Plain Return (The Plain Fame Series Book 4)

by Price, Sarah

  “English, Izzie,” Amanda said softly. Sometimes she needed to remind Isadora, and Isadora—frustrated that she couldn’t speak the language or make herself understood—would cry. This time, however, Isadora found her words.

  “Pony! White pony!”

  Astonished, Amanda looked at Harvey. “Did you hear that?”

  “I sure did.”

  Turning around, Amanda applauded Isadora’s effort. “Well done, Izzie. That was a white pony!”

  “Mayhaps we can stop there on the ride back,” Harvey offered as he put on his blinker and pulled into the parking lot of the fabric store.

  Isadora needed no translation for that. She began to squiggle in the car seat, trying to look out the window in the direction of the pony. “Now? Now?” she insisted in a loud, animated voice.

  “Shopping first, Izzie. Always work before play, ja?” Amanda said gently, trying to calm down the overexcited five-year-old.

  Harvey carried Isadora to the store, ignoring Amanda’s offer to do so. She hadn’t insisted, as she knew full well that Harvey doted on the child. As she walked beside Harvey, Amanda pointed out pretty purple pansies planted along the walkway and the yellow daffodils blooming in ceramic planters by the door. She said different words and waited for Isadora to repeat them, cheering whenever she did so properly.

  A long time had passed since Amanda had been in a fabric store, and she lingered longer than she’d expected to. The possibilities were as endless as the fabrics. When she was growing up, she’d worn only three dresses: two for work and play, one for Sunday. As she grew older and taller, she rarely had anything new added to her limited wardrobe, since most of her dresses were replaced with hand-me-downs from Anna. But the year she had turned sixteen, Mamm had let her pick out a fabric for a brand-new dress. The possibilities weren’t as varied for her at that time, five years ago. She was allowed to pick from only certain colors. But Amanda hadn’t cared. She knew what she wanted, and that was blue: her favorite color, one that most young Amish girls did not wear since it was the color of the dress they would wear on their wedding day.

  Now, for Isadora’s dress, Amanda could choose any fabric. She was no longer limited to just the colors and the plain style favored by the Amish. She could make floral dresses or use striped fabrics. She finally settled on the more subtle prints, knowing that once Alejandro returned to the United States and sent for them, the handmade dresses would most likely be left behind, replaced by fancy dresses gifted to her by designers who hoped that the papers would print photos of Isadora wearing their fashion designs. Dali had warned her about that after their return to Miami.

  The thought of Dali gave Amanda a moment of pause.

  Despite her stoic nature and her determination never to cross the line between the professional and the personal, Dali had turned out to be a pillar of strength for Amanda. Her advice was always given with the best of intentions and, as Amanda had learned too late, was usually spot-on. During the nine-hour flight back to Miami, while Isadora slept on Amanda’s lap, Dali had given one more piece of advice to her.

  “Your strength is given to you from God, Amanda,” she had said. “He will not lead you anywhere that you should not be.”

  Dali had kept silent for the remainder of the trip, but her words had stuck with Amanda as she’d stared out the dark window and prayed to God for help. Now, almost two weeks after she had left Alejandro in South America, she didn’t know what to think. Like clockwork, Amanda texted him each morning and each evening. She knew that he was now in Central America and would return to Miami by midweek. The only problem was, she didn’t know when he would come to fetch her.

  “You ready, Amanda?” Harvey asked as she walked out the front door of the fabric store.

  “Ja, I think I am.”

  As they walked down the wooden steps, Amanda held on to the handrail. Harvey waited on the sidewalk at the bottom of the stairs, turning around just as the heel of her shoe caught on a rusty nail that stuck out of a board. She stumbled and missed the next step. Harvey shifted Isadora in his arms and reached out to steady Amanda.

  “Oh help,” she muttered.

  “Careful there, Amanda.” Harvey helped her to stand up and then glanced over her shoulder, eyeing the nail suspiciously. “It’s a wonder that didn’t get fixed before now.”

  “Must’ve been from all the snow, you think?”

  He nodded. “Take her, and I’ll fix it.”

  Amanda took Isadora from his arms and watched Harvey, feeling a mild curiosity about what he would do. With his big, heavy work boots, he stomped on the nail until it lay flat against the board. “Well, that was easy!” he said.

  “You’re a good man, Harvey Alderfer,” Amanda said. And she meant it. How many other people had passed by that nail, not one of them thinking to fix it before someone, possibly an elderly woman leaving the fabric store, lost her footing and fell? All it had taken was a good heart and a strong boot to fix the problem.

