Thankful (10 page)

“Only the Lord knows our futures, dear. It seems to me that you're overthinking things. Perhaps you should start simply taking things one day at a time.”

“I tried that. Today I met a boy while I was waitressing. He seemed to like me. He said he was going to come back because he wants to see me again.”

“See? Everything is going to be just fine.”

“I thought it was . . . until I saw Aden. Now I know no one can hold a candle to him.”

Ruth patted her back. “You poor thing.”

It was so good to talk to someone who understood. “You're right, though, Ruth. Somehow, some way, I need to move on with my life. Maybe if I try really hard, I'll learn how to not love Aden anymore.”

“Oh, honey. I just don't know if it's that easy. Love doesn't work like that.”

“I'm really hoping it's possible, though. It needs to.”

A slight cough interrupted them. Christina spun around and came face-to-face with Pippa Reyes, Mrs. Kent's friend, standing in the doorway of Mrs. Kent's office.

Within seconds, Christina's face felt hot and she knew it was beet red. “I'm sorry. Were we disturbing you?”

Pippa shook her head. “Not at all. I, um, just couldn't help but overhear your conversation.”

“I'm so sorry!” Wringing her hands together, Christina said, “I'm off the clock.”

To Christina's surprise, Pippa's lips twitched. “No, it's not that. I, ah, just thought you should know I was standing here. I didn't want you to think I was meaning to eavesdrop on your private conversation. I'm not that way.”

Ruth looked mildly embarrassed, too. “Pippa, I'm sorry, too. I know better than to encourage Christina to have such a private conversation in the kitchen.” She paused, shifting her stance. “Um, since we're all standing here together, I wanted to tell you congratulations. Jana just told me that you are buying in to the business.”

Pippa's smile grew. “Thank you, I'm really excited about working here with all of you.”

Christina looked from Ruth to Pippa in confusion. “Wait a minute. Jana is leaving us?”

“Not at all,” Pippa said, her dark brown eyes looking concerned. “Jana is simply ready to have some more free time. And I just happened to be looking for a better job.”

“Oh.” It all made sense. “Well, congratulations! And I'm sorry again about standing here whining about my love life.”

“Your love life isn't any of my concern,” Pippa protested with a wave of her hand. “But for what it's worth, it's been my experience that men don't always know what they want.”

“Take it from me, they rarely know what they want,” Ruth muttered.

Pippa's eyes twinkled. “Also, well . . . I've always felt that it was best to try not to worry about things you can't control. Give your worries over to the Lord. He's already got plans for you. He has plans for all of us.”

Pippa's soft caring tone, combined with her heartfelt words eased Christina's worries. “
Danke
. That is
gut
advice.”

“Thank you. Now, I hate to say it, but you ladies need to go on your way. It's starting to snow outside. The radio says we're due to get at least a foot by morning.”

Ruth patted Christina's shoulders. “That is the best advice I've heard yet. If it's going to snow, I need to run to Graber's store and pick up some wood. And you, my dear, need to go get your cloak and find Aden. I'm betting he's wondering why you practically threw a plate of lemon pie at him and then darted off.”

“I'll do that. Thank you both. I feel better,” she added as she grabbed her cloak and walked back out to the dining room. To her surprise, Aden wasn't still sitting at his table. Instead, he had on his coat and hat and was pacing near the hostess table. The moment he saw her, he gave a sigh of relief.

“There you are,” he said. “I was starting to think I was going to have to walk into the kitchen.”

Making sure her pace was slow and her expression serene, Christina lifted her chin a bit. “I'm sorry. I had some things I needed to do.”

“Is your friend Ruth all right?”

Feeling her cheeks heat, she said, “
Jah
. Now she is.”

“Well, what happened?”

There was no way she was going to start trying to make up lies about Ruth. “It's a private thing. Between women, you know.”

“You're sharing secrets that are that private? Isn't she fifty or something?”

“What difference does that make?”

