She wasn’t going to be all right until she saw that he was going to be just fine, too.
Chapter 27
That same day
Just as she was waving good-bye to her study group, Rachel saw another unexpected guest approaching. But this one was a welcome surprise.
“Marcus!” she cried. Unable to help herself, she rushed down the steps and reached for his hands. “I’m so relieved to see you.”
His gaze drifted over her face before he leaned down and pressed a kiss to her brow. “I’m glad to see you, too.” Taking her hand, he gently squeezed it. “Are you feeling all right?”
As it always did, the warmth of his touch soothed her like little else could. “I’m better now. But I have to tell ya that things were mighty worrisome for a while. Peter came here to get Lilly. And Meghan told me about the ambulances, too. I was so worried about you.”
His eyebrows rose. “About me? Never do that, Rachel. I’m not going anywhere,” he said with a hint of a smile.
“Don’t act like I’m being foolish. Accidents happen.”
“Jah, they do,” he said as he guided her back inside the building. When they had their privacy, he lightly kissed her lips. “But like I said, I am fine.”
“How is Jacob Yoder?”
“He needed a bunch of stitches, but I heard he’s going to heal in no time.”
“And the man who had the heart attack?”
“It was Amos. Do you remember me speaking of him?”
“Jah. His daughter got married last year.”
Marcus smiled. “Well, he’s hanging in there. Lukas told me that his doctors are going to run some tests to see how his heart is running.”
“I’ll pray for him, too.”
“I know he will be appreciative of that.” He stepped back a bit. For the first time since he’d arrived, he looked tentative.
“Is there anything else you wanted to talk to me about?”
“Actually, jah.”
“What is it?” Rachel braced herself for him to chastise her again about working.
Running a hand along his short beard, he stared at her, then glanced around the room as if he were looking at it for the first time. Rachel looked around, too. She noticed the messy stack of notebooks on one of the side tables. The lessons she hadn’t yet erased from the chalkboard. The pile of picture books her youngest pupils had forgotten to put away.
She became aware of the scent of crayons and glue and peanut butter and, well, children. It wasn’t unpleasant; no, it was so very familiar to her it made her heart warm. But she was sure that to Marcus this place looked unkempt and disorganized.
“Rachel, as I was walking over, I realized something.” He looked up, took a breath, then met her gaze again. “I realized that I was glad you weren’t sitting home alone by yourself. I was happy that you weren’t pacing our hallway, waiting and wondering how I was doing.”
He knew her so well. “You’re right. I would have been pacing nonstop.”
Instead of smiling at the image, he looked even more determined. “The truth is, though a lot of my friends’ wives enjoy the solitude at home, I know that ain’t you. I . . . well, after everything that happened today, I realized that I was glad you were working here.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Being here makes you happy. It keeps you occupied. This classroom and the kinner you teach are as much a part of your life as Kinsinger’s is to me. Ain’t so?”
She curved her hands around her middle protectively. “Jah. When I am around my little scholars, I feel needed and helpful. Their innocent comments make me smile, their silly antics make me laugh. I feel . . . well, I feel like I am helping these children find their way through life. I love them. Every one of their accomplishments makes me feel worthy—even when Toby learned to tie his laces yesterday.”
He smiled. “I’m sorry that I didn’t understand that before now.”
“When the babe comes, I will stop teaching, Marcus. But for now, I want to be here. Just like you with all the men who work on your team, I have people here who count on me.” She smiled slightly. “They may be small, but their needs are just as important.”
“Will you forgive me for being so bossy and obstinate?”
Just to tease him, she rolled her eyes. “Ain’t that what I always do?”
He grinned. “Careful, Mrs. Mast. I ain’t one of your little scholars.”
Holding out her hand, she smiled. “No, you are not. You’re someone even better. You’re my husband. Are you ready to go home?”
“What about your classroom? Don’t you need to clean it up or something?”
