“Tired?”
“A little. It was hard to get to sleep last night.”
“Excited about taking a vacation?”
She nodded, not willing to tell him what a country mouse she was, never having stayed in a motel—or, probably a bigger reason, that she was feeling guilty about John.
He glanced in the rear seat, then looked at her. “Try to relax and have a little fun even if you’re going there for her.”
She smiled slightly. “I’ll try.”
“Oh, the enthusiasm,” he said with a laugh. “Try to calm down.”
“Did you have trouble sleeping last night?”
“No. Slept like a log. Why?”
“Someone was walking back and forth in front of the room. I thought maybe you were having trouble sleeping.”
“Nope. Maybe it was someone having trouble finding his room. Maybe he went out and had a few too many at a local bar after getting a room, then couldn’t find it when he came back.”
“Oh.”
“Sorry, I shouldn’t say such things in front of you.”
“And why is that?”
“You don’t need to know about matters not of your world.”
“I’m hardly innocent.”
“What does that mean?”
Naomi rolled her eyes. She’d forgotten about her grandmother in the backseat. She turned and looked into the back- seat. “You know what I mean. Just because we’re Amish doesn’t mean that we don’t know about drinking and such.”
“How much do you know about drinking?”
“I just mean it’s not like we don’t know about the Englisch world. We hear things, we read things. That’s all. I certainly didn’t drink when I did my rumschpringe.”
She shrugged when Nick glanced over. “You know it’s just the Englisch media that thinks Amish youth run around being wild and drinking on their rumschpringe.”
“You don’t have to convince me,” Nick told her. “Remember, I’ve lived in Pennsylvania for a decade.”
“You said something about a road trip yesterday,” she said after a moment. “About how you and your buddies went on them during a break from college.”
His smile was reminiscent. “Yeah. Great times.” Then his smile faded. “Sorry, there weren’t a lot of PG moments.”
“Pig moments?”
He laughed until tears ran down his cheeks. “No, PG. That’s short for saying something’s clean enough to be discussed in front of kids.”
He glanced at her. “Or in front of Amish maedels.”
She sniffed and folded her arms across her chest. “You seem to enjoy telling me how backward you think I am.”
“I don’t think you’re backward,” he said seriously. “It’s just fun to tease you.”
“I don’t remember you doing it this much before,” she said.
“No. Guess that’s the perk of having more time with you. And not having Anna in the car. Teasing her’s like teasing your younger sister.”
A car slowed in front of them and Nick braked quickly. When the car picked up speed, he did the same.
“So what’s teasing me like?” she asked.
He glanced at her, then back at the road ahead. Opened his mouth and then shut it.
Interesting, she thought. She’d never seen him at a loss for words.
She’d become quiet again, thought Nick.
Usually it was refreshing when people were quiet in the vehicle after all the chattering some people did. But he liked to talk to Naomi.
Maybe too much.
“Are you warm enough?”
She smiled and nodded. Turning, she started to ask her grandmother if she was comfortable. But Leah was sleeping.
“She nodded off a few minutes ago,” Nick told her.
“I’m afraid her ankle is hurting her. She tossed and turned a lot last night.”
There was silence between them as the miles sped by.
“You’re sure you’re warm enough?”
“Yes.”
“Not too warm?”
“Nick, I’m fine. What’s going on?”
“You’re being awfully quiet.”
“I’m a quiet person. You know that.” She grinned. “Sometimes it’s hard to get a word in edgewise with Anna in the car, remember?”
“I wouldn’t know,” he said, returning her grin. “A driver always exercises great discretion. We never talk about a passenger.”
“Right,” she said, drawing out the word.
“Just seems like you’re unusually quiet today.”
“I’m okay.”
But he noticed that she was massaging her forearm. “Did you hurt yourself?”
She nodded. “Bumped it last night.”
He glanced at her, then at the rearview mirror. Leah was still napping.
“What would you like to talk about?” Naomi asked him.
“What makes you think I want to talk?”
She cast her eyes heavenward and blew out a breath. “You sounded like you wanted to talk.”
“Nope. S’okay.”
Naomi folded her arms across her chest and stared at the windshield. “Well, no surprise,” she muttered.
“Huh?”
She bit her lip. “Nothing.”
“Naomi.”
Shrugging, she looked out her window. “It’s not like I’m a—a scintillating conversationalist anyway.”
“Scintillating?”
She glared at him. “And no remarks about my education. I know I didn’t go to college like you.”
“I’m impressed. I know some professors who don’t use the word scintillating.”
“You’re just saying that.”
He gave her a brief glance. “I don’t flatter, Naomi.”
“Some men do,” she muttered.
He almost didn’t catch her words. He’d recognized John as a charmer. “Well, I’m enjoying talking to you.”
“Anna’s the talker of the three of us at the shop.”
“I know.”
She grinned.
“So you’re not going to say that it’s hard to be in a car with four women who like to talk?”
He said nothing. But he wasn’t able to hide his grin from her and she returned it.
