Cathy waved her hand in the air. “Of course you can. I’m eighty-two, and I play three days a week. If I can play it, anybody can play it.”
Esther glanced at Nanna. “I mean, I don’t know if I’m allowed to play it.” She was positive the Ordnung didn’t say anything about pickleball or sports in general.
Nanna laughed. “You’re allowed. I play two days a week. I got permission from the bishop.”
Esther grinned. “You mean your son?”
“He’s afraid to tell me no.”
“But maybe he’d tell me no.”
Nanna shook her head. “When I wanted to play, I simply pointed out to him that his brother runs five-Ks and our minister in Wisconsin rode horses. Pickleball is just another sport, and it’s so easy you can play in your dress. I just put sweatpants underneath.”
Esther couldn’t quite picture sixty-nine-year-old Nanna in sweatpants, but she was beginning to feel that maybe she’d like to see that. She couldn’t help but think her bishop in Pennsylvania never would have approved of fraaen playing pickleball, but she was in Colorado now, and if the bishop approved, there was no reason not to. That’s probably why they called it the Wild West.
“I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to try and see if I like it.”
“Wonderful,” Cathy said, with as much enthusiasm as she’d used when talking about her moles. “What time is Winnie’s morning nap?”
Winnie only took a morning nap when Levi was around. “Umm, from about ten to noon.” At least that was the time when Esther wished she’d take a nap.
“I’ll pick you and Nanna up on Tuesday at eight forty-five. Will that work?”
Esther tried to muster some excitement. Maybe it would be fun. “I think so.”
“I have an extra car seat for when my great-grandbaby comes to visit, and I’ll bring you an extra paddle.”
Rita clapped her hands. “It’s going to be so fun. Who knew we’d get a new quilting friend and a pickleball player all in the same day?”
A knock pulled Allison to the front door. Esther caught her breath when she opened it and Levi Kiem stood on the porch holding Winnie in his arms. He had such a nice smile. It always took her breath away. Winnie was in a pink dress and white bonnet that Hannah had donated from her collection of hand-me-downs. Winnie and Levi were an adorable pair.
“Hello, Levi,” Allison said.
“Oh, look at that baby,” Rita said, gushing like a garden hose. She stood and quickly made her way around the quilt, then took Winnie from Levi without even asking. Rita cooed and cuddled Winnie, and Winnie smiled as if she and Rita were long-lost friends. Esther felt a twinge of longing in her chest. Rita was definitely a baby person, and Esther loved that Rita made such a fuss.
“I’m sorry to interrupt,” Levi said, stepping into the house. “But my mamm asked me to take Esther home, and I had to come early because I’ve got to tile a shower in Monte Vista at one o’clock.”
“Of course,” Esther said, jumping from her seat.
“But she’s only been here half an hour,” Rita said.
“I know. I’m sorry. We didn’t coordinate our schedules very well today.”
Esther was disappointed, but she hated to be an inconvenience to anyone. She quickly dropped her thimbles into her little quilting bag and pushed her chair under the quilt. “Denki for having me,” she said. “It’s been so fun.”
Allison leaned against the door as if she was settling in for a long visit with Levi. “I hear you’re a great help with the baby.”
He actually turned a slight shade of red. “Winnie’s cute, and Esther has her hands full. We all want to help.”
Rita bounced the baby. It seemed that was a requirement when anyone held a baby—just keep moving. “We love Esther. She’s playing pickleball with us next week.”
Levi’s gaze traveled from quilter to quilter and lit on Esther. For some reason, his smile faded. “It looks like you’re going to fit right in, Esther.”
Esther drew her brows together. What was Levi thinking just now? And why did it steal his smile?
Rita got sort of a sly, I-know-something-you-don’t-know look on her face. “So, Levi, do you have a girlfriend? I mean, are you dating anyone? Is that what the Amish call it? Dating? Esther could use a pickleball partner on Tuesday.”
Esther nearly groaned out loud as Levi seemed to retreat further into himself without moving a muscle. “Pickleball,” he said, as if the thought of knitting made him more excited. “I don’t think I could keep up with the older folks when it comes to pickleball. I’ll stick to volleyball with die youngie.”
