Seasons in Paradise

by Cameron, Barbara;

  She set the quilt she was sewing down and pulled a tissue from her pocket. “I just wish they’d all work it out. Amos recovering with the grace of God, well, it should show everyone that we need to love each other.” She wiped her eyes.

  “Lavina, are you allrecht?” Linda stared at her, concerned.

  “Hormones,” Lavina said with a watery laugh. “I’ve been so emotional since I found out I’m going to have a boppli.”

  “I was the same way the first couple of months,” her mudder told her. “At least it seems like your morning sickness is easing. Or is it just that you haven’t told me you’re still having it?”

  “Nee, it’s better. I just keep having waterworks over the least little thing. This morning I was making dippy eggs. David loves it when I fix his eggs that way. Well, I fried one too long and ruined it, and I burst into tears. I scared him. He thought I’d burned myself.” She shook her head. “So silly!”

  Then she giggled.

  “What’s so funny?”

  Lavina put her hand over her mouth. “I shouldn’t laugh. It’s not funny. It’s actually kind of sweet.”

  “What are you talking about?” Mary Elizabeth demanded.

  “It’s kind of private. I shouldn’t share.”

  Mary Elizabeth turned to her mudder. “Mamm, make her tell.”

  “Ya, Mamm, make her tell,” Rose Anna chimed in.

  “Girls, don’t squabble.” She looked at Lavina. “It isn’t fair to tease them, you know.”

  “Well, it’s something David did and a fraa shouldn’t talk about her mann . . .” Lavina hesitated. “But it’s kind of sweet. If I tell you, you can’t tease him.” She stared at Mary Elizabeth, then at Rose Anna.

  “We won’t!” they said at the same time.

  “Now you’re making me curious,” Linda told her. She knotted her thread then clipped it with her scissors. “What is this funny but sweet thing David did?”

  “Well, you know how I have been having such morning sickness?”

  “You said it was better,” her mudder reminded her.

  “Ya, I meant before it got better David was feeling queasy in the mornings, too.”

  “And it wasn’t your cooking?” Rose Anna teased her.

  Lavina blew out a frustrated breath. “See what I mean? I shouldn’t have told you.”

  Mary Elizabeth shot her younger schweschder a disgusted look.

  “You’re right, it is sweet,” Linda told her oldest daughter. “And it would embarrass him if anyone said anything to him. So none of us will say anything. Will we, Rose Anna?” she said pointedly, giving her a stern look.

  “Nee, Mamm.” Looking chastened, Rose Anna turned her attention to her quilt.

  But when Mary Elizabeth glanced over at her youngest schweschder a few moments later, she saw the gleam of mischief in her eyes.

  Poor David. She had a feeling that Rose Anna was going to find a way to tease him.

  * * *

  “Let’s take a break. We’ve been going at this for hours.”

  “In a minute.” Sam whacked at a section of wall with his sledgehammer.

  “Demo’s the most fun, isn’t it,” Peter said when Sam set the heavy tool down.

  Sam grinned. “It’s not often we get to tear something down. Leah had a good idea for making a clear passage into her other store.”

  “Thank you. I thought so.” Leah gazed through the hole they made looking like a bright-eyed little bird. “My, you two have gotten a lot accomplished this morning.”

  “Thanks for giving us the key. Figured it’d be gut to do this before your shop got busy.”

  “Danki. I have a sign up warning customers about the dust and noise while the renovation is in progress, but the less noise they have to listen to the better.”

  “Sam also figured if we could walk over to your shop you might have some of those cinnamon rolls you bake.”

  “I said no such thing,” Sam protested.

  Leah chuckled. “Well, as it happens, I did bring some in like I do most mornings. My grossdochders can be counted on to show up early to work for them. Kumm, the coffee’s on and there’s iced tea, too. If you hurry maybe they haven’t eaten all of the rolls.”

  They both tried to step through, reminding Sam of how he and his bruders had done the same at the farm. Funny how Peter seemed like a third bruder more than a friend sometimes. Well, bruders were friends most of the time.

