An Honest Love (34 page)

“
Ya
. I think I can
geh
to work tomorrow.”

Emma peered over her glasses. “I’m sure Gabe will appreciate that. I hope you learned your lesson about swimming in freezing water.”

“The water wasn’t freezing. It was only chilly.”

“Still, it was cold enough for you to get sick.” Emma picked up the needles and yarn and started knitting.

“I know,
Mami
, I know. Don’t worry, I won’t do that again.” She settled back on the couch, picked up her pen and writing paper, and continued her letter to Deborah. She filled her friend in on life in Middlefield since she’d left for Paradise, telling her in vague terms about Anna and Lukas’s wedding and about Anna’s surgery along with other trivial news. But concentrating on writing proved difficult. As she had since Sunday, all she could think about was Aaron and his kiss.

You won’t believe this, Deborah, but I think I’m in love with Aaron
Detweiler. I know, it’s weird, but it’s wonderful too. At first I wasn’t
sure I even liked him at all, then we became best friends. On Sunday he
kissed me. And that’s all I think about anymore.

Elisabeth reread the last four sentences, then balled up her letter. It felt foolish to put her feelings about Aaron in a letter. She wished Deborah was here to help sort things out. She had other friends, but she wasn’t eager to share this with them. It was too important. Too personal. Too confusing.

“Mail’s here.” Stephen walked into the room, several letters in his hand. He handed them to their mother.

“
Danki
.” Emma put down her knitting and accepted the mail. She looked up at Stephen. “Are you ready for lunch?”

“In a little while.” Flakes of sawdust dotted his angular face.

“Let me know and I’ll bring out some meatloaf sandwiches.”

“Sounds
gut
.” He held up two fingers. “I’d like two.”

“I figured you would.” After Stephen left, Emma remarked, “I don’t know how that
bu
stays so thin; he eats as much as two men every meal.” She thumbed through the letters, singling out one of them and handing it to Elisabeth. “From Deborah.”

Elisabeth stood up and took the letter, then quickly opened it. Deborah had written her once since settling in Pennsylvania, and she had mentioned how homesick she was. Elisabeth hoped she was over it by now.

Dear Elisabeth,

I hope everything is good back in Middlefield. The baby’s growing
by leaps and bounds. I can’t believe how big I’m getting! My aunt has
been terrific, but I don’t go out much, and I haven’t made any friends
yet. It gets pretty lonely. I thought it would be easier to live where people
don’t know me, but it’s not. In a lot of ways it’s harder.

I wish you could come visit me, even for a little while. If you were
here we would have so much fun! Maybe you could get some time off
work. I’d love to see you again. Write when you get the chance.

Deborah

Elisabeth laid the letter on her lap. She hadn’t thought about visiting Deborah in Pennsylvania. She’d never been out of Ohio before, and the idea of a trip somewhere else sounded exciting. She had saved quite a bit of money from her job at Gabe’s, more than enough for bus fare. The more she thought about the prospect, the more she was excited about it.

“Did Deborah send
gut
news?” Emma asked.

“Sort of. She wants me to visit her in Paradise. I’m thinking about going.”

Emma looked at her. “What about your job?”

“Ruth is out of school now. Maybe she can take my place while I’m gone.”

“What about her job at Anna’s shop?”

Elisabeth tapped her finger on her lips. “I hadn’t thought about that. But I can talk to her and Gabe and Anna and see if it will work.” She smiled. “I really want to
geh
. It’d be a fun adventure.”

Emma picked up her knitting again. “If you have the money and you’ve taken care of your job, then I don’t see why you can’t
geh
.”

Jumping up from the couch, she hugged her mother. “
Danki
. I’m going to go over to Gabe’s right now and talk to him about it.”

“Why don’t you wait until tonight? He and Moriah and the
kinner
are coming over for supper. Ruth will be here too.”

“
Gut
idea.”

Later that night, after Ruth said she would cover Elisabeth’s job and Gabe had agreed to it, she went upstairs and wrote a letter to Deborah. She’d decided to go the first of the week. After making a list of what she planned to take, she lay on her bed, excited about the trip and visiting her friend.

The only downside was leaving Aaron. She’d miss him, but it would only be for two weeks. It might be good for her to be away from him for a while, to get rid of the romantic feelings that she couldn’t shake and start seeing him as her best friend again, instead of wishing for something she couldn’t have.

Aaron came to work Monday morning, still fighting some of the sniffles that plagued him over the course of the week. From Elisabeth’s absence at work he knew she had caught a cold as well. Swimming in a cold pond in the middle of April wasn’t the smartest thing he’d ever done.

Neither was kissing Elisabeth.

Not that he didn’t like it. The problem was he liked it too much, and he couldn’t stop thinking about it. Or her. He’d been tempted to stop by her house during the week, but he didn’t want to bother her if she was sick. Besides, he wasn’t sure if he’d be welcome. The way she had run away from him the moment after he’d kissed her made him wonder.

He walked into the office, surprised to see she hadn’t arrived. Looking at the clock, he noticed she was running late, something she hadn’t done since her first day of work. Maybe she was sick again. If she didn’t come in today, he was definitely going to see her to find out if she was okay. Plus, he just plain missed her.

As he left the office, Gabe came into the shop, Elisabeth’s sister Ruth behind him. “You can put your things in the office,” Gabe told her. “I’ll be there in a bit to show you around.”