“What is die youngie?” Rita said.
“It means the young people in the district,” Nanna said. “And there aren’t very many of them.”
Cathy shook her head. “Volleyball isn’t near as fun as pickleball.”
Levi’s smile didn’t quite reach his eyes. “I’m sure I wouldn’t be able to keep up. But thanks for the invitation. Are you ready, Esther?”
“I’m ready,” she said, trying to tamp down the disquiet that had suddenly overtaken her. Levi was simply having a bad day. She shouldn’t read too much into his sudden withdrawal, as if he would rather be anywhere else in the world. She didn’t know him well enough to know why his mood had shifted instantaneously, so she wouldn’t let it upset her, even though she couldn’t help but feel it had something to do with her.
She picked up her bag and took Winnie from Rita’s arms. “See you next week, then.”
Levi took the baby from her before she even walked out of the house. He closed the door behind him and smiled. His smile seemed more natural to his face this time. “I found more tile for you.”
“You did?”
“There’s a supplier in Pueblo who has odds and ends of every size, from one inch by one inch to eighteen by eighteen. He gave them to me just so he could get rid of them.”
“Ach, Levi, that’s wunderbarr.”
“I guess, but it’s going to take forever to lay if you want to be artistic about it.”
She gave Winnie a kiss on the cheek. Her skin was so irresistibly soft. “Putting tiles together to create something beautiful is the fun of it. It doesn’t matter if it takes longer.”
He shook his head and tried to stifle a grin. “I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but laying tile isn’t fun.”
“That’s because you haven’t looked at it the right way. I’ll help you, or you can simply watch, if you want, but I think doing my bathroom is going to be the funnest tiling job you’ve ever had.”
He opened the buggy door for her. “That isn’t saying much. I haven’t had any fun before.”
“Ach, it’s going to be fun, especially since you’ll be entertaining Winnie and bossing me around at the same time.”
“Sounds like the best time I’ve ever had.” Esther tightened her hold on Winnie as Levi snapped the reins, and the horse moved forward. “Can I come by on Tuesday?” he said.
Esther nibbled on her bottom lip. “We’re playing pickleball Tuesday morning.”
He focused his gaze outside and acted as if he didn’t want to talk anymore. “Sounds like fun. I’ll plan on coming Wednesday.”
There it was again. An instant change of mood when someone mentioned pickleball. What did he have against pickleball? Maybe he wasn’t a very gute player, and he was embarrassed. He didn’t have to be embarrassed in front of her. She’d never played before. But something about pickleball made him unhappy. When she knew him better, she’d find out what it was.
He glanced in her direction. “For five minutes, I’ve been trying to figure out what that thing behind your ear is. I give up.”
Esther put her hand to the side of her head and slid out a seam ripper—with a lid, because she didn’t want to stab herself. She held it up so he could get a closer look. “This is a seam ripper. When you make a mistake sewing, you use it to rip out stitches you’ve already put in.”
Another shadow passed across his face. “I can see
how that would come in handy. We all make mistakes that need to be fixed. The best idea is never to make them.”
“I don’t think it’s possible not to make mistakes.”
“I guess we all make mistakes, but it’s better to pull back before you get too far into making a mistake.”
She nodded. “Always easier to rip out fewer stitches than to have to tear out the whole seam.”
He sat up straighter. “One of Nanna’s friends asked if I was dating anyone.”
“Okay?”
“I just wanted to say that there’s no one here in Byler I’m interested in. Dat is sending me to Ohio in October to find a fraa. I just thought you’d want to know.”
She felt the heat travel up her neck. “Why would I want to know?” Or, the better question: why did he want her to know?
He seemed to chew on his answer before he let it out of his mouth. “I don’t want you to get your feelings hurt.”
“You . . . what?” she stuttered.
“I don’t want you to get your feelings hurt or your hopes up about us—or, I mean, me. I’m going to Ohio to find someone closer to my own age.” He grimaced. She was sure the expression was meant to come out like a friendly smile.