  Sam stepped back and gestured for Peter to go first. “Age before looks.”

  “Ya, right.” Peter preceded him and they followed Leah to the back room of her shop.

  Two of Leah’s grossdochders were working in the shop today. Mary Katherine sat weaving at her loom in the corner. Her eyes were dreamy and far-away looking as she worked rhythmically sending a wooden thing moving through the threads strung on it and adding length to whatever it was she was weaving.

  Sam couldn’t help thinking of Mary Elizabeth as he passed Naomi teaching a small quilting class. Mary Elizabeth schur loved quilting and seemed to enjoy teaching the class at the shelter. He thought it was a shame that women and their children had to have such a place, had to hide to be safe, but it was good that they did have people who helped them.

  Was it true that Mary Elizabeth had a new boyfriend as Rose Anna had teased? There had been many times he’d wondered if she was seeing someone while he lived away from the Amish community. He’d never heard any rumor that she was, and he worked with Peter and enough other Amish men to have heard if she had.

  Could it be that she’d only started dating once they’d had that confrontation where he’d let her know that he wasn’t returning home as his oldest bruder had done? Well, things hadn’t changed, so it was for the best.

  He just wished he really believed it himself.

  “Sam, coffee or iced tea?”

  “Iced tea, danki.” He sat at the table in the back room. He waited until she’d served him and Peter and taken a seat before he reached for one of the cinnamon rolls the size of a man’s hand.

  Leah smiled at them as they ate their rolls. It was obvious she loved feeding such an appreciative audience. Sam drained his glass of tea and was grateful for a second glass from the pitcher she’d set on the table.

  “Hot work, eh?”

  He nodded. “But not as hot as if we were outside doing roofing, right, Peter?”

  “I figure that’s why you like to do windows and interior work,” he said. “You can’t stand the heat.”

  “You two bicker like bruders,” Leah told them with a chuckle.

  “Look who’s eating all the cinnamon rolls.” Kate strolled in and poured herself a cup of coffee. “I ran late for the knitting class with Anna,” she told them. “Mind if I join you?”

  Peter stood and pulled out a chair.

  Kate smiled at him and sat.

  “There are still some rolls.” Leah pushed the plate closer to her. “I think you came in the nick of time.”

  “You two made a lot of progress this morning,” Kate told Sam and Peter as she picked up a roll. “I have two kids who could give you some help with demo today.”

  Leah clapped a hand over her mouth but couldn’t hide her chuckle. “I’ve met her kids.”

  “Their daddy’s in charge today. I expect an SOS any moment now.”

  “We might take you up on that,” Peter said. “Say, Sam, my nephew might be able to help us a few hours a week. I’ll stop by his house later and talk to him.”

  “Sounds gut.” Sam stood and carried his glass to the sink. “Danki for the iced tea and roll, Leah.”

  Peter thanked her and followed him back to the job.

  “Were you serious about your nephew?” Sam asked him as he donned his safety glasses.

  “Schur. Why?”

  “Aren’t you worried about it cutting into your profit margin?”

  Peter shook his head. “I planned on a small amount for some help. And if we get finished sooner, it’ll give us a chance to take on another
job. I’m always planning ahead.”

  The Amish were hard workers and found ways to survive when farmland grew scarce, but Sam was beginning to think Peter was one of the most ambitious men he knew.

  They worked steadily until their lunch break. They ate their lunch as they sat in the doorway of the shop in a couple of old chairs that had been left by the previous owner. It was the perfect place to watch locals and tourists out enjoying the warm sum-mer day.

  A group of women carrying shopping bags full of their purchases stopped to ask what was going on in the new shop. Peter appeared to enjoy telling them about Leah’s new venture and invited them to walk down to the entrance to Stitches in Time and talk to her about it. They walked on and a few minutes later Sam glimpsed them inside the shop talking with her and strolling through the aisles of fabric and other wares.

