Ties That Bind (28 page)

“Hi. It's Ariana. Is it an okay time to talk?”

He much preferred this tone to the one she had used Saturday night. “Sure. Can you hold on for just a few minutes?”

“Ya.”

He pushed the Mute button. “Take Lexi with you.”

“What I just heard was, don't let the door hit you on your way out, Brother.”

“Pretty much. You want to meet up for lunch?”

“No, I need to get moving on the permits, and then I'm going to sneak in and spend some time with Mamm.”

Once Dan got his car into hiding without being seen, he couldn't necessarily get out at a set time. He was likely to have to wait until most people's bedtime. He and Mamm would share a meal in her bedroom with the curtains closed or maybe in the attic.

“She'll be really glad to see you. Did you bring pictures?”

“Regina packed a ton of them.” He opened the door. “Call me later.”

“Sure.”

Dan started to close the door.

“Hey,” Quill called, “you're forgetting to take Lexi.”

“I didn't forget.” Dan smiled and slammed the door, leaving Lexi in the car. How was Quill supposed to find a hotel that accepted dogs?

He took the phone off Mute. “You there?”

“Ya. Sorry to disrupt.”

“No, I needed to talk to you today. I just hadn't figured out how yet.” They needed a long conversation about the benefit, including how he could easily reach her during the next two weeks. “What's up?”

“Abram needs to talk to you.”

“Sure. How about today at one?”

“You didn't even ask what he wants.”

“I can imagine, and I'm fine with it. But for your sake, you need to be careful who knows that I'm helping you.”

“Ya, I figured. Right now only some family members know. I've talked to each one, making sure they keep this discreet. Oh, and Rudy knows and wants to meet you too.”

Rudy. That should be a thrill. “Sure. I understand that. Let's meet at the café.”

“The café?”

“I'll have written permission by this afternoon for you to use it at will between now and October first.”

“How? And why?”

Behind her brief questions were a dozen doubts. Unlike working with Amish who contacted him because they trusted him, Ariana was going to question him every step of the way. He would have to get used to answering and being open with her again.

“I rented the building. I think it's important that your name and product are connected to an actual place, more for the opening of the café than for the value it adds to the benefit.”

“Makes sense.”

He heard hesitancy. “I'll see you at one?”

The line was silent again.

“You're awfully quiet for a talkative girl.”

“It's really nice having you working for me rather than against me.”

Quill understood. But the stiltedness of this conversation had to stop. “I have my dog with me.” He was reaching into their childhood in hopes of them both relaxing a bit.

“Finally got a dog, huh?”

“Yeah, about four years ago.”

“Is it a female golden retriever?”

“Yep.”

“Good for you. Is she…good for you?”

“She is the most obedient dog I've ever had.”

“She's the only dog you've ever had.”

“I rest my case.”

Ariana laughed. It wasn't the warm, open laughter he overheard when she was at his mother's and didn't know he was there. But it was a start.

“I'll see you and your dog at one? Oh, and I know how to erase your number from this machine, so don't worry about that."

“Thanks. See you then.”

As he ended the call, he realized he was hoping for a perk for helping her. A reward, as Dan called it. He wanted her to be happy and for them to become friends of sorts. But more than that, he hoped at some point she wouldn't be disappointed in him. He couldn't help wondering, if she knew the truth about why he'd left as he did, would her disrespect melt like butter in a skillet?

Ultimately, it didn't matter. They could never be together. They lived in separate worlds, and neither wished to cross over.

S
unlight stretched across the floor of the café, and Ariana paused to look at her handiwork—their handiwork. The dark wood had been scrubbed and polished, removing years of grime and filth. She'd put the fear of God into the floors, lunch counter, tables, and even the stairs and banister. Every part of the kitchen had been scoured with steel wool and soap, and it had passed inspection with flying colors. The old windows were pristine, displaying the hand-painted lettering that carried the name of the old café.

What a difference four days of hard work had made. She couldn't describe what being inside this building did to her. It felt as if she belonged here. Was her dream really coming true?

Keys jangled, and the back door to the kitchen opened. Quill walked in, but Lexi wasn't with him this time. “Hi.” His smile, a mixture of tempered joy with definite undertones of sadness, greeted her. This was the smile she had grown used to after his dad died, but shouldn't it have returned to its normal brightness by now?

“You're here.”

He chuckled. “Abram is right about your powers of observation.”

If she had a witty comeback, she would use it. “I thought you weren't returning until Monday.”

