Megan’s arms had just been emptied, and she pointed. “Here come the beds.”
Every time the guys appeared, Lil became the moving director, which was fine with Katy because Lil had an eye for furniture placement. In this case, Lil’s job was easy because the girls had already imagined and reimagined it together many times.
“Last load,” David informed her, setting some long pieces of bed support at his feet so that he could take a break. “Feeling pretty excited, huh?”
Jake tried to pass them while balancing similar bed braces on his shoulder. With an irritated huff, he said, “Blocking the way, guys, for us working fellows.”
Ignoring him, David smiled at her. “I’ll put the beds together next.”
“Great.”
Just then Jake reappeared. “I’ll help you unload your car if you want.”
Glancing uneasily at David, she told Jake, “Sure, my sweeper’s out there yet and one box in the trunk that was too heavy for me.”
“Done.”
“Show me which bed’s yours,” David said, vying for her attention. “Want to help hold the rails in place while I fasten them together?”
“Sure.”
After following him into the bedroom and hanging up their coats in the closet, she pointed at a white headboard. “Start with that one. My dad made it. And my little brothers painted it.” She’d always admired the white iron set Mrs. Beverly had in her guest room. She tried to get a similar look using wood. Excitement bubbled up inside her that her dream was coming true. But she covered it by saying, “Guess they were eager to get me out of the house.”
“I doubt that.” She did, too. In fact, the parting with her family after breakfast had been emotional and had left Katy, her mom, and Karen all teary-eyed. David set the frame in place. “Okay, hold that piece.”
She knelt next to her hope chest on the warm, restored-wood flooring and involuntarily smoothed her gray skirt around her. To dispel the intimacy of the situation, she blurted out, “You know how to use that tool?”
Working the screwdriver, David grunted, “I’ve worked on a lot of farm equipment.”
“You like fixing stuff? Working on equipment?”
“Nope, like driving—”
“Fast cars,” she finished for him just as Jake strode into the room and witnessed the flash of familiarity and ensuing laughter that passed between her and David. She glanced up at Jake’s face, and his disapproving sneer pierced her with shame. But a flash of anger quickly followed her guilt, because it was Lil who’d asked Jake to help them move, or maybe he’d volunteered. Either way, if Jake and David hadn’t helped, their dads could easily have done the work. She didn’t need to use them. The remembrance of David’s accusation from the night at the restaurant made her eager to finish with the bed assembly.
With her free hand, Katy tugged Jake’s sleeve. “Hey, can you hold this for David?” As soon as she touched him, an awareness of his masculinity surfaced old memories and emotions. “I’m going to go help the girls organize the kitchen,” she mumbled, backing into her hope chest.
“Don’t you think Lil will want to do that?” Jake protested, as he reluctantly replaced her hold on the sideboard.
No ready reply came to her mind so she just fled the room. Let them glare at each other. She bit her lower lip, knowing Jake wouldn’t appreciate serving as David’s helper. Thankfully, the moment she stepped into the kitchen where Lil and Megan were unloading boxes, the atmosphere lightened.
“We have food, too?” Katy couldn’t believe how much their parents had chipped in to make their empty doddy house a real home.
“We’ll need some groceries, but we won’t starve, either.” Lil lifted a small carton. “There’s cocoa mix and popcorn, here. The guys have been working hard all day. Should we bust some out?”
“Let’s unpack that last box first,” Katy replied. “Maybe then the boys will be done with the beds. Gotta make sure we got a place to sleep tonight.” Using them again? They volunteered, she snapped back at her conscience.
“We can always sleep on mattresses.” Lil turned to Megan. “And you have to stay over our first night.”
“You sure? I didn’t bring any bedding.”
Lil gave Megan a playful shoulder bump. “We’ll squeeze you in.”
“Awesome.”
Katy glanced fondly at Megan. Guess Tyler wasn’t the only one who used that word. It must be common at the college.
Megan flipped through the microwave’s instruction manual, and by the time the last box was unpacked, she had it figured out and was explaining the workings to Katy, who gave Lil the joy of operating the cookstove first.
