Heart in Hand: Stitches in Time Series #3

by Barbara Cameron

  But it wasn’t all about traditional values and responsibility. She knew Gideon was a steady, dependable man who obviously loved and cared for his daughter like he’d always done for her and his wife. But she was like any other woman: she’d had a warm, loving marriage and true happiness with one man.

  She wouldn’t take less with another.

  There was a full moon out, bright and white, lighting their way home. Gideon took the long way home, and she didn’t point out that fact to him. He switched on the small battery heater, but she didn’t feel she needed it. Sitting so close to him, she could feel the warmth his body projected, and whenever he glanced at her, the look in his eyes made her temperature rise and shivers race over her skin all at the same time.

  He must have seen or felt her shiver because he frowned and reached for a blanket kept on the backseat. She took it and spread it over her lap, not needing it but grateful for his consideration.

  Gideon was a handsome, vital . . . sexy man. The single women in the community had tried to attract his attention but hadn’t. She was smaller than her cousins and felt more feminine, almost delicate next to Gideon’s tall, muscular body.

  The skin on her hand tingled when he touched it lying between them on the seat. She looked at him, saw the heat in his eyes, and her heart beat faster in her chest as she thought about venturing down this road to discovering if they had a future together.

  “Ready?”

  Anna looked up as her grandmother entered the storage room, attached a mailing label to the box in front of her, and nodded. “That’s the last one. You know I could drop this shipment off by myself. You don’t have to go with me.”

  Leah placed it on top of the packages in the cart and wheeled it out of the room. “I know. But it won’t take long, and it’ll give us a chance to talk.”

  Hmm, thought Anna. She pulled on her coat, grabbed the handle of the cart, and followed her grandmother out of the shop.

  “It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas,” played from a nearby speaker over a shop.

  The air felt a little nippy, but they moved briskly so Anna didn’t feel chilled. The weather forecasters predicted cooler temperatures the following week. Stores up and down the street were festive, decorated for the holidays with swags of pine greenery, shiny ribbon, and ornaments.

  A tiny fireplace with a battery-operated fake flame set a warm scene in their shop window. Several of Leah’s dolls sat near it, covered with one of Naomi’s warm and comfy Christmas-patterned quilts, Anna’s baby hats that looked like fanciful little forest creatures, and Mary Katherine’s pillows woven of red-, white-, and green-colored wools.

  And since the Amish believed in making gifts for each other for the holiday, one corner of the window was devoted to all the kits that customers could buy to sew or knit or cross-stitch to give to friends and family.

  Some store owners had used a light dusting of fake snow to give windows a wintry look since the real stuff hadn’t shown up yet. Signs in windows advertised specials and sales. It was proving to be a good season for retail judging by all the shoppers crowding the sidewalks, carrying shopping bags loaded with their purchases.

  Jamie, Mary Katherine, and Naomi were back at the shop taking care of the customers, but it wasn’t like her grandmother to take a break in the day. Anna wondered what was going on but waited until she chose to reveal why she’d asked her to take the packages to ship.

  Finished with their chore, Leah turned to Anna. “How about some pumpkin spice coffee?”

  “It’s expensive,” Anna said.

  “We only get it this time of year. It’ll be my treat. Let’s have ours here and take some back for the others.”

  Anna nodded, and they went inside the coffee shop. The line moved quickly as the baristas created the specialty coffees with holiday flavors like pumpkin, eggnog, cinnamon, and peppermint.

  They ordered their coffee and found a small table near the front window.

  “I know Henry and I didn’t let any of you know that our relationship had changed from just being friends,” Leah said. “But it really seemed to surprise you.”

  “It’s not that I don’t like Henry,” Anna said. “He’s a very nice man. I guess I just hadn’t thought you might end up getting remarried.”

  “Because I’m old?”

  “No! You’re not old!”

  “Well, I’m not young,” Leah said with a smile. “But I’d gotten to where I didn’t think God was going to send along another mann.” She paused to take a sip of coffee. “How about you?”

