Romancing Nadine

by Amy Lillard

  Not that he wanted to back up on their deal. If he did that, he would only have the guaranteed chance of seeing her every other week after church. And why would she want to talk to an old man like him if she had every single man in the district at her disposal. Well, maybe not everyone, but all of the seniors for sure.

  “Amos.” His name on her lips was questioning. “Amos.” A bit louder. “Amos!” With blaring urgency.

  He roused out of his thoughts and turned his attention from memories of her to the real thing.

  She was pulling against the line, her rod bowed until it made a hairpin turn. She struggled against the tug, but she was losing, her feet inching forward even as she tried to pull the fish back. Whatever she had hooked was huge.

  “Hang on, Nadine.” He dropped his own pole and rushed to her side. “Give it some line,” he instructed.

  “I did, but I think he’s swimming under the docks.”

  He might have been and if he was swimming in and out between the pylons, it would be more than a chore to land him.

  “Give him a little more.”

  She did as he said, but the fish still held. Her steps slipped on the dock, and she allowed him to pull her forward. “He can’t be more than twelve pounds. Not in a pond this size.”

  “I think you might be looking at a fifteen-pounder,” Amos said with pride. He wanted to help her, but he wasn’t sure how that assistance would be received. And he really wasn’t sure what he could do. If it had been a male friend of his that had hooked such a monster, he would do just what he was doing then: stand close and cheer him on.

  “Fifteen pounds. Still! How can a fifteen-pound fish pull me like this?”

  “He’s in his element and you’re not.”

  “I suppose,” she grunted. Her steps slipped a little more and she inched toward the end of the dock. “You don’t suppose I hooked one of those infamous Christmas trees, do you?”

  Amos gauged the tug on her line. “Nope. You got yourself a big ol’ largemouth.”

  She took her eyes off the water and centered them on him. She smiled. He smiled in return, and then she was gone. In that one instant, the lake monster jerked her three feet forward.

  She was almost to the edge of the dock. It was either cut the line or risk losing the fish. He was just too strong.

  “I’m going to cut your line,” he said sadly. It was the last thing he wanted to do.

  “You will not.”

  “You’re going to lose him,” Amos said as she lessened the slack on the line.

  “Then help me.”

  Not knowing what else to do Amos wrapped his arms around her from behind, gripping the rod, his hands on either side of hers.

  The move put them so close together. Close enough that if anyone had seen, they would have some explaining to do. But for now ... she smelled good, like lemons and fabric softener.

  “Amos Fisher, what are you doing?” The censure in her voice almost had him letting go. But if they were going to land this fish, he needed to remain strong and not sniff her hair to see if that was where the scent of citrus was coming from.

  “I’m helping you land this fish.”

  “I didn’t mean this kind of help.”

  Their arguing had taken their focus from the task at hand and the fish pulled them a couple feet closer to the edge of the dock. Only two planks stood between them and the water.

  Focus, he told himself. Focus on something else besides how right being this close to her feels.

  “Amos!” His name was somewhere between a plea and a screech. He knew this was uncomfortable. It was for him as well. But this was a big fish they were talking about. Maybe even more than fifteen pounds. And he couldn’t see letting that go.

  “Hang on, Nadine.”

  But apparently she was through with hanging on. A sharp elbow forcefully dug into his ribs. His breath left him in a pained whoosh and his arms turned loose. He had only a split second to register that his letting go was most likely the intention of the move; then she disappeared off the end of the dock, pulled into the water by the demon fish on her line.

  * * *

  “All I’m saying is you didn’t have to jump in after me.”

  Nadine used the towel to pat her head. Her hair was still up in its bob, and her soggy prayer covering was dripping pond water down the back of her dress, which was equally soggy after her trip into the pond. The cold, cold pond. She shivered just thinking about it.

  “Did you want me to let you drown?” Amos grumbled.

  After she and Amos had finally pulled themselves out of the water, they’d realized that the fish had broken away. If there even had been a fish. She was almost positive that she had hooked one of the limbs on the very Christmas tree that had caused the gash in her leg and the numerous scratches on her arms.

  “Here.” Sally Tiger, Austin’s wife, handed Nadine a small wash rag and a bottle of spray antiseptic. “Unless you want me to do it.” Her voice clearly conveyed that she didn’t even like the thought of spraying the gash in Nadine’s leg with the wound cleaner.

  “I can do it. Danki,” she said. “Thank you.”

  Sally nodded and backed away as if Nadine was about to change her mind at any minute.

  “That needs stitches.” Amos looked pointedly at the seeping wound. It ran nearly the length of her right calf on the outside. It was one of those cuts, shallow toward the edges and the ends, then growing deeper toward the middle.

  “There’s nothing to stitch up,” she groused. Her teeth still chattered a bit, even though Sally and Austin had been kind enough to loan them blankets to speed the warming process. “And I wasn’t about to drown. I’ll have you know that I’m a very good swimmer.”

  When the water isn’t thirty degrees.

  So she was exaggerating. It was still very cold. And very wet. She shivered again as another drip from her hair slid down her back.

  “You should take your kapp off and let your hair down.”

