“I have some. Linda gave it to me.”
“I’ll be glad when your job is over. It’s been too much for you.”
She shrugged. “I was happy to help. And I’ve enjoyed it. Say, Sam, I brought a surprise home for you.”
“What is it?”
“It’s for after supper. And if I tell you now, it won’t be a surprise. If you eat all your supper you can have it.”
“We’re having spizgetti and meatballs. When hasn’t Sam finished all his supper when we’ve had that?”
“Or anything?” She filled a pan with water for spaghetti and set it on a burner.
She thought about the two surprises she’d had today—first Abram coming into the shop and asking her to lunch.
And finding out she wasn’t pregnant. She hadn’t had time to absorb it yet.
Or thank God for answered prayer. She closed her eyes and sent up a silent thank-you until she could do a better job later.
“Rachel Ann! What are you doing?”
Her eyes snapped open. She was standing before the stove. If she didn’t want another burn, she’d better pay attention.
“Rachel Ann! Look what I colored!” He held up the drawing he’d made of a gingerbread man, woman, and children smiling merrily. “A gingerbread fam’ly. Fam’ly like us,” he said and went back to work putting candy canes in their hands.
“Ya, family like us,” Rachel Ann said, and she smiled at her mother who sat quietly dabbing at her eyes with a tissue.
10
Abram decided to make one more stop before going home after he had lunch with Rachel Ann.
He knew it had been too long since he’d paid a visit to his friend, Saul, at his store, Miller’s, when the man greeted him with an expression of surprise on his face.
“Abram! What brings you here?”
They shook hands, and Abram glanced around the store. It had a pleasant, creative feel, full of goods handmade by the Amish for the home. The display window featured a number of items for the Christmas season. Abram forced his attention away from the handmade cribs and baby furniture in one corner.
“I came into town to do a delivery and a little Christmas shopping. Thought I’d stop in and say hello.”
“Hello’s gut. Buying something’s even better,” Saul joked. “Who’s on your list?”
“I’m finished. I just got gifts for my mother. I didn’t have a big list, and I’d have made something for her like usual, but I’ve been busy lately.”
“I heard you’ve been helping Leroy and Martha.”
Abram shrugged. “They’re friends as well as neighbors.”
He wandered the aisles looking over the merchandise. “Amos does fine work,” he said, picking up a carved wooden owl.
“So do you.”
“Nothing as creative like this. I mostly build furniture.”
“The carving on your small keepsake boxes is fine. Whenever you have some extra time and want to make some pieces for the store, I’ll be happy to have them.”
Abram stopped before a beautifully carved cradle. Amos was known for them. It made him remember telling Rachel Ann he’d marry her if she found out she was pregnant.
He hadn’t been thinking only of helping her. There was a time in a man’s life when his thoughts turned to settling down with a fraa and having kinner. He stood there gazing at the cradle for long moments until he realized Saul stood by his side, probably wondering why he was spending so much time looking at it. Then he realized Saul was staring at the cradle with a bemused expression. “Saul?”
He tore his gaze from the cradle. “Ya?”
“Anything wrong?”
Saul shook his head and grinned. “Nee, everything’s great. Elizabeth and I have some news.”
Abram turned to him. He’d been friends with Saul for years, but he’d never seen him as happy as he looked now.
“We’re going to have a boppli.”
“How wonderful!” Abram said and slapped Saul on the back.
He looked up and saw Elizabeth walking toward them. He’d never seen her look so happy, either.
“I’m guessing Saul’s sharing our good news,” she said, gazing at her husband adoringly.
Abram wondered what it felt like to have someone look at you like that. Saul was returning her look. He wondered if they even remembered he stood there.
“I’m so happy for you. Such wonderful news—especially at this time of year.”
“We decided to tell a few close friends and our parents but that’s all for now,” Saul said.
“Well, then, I’m honored.”