“I smell popcorn.” Jake’s thick Dutch accent preceded him and David into the kitchen.
“Sit and enjoy our first meal,” Katy motioned toward the drop-leaf table by the window. The boys and Megan settled in, allowing Lil and Katy to serve them. Katy passed out small wooden bowls, old ones that had been made on her father’s lathe, then took a chair between Jake and Megan.
When Lil was finished serving, and there weren’t enough chairs for everyone to sit around the table, David jumped up and offered, “Sit here.”
“Katy can sit on my lap,” Jake urged, reaching over and tugging her sleeve.
“Stop it,” she hissed, jerking her arm away and glancing up at David, who was acting the gentleman. His expression, however, had darkened.
Lil solved the problem by plopping uninvited on Jake’s left knee. “Thanks, chump.”
He grinned, supporting her with a hand at her waist, and David slid back into his seat by the window. He glanced out under the dark green, Amish-style window shade. “It’s snowing. A storm’s been brewing all day. But I’m in no hurry to go. I can always stay over at Ivan’s. ’Fraid you girls are going to have to get used to looking at my ugly face. I’m at Ivan’s a lot.”
Sensing the silent tension coming from Lil and Jake’s chair, Katy dipped her smaller bowl into the larger, then offered, “More popcorn, anyone?”
Lil jumped up, “I’ll put on more water.”
Jake tipped back his chair and stretched his arms lazily. “Let it storm. I’m too tired to move. You gals are slave drivers. I’m ready to hibernate for at least a month. The living room floor will do fine. I’ll just roll up in that rug over there and be snug as a bear.”
Noticing with worry that the snow really was blanketing the ground, Katy said, “Oh no, you don’t. We won’t be getting any of that started here.”
“Well, you’re letting him hang out,” Jake lowered his arms, and his chair snapped back to the floor. “And I’m family.”
“Your truck too wimpy to plow through a few snowdrifts?” David baited.
“Yeah, pretty wimpy. Maybe in the morning when you go out to do your daily car washing, you can start my puny engine for me. You know, warm it up.”
He sneered at Jake. “Puny like its owner?”
“I worked circles around you today, and—”
Katy stood. “Stop it. Both of you.”
Megan snatched the empty popcorn bowl from the table and placed her hand on Jake’s shoulder. “I’m sure you guys both know that we won’t be having either of you stay over. But we can’t thank you enough for all your help today.” She speared Katy with a warning look.
“Megan’s right. We do appreciate your hard work today, but you guys need to quit the bickering. As far as I’m concerned, it’s juvenile.”
Lil flicked a dish towel at Jake’s chest. “Hey, juvie, I’ll wash. You dry.”
Katy rolled her gaze heavenward. So much for herding the guys out. She could tell Lil was giving Jake an excuse to be the last male to leave. Doing her part to get them both out the door, Katy started toward the bedroom for David’s coat. With frustration, she heard him clomping down the hall behind her. He followed her all the way into the walk-in closet.
“I’m not leaving before he does.”
She flicked on the light and wheeled to face him.
> “I don’t trust him.” David abruptly pulled her close.
She wiggled free and placed a hand on his chest to separate them. “Stop it.”
The golden star in his eyes flickered. “Why?”
She shrugged completely out of his embrace and looked at the floor, rubbing her palms over her arms. “Because we’re not—”
“I’m sorry,” he interrupted. “It’s just that jerk out there acting like he owns you.”
“Forget about him.”
David’s shoulders relaxed, and he nodded.
She saw that as a good sign but wanted to make sure he wasn’t getting the wrong idea. “I don’t want you to get your hopes up.” She hurried on before he could interrupt again. “I’m not looking for a relationship with either of you. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have moved in here.”
David rubbed his chin, studying her.
“Katy?” Lil strode into the bedroom and stuck her head in the closet. “Oh whoa.” She quickly exited.
Katy whipped David’s coat off its hanger and flung it at him, scurrying after Lil. “Just getting David’s coat.”
