Christmas in Apple Ridge

by Cindy Woodsmall

  Two Amish girls emerged from the same door Levi had come through a few minutes earlier.

  Levi picked up a stack of boxes. “Are these marked with what’s in them?”

  “Ya. I wrote a code on the box tops.” She pointed to the markings. “See, ‘CLG16’ means candles, large, in glass containers. There are sixteen in each box.” She pulled another box toward her. “ ‘SS36’ means small soaps, thirty-six bars.”

  He gestured toward the women heading their way. “I’m sure Beth sent them to help unload. Why don’t you stay at the wagon and tell them what’s in each box. I’ll clear out a spot in the stockroom so they can be grouped by kind. It’ll make checking them in easier.”

  “Sure. Denki.”

  Levi smiled and gave a nod before disappearing with his stack of boxes.

  Sadie climbed into the wagon and pushed more boxes toward the tailgate.

  “Hi.” A young woman waved. “Beth said you probably have some things we need to put on the shelves right away.”

  “Candles, soaps, wreaths, and dolls.” Sadie got down and stacked several lightweight boxes. “These are wreaths.”

  The woman picked up the stack. “I’m Lillian. This is Katie.”

  “Nice to meet you. I’m Sadie.”

  Lillian’s eyes grew wide, and she set the boxes back in the wagon. “Levi’s Sadie?” She held out her hand. “It’s nice to finally meet you.”

  “Denki.” Sadie shook her hand, inwardly shooing away the thought of being called Levi’s Sadie. There were so many Amish who shared the same name that they often referred to one another by nicknames. “I’m thrilled to have a place to sell my crafts.”

  “We are so glad you found Levi’s horse.” She giggled. “And found each other in the process.”

  Ready for Lillian to stop making her feel awkward about her friendship with Levi, Sadie edged in front of her and picked up the stack of boxes. She put them in Katie’s hands. “These are wreaths,” she repeated.

  Katie grinned. “I’m with Lillian. It’s great to meet you. All of Apple Ridge has been abuzz, and so few of us have ever met you.” Katie turned and hurried into the store.

  Concern and doubts over exactly what Levi was saying about her nagged at Sadie. She created a new stack of boxes and passed them to Lillian. “These are dolls, smaller than the ones Levi uses for the highchairs and cradles.”

  “Excellent.” Lillian started to walk off.

  “Lillian?”

  The young woman turned.

  “What’s being said about me?”

  “Not much. Just that you and Levi have been seeing each other since July.” She shrugged a shoulder. “Levi’s quite a catch, and everybody thinks it’s wonderful he finally has a girlfriend.”

  Girlfriend? Sadie’s heart knotted. Levi returned with Katie right behind him.

  Lillian glanced at him and back to Sadie. “You don’t mind that being said, do you?”

  Levi clapped his hands once. “What do you have, Lillian?”

  “Dolls, small ones.”

  “Put them on the far right of the stockroom counter.”

  Lillian left, and Levi gathered several boxes and gave them to Katie. “CSNG24.” He looked at Sadie. “Candles, small, no glass, and there are twenty-four of them, right?”

  Sadie nodded. He was certainly smart enough to figure out her coding very quickly. What else had he figured out about her?

  Levi slid another lightweight box onto Katie’s stack. “Set these on the floor just inside the doorway to your left.”

  “Sure thing.” Katie left.

  Sadie’s eyes met Levi’s. “What have you been telling people?”

  The muscles in his face went from relaxed to strained, but he didn’t look at her.

  “Nothing.” He remained calm and steady as he sorted the boxes in stacks according to code.

  Was he lying to her? Did Levi find it as easy to tell lies as Daniel had? That thought was disappointing at best and infuriating at worst.

  The phone in his pocket buzzed. Short, loud, annoying rings. He pulled it out and glanced at the caller ID before sliding it back into his pocket.

  Lillian and Katie returned, and he gave them each a stack with instructions and followed them into the store, carrying all but the last two boxes.

  Sadie stood there, trying to make sense of who she’d thought Levi was compared to the man Lillian had just shoved in front of her face.