“Me too. But the inspector said if I could get this place rewired this weekend, he has time in his schedule to inspect it on Monday. If I don't get it done, he won't have another opening until after the benefit.” Quill dropped his overnight bag on the floor. “So ta-da. Here I am.”

The three of them—Abram, Quill, and Ariana—had worked really well together this week, accomplishing far more than they had put on the lists. Susie helped as time allowed, but she couldn't abandon the Beshears. She had dared to turn in her notice to them, and they were trying to hire someone new. Rudy continued to build items for them to sell at the benefit, and he had met with Quill on Monday, but his work schedule did not allow him much time to help with the café.

“Hungry?” She had a bit of a handle on what to expect from Quill. He had probably gotten up really early to meet the deadlines for Schlabach Home Builders, which currently meant he was working a couple of hours away in Pennsylvania. As soon as he was done with that job, he had headed this way without taking time to eat. Since Lexi wasn't with him, she knew his brother Dan had taken the dog from the temp house in Mingo back home to Kentucky.

“Very.” He went to the sink and washed his hands. “I'm making pancakes, and we have a long night of work ahead of us. Would you care for some?” He knew this kitchen as well as she did, and he was comfortable making himself at home, which made sense because he, and sometimes Lexi, slept in the room upstairs when he was in the area, and he hated eating out.

“Sure. Abram will be here soon, so he may want some too.” She grabbed a clean hand towel out of the bin and tossed it to him. “But you're going to turn into a pancake.”

“I'll turn into a Snickers bar first.” He pulled his phone from his pocket, and a moment later his thumbs were flying over the screen. “It's a text from Dan. He asked if we could get away with giving Mamm a new wringer washer for her birthday. I said ‘doubtful.' Thoughts?”

Heat flushed Ariana's body. “He's in contact with Berta too?”

He looked up, taking her in as if she were a stranger. “Sorry, I shouldn't have sprung that on you. I wasn't thinking. He wasn't for a lot of years. None of my brothers were—each one trying to avoid being a bad influence on the younger brothers. But after Daed died, they needed to see Mamm, and she needed to see them.”

“How did I never know that?”

“We didn't mean it as trickery or disrespect.”

“I'm sure. I…I'm just sorry you didn't feel you could trust me.”

“Trust was never the issue. It wouldn't have been right to ask you to bear a secret about that kind of disobedience to the Old Ways.”

Needing a drink, she got a glass from a cabinet and filled it with tap water. Wasn't there some way she could help the brothers give gifts to their Mamm without the new items raising a red flag with those in the community who came in and out of Berta's home? “So when you left here, you joined your brothers?”

“No.” Quill finished his message and slid the phone into his pocket. He got a bowl off the shelf. “How have you done on your list over the last couple of days?”

She'd asked one too many questions. It made her feel a bit eerie to realize more people than Quill had to circumvent her comings and goings so she didn't see them, but for Berta's sake she was grateful the brothers made the effort to sneak in to see her. Maybe one day Quill would answer a couple of questions about Frieda. “I'm done. And”—she spread her arms out wide and made a complete circle—“did you look around at all?”

He paused, shrugged, and got eggs and milk out of the refrigerator. “It looks exactly as I thought it would.”

“Denki, I think. But I need you to ooh and aah over all this.”

He chuckled. “Gotta appreciate a woman who is so direct about what she needs.” He put the egg and milk on the counter and strolled through the café, looking from ceiling to floor. “It really looks amazing, Ariana.” Without any other fanfare he returned to the kitchen and pulled the pancake mix from the pantry.

She followed him. “All my dreams didn't compare to what this feels like, and even if next Saturday doesn't go as we hope, I want you to know how completely grateful I am that you helped me get the best possible shot at it.”

“You'll get the money to go to closing. I have no doubts.”

“I'm glad you feel that way, but”—she pulled up a barstool to the waist-high pass-through counter—“you didn't hear me.”

He paused and studied her. They had covered a lot of ground over the last week, starting with his coming to the phone shanty. Their conversations were woven between hard work and periods of rest, and they rarely strayed off the path of serious topics. Had they forgotten how to laugh together? It seemed as if they should've shared a few giggles either in person or on the phone as they discussed to-do lists while he was on a job site a couple of hours away.

She'd become comfortable with Quill again. Abram believed that Quill simply needed to make up for the damage he'd done to her life when he left.

He turned on the gas burner under the grill before he dumped some mix into the bowl. “My answer didn't match your statement?”