Ruth nodded to Aaron and went to the office. Puzzled, he turned to Gabe. “Why is Ruth here?”

“She’s taking Elisabeth’s place for two weeks.”

“Her place? Is something wrong with her?”

“
Nee
. She’s off to visit her friend in Lancaster. She was going to come in today, but there was a bus leaving this morning, and she wanted to leave right away.”

Aaron stared at the cold forge in front of him, surprised at the news. Two weeks. It might as well be an eternity. And she hadn’t even told him good-bye. Maybe her leaving didn’t have as much to do with visiting her friend as it did with getting away from him. He reined in the thought.
Way to make it all about you
.

“Aaron?”

He turned around to see Ruth standing behind him. “
Ya
?”

“Elisabeth wanted me to give this to you. She said she was sorry she didn’t get to see you before she left.” Ruth handed him a folded piece of paper.

He took it, waiting to open it once Ruth was back in the office.

Dear Aaron,

     
Don’t forget me while I’m gone.

           
Elisabeth

He tucked the note in his pants’ pocket, smiling at her reminder not to forget her. As if he ever could.

Two weeks later on a Saturday evening, Elisabeth returned from her trip to Paradise. She’d enjoyed spending time with Deborah, who had reverted to the same girl she knew in school. It had warmed Elisabeth’s heart to hear her friend talk about joining the church, which she wanted to do after the baby was born. Elisabeth also found Lancaster to be a nice place, if a little crowded at times. Still, she was glad to be home.

Being away hadn’t extinguished her feelings for Aaron. If anything, the separation had intensified them, which she found annoying. Her plan to leave her attraction to Aaron in Lancaster had failed. The thought of seeing him again filled her with anticipation and dread. Somehow she had to figure out how to put a lid on her emotions. Problem was, she’d never been successful at doing that.

On Sunday afternoon, Moriah stopped by with the children for a visit. As her mother and Ruth watched the
kinner
in the living room, Moriah asked Elisabeth to sit with her on the front porch, a custom that the two sisters had enjoyed for as long as they could remember.

“Tell me about your trip,” Moriah said as they sat on the wooden porch swing their father had installed a few weeks ago, the scent of fresh oak surrounding them.

Elisabeth fingered the metal chain that suspended the swing from the porch roof. “The bus ride was long and boring. Sitting in the same seat for twenty hours was dull, dull, dull. I even broke down and read the book
Mami
insisted I take, but I got a headache after page three. I ended up sleeping most of the way.”

“I hope things were better in Lancaster.”

“Oh ya. Much better.” She shifted to the side to face Moriah. “Deborah’s doing well, and the
boppli
is fine. Her Aunt Sadie is an odd bird, though. She wears the same necklace every day—these big red beads that match her big red lips.”

Moriah frowned. “That’s not nice, Lis.”

“It’s true! She even said she had big lips. Said that’s why she wears red lipstick. ‘Might as well show off what God gave me.’ Her personal motto.” She and Moriah laughed.

A small bird landed on the banister near Elisabeth and Moriah. Moriah looked at it for a moment before she spoke. “Did you hear from Aaron while you were gone?”

“Aaron?” Elisabeth’s pulse started at the mention of his name. She looked away, hoping to sound nonchalant. “Why would I hear from him?”

“You two have gotten very close over the past year.”

“We’re friends.” Her foot pushed against the porch, sending the swing into motion.

“That’s all you’re going to say?”

“
Ya
. What else is there?”

“Lis, you always have more to say. You’re never at a loss for words.” Her blue eyes twinkled. “I can think of only one reason you would clam up like this. He’s more than a friend, isn’t he?”

Elisabeth moved the swing faster. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“Oh, you know exactly what I mean.”

She sighed. “Fine, you win. I like him. But it doesn’t matter because he doesn’t like me, not that way. Just because he kissed me—”

“Wait, he kissed you?” Moriah leaned forward in her chair, her expression filled with curiosity.

“Barely kissed me. And I think it was an accident.”

“How do you accidentally kiss someone?”

“I don’t know.” She stuck out her heel and halted the swing. “But he sure wouldn’t have kissed me on purpose.”

“I can’t believe you just said that. Why wouldn’t he like you, Elisabeth? You’re sweet, kind, pretty—”

“You have to say those things, you’re my
schwester
.”

“I mean them. I’m sure Aaron thinks the same way.”

Elisabeth threaded her fingers together. “I don’t know.”

“Then ask him.”

“I can’t do that!”

“
Ya
, you can.” Moriah looked at her. “Remember when I was pregnant with Velda Anne? After Levi died, how Gabriel would come and visit and I’d send him away? I was falling in love with him even then, but I wouldn’t tell him. I wasn’t honest with him, or with myself.”

“That’s completely different. Your relationship with Gabe was complicated to say the least.”

“And I made it more so by shutting him out.”

“But you knew he loved you, Moriah. I have no idea how Aaron feels. You know how long it took for him to even smile at me?” A lump formed in her throat as she thought about the past year. He’d helped her with her nieces when she’d needed him. He’d taught her to ice skate. He’d saved her from possibly being arrested. Above all, he was willing to sacrifice his happiness and marry her when he thought she was pregnant with another man’s child. “He’s the best, and I don’t want to lose the friendship we have.”

“So what are you going to do? Ignore your feelings? Trust me, you can only do that for so long.”