  “No,” she said primly. She nearly cringed at the sound of her own words. She knew she was being a little too conservative and rigid, but she was not taking off her covering. When she did, she knew that the fragile thing would fall apart and she might have some praying to do on the way home. She most certainly wasn’t taking her hair down and then riding all the way home with Amos Fisher. As Jenna would say, Not. Happenin’.

  She turned her attention from him to the spray bottle. The stuff stung like fire, and she winced as the cold medicine hit her warm leg. If her leg was warm and the rest of her cold, that could mean fever in the wound. But she would give a day or two before worrying about it.

  “A doctor really needs to take a look at that.”

  “I’m fine.” Jah, it was still bleeding, jah, it was hot to the touch, and jah, it still hurt like the dickens, but she was not going to the doctor on a Sunday evening. Again ... Not. Happenin’.

  “Here’s some gauze.” Once again, Sally appeared at the entrance to the back porch, where they had stationed themselves to dry off and take care of Nadine’s scratches. But as far as she was concerned, they had been there long enough.

  “Thank you, Sally.” Another drop of cold pond water made its way between her shoulder blades. She shivered and tried to cover it up.

  “Are you cold?” Amos reached out and pulled the blanket she had wrapped around her shoulders up a bit.

  She resisted the urge to smack his hand away. His fretting over every little thing was what had gotten them into this mess.

  Well, that wasn’t entirely true.

  It was his fretting coupled with wrapping his arms around her in pretense of helping her pull the fish ashore.

  Okay. Jah. Fine. He had actually been trying to help her, but when his arms went around her, the world shifted. Colors seemed brighter, the sky bluer. Everything seemed ... better.

  And she had to make him let go. In that moment, the fish wasn’t as important as her sanity. She was way too old for this nonsense. She’d said it
before, and she was sticking to it.

  “I think it’s time to go home.”

  Sally seemed nice enough, but Nadine could tell that their presence was making her a bit uncomfortable. Austin had been called away on a business call, and since he was locked up in his study working out whatever problem had happened at one of his businesses, that left only the three of them. Nadine was starting to feel as if they had outstayed their welcome.

  Probably not, but she felt it all the same. Maybe because she was simply ready to go home and get into some dry clothes.

  “I think we should go straight to the doctor.”

  Nadine sighed. “In a buggy. Really?”

  “We could hire a driver. See if Sally will take us.”

  “I just want to get into some dry clothes, then I’ll decide if I’m going to need medical help.” Which meant she wanted to go home, and when she got there, she was changing and never leaving. Well, at least not until tomorrow.

  Amos hesitated. then nodded. “Fine,” he said. He stood and called to Sally from the doorway leading from the porch to the house. “We’re going to head out. Thank you for everything.”

  She nodded. “Are you sure you’re going to be okay?” She shot a pointed look at the gauze Nadine had wrapped around her leg. The blood was beginning to seep through. Not bad, but there all the same.

  “I appreciate your concern, but I’ll be fine. I’m just ready to get out of these clothes and into a hot bath.”

  “Me too,” Amos said. Then his ears turned the brightest pink she had ever seen them. “N-not together,” he stammered. “She’ll be at her house, and I’m sure I’ll be at mine.”

  Sally gave them a polite smile. “Be safe driving home.”

  “Of course.” Amos picked up his socks and shoes and nodded at Sally before ducking out into the light of the setting sun.

  “Aren’t you supposed to have shoes on in order to drive?” Nadine asked as she followed him out to the buggy.

  “Tractor, yes. Buggy doesn’t matter.” He tossed his socks and shoes into the back and went around to the front and patted his horse on the neck. “Sorry old boy,” he said, and Nadine knew he was talking about leaving him hitched up for so long. But the unscheduled dip into the pond, along with trying to get dry and doctor her leg, had delayed any plans they’d originally had. “But I’ll give you some extra oats when we get home.”

  Nadine took one look at the darkening sky, then climbed into the buggy. Amos followed suit, and soon they were on their way.

  “It’s getting dark,” she said, craning her neck to look at the sky.

  “That usually happens,” Amos said. She couldn’t tell if he was joking or he truly had his nose out of place over her refusing to go to the doctor.

  “Jah, but—” She stopped. Did she really want to argue about it? No.

  She supposed he didn’t want to either because he didn’t question her further and they rode in silence all the way back to her house.

  The sun had almost completely disappeared as he pulled down her drive.

  “Promise me something,” he said as he came around the side of the buggy and helped her to the ground.

  “What’s that?”

  “That you’ll see a doctor about your leg tomorrow.”

  “My leg’s going to be fine.” But she hid a wince as she stepped up onto the porch. “You promise me something,” she countered.

  “Jah?”

  “Get those fish home and clean them. It was quite an adventure catching them, and I want to make sure that we get to eat them in celebration.”

  “You got it.”

  They were halfway up the steps when the front door was suddenly wrenched open.

  “There you are!” Charlotte exclaimed. “Do you know what time it is?”

  “Dark,” Amos said, his tone decidedly joking.

  “It’s almost eight-thirty.”

  “Sorry,” Nadine said, and for not the first time today, she felt a little like a teenager.