  Lillian returned to the wagon. “Beth is writing up an invoice for you.”

  Sadie wasn’t going to go inside the store right now. It was too much to pretend she was calm when she wanted to confront Levi. She put the last two boxes in Lillian’s arms. “Tell her I need to go. We can settle up later. Okay?”

  “You’re sure?”

  Right now, all she knew was that she needed to leave before she started an argument in front of everyone. “I’m sure. Denki.”

  Sadie climbed onto the bench of the wagon.

  Levi strode back. “You’re leaving already?”

  “I’ll ask you again. What have you been telling people?”

  “Nothing.” He shifted. “I mean, really, you know how people are.”

  This man right here, evading her questions and looking guilty, wasn’t anything like the Levi she thought she knew.

  “I think I’m beginning to understand how you are.” With the reins in hand, she then realized she hadn’t untied Bay from the post. “Do you mind untying my horse?”

  His phone rang again. He ignored it this time and did as she asked. “What did Lillian and Katie say?”

  “Oh, something about my being your girlfriend!”

  A myriad of emotions crossed his face, beginning with surprise and ending with resignation. “Ya, about that … It’s just people talking.”

  He had no idea how much she detested men who hid behind false behavior. It now tainted everything she’d thought or felt about Levi.

  “Maybe you’re new to how a woman would feel about what’s happening here, so I’ll clue you in. Honesty and an apology would be really wise moves about now. Anything less is just disappointing.” She’d hoped to see a reflection of the true Levi in his countenance, but instead he seemed annoyed.

  His jaw clenched. “I can admit I was wrong but not as bad as you’re making it out to be. You’re just doing the typical female thing. I saw Eva do that to my brother hundreds of times—make a mountain out of a molehill.”

  Once she’d asked about Andy’s wife, and he’d said she was gone. What sort of man bad-mouthed someone who’d died? Did Sadie not know Levi any better than she’d known Daniel?

  His phone buzzed again, and he simply stood there, staring at her as if they were strangers. Maybe they were.

  “Would you answer that thing already?”

  Levi pulled it from his pocket and pressed a button. “What?” He snapped the word out, and she startled. She’d never seen this side of him before. “He’s here with the horses already?” Levi frowned and listened. “Okay, I’ll be there soon.” He said nothing for a moment. “I said okay.” Levi disconnected the call and shoved the phone back into his pocket. “I need to go.”

  “Fine. Go.” She tugged the right rein, steering Bay away from the hitching post. “Geh.” Bay started toward the exit of the parking lot.

  A few moments later Levi strode toward the horse’s head and grabbed the leather cheeks of Bay’s bridle, stopping her. His hand moved down the horse’s neck, probably subconsciously assuring the animal she was safe. Animals he understood, but he studied Sadie as if disappointed in her.

  Sadie’s heart pounded. She’d thought they were friends, had been absolutely sure she liked who he was. Sometimes her ability to see what she wanted to see in someone astounded her. “So you have nothing to say to me?”

  He shook his head. “I guess not.”

  “Geh!” She steered Bay out of the parking lot. Why had she ever come to Apple Ridge?

  Levi could not believe himself. He watched as Sadi
e drove the rig from the parking lot and down the long road. Was he like an unreliable and high-strung horse that Sadie hated dealing with?

  She’d been really good to him and was probably the sole reason his rescue included thorough medical help, the kind that ensured he took proper care of his injured neck. And he actually liked her. He respected who she was and admired her strength to politely stand against what their people expected of her.

  He didn’t know much else right now, but it was obvious he shouldn’t have balked at what she’d demanded from him: an apology and honesty.

  Jonah came up beside him with a clipboard filled with papers. “She left without stepping inside.”

  “Ya.”

  Levi had told himself to apologize to her. When he’d stopped her horse, he intended to tell her the truth. He’d wanted to say he was sorry. Instead, he’d just stood there. Whatever possessed him to use Sadie to make his life easier?