Several customers walked in, and Saul and Elizabeth excused themselves to help them. Abram wandered around, enjoying the clever displays—something he was sure Elizabeth was responsible for, because they hadn’t looked as creative before she’d started working here.
Although their community didn’t put up Christmas trees, many shop owners used them at the holidays for the Englisch customers. One stood in the display window, hung with little quilted patchwork ornaments.
Little carved wooden birds lined one shelf. Some were realistic interpretations and others were whimsical little creatures. He picked up one of them and found himself smiling. It looked like the kind of thing to cheer Rachel Ann up.
“I love these birds,” Elizabeth told him. “I bought several of the little sparrows when I first started working here. They reminded me if God provides for the sparrow, He’d provide for me. I was on my own for the first time and not sure I’d be able to take care for myself.”
She touched her finger to the funny little frog Abram held. “This would make a great gift.”
“That’s what I was thinking.”
She grinned at him. “Who will you be giving it to?” she asked him as they walked around the store.
“I think I’ll keep it a secret,” he told her.
“I had lunch with Rachel Ann recently,” Elizabeth said. “It was before Sam came home. Such a miracle. God is gut.”
Had she guessed the frog was for Rachel Ann? Well, he wouldn’t tell her even though she was Saul’s cousin. He studied Elizabeth as she straightened a display. Had Rachel Ann told her she was worried about being pregnant? They were gut friends . . .
“Something wrong?”
He realized she’d turned and found him staring at her. “Nee, I was just thinking I should get Sam a couple of those wooden puzzles.”
“I agree.”
Saul walked up, finished with his customer. Elizabeth handed him the puzzles to ring up.
“Well, it was gut to see you and we thank you for the business,” Saul said with a chuckle.
“I’m glad I stopped by,” Abram told him.
There was a lot of traffic on the road home. Impatient drivers passed his buggy several times, once entirely too close, but they didn’t affect Abram’s mood. He’d had a good day taking Rachel Ann to lunch and shopping for presents. The news Saul and Elizabeth were going to be parents had cheered him up as well. Kinner were gifts from God—even when they might come unexpectedly, like if Rachel Ann were pregnant.
He’d always celebrated the spiritual side of Christmas, but he’d never made so much of an effort to find gifts as he had today. He was actually looking forward to Christmas Day. It was entirely possible he and Rachel Ann would be announcing an upcoming wedding at Christmas. He found himself grinning at the thought.
* * *
“Your gingerbread people are going fast,” Linda told Rachel Ann. “I think we should skip making more of the Snickerdoodles and do a few dozen more of the people.”
Rachel Ann grinned as she started a new batch of gingerbread cookie dough. “Allrecht. I got the idea for the people from Sam.” She glanced at his drawing she’d tacked up on the bakery refrigerator.
“So glad he’s home. I told you not to worry. You know, it’s nice to see a smile on your face. I haven’t seen it for a long time.”
“Danki.” Linda didn’t know Sam wasn’t the only reason she was smiling today.<
br />
Linda took the latest batch of cookies to a nearby worktable to wrap them in batches of a dozen each in cellophane and big, bright ribbons.
Rachel Ann used a big wooden spoon to cream the butter and sugar. The ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves smelled so Christmasy . . . time seemed to be coming faster and faster these days. The holiday would be here soon. She hadn’t thought about it much with all the worrying about Sam and being pregnant.
Heat flooded into her face as she thought about how she needed to talk to Abram—how foolish she felt she’d worried for nothing. She knew Michael thought she was naïve. Abram would probably think so, too, but he knew Amish girls were sheltered and innocent compared to the Englisch ones Michael knew. Abram deserved to know he wouldn’t need to make good on his offer to marry her.
She still couldn’t believe he had been so generous—and selfless. Even if he had feelings for her as he said he did, he knew she’d been dating someone else and not looking in his direction.
“Shall I open a window?” Linda asked. “You look a little warm.”