Looking a little chastised, he shook his head. “Not a one, I suppose. Listen, the snow is really coming down. We need to leave now. Are you ready?”

“
Jah
. I am very ready.”

Aden looked a bit confused by her hot and cold responses. But instead of saying anything more about it, he merely opened the door and gestured for her to pass.

Chin high, Christina walked ahead. Well, she'd managed to try Aden's patience in under five minutes. Obviously, learning to ignore Aden was going to take some getting used to.

As she glanced at him again, thinking about how handsome he looked, so tall and stalwart, she inwardly sighed.

It seemed it was going to take a little bit more practice than she'd previously thought.

B
y the time they'd walked to the buggy, the clouds were dark and thick overhead and it was snowing in earnest. After making sure Christina was inside the enclosure and settled, Aden unhitched Maisey.

To make matters worse, the sun had already started to set, meaning it would be almost dark by the time they got home. Aden frowned, realizing their journey home was going to take far longer than he'd anticipated, and it was going to be far more difficult, too. He hated driving the buggy in the snow.

And it looked like everyone on Main Street had been taken by surprise by the thick, sticky flakes. Cars were already sliding through intersections, their bright brake lights and irritable honking making Maisey even more tense.

It was obvious that no maintenance crews had treated the roads. They were going to be pretty hazardous very soon.

Well, that was just great. He had no blankets in the buggy and no flashlight, either.

Feeling upset with himself, he glanced at Christina. She was only wearing her light cloak and her black boots with the thin soles. “Do you have a heavier coat or mittens with you?”

“Nee.”

“Perfect.” If their buggy got stuck or slid on the way home she would have a very difficult time walking anywhere.

Even though he knew he was getting ahead of himself, he started spinning all kinds of worst-case scenarios in his head. Imagining Christina getting sick or hurt.

“We should have left thirty minutes ago,” he muttered. “Next time, be ready when I get there.”

“Aden, I was ready. You were the one who wanted pie.”

“I was done with my slice of pie in less than ten minutes. Then I had to wait another ten while you went gossiping with Ruth.”

“I told you she had a personal problem. And I wasn't gone that long.”

“And I'm telling you that we got out of the restaurant late and now we're havin' to drive this buggy out in the snow.” He frowned. “It's really coming down now, too.”

“The snow is not my doing, Aden.”

“I didn't say it was.”

“You're sure actin' like I'm inconveniencing you.”

“All I'm saying is that this is going to be a difficult drive home.”

“We've done it before,” she pointed out.

“But you were better prepared.”

He carefully reined in Maisey as traffic stalled, and felt Christina look over at him with a critical eye. “Aden, you don't look like you're dressed any warmer than me.”

“That's different.”

“Why? Because I'm a girl?”

Because she was Christina. “
Jah
. And because I promised your parents I'd see you safely home.”

Something flashed in her eyes that looked a lot like hurt. “So that is why you're upset? Because you promised my parents that you'd look out for me?”

“Well,
jah
.” With effort he refrained from rolling his eyes. Christina knew as well as he did that Joe and Martha depended on him to keep her safe from harm.

He was able to glance at her just long enough to see her grit her teeth. “I'm only speaking the truth, Christy,” he said.

“Well, just think, soon you won't have to make this drive anymore. You'll be living in town.”

“Right now I'm feeling like it can't happen soon enough. Heaven help your brothers.”

“My brothers are too young to come and get me! I'll simply be driving myself.”

“You certainly won't.”

“And why not?”

“Because it's not safe.” At the moment, he didn't even care that they were verbally sparring like a pair of teenagers. She was able to get under his skin like no other. And she certainly knew how to get a rise out of him.

“Lots of women drive their own horse and buggy, Aden.” She paused, then glared at him again. “Or maybe I'll even have someone else drive me around.”

He hated these kinds of conversations, where they bickered like children. He was just about to tell her that, too.

But then what she said finally registered. “Who would you get to drive you home?”