Speaking of her grandmother … she thought he was doing her a big favor driving her to Florida. But the truth was that he really was looking to take some time off. The fact that Naomi had said she was going along to take care of her grandmother was just icing on the cake.
He just hadn’t realized just how much being close to Naomi was both a pleasure and a torment.
Naomi was enjoying talking to Nick entirely too much.
Her grandmother had even told her that Nick refused to take anything for driving them and was only willing to take half the cost of gas. He didn’t know it yet, but Naomi intended on making him take some money when it came time to pay.
Considering everything, it seemed like the least she could do was talk to him. Maybe it was boring to drive endless miles on the interstate.
She, at least, could spend time looking at the signs he called billboards but could only give a glance since he was driving the speed limit.
“Alligator Farm just ahead,” she read aloud and then she laughed.
“What’s so funny?”
“The python painted on the sign says, ‘No waiting. No pressure,’” she told him.
“Ha-ha.”
“Is that one of those places you two want to visit on the way home?” Leah asked.
Naomi shivered. “I don’t think I want to see pythons. Or alligators. You, Nick?”
He chuckled. “They were fun when I was a kid, but I can skip them now.”
Naomi went back to looking out her window, searching for something to say. A SUV pulled up alongside them and she found herself captivated by the antics of the children in the backseat.
There was some pushing and shoving between a boy of about eight and a teenage girl. She was trying to keep him from gettin
g into an overnight bag and pulling things out.
Then the boy looked over and saw Naomi staring at him. His glance went to the window behind her. Leah must be watching too, she thought.
Turning, he reached into the overnight bag and pulled something white out—a bra, she realized. He popped it on his head, tied it under his chin, and gazed piously toward heaven. No amount of being hit on the head by his sister deterred him from his antics.
Naomi stared, too shocked to react, and then she collapsed in giggles. Turning in her seat, she peered at her grandmother. “Did you see—” she stopped.
Leah had her arms wrapped around her middle and she was laughing.
“You too?” she asked Naomi between giggles.
“Yes.”
“What’s so funny?” Nick wanted to know. “What’s going on?”
Naomi turned back in her seat and looked for the vehicle. “Speed up a bit and you’ll see,” she told him.
The boy was still wearing his sister’s bra on his head, imitating the Amish kapps Naomi and Leah both wore.
Nick accelerated and caught a glimpse of what was going on. Naomi could tell the moment he did without even asking him. Nick’s guffaw was all she needed.
“I’m sorry,” Nick said quickly. “I’ll signal the driver that his kids are being disrespectful—”
“You’ll do no such thing,” Leah said, laughing. “He’s rather funny.”
Naomi wiped the tears from her cheeks.
“Besides, look at that poor man,” Leah said. “It can’t be easy driving with a herd of kinner all excited about going somewhere.”
The turn signal flicked on and the driver guided the SUV down the exit to Alligator Farm.
“I hope they don’t let that boy hug the python,” Naomi said. “I’d fear for it.”
“I remember my dad taking me places like that when I was a kid,” Nick said. “We drove him crazy. ‘Are we there yet? Are we there yet?’”
Leah leaned forward. “Are we there yet?”
Nick laughed and made a check of the traffic to his right and then moved into the lane to take the next exit. “Let’s go get some coffee.”
He took them to one of those restaurants that advertised country food as well as a gift shop.
Leah made short work of her coffee and pie and then headed off to the gift shop, insisting that she’d be fine walking with her crutches and that he and Naomi should stay where they were and finish.
“Not much longer now,” Nick said, leaning back in his chair. “We’ll be there by nightfall.”
Naomi rubbed at the side of her neck. “Good.”
“Headache?”
“More a little stiffness, that’s all. From the enforced sitting. I’m used to moving around more.”
“Do you want to take a walk before we drive some more?”
“No. I’d rather keep going. Unless you need a break.”
He took another sip of coffee. “I’m fine. I’m a little more used to sitting in a car seat for a long time than you are.”
“Don’t know how you do it.” She reached for the check but he snatched it up before she could and stood to pull out her chair.
“Grandmother wouldn’t be happy to find out you paid that.”
“So don’t tell her,” he said casually. Then he stopped. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to joke. I know you’d never lie.”
She looked at him. If only he knew. Pretending that nothing was wrong … that was a lie, even if she never said anything, that was a lie. Wasn’t it? Not that Nick needed to know about what she’d been going through with John.
Her grandmother hadn’t needed to hear about it, either. Naomi felt she’d burdened her by telling her that John had hurt her. Now, Naomi watched Leah making her way toward her carefully with her crutches and felt an overwhelming rush of guilt.
If her grandmother hadn’t been upset that day—first by her and then by Anna—she would have been watching her step as she went after Anna. She wouldn’t have injured herself. Her face wouldn’t be drawn with pain.
The minute Leah looked up and saw Naomi, her face changed. She smiled, and it was as if someone had wiped away the pain.
So her grandmother knew how to hide her feelings, her pain, Naomi thought.
“Wait until you see what I found,” Leah said, holding up a plastic shopping bag. “Pecan praline candy.”