  As they walked back to the car, it dawned on Amanda that the same could be said about Alejandro. Although he didn’t like her leaving, her heart was in the right place, and she took comfort in the fact that he knew that. His requests for her to join him in Mexico were hard for her to turn down. But like Harvey, she needed to use a firm boot when putting down her foot. And as Dali had said, God would not lead her to a place where he did not want her to be. And as much as Amanda struggled with being apart from Alejandro, she knew that being together on the European tour would be even harder. The schedule was grueling, even worse there than in South America, with concerts every Tuesday and Thursday night as well as on weekend evenings. There were even dates that overlapped, meaning that Viper and his crew would travel to multiple countries in one day, doing an afternoon performance in one country and an evening performance in another.

  No, she told herself. The impossible logistics of touring with a family would have to be faced when he returned from South America. Isadora could not go on the European tour, and without her stepdaughter, Amanda would not go either. The rusty nail needed to be flattened, she felt, in order to preserve Isadora’s progress—as well as her own sanity. It was a decision she had made on her own. The hard part would be helping Alejandro to see the wisdom of it.

  Chapter Nineteen

  The message on her voice mail sounded urgent: Dali demanded to know when Amanda was returning to Miami. Amanda knew it wasn’t polite to ignore the message, but she didn’t have an answer for her assistant. She felt no obligation to return to Miami during a time when she had been scheduled to accompany Alejandro in South America. Her schedule was empty, so Dali had no reason to make such requests, Amanda told herself. Besides, the weather had finally turned for the better and the last thing Amanda wanted to think about was leaving the farm.

  She sat at the picnic table with Anna, helping her fold the dry laundry. Overhead, the warm afternoon sun shone in the vibrant blue sky. A gentle breeze kept the air cool, and the birds darted back and forth over the fields, hunting for small bits of straw and grass to use for their nests.

  Amanda’s phone sat on the edge of the table as she waited for a message from Alejandro. She knew that the tour had finished over the past weekend, and she figured he had certainly flown home on Monday, Tuesday at the latest. But it was now midday on Wednesday and she still had not received any word from him.

  An orange barn cat strutted by, its tail waving in the air, and Isadora jumped down from the picnic table to chase it. Her bare feet ran through the grass, carrying her in the direction of where the old tomcat had disappeared.

  Amanda watched her daughter turn the corner of the house. “Spring is the best season on the farm,” she said, more to herself than to Anna. “God’s gift for us having survived the winter, ja?”

  “Oh, now you say that, Amanda,” Anna replied, a teasing tone to her voice. “But I don’t recall that you were the one shoveling snow
from the walkway or driveway!”

  “Mayhaps not this year,” Amanda laughed in response. “But I’ve still shoveled enough to make me appreciate the springtime.”

  Setting down the dress in her hands, Anna sighed and stared at Amanda. There was a wistful look in her eyes, one that displayed a mixture of emotions. “It has been nice having you home these past weeks,” Anna said. “Such a shame you must be leaving again.”

  Amanda placed the shirt she had just folded on top of the laundry in the basket and reached for another, smoothing out the fabric before starting to fold it. “And when I return to the farm, you’ll have your boppli!”

  The mere mention of her baby caused Anna to lay her hand on her protruding stomach. It was hard for Amanda to believe that there was a baby inside her sister’s belly. When she was growing up, she learned from an early age that pregnancy among the married Amish women occurred so frequently that some were pregnant every year for a decade. But this was her sister, not just any woman in the church district. After all that their family had been through, Amanda couldn’t help but feel protective of her.

  As if reading her mind, Anna changed the subject. “It’s hard to believe that it was round about this time last year when Daed wanted us to leave for Ohio.”

  “No!” Amanda gasped when she realized her sister spoke the truth. “It is hard to believe. So much has happened. For both of us!”

  “Oh for sure and certain, for both of us,” Anna agreed. “But more so for you than for me.” She put down the dress she had been folding, letting it fall onto her lap in a crumpled heap. “What an adventure you have lived, Amanda. And I’m truly not surprised. You always did have a touch of wanderlust.”

  “Wanderlust? Oh, that’s not so!” Whether her sister spoke the truth or not, Amanda couldn’t say. But she didn’t like hearing such things said about her.

  Anna laughed. “Oh ja, you did. Why, you always thought traveling would be right gut fun!”

