Читать книгу Twice Blessed - Barbara Cameron - Страница 12

Chapter 4

4

Katie loved working at Saul and Elizabeth’s store, but today she couldn’t wait to get home.

“Do you want to take off early?” Elizabeth asked her.

“Nee, why do you ask?”

“I’ve seen you looking at the clock. I think you’re worried about Rosie.”

She straightened a display of handmade candles before turning to Elizabeth. “I appreciated you and Saul telling me to stay home with her yesterday, but she’s allrecht to be left on her own today. She promised she won’t go up and down the stairs in the house and when I left she was about to take a nap on the sofa.”

“Gut.” Elizabeth patted her shoulder. “Just let me know if there is anything you need.”

The two of them had to work hard to make up for the absence of Rosie, but an hour before closing the stream of customers slowed. When Elizabeth insisted she go take her break, Katie didn’t argue. She fixed herself a cup of tea and sat down to enjoy it with a couple of cookies, thankful that Jacob had saved her from having to eat zucchini bread for her snack.

She found herself remembering how he’d stopped by that afternoon and visited Rosie for the second time . . . and brought her

daisies. She wasn’t sure who was more surprised—her or Rosie. They hadn’t had time to talk before Katie had to rush off to work, so she was looking forward to hearing all about it when she got home.

Elizabeth walked in just as Katie yawned. “Tired, huh? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you tired.” She fixed her own cup of tea and took a seat. “Don’t jump up. Saul’s minding the store. He’ll call us if it gets busy.”

Katie tried to stifle another yawn. “I didn’t get much sleep the night Rosie had to go to the emergency room. Then I’ve fussed over her the last couple days. Probably more than she needed,” she admitted.

“I’m sure. You were worried. Anyone would be.”

“Rosie said I was being bossy whenever I insisted she stay in bed.” She paused. “What’s so funny?”

Elizabeth bit back a smile. “You? Bossy?”

“I’m not bossy!”

“Of course not.”

Katie stared at her for a long moment and then she laughed. “I just like things to be the way I think they should be.”

“Ya.”

They heard a high pitched squeal out in the store.

“Speaking of bossy,” Elizabeth said as she turned in her chair to look toward the doorway. “Here comes one bossy little girl.”

Lovina, Elizabeth’s mother-in-law, walked in carrying Anna, a chubby toddler the spitting image of Elizabeth. The toddler’s eyes lit up as she saw her mamm, and it was all Lovina could do to hold onto her as she lunged for her mamm.

Elizabeth took her and hugged her. “Were you a good little girl today?”

“She certainly lets you know what she wants,” Lovina told them with a smile.

Anna looked at Katie and babbled, her big blue eyes on the cookies on Katie’s plate, her little hands opening and closing as if she wished she was grabbing it.

“She ate a big lunch. She can’t be hungry,” Lovina said.

“My girl’s always hungry,” Elizabeth said.

“Can she have a bite? There are no nuts in it.”

Elizabeth nodded and accepted the cookie. Anna snatched it from her mother’s hand and happily gobbled it. She grinned at Katie, her mouth smeared with crumbs.

“She’s so sweet,” Katie said.

Anna clapped her hands and cooed.

“I can’t believe she’s eighteen months old already. She’s not a boppli anymore.” Elizabeth looked at Lovina. “Danki for taking her in to have the doctor check her ear today.”

“The doctor said she’s got a mild ear infection and gave me a prescription.”

“I figured that’s what was going on when she kept tugging at her ear yesterday and then kept us up most of the night.”

Katie covered her yawn with her hand. “So neither of us has had enough sleep lately.”

Lovina fixed herself a cup of tea and sat down. “How is Rosie?”

“Doing well. She should be back to work soon.”

“One of my kinner had a concussion once. I remember trying to keep him up all night so he wouldn’t go into a coma.”

Katie shivered in spite of herself. “Doctor said we didn’t have to do that. Rosie might have hit me if I tried to keep her up all night.”

Saul stuck his head in the door. “Last-minute customers.”

Katie rose, waving her hand at Elizabeth. “You stay and take care of Anna.” She grinned at her trying to reach the other cookie on the plate. “She can have the cookie if it’s okay with you.”