She gritted her teeth. “Why would you think I’d get my feelings hurt?”
He shifted in the seat as if she’d asked him a really personal question, like “Is that mole on your neck melanoma?” or “Are you feeling constipated?”
“Ach, well, we’ve been spending a lot of time together, and I’ve helped a lot with Winnie. I know you’re grateful, but good deeds can get misinterpreted. You’re too old for me, but it’s only natural that someone like you might be ferhoodled by someone like me.” He glanced at her and must have been alarmed by her steely glare because he stammered to a stop. Gute thing. He was about to put his entire leg in his mouth along with his foot.
Esther wasn’t one to temper her temper, and Levi was going to hear exactly what she thought of his little speech. “Of all the presumptuous, arrogant, idiotic things to say!”
He drew back as if terrified of the crazy elderly woman. “What . . . what does presumptuous mean?”
“You can just go home and look that up in a dictionary, kiddo,” she said, with emphasis on “kiddo” so he knew she didn’t appreciate the implication that she was an old lady. Sure, she was an old maid, but that was just an expression. She was only thirty. She still had a lot of life left to live. “If you weren’t so full of yourself, you’d know that I’m not interested in you in the least.”
He rolled his eyes. “Now, come on, Esther. Every time you look at me, you smile. And you can’t tell me it wasn’t you who put Rita up to asking me if I was dating anybody and inviting me to play pickleball.”
This was getting ridiculous. “I smile because I’m grateful for your help with Winnie. If you take a simple smile as a sign of love, then you’re going to spend a lot of energy worrying about how many girls are in love with you. And I didn’t put Rita up to anything. She’s friendly. She’s interested in your life, and I’m not that desperate.” Esther wanted to yank the seam ripper from behind her ear, take off the lid, and score the black vinyl seat between them.
Okay, she didn’t really want to do it, but she wanted to imagine the look on Levi’s face if she did.
Levi frowned. “I didn’t say you were desperate.”
“You didn’t have to.” Winnie must have been able to feel her agitation. She fussed and fidgeted in Esther’s arms. “I’m a thirty-year-old unmarried woman. Of course you think I’m desperate. You don’t have to worry. I don’t plan on ever letting myself get attached to a man. It’s not worth the trouble or the heartache. Believe me, I’m as far from interested in you as I can get. Men are inconstant, unfaithful creatures, and I’m much better off alone.”
“Now wait a minute. No matter what you think of me, I read the Bible every day, I’m very gute to my mamm and schwesteren, and I’ve changed Winnie’s diaper almost as many times as you have.”
She took a deep breath and willed herself to calm down. It wasn’t easy. She needed a rug and a brick wall. She closed her eyes, pressed her lips together, and thought of bread pudding with extra raisins. “You’re right. I’m making a generalization I shouldn’t make. Be that as it may, I don’t want to marry anyone. At this point, the only man who would be interested in me would be interested in my money, as meager as it is, and I can spot a money grubber from a mile away.”
“That’s not true.”
“Jah, it is. I know greed when I see it.”
“Nae. I mean, it’s not true that men could only be interested in you for your money. You’re very pretty, Esther.”
She snorted her displeasure. “Pretty for my age is what you meant to say.”
“I mean it. You are very pretty. I just . . . it wonders me why you’re not married yet.”
She snorted again. “There are plenty of wunderbarr, pretty girls who aren’t married. They’re not willing to settle for just anybody.”
“But why aren’t you married? Did you ever have a boyfriend? Did you ever have a crush on someone?”
She peered at him through hooded eyes. He certainly didn’t deserve any such information, and she wasn’t going to spill her guts to someone as arrogant as Levi Kiem. Let him make up any story he wanted to in his head. He’d get nothing from her. “Don’t try to justify yourself, Levi. I owe you nothing, especially not an explanation. I’m happy the way I am, and I really don’t care what you think of me.”
She had never been so froh to arrive at a destination as she was at the moment when he stopped the buggy in front of her house. “I’m sorry, Esther,” he said weakly, as if he wasn’t quite sure what had just hit him.
