The Heart's Journey: Stitches in Time Series #2 (25 page)

Mary Katherine jumped to her feet. “Is something wrong with
Mamm
? Is she ill?”

“She’s fine, just fine,” he hurried to reassure her. “I’m just in town for some supplies and thought I’d see if I could take you out to lunch.”

Naomi watched the play of emotions rush over her cousin’s face: surprise, uncertainty, joy. Mary Katherine had told them how her father had been trying to become a better father and husband since her mother’s heart attack.

Just looking at him now, Naomi could see that he was not the stern and overly critical
onkel
she remembered from her childhood—that he’d been just a short year ago.

“Well, that leaves the two of us,” Naomi said brightly after Mary Katherine left with her father.

“Are you really afraid John will bother you again?”

In the act of putting a sandwich on her plate, Naomi paused and frowned. “I wasn’t until you said someone was here.” She held out the container so Anna could choose a sandwich, then set it down on the table.

Anna got a bag of potato chips from the cupboard and opened them. “Mmm, nothing like a fresh bag of chips.”

“You’re addicted.”

“True. But look at you,” she said, pointing at the jar of bread and butter pickles Naomi brought to the table. “You can’t eat a sandwich without a pickle.”

“Guilty.”

“You’re not eating,” Anna observed a few minutes later. “Something wrong with the sandwich?”

“No, I like your egg salad.” She picked it up and put it down.

Anna set her sandwich down and reached for Naomi’s hand. “It’s going to take a while to get over him.”

“I know. That’s what I told—” she stopped but Anna had already gone on full alert.

“Told who?”

“Doesn’t matter.”

“Is someone already interested in you?” Anna leaned closer. “Who is it? Tell me.”

“You’ll drive me crazy.”

“I’ll drive you crazy if you don’t tell me.”

Naomi sighed. “True. But it wouldn’t be fair to … ”

“To?”

Shaking her head, Naomi pushed her plate away. “To the man. I can’t see him.”

“You mean you can’t see him until you feel you’re over John.” Anna leaned her elbows on the table, staring at Naomi with bright, inquisitive eyes.

Naomi hesitated. She could almost see the wheels turning in Anna’s head.

Anna clapped a hand over her mouth. “Naomi! He’s not married?”

“Of course not!” She looked heavenward. “What on earth do you think of me?”

“Well, you said you couldn’t see him and it’s not because you need more time.” She popped a potato chip into her mouth and frowned in concentration as she crunched. “What else could it be …” she trailed off. Then her eyes widened and she nearly choked.

Naomi pushed Anna’s soda closer and watched her cousin take a drink.

“Nick,” Anna gasped after she swallowed. “Oh, Naomi, you and Nick?!”

“What’s going on?” Leah asked as she walked into the room.

Anna glanced up, her eyes wide, then back at Naomi.

“Lunch,” she said brightly. Then, as Anna took in their grandmother’s pink cheeks and smile, she pulled out a chair. “Sit down and tell us about your lunch,” she told her slyly.

“Said the spider to the fly,” Naomi murmured, grinning as she watched Anna in action.

She knew.

Nick had felt that prickling feeling at the back of his neck ever since he’d picked up Naomi, Leah, and Anna, and now he felt it even more.

He glanced over at Leah but she was looking over some receipts from the shop. Naomi sat in the backseat but she was looking out her window. That was her usual behavior lately—anything to keep from making eye contact.

But Anna. Every time he checked his rearview mirror, she was staring at him. No, her eyes were boring into him.

She knew.

Ever since they’d come back from Florida Nick had waited to see if one of the cousins would say something, but they hadn’t. He’d finally assumed that Naomi hadn’t said anything to them.

But that had changed.

He wondered why Naomi had said something to Anna but kept his eyes trained ahead. A fine mist and wet roads made his attention vital this afternoon. A buggy rolled down the road just ahead. This was a passing lane but he didn’t want to risk an accident. Only when the buggy driver pulled to the right and gestured him on did he go ahead and pass.

“So, Nick, you and Naomi are losing your tans,” Anna remarked casually. But her expression in the rearview was anything but casual.

“You’re right,” he said, and he felt a flush stealing up his neck.

“
Grossmudder
, why didn’t you get a tan while you were in Florida?” she asked.

Leah turned in her seat and looked over her reading glasses. “I don’t see the value of sitting under the sun and baking.”

“So Nick—”

“Anna,” Naomi said in a warning tone.

“But—”

“Anna, for goodness sakes, stop it!” Naomi hissed.

She cast Nick a helpless look.

He heard whispering in the backseat—or rather Naomi chiding Anna in a lowered tone. Just bits and pieces of words could be heard, but he thought he could hear Naomi accusing Anna of conducting an inquisition.

Then it became quiet, and when he glanced in the rearview mirror, Anna wore a stormy expression and her arms were crossed over her chest. Naomi was gazing heavenward as if asking her Maker a question.

Unfortunately, his route dropped Leah and Naomi off first.

“Sorry,” Naomi mimed to him as she got out.

He nodded and shrugged. Obviously, he didn’t know Anna as well as she did, but she wouldn’t ruffle him. Sometimes family pushed each other’s buttons far worse than they did outsiders.

“Wait!” Anna cried, after Naomi and Leah left the vehicle.

She slid into the front seat and smiled at him as she shut the door.

Her smile reminded him of something…. Oh, yeah, that big-toothed fish that had terrorized Naomi in the creek in Florida.

