“Yes, darling, I have felt like that. Freedom is a mighty gut thing. It feels like none other.”
THIRTEEN
“Tricia was at school, and his parents were gone for the day, you see.”
SUNDAY
“What’s this thing called?” Allison asked Nate, pointing to the socket set.
“It’s a socket set. You use it to tighten bolts.”
“I know these are screwdrivers, but one is pointy and one is flat.”
Nate pulled his head out of the cabinet under the bathroom sink. “One’s called a Phillips-head screwdriver; the other is a flathead.”
“Huh.” She sat back on her heels. “I thought the names of all these tools would be easy enough to memorize, but I don’t know.”
Nate grinned. He wasn’t sure why Allison cared about the tools at all, but her ignorance was eye-opening. He’d taken his grandfather’s and uncles’ lessons about fixing things for granted. He actually couldn’t remember a time when he didn’t know what a flathead screwdriver was. “Anytime you want a lesson on tools, stop by my shop.”
“No one will mind?”
“Of course not. Besides, you’ll probably just run into me anyway. I do own the hardware store, you know.”
“I haven’t forgotten that.” She sat down on the ground, watching Nate go back under the sink to finish switching out the corroded pipe with a new one.
“I wouldn’t be too hard on yourself,” Benjamin said as he continued patching the wall. “Think about all the different tools one needs to make a meal in the kitchen. Sometimes one needs a wooden spoon, other times a spatula, other times a big ladle for soup. They’re all spoons of one kind or another, but they do different tasks. It takes different tools for different jobs, jah?”
Allison nodded. “That’s a good point.” Looking up at the ceiling that was now almost ready for drywall, she sighed. “You all have done so much work in our house, I’d be surprised if you had any tools left in the store.”
She didn’t lie. Ever since that first visit, he’d made a point to spend an hour working at her house every couple of days. Ben had done the same thing. However, today, the two of them had decided that it was time to actually make a difference for Allison and her mom.
When he’d arrived at the house at seven that morning, the first thing he and Benjamin had done was put on masks and pull down the last of the rotten wood. And there’d been a lot of it. The first time he’d knocked out some plaster, he’d discovered that the damage inside the house was worse than they’d thought. Ben had even joked that it might be easier to tear down the whole structure and start from scratch.
After such a long morning, Nate was now really thankful he’d asked his friends Harley and Kyle Lambright to help them for a couple hours as well. They were due to arrive any minute.
“By the time we leave today, I promise that you’re going to feel better about your house.”
Allison stood up. “That means I better get out of your way and stop asking so many questions about tools. I’m going to go help Miss Becky across the street now. She likes me to read to her and help her sweep her back porch and clean the kitchen. If you need anything, just call.”
“Will do.” Nate had to smile. Allison was such a nice girl.
“She’s worth waking up at six this morning,” Benjamin murmured.
“I was just thinking the same thing.”
The door opened again, this time bringing in Harley and his younger brother, Kyle. “Aren’t you two a sight for sore eyes,” Benjamin called out.
“I’d take that as a compliment except for the mess you got going on in here,” Harley said.
Nate had already told him the extent of the damage. “I appreciate you stopping by.” After briefly explaining what he planned to do, he said, “What do you think? Will that work?”
Harley climbed on the ladder, touched a few of the remaining joists in the ceiling, then climbed down. “Your plan will work, but you’re gonna need help.” He looked around the room. “Where are the girl and her mother?”
“Mom’s at work, and Allison just went over to the neighbor’s.”
Harley peered at the ceiling again. As was his way, his expression was serious. “It’s gonna rain this afternoon, and I don’t think that patch is gonna hold. We’ll need even more help.” Turning to Nate, he said, “Hand me your work cell phone.”
“You sure?”
“Uh-huh.” He held out his hand.
Nate handed him the phone and listened as Harley started calling their friends. Ten minutes later, he had rounded up another three men to come over within the hour. Looking pleased, Harley turned to Kyle. “Clear out the rest of this debris. John B. is going to bring his truck. He said he’d take a load to the dump.”
“On it.”
Benjamin grinned. “Remind me never to sit too still around you, Harley Lambright. You don’t mess around.”
Harley smiled for the first time. “We got no time for that. Besides, my Katie has a houseful at the inn.”
That was all they needed to know. After dividing up the chores one more time, they got to work.
* * *
By three o’clock that afternoon, the roof had been repaired, boards replaced, and the ceiling patched. In a couple of days, either Nate himself or Ben would come over and paint the ceiling. John B., Logan, and Will had come over for a couple of hours, bringing along fifty dollars’ worth of groceries as well.
Only Nate was still there when Allison and her mother returned. Though she’d always been appreciative over the past week, Monique Berry appeared shell-shocked when she saw all the work the men had done. She touched each surface with a look of wonder on her face.
“I don’t know how to ever thank you.”
“No thanks are needed. We were glad to help.”
“I’ve told my daughter this, but I still don’t quite understand how this all happened.”