  “Why are you all wet?” Charlotte asked.

  “Long story,” Amos replied.

  “What’s wrong with your leg, Nadine?”

  “Even longer story,” she replied.

  Charlotte had no choice but to step back as Amos led Nadine into the house.

  He walked her over to the rocking chair and waited for her to ease down into the cushions.

  “Is it serious?” Charlotte asked, her voice near a whisper.

  “I can walk,” Nadine replied. “Amos is just being a Nervous Nellie.”

  “Can you blame me?” he asked.

  “I really wish someone would tell me what’s going on,” Charlotte said. She looked from one of them to the other, then back again.

  “Nadine was pulled into the pond by a giant largemouth bass, and I jumped in after her.”

  “That’s how we got wet, and I cut my leg on a Christmas tree.”

  Again, Charlotte looked from one to the other, then she threw her hands up in the air. “Fine,” she said. “If you don’t want to tell me, I understand, but you don’t have to devise crazy stories. Just tell me that you don’t want to say.”

  Amos looked to Nadine.

  She could only shake her head.

  “I’ll come by and check on you tomorrow,” he said and started toward the door. Only then did Nadine realize he was still barefooted.

  “It’s not necessary,” she protested, even though it felt good to have him worry about her.

  “But I will.”

  “Don’t forget to clean the fish,” she reminded him.

  He waved a hand behind him but didn’t stop on his way out the door.

  “I don’t have any words,” Charlotte said.

  Nadine could feel her argument building. How she had been irresponsible to fall into a pond, how she had ruined her prayer kapp, and on and on. And of course it didn’t help any at all that water was involved. She was surprised that Charlotte wasn’t already going on about that.

  “I think I’m going to take a bath.” Nadine pushed up from the chair.

  Charlotte frowned, then rushed to the window and looked out. “Oh, no,” she said. “No-no-no-no-no.”

  Before Nadine could ask Charlotte what she had missed, her daughter-in-law had rushed out the front door and down the porch steps. She could just see Amos’s buggy through the window, and Charlotte chasing after him.

  Careful not to stretch any of the healing skin on her injured leg, Nadine limped over to the door, hoping for a hint of what bee had flown into Charlotte’s bonnet.

  “Stop,” Charlotte called. “Amos! Stop! You don’t have any headlights! You can’t be driving on the road at night!”

  * * *

  “Tell me again why you don’t have any headlights on your buggy,” Charlotte demanded an hour or so later.

  After she had ran down the road after him, Amos had stopped his buggy and turned back toward the Burkharts’ house. The last thing, the very last thing that he wanted to be doing at his age was sleeping on the floor in someone’s barn, but with no headlights to shine the way, what choice did he have?

  Truth be told, it was the last thing he wanted after driving in the dark with no lights to show the way.

  So he’d come back, cleaned the fish while Nadine took a bath, and tried not to think about her bathing. Then he took his own turn.

  Charlotte had taken his clothes and hung them on the line. For a moment, he’d thought perhaps he’d be forced to walk around in a dress, but then she’d brought him a pair of pants and a shirt to wear. After he had donned the too big clothes, she had explained how they’d belonged to her husband and somehow managed to make it through the move.

  He had been weirdly satisfied that the clothes had belonged to Charlotte’s husband and not Nadine’s. And he wasn’t about to examine why.

  “Never needed them,” he said, referring to buggy headlights.

  “It seems that time has passed,” Nadine groused.

  “Name me one person over fort
y who has lights on their buggies. You can’t do it and you know why? No one has them. We only drive them on Sundays and it’s always light when we’re driving. The kids not so much since they drive home from the singings on Sunday nights. I don’t attend any singings so why should I go to the expense and trouble of having lights and a battery and all that other stuff when I can do without them?”

  “Until today,” Nadine put in.

  “Until today,” he confirmed. “But how was I to know that you were going to fall into the pond?”

  “How was I to know that you were going to . . .” She stopped, and for a moment he wondered if she was about to say, How was I to know that you were going to put your arms around me? “. . . jump in after me?”

  “I still can’t believe this,” Charlotte said. “Do you know how lucky you are that nothing more happened?”

  Amos supposed it was like reliving a nightmare for Charlotte, and he hated having worried her, even in retrospect.

  “You could have hit your head, cut yourself, or worse.”

  To his horror, tears welled in Charlotte’s eyes. She dabbed them away before they could fall, but he had seen them. They had upset her, and he hated that.

  His presence at their dining room table was probably nothing more than a reminder of what had happened and all the terrible things that didn’t but could have.

  He stood. “I think I’ll go get me a bed ready in the barn.”

  Nadine jumped to her feet as well. “I’ll get you some blankets and such.” She rushed off out of sight.

  He wasn’t sure what was worse: being alone with Charlotte or being without Nadine.

  “You have to take care of her. She’s all I have left.”

  Being alone with Charlotte.

  She seemed to be teetering on the verge of one tragedy or another. She was simply waiting on the next one to happen, and she saw opportunity for it in almost every action. How terrible to live like that. He sincerely hoped that she was talking over those feelings with someone, but he wasn’t about to ask.