She walked back into the store, smiling as she remembered how overjoyed Elizabeth and Saul had been to discover they’d be

parents after the miscarriage that had devastated them the first year of their marriage.

Working with the couple, seeing how they loved and worked as partners, and now as parents, made Katie think about her own life . . . she knew she didn’t want to marry anyone for quite some time. She had a plan in mind to get the Two Peas in a Pod business solidly established, profitable. Many Amish couples had their own business, and it gave them the chance to be at home for their kinner, something so important to them. Two Peas was perfect—both she and Rosie loved gardening and canning, and this they could do when they became wives and mothers.

Katie had a very clear idea of what she wanted in a mann. She knew some maedels sat around and said they were waiting for the man God had set aside for them. Katie had talked quite a bit with God about the kind of man she wanted. She’d been very specific with God about the qualities she wanted in a mann. Daniel had come along not long after, but she wasn’t sure that meant he was the one God meant for her . . . sometimes she wondered if he really understood her.

She could be patient. She and Rosie were building their business. They were happy as they were. Prospering. Seeing sweet little Anna today, though, well, that made her think about husbands and babies. Katie had once heard an Englisch friend say her biological clock was ticking. She’d had to tell Katie what she meant by that. Katie could be as patient about when she had kinner as she was about when she’d meet the mann for her. But little Anna was so adorable.

She shook her head. She was at work and had no time for daydreams . . .

“Excuse me, miss, can you tell me if you have this candle in green?”

“Yes, we do. I’ll be happy to get one for you. Did you see the candle holders in the front of the store? They look lovely together.”

“I missed those.”

Katie led the way back to the hand-carved candle holders and showed them to the customer, then went into the storeroom to get the requested candle. When she returned, the woman had chosen a candle holder as well.

Elizabeth came out to help with the customers while Lovina entertained Anna in the back room, and they breathed a sigh of relief as the last customer walked out the door. Elizabeth locked the door and turned the sign to Closed.

Katie straightened a few shelves on her way to the back room to collect her things. “Do you need any help preparing the deposit?” she asked Saul.

“No, I’m fine,” he said as he totaled up the deposit slip. “I was able to get most of it done when we had that slow spell.”

She grinned. “The one that lasted all of fifteen minutes?”

He nodded as he tucked the slip and the cash into the bank bag and zipped it. “A shopkeeper always loves a busy day.”

“I love them, too. It means I have a job here.”

He chuckled. “True. Ach, there’s your driver already.”

“Oops, gotta run.” She said a quick goodbye to everyone, grabbed her things, and rushed out the front door of the store. The driver had a schedule to keep, and it wouldn’t do to keep him and the other passengers wanting to get home waiting.

Five minutes into the drive she fell sound asleep.

***

Rosie roused when the front door opened.

“Katie?”

“Ya, it’s me.”

She sat up. “Oh my, is it that time already?”

“Have you been asleep all afternoon?” Katie asked as she closed the door.

“Nee. Mary stopped by with a casserole for our supper, so we visited and had tea and cookies. She brought me a book, and I read some of it. I fixed us a salad for our supper tonight to go with the casserole and then I took a nap.”

She glanced at the clock on the wall, yawned, and shook her head. “So I slept for three hours. I hope I can sleep tonight.”

She sat up, stared at the vase of daisies on the coffee table, and found herself smiling. So she hadn’t dreamed them.

“I’ll go heat the casserole.”

“I can do it.”

Rosie shook her head. “You look tired. You haven’t been lying here being lazy all afternoon. Sit down, and I’ll bring you something to drink.”

“That would be lovely.” Katie sank down onto the sofa, kicked her shoes off and put her feet up. She sighed when Rosie brought her a glass of tea and started to move her feet but Rosie waved her hand and took a chair.

“So, flowers.”

Rosie smiled. “First time a man ever brought me flowers. They’re not romantic, though.”

“When a man gives you flowers, it’s not romantic?”

“He brought them because he heard I’d been hurt.”

“Still, he didn’t have to. He cared enough to come see you and bring you flowers.”

Rosie thought about that. “Ya.”