Nick took the bag from her hand. “Let me carry that for you.”
Nick enjoyed watching Naomi’s interest pick up as he signaled to exit the interstate.
He had to admit he felt pretty interested himself. He’d been to Florida just once, on a family vacation, and it had seemed like a strange and wonderful place to a ten-year-old boy. As he’d gotten older, his father hadn’t always been keen on a vacation that involved getting behind the wheel of the car. He was too tired of ferrying other people around, he’d said. It had taken a lot of persuading by Nick and his mother to get his father behind the wheel for a road trip. By the time he had become a teen, Nick had lost interest and wanted to stick around and have fun with his pals in the summer.
His father was fascinated with what he called the “real” Florida—the places that were a unique mix of the old, eccentric Florida that drew the curious. The places unlike those in any other state.
Nick had been a little bored seeking out anyplace but a beach. That was before he saw his first roadside alligator attraction near the Everglades, where they watched a man actually climb into a pen to be near one and not run screaming like a girl as Nick would have done. Nick had sat, entranced, as the trainer grasped the reptile and not only managed to not get eaten but actually talked to it and stroked the gator’s throat and stomach until it went to sleep!
They explored swampy places in the Everglades with trees that dripped strands of something called Spanish moss that looked like the gray beards of old men—and with shifting pools of quicksand that were said to have caught men unaware.
There were Native Americans there who didn’t dress like the ones he’d seen in other states. The women wore bright cotton skirts and shirts with intricate pattern bands on them and arranged their hair in an unusual topknot. The men wore long shirts and trousers, not feathers like in other states.
Those road trips and being around his father’s business had led to Nick’s interest in making transportation his career after community college. He’d joined the business in driving the Amish and the tourists who came to visit the area and had taken over when his father died two years ago.
He’d remembered that long-ago Florida trip when Leah began talking about Pinecraft. So it had been intriguing to him when Leah mentioned Florida. He’d always wanted to come back and hadn’t found the time or the money. Then suddenly, it seemed it all worked out for both Leah and him to have what they wanted. And Naomi coming along hadn’t hurt.
He had to admit to a strong attraction to Naomi. But it was just that—a strong attraction that couldn’t go anywhere. He wasn’t looking to break up her relationship. Even if he’d wanted to, something couldn’t happen between them.
Then, too, he was pretty realistic about why a woman might or might not be interested in him. He surely didn’t have the looks, personality, or money as enticements to have a relationship—not that Naomi could ever be considered someone interested in him for money. The trip had shown him that. She’d been upset when he paid for their coffee and snack yesterday and had asked a number of times how they were going to reimburse him.
He glanced in the rearview mirror. Leah was glued to her window. When she realized he was looking at her, she grinned. “Do you need directions to the cottage?”
“Already got them in the GPS,” he told her.
They traveled down a wide boulevard with waving palm trees and then Nick turned at a light.
“I see I won’t have to miss Amish food,” he said with satisfaction as they caught a glimpse of Yoder’s Amish Restaurant to the right.
“You know you’re going to be eating with us a l
ot,” Leah told him. “We wouldn’t let you starve after you went to all the trouble of driving us here.”
“That’s hardly a vacation for you if you’re cooking,” Nick said.
“But I love to cook,” Leah protested. “And here I’ll have more time than I do after a workday.”
“You’re staying off that ankle,” Naomi told her firmly.
Dozens of charming little houses came into view, all with scrupulously tended lawns. Brightly colored flowers bloomed in pots everywhere. Nick half-expected to see little bluebirds fluttering from the trees.
“They look like little fairy tale cottages,” Naomi mused. “Don’t they look like the ones in the storybook I had when I was a girl?” she asked, turning to her grandmother.
“They do,” Leah marveled. “What a pretty place to vacation.”
“There are some year-round residents, I’m told,” Nick said. He wasn’t as fanciful as Naomi, guessing these were the smallish cottages built in Florida after World War II. But he’d never seen homes so meticulously kept up.
He drove slowly around the streets—they were packed with visitors dressed in Amish and Mennonite garb—past the shuffleboard court where people played one last game as dusk fell. Others were cleaning up from what appeared to be a community barbecue dinner. Nick had opened the windows on the van and the sweet, smoky flavor hung on the warm air.
Nick was being so careful of pedestrians that he must have turned down the wrong street, because the GPS spoke up, saying, “Reconfiguring” in its flat, almost metallic voice.
He drove a little bit longer—the community wasn’t that big, more a neighborhood or village in Sarasota than an actual town—and as he pulled into the drive of a little cottage painted a sunny yellow, the GPS announced that they were at their destination.
Turning to Naomi, he saw her staring at the house. Curious, he glanced back and saw nothing unusual.
“Someone left a light burning.”
“Yeah. Nice of them, since we weren’t sure if it’d be dark when we arrived.”
“Does this mean the place is wired for it?”
Nick spied a window air conditioning unit. “Yes. And that’s an air conditioner—probably for when the place is rented during the summer.”
The Heart's Journey: Stitches in Time Series #2 Page 6