In the few moments she’d spent in the closet, the house had grown darker. She snapped on a light in the living room. “Thanks again for helping,” she told him.
David shuffled to the entry. “See you girls at church tomorrow?”
Katy opened the door and peered out. “As long as we’re not snowed in.”
“And if we can find an alarm clock,” Megan added.
Jake pulled on his coat. “Use your phone.” He glanced down the hall where Katy and David had just emerged, then looked at Katy. “We have an extra coatrack I think my mom will donate. I’ll bring it over.”
She blushed at his insinuating observation.
“Thanks again, guys.” Megan waved as they departed.
Just before she closed the door, Katy thought she overheard David challenging Jake to a race. Surely not on these slippery roads? Nah, impossible. Even for those juveniles. She leaned against the door, only rousing from her thoughts when Megan asked, “Wanna make up the beds?”
That night they used Lil’s extra set of pale blue flannel sheets for Megan’s top bunk, and Katy loaned her a hand-sewn comforter. She snuggled under white crisp sheets and turned on her side to face the bunk bed, a night-light softly illuminating the room.
“Can’t believe you sleep with a night-light,” Lil teased.
“Don’t want Megan falling out of bed,” Katy shot back.
Lil looked overhead. “This reminds me of summer camp that first year. Remember?”
Feeling a lump in her throat, Katy murmured, “How could we forget?”
“And this is just the beginning,” Lil purred.
But caution ruffled Katy’s already exhausted nerves. For so long, they had pushed for this day, for the big prize. It seemed strange to think of it as a mountaintop where they would step off into the unknown. Lil’s normal walk—on the Conservative Mennonite edge—filled Katy’s spirit with uncertainty. She was tired. Tired of fighting Lil’s outlandish whims. They were adults. Living on their own. Would it backfire if she gave in and just allowed Lil to be Lil?
“You think David’s gonna keep hanging around?” Lil asked.
“Probably some. Like he said, he’s over at Ivan’s a lot. I hope Jake doesn’t think this is a place for him to hang out.”
Megan asked, “You going out with him again?”
“Jake? No way.”
“No, David.”
“Not him, either. I pretty much told him so tonight.” Then Katy thought about how her sister had caught them kissing. Though Karen’s curiosity had been mostly about boy stuff, it had been a sticky situation. The kind of circumstance a Conservative girl shouldn’t be caught in. She needed to set things right. Maybe living in the doddy house could be her new beginning, to be a better person. One who didn’t get pulled into the outsiders’ world. Lil could be Lil, and she would be the Katy she had always wanted to be. Better than before.
“That what you were doing in the closet?” Lil mocked.
“Pretty much. That and fending him off.”
“You should send your scraps my way,” Megan complained between allergy sniffles. “Better yet, how about I set you up with a guy in my Bible class?”
“No thanks. I’m going to go solo for a while. Enjoy my freedom.”
“That’a girl.” Lil handed a tissue up to Megan. “Me, too. Unless that cute waiter with blond hair asks me out.”
Giggling, Katy warned, “Better get your beauty sleep then.” Nobody but Lil would entertain thoughts of dating an outsider.
CHAPTER 15
The next morning, to Katy’s delight, the wind had pushed the storm out of Madison County, and Ivan was able to dig out the drive in time for the girls to attend church. Afterward, Lil made them spaghetti, complaining about using store-bought tomato sauce. It was a given that Lil would cook and Katy clean, although she hadn’t envisioned herself hand-carrying all of Lil’s empty diet soda cans to the recycling receptacle that Megan had supplied them. And she hadn’t decided what to do yet about Lil’s unmade bed.
In the afternoon, Megan headed back to her Rosedale dorm, leaving Katy and Lil to experience their first taste of what normalcy at the doddy house might resemble. When the day wound down, they tossed bed pillows in the middle of their tan leather couch, lying head to head with their legs slung over opposite armrests, and allowed the wonder of the moment to settle over them.
“We need throw pillows,” Katy remarked, leery of placing her pillowcase on a secondhand couch.