  An Amish woman walked past, glanced at them, and nodded. She made Sam wonder what Mary Elizabeth was doing today. Was she helping Lavina as she did so often on Saturdays? He’d rousted John out of bed that morning and dropped him off there to help David and their dat in the fields.

  Sam stared at the cold lunch meat sandwich he was eating and envied John the meal he’d be sitting down to at the farm. He sighed. Well, with luck Lavina would be sending food home with John as she had with Sam the week before.

  And he reminded himself that he didn’t need to sit at that kitchen table as he had the week before where he had avoided Mary Elizabeth’s gaze after overhearing Rose Anna tease her about having a new boyfriend.

  Nee, he didn’t need that at all.

  * * *

  Mary Elizabeth hadn’t anticipated feeling a little shy going out with Ben Miller. Of the three schweschders she had always thought of herself as the most confident one. But she’d had eyes only for Sam since she was a little girl and had never gone out with anyone else. There was something exciting but at the same time a little scary about being on a date with a man she knew so little about.

  Well, except for the fact that he was cute and seemed so nice. He was a gentleman, too, showing up on time to pick her up at the house and help her into his buggy. And he told her she looked pretty in her blue dress.

  She told him what road to take to the restaurant, and as they rode there, she worked at not being self-conscious and asked him about himself. She’d heard somewhere that the best way not to focus on yourself was to focus on the other person.

  “Beautiful day,” he said. “Beautiful country.”

  If Ben felt any reserve being with someone new he schur didn’t show it. He was twenty-four and from a family of eight kinner—four bruders and three schweschders—and had visited the area with his family a couple of times. He and his onkel Eli got on well so when the older man needed more help Ben had moved here.

  So far he liked Paradise and Lancaster County a lot and was glad he’d decided to make the move although he missed everyone back in Nappanee.

  Then he turned the table on Mary Elizabeth and asked her about herself. She told him about how she and her mudder and two schweschders quilted for a living. Though his face was turned away as he watched the road, he didn’t look bored.

  So she talked about how Kate had persuaded her to volunteer to teach a quilting class with her at a local women’s shelter and now the women were busy sewing crafts for a shop Leah, owner of Stitches in Time, was renovating. She and Rose Anna were now helping at the quilting class since Lavina was busy as a new fraa. It wasn’t polite to mention a woman being pregnant, so she left that out.

  “You sound like you’re a busy lady.”

  “It’s gut to be busy. You know what they say about idle hands.”

  He chuckled as he turned the buggy into the restaurant parking lot. “Ya. So, the food’s gut here, huh?”

  “Ya. It’s one of the most popular restaurants in the area. Locals come here, not just the tourists.”

  The restaurant looked like a big, homey Amish kitchen with hand-carved tables and paintings of the local countryside hanging on the walls. Quilts were hung on the walls and available for sale.

  They were shown to a table and given menus.

  “If you like fried chicken or meatloaf no one makes it better,” she told him.

  “We’ll see if the fried chicken is as good as my mamm’s.” He closed his menu and ordered it when their server came with her order pad.

  “I’ve met a lot of people here in just two weeks,” he told her as he glanced around the restaurant. Someone must have waved at him because he waved back.

  “That’s gut. I’ve lived here all my life, and I love it.”

  “Well, you were right about the chicken,” he said with satisfaction as he finished his second piece and wiped his fingers. “But if you tell my mudder, I'll deny I said that.”

  “Promise. And you have to promise the same thing. I don’t want my mamm to know I said it either.”

  They grinned at each other.

  “Well, look who’s here, Malcolm!” a female voice said.

  Mary Elizabeth looked up. “Kate! Malcolm!” She glanced around them. “Where are the kids?”

  “At their grandma’s. She took pity on Malcolm while I was at Leah’s earlier and picked them up for a couple of hours.” Kate turned to Ben and stuck out her hand. “I’m Kate Kraft, and this is my husband, Malcolm.”

  “Ben Miller.”

  “Ben just moved here from Indiana,” Mary Elizabeth told her.

  “Great. Hope you like it here. Well, we’ll let you get back to lunch. Come on, Malcolm, we need to eat before your mother changes her mind.”

