by Amy Clipston
CHAPTER 11
I can’t believe Christmas Eve is tomorrow,” Naomi said as she walked through the indoor flea market on Friday.
“I know.” Lilly stopped and glanced at the candy concession stand. “I should get some candy for Hannah’s kinner.” She smiled at the clerk and began rattling off a list of candy.
Lizzie Anne sidled up to Naomi and tapped her shoulder. “Are you okay?” she whispered. “You’ve been sort of quiet since Wednesday. Is everything all right?”
Naomi held back a sigh. Her younger sister was quite intuitive. Naomi had been quiet since her discussion with her mother Wednesday night, after her shopping excursion with Caleb and the girls. And Naomi’s reticence was caused by the conflicting thoughts swirling through her head. Her mother had warned her not to allow Caleb to return to Ohio with her heart. While Naomi knew that the advice was sound, she feared that Caleb Schmucker already had possession of it.
Naomi tried to smile, but her lips formed a grimace. “I have some things on my mind.”
“Is something wrong?” Lizzie Anne asked, her brown eyes full of worry.
“No,” Naomi said, glancing toward the counter, where Lilly stood talking to the candy clerk. “Everything is fine. I just have a lot to get done. I still have to make a batch of butterscotch cookies for Dat and then get all of the gifts together for the little ones.”
Lizzie Anne tilted her chin in question. “Are you certain that’s it?”
“Ya.” Naomi pulled her list from the pocket of her apron. “I need to pick up a few gifts for Mamm. She wants me to get some little gifts in case we go visiting tomorrow.”
“For the Kauffmans, ya?”
Naomi’s eyes snapped to her sister’s face. “The Kauffmans?”
“Ya. We were invited to Sadie’s tomorrow night for the Kauffman Christmas Eve get-together,” Lizzie Anne said with a smile. “I have to pick up something special for Lindsay,” she said, referring to Rebecca Kauffman’s niece who lived with her. “You know she’s my best freind.”
Nodding, Naomi had wondered when she would see Caleb again. Although the thought of seeing him again sent her stomach into a knot, she also couldn’t wait. She’d enjoyed the time spent baking and laughing with Susie and her sisters yesterday afternoon. She felt her attachment to the girl growing, but she also knew the attachment wasn’t limited to just the girl. She had deep, growing feelings for Susie’s father, and it both scared and excited her at the same time. And this feeling was nothing compared to what she’d believed she felt for Luke Troyer and Timothy Kauffman once. This attachment was more meaningful. The risk of heartbreak was high, but for some inexplicable reason, Naomi felt a willingness to take the risk.
“Naomi?” a voice asked.
Naomi turned and found Lilly studying her.
“You okay?” her friend asked.
“Funny,” Lizzie Anne began with a grin. “I just asked her the same question.”
Naomi blew out a defeated sigh. “I feel like I’m on trial here.”
Lilly took Naomi’s arm and pulled her through the knot of shoppers. “Let’s go get some fudge and talk.”
“Fine.” Naomi gave in with a grimace. Getting fudge would bring back memories of her shopping day with Caleb. How ironic.
After ordering the chocolate, they sat at a small table. Naomi felt her sister’s and her friend’s eyes studying her as she broke off a piece of milk chocolate fudge.
“What’s going on?” Lilly asked between bites of her dark chocolate fudge. “You’re very distracted and quiet.”
“That’s what I said,” Lizzie Anne said while wiping a piece of milk chocolate off her sleeve and balancing her slab of remaining fudge in her other hand.
“I have a lot on my mind,” Naomi said with a shrug.
“Such as?” Lilly prodded.
Naomi knew neither of them would back down until she spilled her heart to them. It was time to confess her feelings, and she wasn’t certain she could put them into coherent words.
“On Wednesday, I went shopping with Caleb Schmucker, Susie, Janie Kauffman, and my younger sisters,” Naomi said, keeping her eyes on her block of fudge. “In fact, we came here, so Susie could do some Christmas shopping for little gifts for her cousins and new friends.”
“What?” Lilly’s voice nearly squeaked with shock. “Why didn’t you tell me this yesterday?”