“You kind of like him, don’t you?”

She smiled. “Ya.” Then her smile faded. “But he’s probably just being friendly. He doesn’t know many people here yet.”

“Don’t do that. Don’t put yourself down like that. Why shouldn’t he be interested in an attractive woman like you?”

Rosie stared at her for a long moment and then she laughed. “Do you realize what you’re saying? Since we look alike you’re saying that you’re attractive.”

Katie nodded. “Ya, so? It’s true.”

She giggled. “You’re incorrigible.” The timer on the stove buzzed. “Supper’s ready.” She got up and started for the kitchen.

“So when are you going to see him again?” Katie picked up the vase of daisies and carried it into the kitchen. She set it in the middle of the table.

Katie had never been subtle.

“He didn’t make a date with me if that’s what you mean.” She got the spinach and strawberry salad and the dressing she’d made from the refrigerator and placed it on the table. Drawing on oven mitts, she lifted the casserole from the oven and set it on a hot pad next to the salad.

Katie sniffed the casserole. “Mmm, smells good. You know, you could ask him out.”

Rosie sat down. “I couldn’t do that.” She poured the dressing over the salad, tossed it, and served them each a bowl. She paused and studied Katie. “Have you ever done that?”

“Sure.”

She sighed. “That sort of thing is easier for you.”

“It’s not that hard once you do it. Just ask him if he’d like to go for a drive after church, maybe have lunch.”

“Oh, I don’t think I could do that.” She ate a bite of salad.

“Give it a try. All the man can do is say nee. It won’t kill you, I promise.”

Maybe it wouldn’t kill Katie, but Rosie wasn’t sure she could handle the rejection. Especially from Jacob.

“This is really good. Even if I don’t like strawberries as much as you.”

“I’m glad you like it.”

“The casserole is delicious, too. Why aren’t you eating yours?”

Rosie pushed it around on her plate. “I’m not very hungry.”

“Your head is hurting, isn’t it? I can see it in your eyes.”

“It’s not as bad as yesterday.”

“I felt it that night, you know. Your head hurting. That’s how I knew to come home. Daniel acted like he didn’t believe me, but Rachel Ann said I should come home.”

“I’m sorry you had to come home early. And had to sit in the emergency room with me.”

“You’re my schweschder. Where else would I be but with you?”

Katie rose and got the prescription bottle and a glass of water. “Here, take a pill and maybe by the time you finish supper you’ll start to feel better.”

Rosie hated taking pills, but the pain was building so she gave in and swallowed one with the water. “I feel like a big baby.”

“You’re not a big baby. Doctors don’t give you pain pills if they don’t think you need them. Speaking of babies, Lovina brought Anna to the store today. She’s getting so big.”

“I’d love to have seen her.”

“She loved the cookie Elizabeth said I could give her.” Katie pushed her plate aside and took a sip of her iced tea. “Wonder if Jacob ate the zucchini bread we sent home with him today?”

Rosie felt warmth rush to her cheeks. “I don’t know.” She stabbed a bite of chicken with her fork and ate it.

“So what are you going to do to thank him for the flowers?”

“I should do something?”

Katie grinned. “Well, it’s a nice thing to do and a way to see him again. Then you can decide if you want to ask him out if he doesn’t ask you first.”

“You never stop, do you?”

“If you’re interested in him, you need to act. There are other maedels who won’t be shy about showing up on his doorstep to welcome him to the community.”

Rosie ate the last of the casserole on her plate and got to her feet to begin clearing the table. She knew Katie was right but she just wasn’t sure she could be so . . . bold. She’d have to think about it.

Katie took her dishes to the sink, filled it with warm water, and squirted in some dish soap.

“Let me do them. You worked today.”

“I want you to rest and get better. Go lie down.”

She wasn’t tired, so instead she fixed herself a cup of tea and sat at the kitchen table to keep Katie company. “I wish I could have gone into work today. I was so bored.”

“You’ll get to go back soon enough. If you take care of yourself.”

“I’ll go to bed in a minute.” She propped her elbow on the table, rested her chin in her hand, and stared into her tea. “Katie, sometimes I wonder if I’ll become an old maid.”