“I told you, Mom. I wrote a note and explained our situation. Nate read it, stopped by, and then said he’d help us.”
Her mother shook her head. “I know what happened, but it still amazes me. I mean, things like this never happen.”
“Usually I’d agree with you, but in this instance, Allison isn’t far off. Her letter touched my heart, and I wanted to help.”
“But all these materials—they had to cost a small fortune.” Allison’s mom eyed him closely. “Are you sure you can afford to donate so much to one pair of women?”
Nate didn’t mind her questions and surprise. If their situations were reversed, he knew he’d have had a very hard time accepting so much so easily.
So he said the only thing he could—and had to hope she would understand where his heart was. “God was working with us, Ms. Berry. I feel sure of it. Everyone who I called had time to spare today. That ain’t always the case.”
“Maybe I should try to argue with your generosity or even come up with a payment plan, but I’m too grateful to do that. So, I’m just going to tell you that I’m really thankful for you and your friends. You all have changed our lives.”
He smiled. “You’re welcome.”
She blinked away a tear. “Now, I don’t know if you’ve realized but the weather turned pretty nasty out there. It’s time for you to get on home before your loved ones start to worry.”
“It sounds as if I’d better get on my way then.” Nate put his hat back on and tipped it in Allison’s direction. “I hope you two have a good evening.”
“We will,” Allison said with a smile.
“Then I’ll see you in a few days. I’ll give you a call to see when I can come back.”
“Sounds good,” she said, walking to his side. “I’ll walk you out.”
She opened the door and stepped out on the stoop, frowning at the dark skies and his backpack. “How are you going to get home?”
“My bike. I leaned it against your fence over there.”
“Do you want me to ask my mom to give you a ride?”
“Nope. I’ll be good. I like to ride it when I can.” He pointed to his head. “Riding helps clear my head.”
Allison hesitated, then said, “I just wanted you to know that I really appreciate everything.”
“Allison, this is the honest truth: helping you helped me.”
She looked up at him and smiled.
Which was a blessing, indeed.
FOURTEEN
“Maybe some of you would have refused. Maybe some of you might have at least thought about it for a while, weighing the consequences of being alone in a boy’s house when you were supposed to be in school.” Kendra shrugged. “But that day, right in that moment, I felt like I had nothing to lose.”
MONDAY MORNING
“Do you think you’ll be all right today?” Kendra asked her. Again.
Naomi glanced at the clock, then at the massive lunch her sister had made for her and put in a small cooler. Then at the pile of notebooks and pencils—pencils!—she’d placed on the counter early that morning. How she was supposed to carry all of this around, she didn’t know. “I’ll be all right, as long as I get out of here soon. I need to leave.”
“I’m not going to ask if you want me to go with you to the high school office.”
“That’s gut, especially since you’ve already offered and I’ve already turned down your offer. Several times.” She edged toward the door.
Kendra sighed. “Go ahead, now. I hope you have a good day. Stop by the shop after.”
“Danke, sister.” After reaching down to give Blue a pat on the head, Naomi kissed Kendra’s cheek and pulled on the door’s handle. Maybe she could just “forget” to grab everything?
“Wait! Silly, you almost forgot your lunch and your supplies.”
She picked up the cooler—it had to weigh close to fifteen pounds—one of the pencils, and a notebook. “Danke, Kendra. You are a gut sister.”
“I try.” She looked at the pile of pencils Naomi had left on the counter.
“There’s no need to try anymore. You are an excellent sister,” she said before heading out.
* * *
The high school was fairly close to Tried and True, but not all that close to Kendra’s house. If things had been different, Naomi would have asked to get a driver at least for this first day. She didn’t have the nerve to do that, though. Her poor sister had already been through so much, what with their grandparents acting so foolish the night before.
She had been far more naive than her big sister. For some reason, she’d thought her practical grandparents would have been just as practical and understanding in Walnut Creek as they were in Canton. But that hadn’t been the case at all. They’d treated Kendra callously and hadn’t been understanding at all when Kendra had spoken her mind about their parents. Actually, they’d done a real good job of acting oblivious, even though nothing Kendra had said had been a surprise.
If Naomi hadn’t been 100 percent sure that she’d wanted to distance herself from them, that conversation would have done it. She would never side with anyone against Kendra. She didn’t think any of her siblings would. Their big sister had been through too much—and had done so much for them as well.
She’d just shifted her heavy cooler from one hand to the other and had even considered stashing the cooler while she was at school when an old black Jeep slowed down beside her.
“Naomi? Is that you?”
Warily, she glanced to her right, then grinned. “Kane, I know only one person at the high school: you. And here you are.”
“What a coincidence, huh?”
He was speaking too lightly for it to be one. “How did you know I was walking to school?”
“Someone might have told me when I stopped by your house to pick you up.”
Naomi almost rolled her eyes. “Kendra?”
He grinned. “She might have looked a little worried. So, want a ride?”
“Thanks.” Hefting up her cooler into his backseat, she said, “Kendra is under the impression that each school day is a week long. There’s a ton of food in that thing.”