“I didn’t think to tell you.” Naomi felt wretched for telling a fib, but she continued, despite Lilly’s hurt expression. “That night, my mamm gave me a lecture on not giving my heart to Caleb because he’s a widower and also because he’s going to go back to Ohio. She said I’m just setting myself up to get hurt.”
“Why would Mamm say that?” Lizzie Anne asked while wiping more stray crumbs off her sleeve. “Why does Mamm think you like Caleb?”
“I don’t know.” Naomi’s cheeks heated. She wasn’t very good at lying.
“Oh,” Lizzie Anne said with a wide smile. “You do like Caleb.”
“Mamms have a way of knowing these things,” Lilly said, patting Lizzie Anne’s arm. “Sometimes they know before we do. It’s their job.” She then turned her gaze to Naomi. “How did shopping go? Did you have a gut time?”
Naomi nodded. “We had a wunderbaar time. He’s so easy to talk to, and he’s so very sweet and thoughtful.” She frowned and shook her head. “I’m doomed. I never should’ve gone out with him.”
“Why do you say that?” Lizzie Anne asked. She bit into the fudge, and the crumbs were finally under control. “It sounds like you’re gut freinden. Why can’t you be freinden with him? Susie obviously likes you. I’ve seen how she talks to you and follows you around.”
“It’s more complicated than that,” Naomi said with a gentle smile. She ate more fudge and wished she could turn off her feelings for Caleb. But did she really want to turn them off? When she was with him, she felt a true happiness that she’d never felt before.
“You’re not going to listen to your mamm are you?” Lilly asked before popping a final piece of fudge into her mouth.
“I don’t know.” Naomi shrugged. “I don’t know what to do. My mamm is right about him leaving. He’s going to go back to Ohio, and where will that leave me? I’ll be right back where I was when Timothy and I broke up —alone and nursing a broken heart.”
“Maybe not,” Lizzie Anne said. “Maybe he’ll want to court you, and he and Susie can move here.” She shrugged. “He may like you too, and he may want to be back by his family since Susie’s mamm is gone.” She looked between Lilly and Naomi. “It’s a possibility, right?”
Lilly nodded. “You could be right.”
Naomi shook her head. “That would be a big move for him.”
“Or you could move to Ohio,” Lizzie Anne said. “I would hate to see you go, but we could visit.”
Naomi shook her head. “I don’t know if I could leave Mamm, Dat, and all of you.”
“It would be difficult, but my cousin did it,” Lilly said. “She misses her family, but she keeps in touch with letters and occasional phone calls.”
“Lilly is right.” Lizzie Anne wiped her mouth. “If it feels right for you to go with him to Ohio, then you should think about it. You need to follow your heart, Naomi. That’s what you used to say.”
“I was wrong,” Naomi whispered, thinking back on her failed relationships.
“No, you were never wrong about following your heart,” Lilly chimed in with a knowing smile. “You simply did it at the wrong time. Don’t judge your future by your past. Things happen in God’s time.”
“Ya!” Lizzie Anne snapped her fingers. “It’s like the verse Dat read last night during devotions. Remember? I think it went something like: ‘I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope.’ “
Lilly grinned at Lizzie Anne. “You are one smart maedel.”
Lizzie Anne smoothed the tie of her prayer covering. “Sometimes I have a gut thought or two.”
Naomi smiled whil
e finishing her fudge.
“It’s like what you told me the other day,” Lilly said. “You said that in the past you were too eager and you didn’t wait for God’s time for love. Maybe now it’s God’s time.”
Naomi nodded slowly while considering the words. “Maybe it is.” I hope you’re right, Lilly.
Lilly wiped her hands and stood. “Let’s shop, ya?”
Naomi tossed her dirty napkins in the trash can. “I have a store I want to go into.”
Lizzie Anne chatted about the weather report and threat of more snow as they weaved through the crowd toward the antique store.
“What are we doing here?” Lizzie Anne asked as they stepped through the doorway.
“I’ll be fast,” Naomi said and then rushed toward the tool section, holding her breath and hoping that the antique drill was still there. She picked up the contraption and smiled.