She did. Of course she did. But some things were far more important than scattered books and ungraded papers. “I think I’ll tackle it all tomorrow. Right now, I’d rather walk home with you and count my blessings.”
“Lead the way, then, Rachel. You lead and I will follow.”
As she picked up her purse and pulled out the keys to lock the door, Rachel decided that sweeter words had never been said.
LILLY HAD WORKED hard on the house while her grandparents were at the hospital. She’d put fresh sheets on her uncle’s bed, finished making chicken soup, and baked buttermilk biscuits.
After that, she’d gone to the barn, checked for eggs, and washed the four she found before setting them neatly in the refrigerator.
Then, at long last, Uncle Jacob came home.
Unable to stop her tears, she’d hugged him tight. He’d hugged her back, kissed her brow, and then assured her he was not too worse for wear. Only when her tears were dry did he disappear into the house behind Mommi and Dawdi.
Not too long after that, Peter returned.
She had been sitting on the front porch, simply enjoying the quiet. When he saw her, he smiled. “Hey.”
“Hi. How are things at the mill?”
“Good enough. How’s your uncle?”
“He’s got a big bandage on his arm but he’s all right, I guess. He’s inside with my grandparents.”
“Can I sit with you on the swing?”
Feeling a little awkward, she scooted over and bit her lip when he settled right next to her. “I’m so tired,” he said sheepishly. “I feel like I’ve run all over Charm today.”
“You might have.” Shyly, she added, “What you did, running out to school to see me? It was a good thing. I’m glad you were the person to tell me about Uncle Jacob.”
“Me, too.”
After a little while, Peter stretched and placed his arm around her shoulders. Lilly stiffened, unsure what she thought about that, then decided his arm felt comforting. He was warm and steady and smelled good, too.
Because she couldn’t think of anything to say, she simply relaxed against him.
Peter seemed to feel the same way. He rocked them back and forth with one foot. Together, they watched the sun glide across the horizon, turning the sky into a pretty mixture of pink and orange before it faded.
Realizing it was going to be dark soon, Lilly turned her head. “Are you sure your parents aren’t gonna mind you being over here? It’s getting late.”
“I stopped home before I came back here. They’d heard about Amos and Jacob. After I filled them in, I told them that I needed to see you. They understood.”
“That’s nice of them.” She smiled shakily.
“I’ve got nice parents,” he said easily. “They understand most things.”
“I guess so.”
Peter’s foot continued to move their swing back and forth. The motion made her slide closer to him. He seemed not to notice that, because he started talking again. His tone was smooth and lazy. The way it usually was. “Lilly, you might not realize this, but until about a year ago, I was kind of a handful.”
She had heard rumors about him. Katie had said that he’d been a little wild. Lilly hadn’t been all that surprised. Peter seemed to be the type of boy to push boundaries.
“Is that right? What did you do?” she teased
. “Did you stay out too late playing and talk back to adults?”
Their rumspringa hadn’t started yet, of course, but even during their running-around time, most just talked a big game. Hardly anyone ever did anything all that shocking. She sure wasn’t planning to.
He laughed. “You should be a detective.”
“Not so much. It’s just that kids talk. You are a favorite topic, you know.”
He rolled his eyes. “People just like to gossip.”
“Katie stopped by after you and my grandparents left. She told me she’d heard from her cousin that Mr. Kinsinger had barked orders to you today and that you handled everything like you’d been working there for years.”
“I didn’t have much of a choice. He was pretty scary. Usually he talks slower and jokes a bit. But he was telling me so many things I had to listen to him and then go do what he asked. Immediately.”
“I would have been scared when they took that man away on a stretcher.”
“It was scary. All the men in that warehouse looked shaken up.” He squeezed her shoulder. “But you don’t need to worry about it none, Lilly. It’s all over now.”
“I’m glad.”
“Me, too.” He dropped his arm and moved a bit apart from her.