She wasn’t in the mood for an apology. “Denki for the ride,” she said, not really sure if she meant it but determined to be polite all the same. She jumped out of the buggy with Winnie securely in her arms and marched resolutely toward the house, not looking back, even when she heard him drive away.
She was so mad, she could have spit, but she wasn’t going to do that, because it was very rude to spit. What made her even angrier was that some of what Levi had said was just a teensy-tinsy bit true. His handsome face and exceptional kindness had piqued her interest in a way that hadn’t happened for a very long time. She did sort of like him. She had even fooled herself into thinking that maybe he was just a little bit interested in her. Oy, anyhow, she felt like the biggest fool in the world.
Before she walked into the house, she pulled the seam ripper from behind her ear, took off the lid with her teeth, and stabbed the pointy part of the seam ripper into the doorjamb just outside the door. The handle broke and clattered to the ground, leaving the pointy metal part sticking out of the wood. Gute. Just how she wanted it.
You never knew when you were going to need a seam ripper.
Chapter Five
With growing dread, Levi pulled up to Esther’s house with his wagon loaded with plywood and tools. Today he was going to pull out the subfloor and get everything ready to put in a new one. He planned on doing it himself because Esther didn’t know how to use a circular saw, and he wasn’t about to let her use his. She probably wouldn’t even ask. Esther wasn’t likely to want to have anything to do with Levi ever again. He’d seen her mad before—she would have beaten that rug to death if he hadn’t interrupted her—but he’d never seen her as mad as the day he’d accused her of being interested in him.
He hooked his hand around the back of his neck and pressed his fingers into his tight muscles. He’d made some wrong assumptions about her feelings, and she’d jumped down his throat. Not that he hadn’t deserved it, but what was he supposed to think when Rita had asked him to be Esther’s pickleball partner? Any reasonable man would have assumed Esther had put Rita up to it. Any reasonable man would have suspected Esther was interested in him. What single young man in Levi’s shoes wouldn’t have been cautious? What old maid wasn’t looking for a handsome husband?
>
Apparently Esther. She claimed she never wanted to marry. Well, she’d never find anyone willing to marry her with a temper like that.
It felt like a pile of stones weighed down Levi’s gut. He could blame it on Esther all day long, but he’d said some things he shouldn’t have, and Esther had used her anger to cover up her hurt feelings. He’d hurt her feelings because he had called her old and maybe made her feel undesirable—like no man would ever be interested in her. What woman wanted to hear that?
She’d protested so adamantly against marriage in general and marriage to him in particular that he began to wonder if maybe he was a little too sure of himself. Mamm and Mary Jane told him he was handsome, but maybe they were just being nice. Maybe he’d overestimated his own appeal. Way overestimated. Would he be able to find a girl in Ohio who would have him? If a thirty-year-old spinster wasn’t interested in him, who would be? Of course, Esther wasn’t just any thirty-year-old. She was wonderful pretty, smarter than he was, and determined in ways he’d never seen before. She was far from desperate.
Even with the baby, Esther didn’t sit around waiting for someone to rescue her. She asked for help when she needed it, then set out to do it herself. The bathroom floor was the perfect example of that. How many other women would don garden gloves and safety goggles to do a job they didn’t need to do? It wasn’t likely she’d ever install another subfloor again in her life, but she wanted to learn how to do it just in case.
She needed her bathroom floor done, especially since the toilet was sitting in the hall and the linoleum was gone, but she wasn’t going to be happy to see him. Maybe it was better if things were icy between them. He’d get the bathroom done much faster if she wasn’t such a distraction. Still, he regretted how he’d behaved. He was going to miss her smile. It always made his day a little more pleasant.
Levi jumped from the wagon and strode across the lawn to the porch. At about eye level, there was a small piece of silver metal protruding from the doorjamb just outside the front door. He didn’t know what it was, but somebody could snag their bonnet or hat on it if they weren’t careful. He knocked softly on the door and made a mental note to get some pliers later and pull it out.
The Amish Quiltmaker's Unexpected Baby Page 7