After paying for it, she hurried over to Lizzie Anne and Lilly, who were in a deep discussion about a desk and whether or not it was an antique or just an overpriced piece of furniture.
“Did you get what you needed?” Lilly asked as they headed back out into the flea market crowd.
“Ya,” Naomi hugged the bag to her cloak. “I’m all set. I just need to go to the toy store and find some little things for the kinner.”
“What’s in the bag?” Lizzie Anne reached for the bag.
Naomi swatted her hand away. “Nothing.”
Her sister’s eyes widened with curiosity. “Ach, then it must be gut. Is it for Caleb?”
Naomi nodded.
“What is it?” Lilly asked, looking intrigued.
“It’s something he told me he wanted but would never buy himself,” Naomi said, loosening her grip on the bag.
“What is it?” Lizzie Anne asked again. “Just tell us. We’ll keep it a secret, right, Lilly?”
Lilly nodded. “You have my word.”
Naomi moved out of the crowd and stood outside the toy store. She pulled out the drill, and Lilly and Lizzie Anne stared at the tool as if it were from another world.
“What is it?” Lizzie Anne asked.
“It looks sort of like a drill my grossdaddi had in his barn,” Lilly said.
“That’s exactly what it is, Lilly,” Naomi said. “Caleb collects antique tools, and he uses them too.”
“Wow,” Lizzie Anne said, touching the handle. “He’ll love it.”
Naomi smiled. “I hope so.”
CHAPTER 12
Caleb was reading his Bible when a knock sounded on his bedroom door later that evening. He opened the door and found Susie glowering. “Wie geht’s?”
“Irene is here.” She spat out the words. “I don’t think I like her.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Susan. What’s gotten into you?”
“She doesn’t even say hello to me,” Susie said, her frown deepening. “She looked at me and said, ‘Where’s your dat?’ It’s like I don’t exist.”
Caleb touched her prayer covering. “I’m certain she didn’t mean it. Remember your manners.”
“Why?” Susie asked as they headed through the sitting room. “She doesn’t remember hers, so why should I remember mine?”
He suppressed a smile. “You must always be respectful of adults, even when it seems as if they don’t have any manners. Maybe she will learn by your example.”
“Yes, Dat.” She stopped at the doorway leading to the large family room. “But I’m certain she doesn’t like me,” she whispered, her pretty face twisted with a deep scowl.
He touched her nose. “Anyone who doesn’t like you is misled, mei liewe.”
She scrunched her nose, and he laughed. Taking her hand, he steered her to the kitchen where Irene sat talking with Sadie. Sadie’s younger children were seated at the table coloring on construction paper.
“Wie geht’s?” Caleb said.
“Oh, Caleb,” Sadie said, popping up from her chair. “I’ll let you two chat.” She shooed her children into the family room and then looked at Susie. “You come too, Susie. Let your dat and Irene chat.”
Susie frowned up at Sadie. “I’m staying with my dat.”
Sadie lifted a finger in preparation to scold her.
“She’s fine,” Caleb said, his voice booming a little louder than he’d intended.
“Oh,” Sadie said, looking surprised. She disappeared into the family room.
“Wie geht’s?” Caleb repeated, sinking into a chair across the table from Irene.
“I’m gut. How are you?” Irene smiled sweetly at Caleb and then glanced past him, her smile fading.
Caleb turned to find Susie leaning in the doorway, looking unhappy. “Join us, Susie.” He motioned for her to come to the table, but she shook her head. He could feel her uneasiness from across the room, and his heart ached for his usually happy-go-lucky daughter.
He turned back to Irene, and her sugary sweet smile returned. “What brings you out this way?” he inquired, hoping to ease the tension.
“I was going to ask you what you were planning for supper,” she said, leaning across the table just slightly as if to share a secret. “Do you like Hamburg goulash?”
“Ach,” he said, fingering his beard. “I’d have to count that as one of my most favorite meals.”
“Gut!” She grinned. “Why don’t you grab your coat, and we’ll head out to my parents’ house. I made a special dessert too.”