“So, tell me about you and Naomi,” Anna invited as she fastened her seat belt.

“Anna!” Naomi peered into the open window and frowned at her. “
Grossmudder
, she’s just going to give Nick a hard time on the way home.”

Leah had stepped away, but now she walked over and gave Anna a stern look.

“It’s okay,” Nick assured them. “Anna doesn’t bother me.”

Naomi threw up her hands. “Come on,
Grossmudder
. He’s a man. He doesn’t think he needs our help.”

Nick grinned as he pulled back onto the road.

“So, what about you and Naomi?” Anna asked again. “And don’t tell me ‘What happens in Florida stays in Florida.’”

“Where did you hear that?”

She shrugged. “Daniel said it once.”

“Well, if there was something between us it would be private.” He used his most authoritative, quelling tone. It had served him well when he’d had to get summer camp kids in line as a counselor.

“Save that tone for the camp kids,” she said. “Yes, I remember you telling us once about how you did that during summers to earn college money.” She continued to stare at him. “Come on, she’s my cousin.”

He made a turn onto the road that led to her house and pushed the speed up just a little bit.

She noticed. “Better watch out. Remember, there’s a speed trap along this road.”

He glanced at her. “Have you always been Amish?”

“You know I have.” She leaned closer, alert. “Are you thinking of becoming Amish?”

“No.” Regardless of what he’d been thinking—and what he hadn’t—it was none of her business.

“Really? You don’t think my cousin’s worth it?”

He pulled up in front of her house. “You’d make a great
Englisch
detective, you know that?”

“I’m just interested in what your intentions are toward my cousin.”

Getting out, he rounded the hood and opened her door. “Have a good evening, Anna. I’ll see you bright and early tomorrow.”

She stayed where she was. “Naomi’s been through a lot. If you hurt her—” she broke off, struggling for words. “If you hurt her—”

“I don’t intend to hurt her,” he said quickly. “I love Naomi and I think she loves me. But I told her we had to be friends.”

“You love her? Then why—”

He’d said too much. He’d been right about her interrogation techniques.

“
Gut nacht
,” he said, and held her door open wider.

She blinked and he realized he’d slipped into Pennsylvania
Dietsch
.

“I’m not done talking to you.”

“Yes, you are,” he said quietly. “I know that you love Naomi and I know that your concern comes out of a very deep place. You don’t want her to hurt the way you do.”

She unsnapped her seat belt and practically threw it aside. “You don’t know anything about me.”

“I do,” he said, leaning on the door and watching her. “You’re stuck in your pain and you think it could happen to Naomi.”

“Don’t be telling me what I am,” she snapped, grabbing her purse from the seat.

“I’m not saying it to hurt you,” he told her quietly, as gently as he could. “I’ve watched you and I think you’re so busy hiding your pain over losing your husband so young that you can’t see that you need to take care of yourself first.”

The color leeched out of her face as she stood, frozen, staring at him with wide eyes.

Nick reached for her arm but she backed away and fled, rushing up the steps of the little house. Once she had the door open, she stepped inside, spun around and opened her mouth as if she were about to say something, and then slammed the door shut.

He hadn’t meant to upset her. Closing her van door, he walked up the steps and rapped on her front door, but she wouldn’t answer.

Resigned, he walked back to the van and started the engine.

Everything was such a mess. And unlike Naomi, he didn’t have anyone to talk about it with.

Bandit wasn’t at the door when he got home—not that he often greeted him there. Nick went from room to room calling him and even used the electric can opener to signal a tasty fish dinner awaited. Still no Bandit.

A half hour later as Nick sat eating his microwaved frozen meal, Bandit appeared. He reached down to scratch the cat’s ear and got his hand scratched for the trouble.

“Maybe I should have gotten a dog,” he muttered.

Bandit stalked away, swishing his tail, as if he understood the threat.

It was a small shop but Anna managed to avoid Naomi for most of the morning the next day.

Naomi watched her wait on customers, perform several tasks their grandmother requested of her, and spend time in the storage room whenever Naomi was too occupied to confront her.

“What do you suppose she said to Nick after he dropped us off?” she asked her grandmother when they took a break.

Leah shook her head. “She’s like a dog with a bone. But Nick’s not a pushover. I’m sure he told her to mind her own business. Politely, though. Nick’s always polite.”

Naomi thought about that. Nick had so many good qualities. Kind, patient, thoughtful. Generous with his time and with his money. She knew that the arrangement he’d made with her grandmother for driving them to Florida had been very generous.

Stories had come to her, too, about how often he took some of his clients to doctor’s appointments and grocery stores and so on and, knowing their financial situation, would refuse payment or accept baked goods or produce or something else they had to offer in return.

“It’s not that I don’t think Nick’s a nice young man,” her grandmother broke into her thoughts. “However, you have to understand that I’m concerned. Where could a relationship go between the two of you?”

She put a cup of tea before Naomi. “Nick understood that.”

Naomi roused herself. “What?”

Leah colored, then she lifted her chin. “Nick and I talked about it when we were in Florida.”

“I don’t understand. What do you mean you talked about it?”

Sighing, Leah took a seat and stirred her tea. “Nick came to me worried about you being with John. He was afraid that John would hurt you even worse the next time. He told me that he knew what he felt for you—well, that he knew it couldn’t go anywhere because you were baptized and you’d be shunned if you got married.”

“But only if she left the church to marry him,” Anna said.