She missed the comfort of his arm around her. She missed his warmth, too. But, of course, what they had been doing wasn’t seemly.
“Hey, Lilly?”
“Hmm?”
“Do you want to go for a walk with me?”
“Now? It’s getting dark.”
He looked at the horizon. “The sun is setting but we’ve got time. Plus it’s a full moon. Want to go? I won’t take you far.”
“Why do you want to go for a walk?” She’d been having a mighty nice time simply sitting on the swing with his arm around her.
“No reason.” But the look he gave her told a different story. Almost as if his reason wasn’t all that sweet. Or good.
She wondered what he had in mind. All she knew was that she wanted to find out.
“Let me go tell my grandparents,” she said. “I’ll be right back.”
She hurried inside and found her grandparents sitting in the kitchen with Jacob. They had their hands around big coffee mugs. Uncle Jacob was eating her soup and had a plate of biscuits in front of him.
“Everything okay, Lilly?” Mommi asked.
“Jah. Um, Peter asked if we could go for a walk. Do you mind?”
Her grandfather’s eyebrows rose. “Now? Isn’t it time he went home?”
“We won’t be gone long. Please?”
Uncle Jacob said nothing, just looked down at his plate and smiled.
“I don’t mind, dear,” Mommi said at last. “But you be home in thirty minutes.”
“Danke.” She smiled and ran back outside. “Peter, they said they didn’t mind but I have to be back in a half an hour.”
He smiled. “Let’s go then.”
Walking by his side, they strolled toward the barn, walked around it, then headed down a sloping hill toward a thicket of raspberry bushes. Crickets chirped around them. In the distance, near their small creek, Lilly could hear the croak of a bullfrog.
After glancing back at the house, Peter stopped. Then, to her surprise, he held out his arms. “Lilly, come here.”
Feeling a little afraid but trusting him, too, she did as she was asked.
The next thing she knew, he was holding her close. “This was what I wanted to do when I came by earlier today,” he murmured. “It was so hard to keep my promise to Mr. Kinsinger and only deliver my news, and then leave. I wanted to stay and make sure you were all right.”
“I’m all right now.” She rested her head on Peter’s chest, closed her eyes, and held on. Somehow, he’d known exactly what she’d needed, yet again.
And in doing so, he’d changed a bad day into a good one. One of the best.
Chapter 28
Rebecca arrived just moments after Lilly came inside from her walk with Peter. After Rebecca said hello to everyone, Lilly and Jacob’s parents had gone to their rooms.
It wasn’t that late, but it had been a stressful day. Still, Jacob knew that sleeping was the last thing he wanted to do. He felt keyed up and restless.
And Rebecca’s last words to him before he’d collapsed still rang in his ears.
She loved him.
Now that they were alone, a new tension existed between them. Rebecca seemed a little awkward, a little hesitant. He suspected she was thinking about her declaration, too.
After he got settled on the sofa, she sat next to him, sitting so that her knees were touching his. He was pleased with their arrangement. He wanted her close enough to see her pretty blue eyes.
She, on the other hand, was staring at his arm. “Oh, Jacob, it looks worse close up.”
He chuckled. “You can’t see anything, Becky. It’s all covered up with bandages.”
“Jah, but that is a big bandage. You’re covered all the way from your wrist to elbow.”
He looked down at the white gauze and grimaced. “It looks worse than it feels,” he reassured her. Of course, that was no doubt because he had been sent home with some prescription pain-killers. Once the shock had worn off, his “little” cut had actually hurt pretty badly.
“You are lucky that blade didn’t cut anything too important.”
She was right about that. The doctors had said that if the slice had been just a few millimeters to the right he would have cut one of his veins. But that said, he still felt foolish. “I shouldn’t have cut myself in the first place. It was a stupid mistake.”
“Don’t be so hard on yourself. Accidents happen. It’s a fact of lumber mills.”