“Sounds appeditlich.” He turned to Susie, who was still in the doorway, twisting one of the ties from her prayer covering in her little finger. “Grab your cloak, Susie. We’re going to dinner at Irene’s.”
“Oh,” Irene said quickly. She leaned toward him and lowered her voice. “I thought maybe Susie could stay here with Sadie so that you and my dat could talk about the shop.”
“See, Dat,” Susie exclaimed, stomping into the room. “She doesn’t like me!”
“Susan.” Caleb stood. He gestured for her to calm down while working to keep his voice composed. “We just talked about this. Remember your manners.” He turned to Irene. “I’d rather not have dinner without my dochder.”
Irene bristled. “Oh. I thought you might like to discuss the buggy business without the interruption of a kind.”
“I don’t see my dochder as an interruption.” He walked over to Susie and placed a hand on her shoulder.
Irene looked stunned. “But don’t you want to discuss working at my daed’s shop?”
Caleb shook his head. “If she’s not welcome, then I’ll politely turn down your supper invitation.” He glanced down at Susie, and she smiled. Her eyes were so full of love that his heart felt as if it would melt.
Popping up, Irene crossed to the door and snatched her cloak from the peg on the wall. “I suppose I’ll see you later.” Scowling, she pulled on her cloak. “Please tell Sadie I said gut nacht.”
“I will,” Caleb said, gently squeezing Susie’s shoulder.
Irene rushed through the door, which slammed behind her.
“Dat!” Susie beamed up at him. “You didn’t want to go without me?”
He shook his head. “How could I go without you? You’re mei liewe. We’re in this together, remember?”
She wrapped her arms around his waist and hugged him. “Ich liebe dich.”
“I love you too,” he said. “But you must remember not to talk back to adults, Susie. You can get your point across without being rude.”
She grinned up at him. “Like you did.”
He chuckled and rubbed her shoulder. “Ya, I guess I did.”
She headed for the door. “I’m going to go tell Janie!”
“Susie!” He hoped to stop her from telling the family about his conversation with Irene, but she was gone. He heard her shoes clunking up the stairs to the bedrooms.
Stepping over to the window, Caleb glanced out at the sky, seeing snowflakes floating down to the porch railing and dotting the rock driveway.
“Did I hear a door slam?” Sadie asked behind him.
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“Ya,” he said, facing her quizzical stare. “Irene left.”
Sadie stepped through the doorway. “Didn’t she invite you for supper?”
He nodded. “She did.”
“And what happened?” Her eyes searched his face.
“I declined her invitation.”
“Why would you do that?” She stepped toward him. “I don’t understand. Irene is young and attractive, and her father has a successful carriage shop. You don’t need to invest in a new business.” She gestured with her hands. “You could simply work for him, and you and Irene could get to know each other better.”
He frowned, running his hand through his hair. Would his sister ever stop her interfering? “I’m going for a walk.” He gripped the doorknob and wrenched the back door open with a squeak.
“Caleb?” Sadie called after him.
Stepping out onto the porch, the cold, moist air seeped through his shirt and into his skin. He took a deep, cleansing breath and walked over to the railing. Closing his eyes, he let the cool snowflakes kiss his warm cheeks while breathing out the frustration boiling in his soul.
He knew that allowing his sister’s interference to upset him wouldn’t help the situation. He remembered clearly how she tried to run his life when he lived with his parents. She was interested in all of Caleb’s comings and goings, suggesting how he should spend his social life and even giving her unsolicited opinions of his friends. While he loved his sister, she was a hopeless meddler.
Opening his eyes, he stared up at the sky, wondering how he would handle her when he moved back. How could he keep the lines of communication open with his sister without losing his temper?
He glanced toward the driveway, and his thoughts turned to Irene. He’d hoped that Susie was wrong when she’d proclaimed Irene’s dislike for her. However, Irene’s facial expressions and her blatant disregard for Susie’s feelings were apparent. He’d never understand how someone could disregard a child the way that Irene did. Even if Caleb had wanted to discuss business with Hezekiah Wagler, he would’ve done it in front of Susie. She was old enough to be quiet while the adults were having a serious conversation.