“Nee, I’m fine,” she said quickly. She sifted the flour and dry ingredients and stirred, grateful when Linda turned back to wrapping up the packages of cookies.
“I’m putting some of the gingerbread families in the display window along with these,” she said. When Rachel Ann walked into the front of the bakery with another tray of them a little while later she couldn’t help feeling a little twinge of pride when she saw people peering in the window and pointing at the gingerbread cookies. Some came in and bought a whole “family” to take home.
Before she knew it, her shift was over and it was time for the one at Stitches in Time. She found herself glancing in the two windows. Crafts created by everyone in the shop were displayed in the window—everyone but her. Leah had been generous in encouraging her to try a craft with an eye to selling it in the shop as Mary Katherine, Naomi, Anna, and Emma did, but Rachel Ann didn’t feel qualified to do anything in this area. She’d never been good at any of the sewing or quilting like so many Amish women. It was baking she enjoyed and seemed to have a talent for.
It was, at least, easier to work in the shop since Sam was home now. She’d liked the bakery job better during the time when customers who knew he’d been hurt made her feel guilty. Well, on reflection, they hadn’t made her feel guilty. She had done that job herself. It didn’t matter if her mother had told her she and her dat didn’t blame her. She suspected she would always blame herself.
Leah greeted her warmly when she stepped inside. Mary Katherine and Naomi were happy to see her, too, although she suspected it had a lot to do with the bakery box she carried.
“What did you bring us?” Mary Katherine asked. “Here, let me take it so you can put your things up.”
Rachel Ann bit back a smile.
“Mary Katherine, you didn’t even say hello!” Naomi chided her cousin. “Guder mariye, Rachel Ann,” she said. “What did you bring us?” She tried to take the box from her cousin.
She laughed. “Sticky buns with pecans.”
“My favorite!” Mary Katherine cried.
“I thought cinnamon rolls were your favorite.”
“Anything she bakes is your favorite,” Naomi scoffed. “Coffee or tea, Rachel Ann?”
She glanced at the clock. They had fifteen minutes before the shop opened. “Tea, please.”
Mary Katherine put a bun on a plate, fixed a cup of tea, and set both of them on a small tray. She carried it out to Leah and then joined Naomi and Rachel Ann at the table.
“Promise us you’ll bring baked goodies in after you quit working at the bakery,” Mary Katherine said as she picked up a bun and took a bite.
“Promise.”
“Maybe you should think about baking at home and supplying the bakery after the part-time job ends. It would be easier on you than going into the bakery early five mornings a week,” Mary Katherine suggested.
“What an interesting idea,” Rachel Ann said. “I’ll have to think about talking to Linda about it.”
“So, how’s Sam?”
“Gut. Still complaining about his cast, but he gets around just as though he’s not wearing one. Our grossmudder says he runs her ragged every day when she watches him.”
“Are you still seeing Michael?” Naomi wanted to know.
“I don’t think so,” she said slowly, surprising herself. “What I mean is, I don’t think I want to anymore. I think I was interested in him because I was so curious about the Englisch. But he’s not the man I thought he was.”
She stared into her cup. Michael had only visited Sam once in the hospital. It was nice he’d seen to it the hospital bill was paid, but then again it was his insurance. She hadn’t felt he was sensitive about the way he’d responded to her anxiety about being pregnant. Okay, so she was naïve . . . but did he have to make her feel that way?
She reminded herself he couldn’t make her feel naïve unless she let him, any more than she had to feel inferior to other Amish women, because she wasn’t skilled at quilting or sewing.
Suddenly aware of silence, she looked up. Mary Katherine and Naomi were watching her with sympathy.
“Sometimes you have to date someone to know they’re not right for you,” Naomi said. “I dated the wrong man before I married Nick. It was pretty unpleasant at the end.”
She shivered, then shook her head. “The man was from another Amish community so I didn’t know him well. Nick was Englisch then, but I’d known him for years and I think it makes a difference.”