  “How about me?” She looked at her grandmother. “What do you mean?”

  “Thelma asked me how you and Gideon were doing.”

  Anna rolled her eyes. “She’s such a matchmaker. We’re just friends. But that doesn’t mean it’ll turn into more like you and Henry.”

  “Of course not,” Leah said, giving her a sage nod. “But how would you feel if it did?”

  Life seemed . . . heightened, she thought. Everything seemed a little bit brighter, a little bit more interesting. And when they weren’t together, he came to mind constantly. Like now. He and Sarah Rose would be coming to the shop for a knitting lesson, and then they’d be having supper afterward.

  She couldn’t wait.

  Aware that her grandmother watched her, waiting for some reaction, Anna dug in her purse for her wallet. “I like him,” she said finally.

  “I’m getting the coffee,” Leah objected, reaching for her purse.

  “It’s fine. It’s my treat.”

  “If you don’t want to talk about Gideon, just say so,” Leah said, a smile lurking around her lips.

  Anna turned back and took her seat. “It’s still too new. He’s a really nice man and I like him a lot. But I was happily married for—”

  “And you don’t want to settle for less. I understand.”

  She patted her grandmother’s hand. “I know you do.” She sighed. “I’m not sure I’m ready for more than friendship right now.”

  “That’s fine.” Leah’s smile grew wider. “Gut things come from friendship.” Then her smile faded. “You’ve grown up a lot in the last year. Your moods have settled down a lot, and you seem happier, less wanting to be by yourself.” She paused and sipped her coffee. “More mature.”

  Anna made a face. “Oh, goodness,” she said, pretending horror. “Mature?”

  Leah laughed. “Maybe not. I’ve been known to be wrong.” She patted Anna’s hand. “Whenever you want to talk, let me know, liebschen.”

  12

  We’re here!”

  Anna looked up from stocking a shelf and saw Sarah Rose skipping down the store aisle. “I see that.”

  Gideon was right behind her, his smile warm. “Hello.”

  She glanced at the clock. “You’re a little early.”

  “We couldn’t wait,” Sarah Rose told her.

  “Really?”

  Gideon winked at Anna and she blushed.

  Sarah Rose dug her hands into the skeins of yarn in the box Anna was stocking in bins built into the wall of the shop. “Pretty. And soft. Can I help?”

  “That would be wonderful.” Anna handed her the box of yarn. “Just put each color in the bin there with others the same color.” She turned to Gideon. “There’s fresh coffee in the back room.”

  “That sounds good.” He strolled off toward the room with a nod at Mary Katherine, Naomi, and Leah.

  “Maybe there’s some hot chocolate in there, too?” Sarah Rose asked her.

  Anna noticed that she asked after her father was out of earshot. “I think there is. You can go in and ask your daedi if you can have some. He can make it while I finish this box.”

  Sarah Rose’s face fell. “He won’t let me have any. He brought me a snack in case I got hungry before we ate supper.”

  “I see,” Anna said seriously. “What kind of snack?”

  “An apple and a carton of milk.”

  Her expression was so disgusted you’d have thought
he’d packed sawdust and water. Anna barely suppressed her smile. Careful not to promise anything, she said, “Why don’t you finish this, and I’ll go have a talk with him?”

  With a grin that nearly split her face, Sarah Rose began putting the yarn into the proper bins.

  Anna was aware that she’d allowed herself to be manipulated, but she figured it wasn’t such a bad thing. A cup of hot chocolate sounded gut to her right now, too. Besides, she hadn’t promised . . .

  Gideon stood at the stove, pouring a mug of coffee. He turned when she walked into the room and held out the mug to her. “Want some?”

  “Thanks, but I think I’ll have some hot chocolate. Okay if I make Sarah Rose some as well? I have her hard at work helping me out there.”

  “Did she complain to you about the apple and the milk?”