“We need more furniture.”
“Maybe we need to invite Anita Weaver over so that she can take pity on us and find us a couple of armchairs, too.” Worrying her lip, Katy mumbled, “I’m such a user.”
“Why? Just because you have chapped hands?”
“What?” With a giggle, Katy waved her gloved hands above their faces and corrected, “Not loser. U–ser.” She had smeared a home remedy on them, something she did a couple times a week, sometimes sleeping in the goo. It had become an ongoing experiment, trying to find the perfect combinations of ingredients to rectify her occupational damage. She stared at the white gloves, one of several pairs.
“There’s so many things I want.” Lil sighed. “A new car, a computer.”
“Computer!”
“Well, yeah. Someday.”
Katy pinched the bridge of her nose. “What else?”
Lil suddenly sat up. “I think I’ll make a list in the back of my journal. Anyway, I learned that marjoram adds more flavor to pasta than oregano. And I need to jot down a penne recipe before I forget it.”
“Under computer, you can write … new roommate.”
“Ha, ha, very funny. You want me to bring you anything?”
Katy kept a journal of cleaning tips, but she wasn’t in the mood to think about work or which hand-cream concoction worked best. “Grab one of those inspirational novels for me. I have a stack on a shelf in the closet.”
“The same closet where you were kissing the moving guy?”
“Stop.”
“So when’s your next building meeting?” Lil taunted, skipping off before Katy could throttle her.
The meeting was held in the sanctuary again, and Katy passed by the lobby’s bulletin board to stare at her unfruitful advertisement. As much good as it had done, she might as well take it down. Yet there was always that distant chance …
“Still no job?”
Startled, Katy looked over her shoulder to find Jake standing behind her. “Lil told you I was looking for work?”
He stuffed his hands in his pockets. “Yeah, I’m looking, too. I’ll need something after the fellowship hall is done.”
Katy moved to find a seat for the meeting. Jake slid into the pew beside her.
“Must you sit so close?” she asked, shrugging her shoulder away from him.
“Mm-hm.”
She glanced at the meetinghouse’s plain sp
ackled ceiling and back.
The painter settled in on Jake’s other side pinning him in place, and Jake grinned.
“You’re impossible.”
“That often goes hand in hand with juvenile behavior.”
She remembered calling him juvenile the day of the move. Was that his subtle way of reminding her that she owed him? “Yes, it does.”
Leaning against her—so that she nearly fell off the end of the pew trying to avoid his touch, not to mention his soap and sawdust scent—he dug something out of his tight jeans pocket and flipped it onto her lap.
“Maybe this will make up for it.”
She pushed away something that resembled a pair of tickets. “Whatever you’re up to, no thanks.”
“Come on. They’re ballet tickets.”
“What!” She snatched them back and stared, her gaze so smoldering it could have turned the offering to ashes. Two tickets to Cinderella? Slapping them back at him, she narrowed her eyes into stormy slits. “How did you get these?”
He shrugged. “At a ticket office.” When she continued to gawk in disbelief, he added, “At the mall.”
The painter leaned forward and stared, too, and to her further aggravation, she noticed they were attracting a small audience. Why did Mr. Weaver have to be late this night, of all times?
“How did you know?” she hissed.
“I’m not uncultured. I thought you might actually enjoy it.”
“A kid’s ballet?”
“It is?”
She glared at him, not fooled by his feigned act of innocence. “No thanks.”
He gave her a lopsided smile and winked. “Let me know if you change your mind.”
Bill Weaver, breathless from running into the meetinghouse, strode down the aisle and took his place in the front of the sanctuary. He quickly called the meeting to order. But other than recognizing the welcome distraction of his opening words, Katy became oblivious to the proceedings of the meeting.
The tickets to the same performance couldn’t be a coincidence, and the only way he could know she was going to that ballet was through Lil. But why a pair of tickets when she obviously already had hers? Just to keep up the pretense? Why would he think she’d want him along at an already-dreaded event? As the evening wore on, she mulled over the details and poked it from every angle.
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