  “Okay, here are the records for everything you brought in today.” Jonah pulled copies of the receipts from the clipboard. “Should I give you Sadie’s invoices too?”

  “Probably not. If I tried to pass them on to her, she’d likely tear them up without looking to see what they are.” Levi rolled up the receipts and swatted them against his leg. “I guess I messed up the meeting Sadie should’ve had with Beth.”

  “Businesswise, we can sort out everything with Sadie another day.”

  “Businesswise,” Levi mumbled, watching Sadie’s carriage disappear over a hill. “I don’t think that’ll help me at all.”

  Jonah stared at the horizon. “I don’t know what happened, but I believe you are right about that.”

  Levi shoved the rolled-up papers into his pocket. “Apologizing to a woman doesn’t come easy, does it?”

  Jonah scratched the side of his face. “No, but it gets easier—for you and her.”

  Levi had never needed to apologize to a woman before, not really, certainly not like this. Oh, he’d apologized for some thoughtless incident at a church meeting or family gathering or such, for spilling a drink on a clean floor or nonsense like that. Those apologies came easy. The words flowed out of his mouth without his needing to think about them.

  Apologizing to Sadie, though. That would’ve required him to make himself vulnerable. When he’d looked into her fiery eyes, it’d felt as if a team of wild horses couldn’t have dragged the words out of him.

  Levi debated whether to go home where work waited for him or to rush after Sadie. “This was my first argument with a girl. Not that I said much. But she sure said plenty.”

  Jonah chuckled. “Beth and I had our first argument the day she realized who I was. Long story, but I have to say you’ve nailed exactly how it went and how it felt. I think it’s a female thing. They’re usually more emotional than we are, and they’ve spent a lifetime trying to understand how they feel. They can think fast and argue with the past, present, and future in mind.” He dug the bottom of his cane into the gravel. “If a couple cares for each other, though, you’ll both learn to fight fair, and then you’ll come away with a better understanding of her and yourself.”

  Levi stared at the storm clouds on the horizon. He wasn’t interested in all that, but he did want to keep Sadie as a friend. He wanted letters from her when she was in the mission field. He wanted visits with her when she returned home. Twenty years from now, when they were both turning gray and their families had finally accepted who they were, he wanted to be on her to-visit list whenever she returned to the States.

  “Jonah, I need to go. Tell Beth that I need to reschedule our meeting.”

  “Will do.”

  Levi untied his horse and climbed into his wagon. He soon pulled onto the main road, encouraging the horse to pick up speed. Even with his decision made, his chest had a weird heavy feeling to it. A kind of unfamiliar sadness.

  But he wasn’t sure why.

  Maybe it was because of how he’d treated Sadie compared to what she deserved. Or maybe the sadness was because he knew he’d damaged her, and some part of him understood that they’d never get back the easy-flowing friendship they’d had.

  Sadie ran wet towels through the wringer and dropped them into the clothesbasket. Why had her grandmother started a huge load of unsorted laundry while Sadie was at the store? on a Friday afternoon? Mondays were washdays, and Sadie didn’t wash her dresses and undergarments with towels and black aprons.

  She should never have come to Apple Ridge. The only reason she was here was to take a break from her parents. Well, that and she’d also needed to do some business with Beth.

  And she’d wanted to see Levi.

  What a mistake on every count. Clearly she’d put Levi on a pedestal. He’d seemed so nice, like a salt-of-the-earth person. How many times in life could she be fooled? How many times was she to feel this way … like an injured animal with nowhere to hide? December and the flight to South America could not come soon enough for her.

  Mammi Lee pulled wet clothes out of the washer and put them into the clear water of the mud sink. “How you live isn’t normal. You need to settle down, move back home permanently.”

  “I’m hoping that one day you’ll accept that I’m not normal.” She moved to the mud sink and plunged her hands on top of the soapy clothes, swishing them around. She pulled them out and plunged them again, not caring how wet she got. Her goal was to get this done and hang out the clothes by herself.

  Mammi reached into the sink and pulled out a black apron. “You know the saying about bad apples? If Daniel was one, he doesn’t ruin the whole barrel of them.”