“Maybe it’s one reason why our marriages work,” Mary Katherine said, looking thoughtful. “We usually know the man we marry for a long time. We grow up with them, become friends before we find ourselves falling in love.”
Rachel Ann thought about what Abram had said to her about how his feelings had changed, had grown for her.
She knew he was the best friend she’d ever had, and she cared deeply about him as well. Had she taken him for granted and thought there was something—someone—better out there and missed out?
There was silence again.
“Where’d you go this time?” Naomi asked, her eyes twinkling. “What’s on your mind? Or should I say who?”
Mary Katherine poked her with her elbow. “Stop teasing.”
“I’m only asking what you want to know,” Naomi retorted.
“You’re being as nosy as Anna.”
“I’m telling her you said so.”
“She knows she’s nosy.”
Rachel Ann laughed and stood up. The three acted more like sisters than cousins. Sometimes when she was around them she found herself wishing she’d had a sister.
“Ready to open up?” Leah asked as she walked in and set her plate in the sink. “I have a feeling it’s going to be a busy day.”
“They’re the best kind,” Naomi said. “Those and a day when I have a quilting class.”
Rachel Ann took a sip of her tea and thought a busy day would help the time go quickly. And she wouldn’t have time to think about talking to Abram . . .
* * *
Rachel Ann rehearsed what she was going to say to Abram all the way home.
What a stupid mess had come from one small act—drinking a beer. So much had changed so quickly . . . too many hours of worry. It was much like how in a blink of an eye Sam had been hurt and they’d endured so much anguish.
She still felt nearly giddy whenever she remembered she no longer had to worry about being pregnant. When she started her rumschpringe, she’d looked at whether she wanted to join the church. She didn’t struggle as much with religious issues as some Amish youth did. Nothing bad had ever happened to her to make her upset with God—even Sam’s accident hadn’t done that, because she’d blamed herself for it happening.
Her parents hadn’t objected to her dating Michael like she’d thought they might, but they hadn’t seemed happy about it. However, they had insisted she keep attending church as long as she lived under their
roof. She’d agreed, and they had looked relieved she hadn’t argued.
There was just this curiosity about the Englisch world . . . and guys she hadn’t grown up with.
Well, this morning, when she’d been talking with Mary Katherine and Naomi, she realized she just didn’t feel the same about Michael. Or exploring the Englisch world.
Sometimes she was so tired after her long days at work she fell asleep on the ride home. Tonight she felt wide awake and was looking forward to talking to Abram.
Now she just had to find a time and place to talk to him.
When she arrived home, she found a note on the kitchen table saying her parents had gone to visit her grossmudder with Sam and would be home around eight. There was homemade vegetable soup and the makings for sandwiches in the refrigerator for her supper.
Rachel Ann set her purse and lunch tote down. This time of the day Abram could usually be found in the barn taking care of his horses or working on some projects for the furniture store.
She saw the glow of a battery-run lantern as she walked over to the barn. “Abram?”
“Kumm!” he called.
She pushed open the door and walked inside, careful to close it behind her to keep in the warmth. Abram sat at a worktable carving a rose design into the top of a dark wooden keepsake box.
His face lit up when he saw her. “Gut-n-owed.” He got up and brought her the chair he’d been sitting on. “How are you doing? Feeling allrecht?”
Rachel Ann nodded, basking in the warmth of his smile. She sank into the chair, grateful for the chance to sit down after being on her feet all day.
He pulled over a bale of hay and sat near her, so close their knees nearly touched.
“I have something to tell you,” she said slowly.
“You found out already?”
“You could say so.” She hesitated. Michael had made her feel almost stupid she hadn’t remembered.
Abram reached over and took one of her hands. “There’s nothing to worry about. I told you I’d marry you.”
She stared at him. It had been growing dark the other night when he had shocked her with his proposal. Now, in the light of the lantern, she saw how sincere, how caring he was.
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