“I agree. But I’ve been handling saws and knives since I was younger than Peter. This is the worst nick I’ve ever gotten.”
Reaching out, she ran a finger down along his knuckles. Her touch felt cool and soft. “A cut requiring seventeen stitches ain’t a nick. You have an injury.”
“It’s just a cut.” Seeking to remove the worry from her eyes, he said, “All the guys in my crew are going to bring this up for the next ten years.” He rolled his eyes. “That, and the fact that I went and fainted like a girl.”
He still couldn’t believe he’d let a little bit of blood—and the sweet declaration from the woman he loved—get to him so badly.
“Hey,” she said. “Don’t you go start talking bad about girls. After all, no girl fainted today.”
He chuckled. “Point taken.”
As she continued to caress the hand of his wounded arm, he reached out with his other hand and linked their fingers. He liked touching her. He liked that she cared about him. Liked how she smelled good and was so pretty. Most of all, he liked how she was currently smiling at him.
“Did I say something else amusing that I wasn’t aware of?” he asked.
“It wasn’t amusing. But you did say something that made me happy.”
“What was that?” So far, all they’d talked about was his injury and the poor way he reacted to it.
“You said that the men would no doubt be teasing you for ten years.”
“Jah? So?”
Her blue eyes sparkled. “Well, I took that to mean that you plan to be at Kinsinger’s for a long time.”
This was the perfect time to tell her how he felt. To tell her that he loved her, too.
But instead of blurting all that out, he simply rubbed her hand some more. “I hope I will be at Kinsinger’s for years,” he said, doing his best to act as if it was the job that meant so much to him. “I mean, as long as your brother and Marcus give me a chance to redeem myself.”
“Redeem yourself? Why?”
“I cut myself while another guy was having a heart attack. They had to order an ambulance for me. That’s expensive. They may decide that I am too much trouble.”
“Lukas was worried about you. He wasn’t complaining.” She lifted a shoulder. “Besides,” she added quietly, “he knows that you
and I have grown close.”
“We have.” Now, at last, it was time. “Rebecca, you have to know something. I heard what you said to me today. I heard you say that you love me.”
Her cheeks bloomed. “Oh.” After taking a breath, she continued, each word tumbling over the next. “Well, you see, I was anxious about you—”
He shook his head. “No, you can’t take it back.”
Her mouth snapped shut. “Why not?”
“Because I’ve fallen in love with you, too.”
She swallowed. For once, it seemed Rebecca Kinsinger, the woman who commented on just about anything . . . was at a loss for words.
It was too cute.
Leaning forward, he brushed a kiss to her temple, then gave in to temptation and let his lips drift along her cheek. When she shivered in response and placed her hands on his chest, he gently pressed his lips to hers. Then he leaned back and held her hands to his chest with one hand. She looked a little dreamy. So very sweet.
And that, it seemed, made the words come easier.
“Rebecca, since I’ve known you, we’ve had lots of conversations about dreams and jobs and relatives and what that all means to us. But I don’t know if I’ve ever truly shared with you about how I once had another dream.”
“What was that?”
“I wanted a family. I wanted a woman to call my own. A wife. I wanted a partner to go through life with. I’ve been trying to be the person I thought my parents had always wanted me to be, but then I realized that I’ve already accomplished something pretty amazing.”
She blinked. “What did you do?”
“I found you.”
Her hands were shaking as she pulled them away from his chest and placed them on her face. After taking another ragged breath, she clasped her hands tight in her lap.
He pressed on. “Becky, I’ve come to realize that my life isn’t going to be about careers and financial success. It’s going to be about waking up in the morning content. It’s going to be about going to sleep happy with the person I am sleeping beside. It’s going to be about creating a life with someone I love.”
After eyeing the empty doorway, Jacob lifted his bandaged arm to rest on the back of the couch, then shifted. With his good arm, he carefully pulled Rebecca close. So close, she was practically sitting in his lap.
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