  A knife plunged into Sadie’s heart. “If?” She grabbed two handfuls of wet clothes from the sink and slung them into the basket. Forget running them through the wringer. She wanted out of this room. “So you’re like everyone else and still stuck on if Daniel did what I said he did?”

  Without saying a word, Mammi ran the black apron through the wringer.

  Sadie picked up the basket and headed for the door. With her back against the door, about to push it open, she realized that Mammi was going to follow her. “I can do this by myself.”

  “I shouldn’t have said ‘if.’ ”

  “But it’s still what you think, isn’t it?”

  Mammi Lee pursed her lips, looking unsure. “I’ve never heard of an Amish man behaving like that. Not ever. But if you think that’s what happened even all these years later, I tend to believe you saw it as you said.”

  That wasn’t good enough, but Sadie wouldn’t challenge her or anyone else on that topic. One couldn’t make another believe. It was just that simple.

  She drew a breath and stepped onto the front porch. Levi was at the hitching post, tying an unfamiliar horse. Of all the things she did not want to do, talking to him was at the top of her list.

  Mammi stopped cold at the top of the steps, but Sadie descended, intending to ignore him.

  “Afternoon, Verna,” Levi called out. “I’d like to speak to your granddaughter for a few minutes if you don’t mind.”

  “I mind,” Sadie mumbled as she passed him on her way to the clothesline.

  “It’s mighty gut to see you again, Levi,” Mammi spoke loudly. “You go right ahead, but she’s testier than a yellow jacket in fall.”

  Levi fell into step with Sadie and leaned his head close to whisper to her. “That’s the mood I’ve been in today. Maybe it’s contagious.”

  “Go home, Levi.”

  “Come on, Sadie. Don’t be like that. I know nothing about getting along with women. So cut me some slack.”

  She dropped the basket onto the ground and grabbed a dress out of it. It dripped, and she slung it, spraying water freely before pinning it to the line.

  He glanced toward the house. “Could we maybe go for a walk or something?”

  “No thank you, but please, by all means, go for a walk.”

  “So this is how you’re going to be?”

  “Pretty much.”

  He sighed and walked o
ff. She didn’t want him to go, yet she couldn’t make herself do anything about it.

  “Whoa!… Whoa!”

  At Levi’s holler, Sadie turned, then gasped. He was almost at her feet, flat on his back. Had he slipped on the wet grass? She knelt beside him. “Levi?”

  He smiled. “You’re nicer to me when I’m on my back and you think I’m injured.”

  “You faked that!” She got up, grabbed the basket of wet clothes, and dumped them on his face.

  “Sadie!” Mammi yelled. “What has gotten into you?”

  But he lay there, unmoving. “Denki.”

  She scoffed, trying to sound perturbed, but laughter stirred within her, and she cleared just enough wet clothing from around his eyes so he could see. “What is wrong with you?”

  “I have a confession to make.” His voice was muffled by the clothing.

  She picked up most of the clothes and dumped them into the basket. “Doubt you can come up with one I haven’t already figured out.”

  “Sadie!” Mammi sounded anxious.

  Levi sat upright, picking a few more items of wet clothing off his chest and stomach. “It’s my fault, Verna. Could you give me a few minutes to get it straight?”

  Mammi pointed her finger at Sadie, giving a silent warning before going into the house.

  Levi remained on the ground while he held the wet clothes out to Sadie. When she took them, he hesitated about letting go. “I want to make things right between us.”

  “Ya, why?” She pulled the items free from him. “So you can start some other rumor of convenience behind my back when I leave?”

  “Do you have to be ridiculous about this?” He stood, catching a last article or two of clothing that fell into his hands. “I came here to make it right. Isn’t that enough?”

  “I’m ridiculous? You’re the one letting people think we’re dating when you couldn’t be bribed to ask me out.”

  “That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. If you thought I wanted a date, you’d bar the door and hide under the bed.” He held out the last item to her, and they both noticed it was a pair of her sky-blue lace underwear.