“I wasn't looking for encouragement.”

His brows furrowed as he added ingredients to the bowl and stirred with a whisk. “Oh.” Understanding lifted his face. He came to the counter in front of her. “You are more than welcome, and I'm grateful you've allowed me to help.”

Why was there such hesitancy in his eyes? Did he know something she needed to know, some aspect about the loan she was hoping to get?

“But?”

He put the hand towel on his shoulder and returned to the grill. “No buts.”

“I know what I saw, and…” The rest of her words caught in her throat. She didn't believe him, but why push for answers he didn't wish to give? They would never see eye to eye, and there was nothing wrong with that. “Okay.” She stood. “I should get back to work. Just leave the dishes in the sink, and I'll tend to them later.”

Boxes of glass diner plates that had been in the storage room above needed to be unloaded. She pulled a box cutter from her apron pocket and knelt before ripping open a box.

Quill came into the dining room and crouched near her, looking calm as ever. “I am who I am, and because of it, my life has become a flytrap for secrets.”

“I know, and I've chosen to be okay with that, but the hesitation I saw in your eyes scares me.” What was burning? She looked toward the kitchen and saw plumes of black smoke rising from the grill. “Your pancakes!”

They ran into the kitchen. While she yanked the burned cakes off the grill and tossed them into the sink, he opened the back door.

He peered over her shoulder as she ran water onto the smoldering black circles. “Those are yours.”

She scoffed. “Looks like the remains of our friendship after you left.”

“Ya, and what my life tasted like for years.”

She hadn't realized that, and questions she knew he wouldn't answer pounded her. She turned, and he stayed put, leaving only inches between them. “Would you let me fix you a real meal? I can have it ready, char free, within twenty minutes.”

He eyed the burned pancake. “Sure.”

The eggs were still on the counter, but she went to the fridge and got out the bacon. Once the bacon was on to cook, she got a clean bowl from the shelf.

Quill fished the burned pancake remnants out of the sink and tossed them into the trash. “Part of the problem is you're getting where you can read me, and that's not helpful.”

“Stop hiding stuff.” She cracked an egg into a bowl and tossed the shell in the trash. “Problem solved.”

He used the towel on his shoulder to dry his hands. “I'm working toward that goal. I really am, but there's nothing I can do right now about some of the confidential stuff.”

It meant a lot to know he wanted to stop all secrecy, but it was time they changed the subject and injected a little playfulness. “A dance might help.”

“What?”

“A dance.” She made a circular motion with her hand. “You know the kind. Go on.”

When he and her brother Mark were young and one of them lost at a game, the other one had to do a ballet dance—not that either of them knew much about what such a dance should look like.

“Fine,” he teased. “I'll do one like you've never seen.” He twirled the towel while making ballet-type moves. She could hardly believe he was doing it, and she laughed. Grinning playfully, he went from one end of the café to the other while humming.

He made his way back to the sink, where she was, stopped, and bowed.

She clapped heartily. “Those were the best moves I've ever seen by a former Amish man.”

Breathless, he stood before her. “The only ones you've ever seen—admit it.”

“True.” She gazed into his eyes while he stood so close, and she saw the truth. Whatever he said to her, he meant. “But if I'd seen dozens of others, yours would be my favorite—for now and always.”

“Are we good?”

“We are, but then again, we were before you danced.”

“Now you're just being mean, which is kind of refreshing. I didn't know you had it in you.”

“I hate to burst your bubble when you're feeling refreshed due to my unkindness, but I have a thought about Dan's question and your Mamm's birthday.”

He mocked a frustrated sigh. “Go ahead. What kindness are you up to this time?”

“Once I'm making decent money, if you or your brothers wish to purchase nice things for your Mamm, people will naturally think I did it for her. I can give you that.” That would free them to buy anything or send cash to their Mamm whenever they wanted. Of course his Mamm would know the truth of who the gift was from.

Quill angled his head. “Let me make sure I've got this straight. If we buy gifts for Mamm, you're willing to take the credit.”

“Yep.” She squelched her desire to smile.

“That's a really nice offer. It's hard not being able to give Mamm much of anything.”

Ariana could hardly believe she was willing to be a bridge between the sons who had left and their Amish Mamm, but she no longer saw their departure as a betrayal that deserved punishment. She only saw a family divided, and she could make the separation a little less painful for everyone. Was that wrong of her, a betrayal of the Old Ways?