“Another man. Maybe a beau.”

Her comment startled him so much, he almost jerked on Maisey's reins. “What in the world does that mean?”

“About what you'd think.” She had the nerve to sound all airy about it, too.

And that really gave him pause. “I didn't know you were seeing someone.”

“I'm not yet. I mean, not exactly. But I'm hopeful that something is going to become of it.”

“What do you mean by ‘of it'? What have you done? And where did you meet him?”

“I don't see how that is any of your business, Aden.”

“Christina,” he bit out, wincing that his temper and worry had made him draw out her name to five syllables. But he couldn't help himself. She was making him crazy.

Well, imagining her with some mystery man was making him crazy.

“Don't you ‘Christina' me. You know I'm right. You're moving away, Aden. You should stop worrying about me.”

“You know I can't do that.”

When they stopped again, he glanced at her. But this time he didn't gaze at her eyes. Instead, he let his gaze drift to her temple, to the faint scar along her hairline. The scar she'd gotten when she'd been struggling to get out of the ice all those years ago and the jagged edge of the ice had cut her delicate skin.

The scar had been deep enough that she probably had needed stitches, but her parents had decided to simply bandage it well. Now, whenever he looked at it, he remembered feeling helpless and scared to death.

And guilty.

“Are you staring at my scar again?” she snapped.

He'd had no idea she'd ever noticed that he'd done that.
“Nee.”

She folded her arms over her chest. “Aden Reese, one day you are going to have to let that accident go. Me falling into the ice was not your fault.”

“Of course it was. I was older. I was supposed to look out for you.”

“Why would you think that?”

“Why wouldn't I?”

“You didn't live with me. You were only my friend. No one asked you to watch over me.”

He bit his tongue so he wouldn't say something dumb and admit how even back then he'd felt something special about her. Instead, he looked ahead, looked at the snow falling heavily, at the number of cars slipping and sliding on the slushy roads, and at the sun setting in the midst of it all.

“I think we need to go a back way home. I don't trust these automobiles. And Maisey seems especially uneasy. I have a feeling she might get spooked.”

And just like that, she became her usual sweet self again. “Of course. Whatever you think is best, Aden.”

When he could, he veered the buggy right and directed Maisey down a far less congested road. That was good. The road was already a bit packed with snow, giving both Maisey's hooves and the buggy's wheels something easier to grip.

But it also was taking them a bit off their direct route. “We're going to be really late now. Maybe even an hour late.”

“It will be okay.”

“I don't want your parents to worry about you.”

“My parents know I'm with you. And Aden, if they worry, they're going to worry about both of us,” she said gently.

He knew what she meant. But he also knew that his role in the house was to take care of her. His muscles tensed as the wind picked up fifteen minutes later and the horse started having more difficulty pulling the buggy. “If it gets worse we might have to let Maisey loose and then walk home.”

“I figured that.”

After another ten minutes, he gave up the fight. “I don't want to hurt her. Will you be all right if we walk?”

“I'll be fine, Aden.” Then, to his surprise, she reached over and gripped his hand. “I know you're worried about me getting hurt or sick, but you shouldn't.”

“Of course I'm going to worry.”

“Aden, listen to me. I'm not a little girl anymore,” she said softly. “When you grew up, I did, too. Please stop thinking of me like I am a fragile, delicate child. I'm a grown woman.”

She wasn't fragile; she was special. He knew the difference. But he also realized that she had a point. She was a grown woman—which was exactly why he was trying to move out of her house. “I know you're not a child. And I know you're not all that delicate. I just don't want anything to happen to you.”

“Then it won't,” she whispered. “We'll get through this together.”

He hoped that was the case as he finally gave in to the reality of their situation, parked the buggy well off to the side of the road, and unhitched Maisey. Maisey was a smart horse and knew all the back roads around the farm better than any of them did. He knew she would make her way home across the fields in probably half the time that it would take him and Christina.