  Malcolm grinned. “She can handle our two monsters. After all, she lived through my brother and me.”

  Ben turned his attention back to his meal after they walked away. “So this is the Kate who’s a police officer and talked you into volunteering at the quilting class at the shelter?”

  So he had been listening.

  “Ya.”

  “I’ve only seen one other female police officer,” he said as he picked up another piece of chicken. “Is her husband a police officer, too?”

  “Nee, he’s a counselor. He helps a lot of Englisch veterans.”

  Kate and Malcolm had seemed like such opposites when they first met, she thought. Kate was an officer of the law, and Malcolm had problems with drugs and alcohol after he left the military. He’d turned his life around. Now Malcolm was married to Kate, and they had two children.

  Mary Elizabeth wondered if she should tell Ben and then decided not to. Malcolm deserved to be judged as he was now, not continually have his past always following him around. She ate and they talked, and she thought about how she was getting to know him. Her dat often said that people should be judged by their actions, not their words, so while she enjoyed his easy smile and yes, easy charm, she liked that he didn’t attempt to impress her. Instead, he’d stood when Kate and her husband approached the table, and he treated their server politely.

  Ya, she thought, she was glad she’d agreed to come out today to have lunch and go for a ride with a man such as this. Maybe he’d be a friend. Maybe he’d be more. She was looking forward to seeing what God intended. For while she’d thought Sam was the man He had set aside for her, that hadn’t worked out and now a new man had been put in her path.

  They shared a hot fudge sundae, too full from their lunches to do more, and then with a to-go cup of iced tea, climbed back into the buggy. Like most of her friends and family, Mary Elizabeth had never lived anywhere but in her community. So she asked Ben how much he’d had a chance to travel around his new neighborhood and when found it hadn’t been much she took him on a guided tour.

  Two hours passed before she knew it. There might be more beautiful places in the world, but she’d always felt Paradise was well-named—especially on a not-too-warm summer day.

  “I’m glad you could come out with me today,” he said, sounding a little formal as he turned into her driveway. “Danki for such a wunderbaar time.”

  She gave him a
warm smile. “I should be thanking you. So nice to get to know you, Ben Miller.”

  He drew the buggy to a stop and turned to look at her, his blue eyes intent. “Could I see you again? Maybe after church next Sunday?”

  “I’d like that,” she said, wondering if she sounded as formal as he had. But it seemed both of them were being very careful since they didn’t know each other well. “I’ll pack us a picnic.”

  She saw a movement out of the corner of the eye and glanced at the house. The curtain at the front window moved. Someone was looking out.

  “I don’t want you to go to any trouble.”

  “You bought lunch today. I’ll pack us a picnic.”

  “I love picnics.”

  “I know the perfect spot. I’ll see you at church, then. Have a gut week.”

  “You, too.”

  She got out and hurried into the house, wondering who it was who’d been looking out the front window. She had her suspicions.

  Sure enough, Rose Anna pounced on her the minute she opened the door. She immediately peppered Mary Elizabeth with questions.

  “So, did you have a gut time? Did you like him? Did he kiss you?”

  “Ya, ya, and of course not!”

  She walked into the kitchen to throw away her empty to-go cup. Then she started up the stairs to the sewing room with Rose Anna trailing behind her.

  Their mudder looked up from her sewing as they walked in. “So did you have a gut time? Did you like him? Did he kiss you?”

  Mary Elizabeth stared at her. “Rose Anna just asked me those questions.”

  Linda chuckled. “I know. I have a mudder’s hearing.”

  She took her seat and picked up her quilt. “Then you know the answers,” she teased as she threaded a needle.

  “Well, I’d know the answer to the last one,” her mudder said, looking at her over her reading glasses. “You’d never let a young man kiss you on a first date.”

  “Of course not,” Mary Elizabeth said in the same prim tone her mudder had used.

  But she felt a warm blush steal over her cheeks as she thought about what Ben’s kiss might be like.