. But a clear vision of what little he had to offer her splashed icy water on his hopes.
“S … s …” Her eyes fluttered but didn’t open.
His mouth went dry. She wanted Sol Bender. Of course she did, and that’s how it should be. Maybe her feathery light smile moments ago hadn’t been because she’d seen or heard him. Who knew what she was aware of or thinking as she drifted in and out of consciousness? No matter who she called for, Gideon had to get out before she opened her eyes and saw him. Easing her hand onto the bed, he stood.
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