  Anna laughed. “How’d you guess?” She filled the teakettle and set it on the stove. “But think about it. She’s already having milk—hot chocolate is just warmed up and has some chocolate in it. And didn’t I read somewhere that chocolate is good for you?”

  “My daughter is becoming too good at getting what she wants.”

  “I know. It’s what kinner do.”

  Gideon stirred some sugar into his coffee and took a sip. “You know, eh?”

  She frowned. “I might not have had a kind of my own, but I’ve had a lot of them around.”

  He reached out and touched her hand. “I didn’t mean that.”

  She glanced down at his hand on hers and then raised her eyes to his, seeing only kindness and compassion. “I know.”

  “No, but careless words can hurt. I know I hurt Mary more than once that way. Not because I wanted to or meant to. But I’m no more perfect than the next man.”

  Anna stared at him. “That’s quite an admission.”

  “Marriage teaches you some things.”

  “That you can be wrong?”

  Gideon grinned. “I was thinking more like you learn that even if you think you’re perfect, you’re not. Even if you’re right, the marriage is more important than who’s right or wrong.”

  He paused. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

  “I’m just wondering what it would be like to—” she broke off.

  He lifted her hand and held it to his cheek. “What?”

  “To be—” she tugged at her hand while she glanced over her shoulder.

  “Go on.”

  “Stop that!” she hissed when he pressed his lips to her fingers.

  “I will when you finish your thought.” His eyes were warm with desire.

  Anna glanced at the open door, hoping no one saw, then shook her head and gave him a quelling glance. His touch was having a powerful effect on her. They’d been dating for several weeks, and she knew the time when his touch would become more direct was coming. She just felt a little unnerved now that it had.

  “Anna, your class is here.”

  She stepped back quickly and looked at her grandmother, who’d just walked into the room.

  The teakettle began to whistle, a jarring noise in the silence as the three of them stood there.

  Leah glanced at Gideon, then Anna, and pressed her lips together. “I’ll tell them you’ll be a minute.”

  “I—okay.” She watched her grandmother leave the room. And told herself that it was her imagination that she thought she heard a chuckle.

  Flustered, Anna turned to the cupboard, opened it, and found a packet of hot chocolate and a mug. She quickly made the drink, stirring it, watching the marshmallows bob merrily so that she didn’t have to look at Gideon.

  She started for the door, but when he touched her arm, she stopped and glanced back at him.

  “We’ll continue our discussion later.”

  She straightened and met his gaze directly. “Yes, we will.”

  Sarah Rose was seated in a chair, knitting on her project when Anna walked out with the mug of hot chocolate and set it on a table near her.

  “Thank you. Where’s yours?”

  “I changed my mind.” She forced herself to look stern. “Don’t let it ruin your appetite for supper.”

  “I won’t.”

  Anna glanced around at her students who were already seated and working on their projects. “Welcome.”

  She walked around to check progress.

  “So, any news for us?” Thelma inquired in a low voice.

  “News?”

  She jerked her head in a not-so-subtle motion at Gideon on the other side of the circle of chairs near the fireplace. “Has he popped the question yet?”

  Anna’s face flamed. “Uh, no, I told you before. He’s just a friend.”

  “Uh-huh.” Thelma squinted at her work. “Sarah Rose is such a darling. So well behaved.”

  Anna couldn’t wait to share that with Gideon. Other than taking that thimble—which no one outside the shop knew about—Sarah Rose had indeed been wonderfully behaved here.

  “Of course, I wouldn’t have expected anything different, seeing as how she’s Amish.”

  “Children are children whatever and wherever they are,” she disagreed gently. “They’re not perfect.”

  “Well, you should see how some children I know behave.” She held up the infinity scarf she was knitting. “He’s a nice man, and it’s time for him to look for a mother for his daughter.”

  Anna froze. It had never occurred to her that Gideon might be interested in her just to get a mother for his daughter, maybe a mother for more children he might want.