“What did she make you?”
“Oh, just a roast beef sandwich, two pieces of leftover fried chicken, an apple, some kind of carrot salad, a container of trail mix and—just in case I never want to fit into my favorite dress ever again—four brownies.”
After making sure she was buckled up, Kane whistled softly as he pulled back onto the road. “Do you think she’s going to make you lunches like that every day?”
“I don’t know—wait. You’re looking like you hope she will.”
“Uh, yeah. Can I help you eat that lunch today? I mean, if you don’t think you can finish it all?”
“There’s no way I’m going to be able to eat even a fourth of it. She already made me a monster breakfast, saying I needed good food for ‘brain power.’ ”
Kane grinned. “No way.”
“Believe me, I wouldn’t make something like that up. So, I promise, you can have as much as you want.” Yes, she might have also realized that if he ate lunch with her, then she wouldn’t have to worry about eating lunch by herself.
“My day just got better,” he said as he stopped at the light in front of the school.
Gazing up at the high school, she felt her toes curl with a fresh batch of anticipation. It was big, almost twice the size of the school she’d attended before. She was sure she was going to get lost a lot.
“Are you neahfich?”
“Nervous? No. I mean, I wasn’t until now.”
He smiled. “But now?”
“Now, well, I’m not really sure.” On the one hand, she was a little scared about actually walking into the big school. But on the other hand, she was going to be walking in with Kane at her side, and he was so cute and kind.
“Hey, you’ve got nothing to worry about. Everyone’s going to like you.”
“How do you know? You hardly even know me.”
“I know enough.” His smile was thoughtful, making her heart beat a little faster. After a second, he added, “Plus, lots of people know about you. You’re the new girl. We don’t get a lot of those. Especially not at the end of September.”
“I guess not.”
“You’ll do fine, though. I heard you’re really smart.”
She didn’t mind him saying that, but it did seem kind of strange for him to say. “Who did you hear that from?” she asked. Then suddenly—“Oh, goodness. Please don’t tell me that Kendra told you that, too.”
“Nee. It wasn’t her.”
“Who then?”
“Fine. Nate at the hardware store. It seems he has friends who know Kendra well. Well enough that they talk about one another’s families as if they’re part of them.” He drove into the back parking lot, slowly eased around a group of students standing near a truck, then parked in slot number 432. “Weird, huh?”
“Not if Nate’s friends are part of the Eight. They’re like a big family, and Kendra is real close to most of them.” She got out of the Jeep and looked around at all the cute girls sporting small backpacks or handbags. Not a one of them was so much as carrying a paper sack. “Kane, I can’t bring this in.”
“I know.” After tossing his backpack over one shoulder, he said, “The principal would probably think you were smuggling in a weapon or something if you tried to bring that in. But… I can store it in my Jeep until eleven thirty.”
“That’s what time lunch is?”
“Yep. We’re small enough that the whole school eats at the same time.”
Just as she was about to take Kane up on his offer, two guys and a really pretty girl with long black hair stopped in front of his Jeep.
“Kane!” one of them called out. “Where’ve you been?”
He turned to them. “Hey. I picked up my friend Naomi. Naomi, this is Lauren, Baker, and Ted.”
“Hi.”
“Hi to you, too,” the taller of the two guys—maybe Ted?—said. “Who are you?”
“She’s transferring here from
a high school over in Canton.”
“And you’re Mennonite?”
“Yes.”
“Oh.”
She noticed Lauren exchange a glance with the other boy before pasting an obviously fake smile on her face.
Naomi smiled back, but she knew it was just as fake because inside, her stomach was beginning to flutter. She’d never thought she was particularly insecure, but maybe it was because she’d always been in her comfort zone. She’d been confident because her family had put her into situations where she had no reason to be anything but confident.
She’d been fooling herself into thinking she could face any situation easily, but now, feeling Kane’s three friends study her and come up wanting, she realized she was very wrong.
“Well, we’ve got to go,” the boy she figured was Ted said. “See ya, Kane.”
“Yeah. See ya.”
Lauren and the other boy followed him.
Naomi glanced at Kane. His expression was blank. She wondered if it was because he was embarrassed by his friends or by her. Had she said something wrong? Maybe they just did things differently back at her old school?
“Hey, you know what? I should probably get over to the office and get my schedule.”
“I’ll walk you there.”
“You don’t have to,” she said in a rush. “You’ve already helped me out a ton. Plus, I’m sure you’ve got plenty of things to do.”
He started walking. “Like what?”
“I don’t know. Whatever boys like to do.” See his friends. Not have to walk her around.
Amusement lit up his eyes. “I don’t know about other boys, but this guy wants to walk you to the office.”
“All right.”
They walked through the parking lot. She looked straight ahead while several guys and girls—a lot, really—called out to him or waved at him. Kane responded in kind but didn’t show any inclination of wanting to join any of them.
“Here,” he said, pushing open the main door to the school.
The Trustworthy One Page 9