  “As I said, he’s just a friend,” she stammered and moved on, forcing her to look at another student’s work so that she didn’t look like Thelma had upset her.

  Agnes got up to stretch. She had to get up and move around every hour or so because her back hurt when she sat for too long.

  “Oh, these are so darling,” she said, holding up one of the baby hats that Anna knitted. “I’ve got to get it for my new granddaughter.”

  Sarah Rose looked up. “Will you make one of those for our baby when you have one?” she asked in a high, clear voice that carried. “After you and Daedi are married?”

  Anna’s gaze flew to Gideon. He looked as shocked as she felt.

  The room was so quiet she could hear the crackle of the fire in the fireplace.

  Gideon watched his daughter approaching the table in the family-style restaurant with her plate. “Wait ’til you see what she gets,” he told Anna. “Her idea of a wonderful meal is cottage cheese, macaroni and cheese, and cheesecake for dessert.”

  “And I was worried about her spoiling her appetite with hot chocolate.”

  “What?” Sarah Rose asked them when she got to the table and noticed they were watching her.

  “Nothing,” he said. “I was telling Anna you liked cheese.”

  They bent their heads over their meal, asking a blessing for it. Then Sarah Rose made quick work of the macaroni and cheese. “It’s really good. Want some?”

  “No, thanks. And don’t talk with your mouth full.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Can I go get some more from the buffet?”

  “Schur. Get a vegetable this time as well.” He turned to Anna after she left the table. “I thought the rolling of the eyeballs didn’t start until they got to be teenagers.”

  “Don’t ask me,” she said. “I’m a bad example.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “I did it a lot at that age. And quite a bit beyond.”

  She told him how she’d always been a little impatient—first to be allowed to date Samuel, then to get married.

  “I think I was a little immature. Maybe a lot immature. I didn’t want to listen to their rules or advice. After Samuel died, I wouldn’t listen to anyone wanting to help me with grief. Even my grandmother. I pushed them away—”

  She stopped as Sarah Rose approached the table with a small bowl of macaroni in one hand and a slice of cheesecake in the other.

  Two green beans decorated the top of the macaroni and che
ese. Gideon wanted to roll his own eyes at his daughter.

  “So you like this restaurant?” Anna asked her.

  Sarah Rose nodded. “Mamm and Daedi brought me here for my birthday before she died.”

  “Excuse me,” Gideon said. “I’m going back for some more meat loaf.”

  “Do you like this place or the Italian one Daedi took you to better?” Sarah Rose asked her.

  “They’re both nice,” Anna said. “This is more the kind of food I’m used to.” She put down her fork and told Sarah Rose about the entrée she’d had that hadn’t been much different than her mother’s potato dumplings. And the price!

  “Can you help me make something for Daedi?” Sarah Rose asked quickly, keeping her eyes on her father at the buffet.

  “Sure. What do you want to make?”

  “A muffler but a dark one, something nice. And it’s gotta be easy. Oh, here he comes. Can we talk about it later?”

  Anna nodded.

  Gideon lifted his eyebrows. “What did the two of you have your heads together about?”

  “Nothing,” Sarah Rose said, her eyes wide and innocent. “I was just talking to Anna.”

  Gideon looked from one to the other. “Okay,” he said slowly. “Sarah Rose, would you get me a slice of apple pie from the buffet?”

  She nodded and got up from the table. Then she stopped and turned to look at him. “Don’t go asking Anna about what we were talking about.”

  He turned to Anna when she was out of earshot. “Are you two keeping secrets?”

  “Christmas is coming,” she told him. “Don’t ask questions.”

  He tilted his head and studied her. “It seems my little girl and you are getting along better than I expected.”

  When she stiffened, he frowned. “What is it?”

  She shook her head and dropped her gaze to her plate.

  “Anna? What is it?”

  “Nothing.”

  He touched her chin, lifting it with his finger so that she was forced to look at him.

  Shrugging, she shook her head and started to repeat what she’d said. And then she realized that she might as well find out if Thelma was right.