  “Oh, Anna!” Amanda shook her head. “To Harrisburg, ja! But not to foreign countries that I didn’t even know existed!” They both laughed, knowing that there was a bit of truth to both their claims. “Besides, I was always happy on the farm.”

  Anna shook her head. “Nee, that’s not so. Especially after Aaron passed . . .”

  The sound of Isadora’s laughter rang out from the barn. Amanda looked in that direction and saw that she had found Jonas, who now accompanied her as they left the dairy barn and headed toward the house.

  “But we all know that you’ve sacrificed so much to help Daed,” Anna continued. “Even before Aaron passed. You never should have felt guilt over Aaron’s death or about . . .”

  Amanda knew why her sister couldn’t finish the sentence. While Anna loved Jonas, she still felt the pain of being abandoned by the man she had thought she’d marry, just weeks before their wedding was to be announced.

  “And now,” Anna said, changing the subject, “you have a man that you love and a daughter that you adore!”

  This time, Amanda smiled. “I do, Anna. I truly do.”

  “And the travel!”

  Making a face, Amanda rolled her eyes and pretended to collapse on the picnic table, which made Anna laugh again.

  “Speaking of Daed,” Amanda said, glancing up at the sky as she tried to gauge the time. “They should be back from physical therapy soon, ja?”

  “I reckon so, unless they stopped at the cafeteria at the hospital. Does Daed some good to get out of the house a spell. Mamm, too.”

  Just then, they heard the sound of car tires on the gravel. Amanda looked up. “Must not have stopped after all.” She glanced at her sister. “You going to finish folding that dress? That’s the third time you started and stopped!”

  Anna looked up, realizing that Amanda spoke the truth, and they both laughed as Anna quickly folded it and tossed it into the basket.

  A black car pulled around the side of the barn. Amanda squinted at it, wondering who might possibly be pulling in. After all, her parents had left in a wheelchair-accessible van that morning, Lizzie fussing over Elias as the driver helped secure his chair in the vehicle. The car that now parked in the driveway was clearly not transporting her parents.

  And then it dawned on her.

  “Alejandro!”

  She tossed the shirt onto the picnic table and slid out from the bench. Running as fast as she could, she practically jumped into his arms when he emerged from the car’s backseat. She threw her arms around his neck and clung to him, laughing and crying at the same time. With his arms around her waist, holding her tight, she felt as though she could finally exhale, as if she had been holding her breath for the past two and half weeks.

  He placed his hands on her cheeks and stared into her face. “You are radiant, Princesa,” he breathed. “As beautiful as the sun in the sky.” Not caring that Anna could see them, Alejandro kissed her lips and Amanda let him.

  “Oh, I’ve missed you so much.” When he tried to pull away, she wouldn’t release her hold on his neck, and he laughed, swinging her around. “You never contacted me. I didn’t know when you were coming!”

  “I’m sorry. You know how busy it gets,” he said. “Besides, you were rather diligent about letting me know how you were doing.” He gazed into her face, his blue eyes flickering back and forth as if he was studying her every feature. “And I am here now.”

  “I see that.” Amanda laughed through her tears. Absentmindedly, she wiped at them, still finding it hard to believe that he was there, on her parents’ farm, and holding her in his arms. “I was worried when I didn’t hear from you.”

  “Worried?” He didn’t have any time to inquire further about this as they were interrupted by the sound of laughter coming from the barn. Alejandro looked over his shoulder toward the doorway, just in time to see Isadora follow Jonas and Harvey outside. The two men shouted their hellos as they approached.

  “Just in time for afternoon chores, I see,” Jonas joked, reaching out to shake Alejandro’s hand.

  Before Alejandro could respond, Isadora ran to Amanda, a small orange kitten in her hands. “Look,” she demanded.

  “Oh help, Izzie! That kitten is too small to be away from its mother. Let’s go put it back, ja?”

  Harvey held up his hand. “Permit me.” Without waiting for Amanda’s response, he reached down and scooped Isadora into his arms, talking softly to her about the kitten as they headed back into the barn.

  It was only when Amanda glanced at Alejandro that she realized Isadora had not only neglected to greet him, she hadn’t even noticed he was there.

  The look on his face said it all.

  She didn’t have time to say anything, to explain that Isadora hadn’t known that he was coming and probably hadn’t seen him because her excitement about the kitten had been too great.

  Jonas and Anna invited him inside. They were eager to hear about the rest of his South American tour, as the stories of the different countries were fascinating to them, despite their vow to shun worldliness. As Jonas and Anna escorted Alejandro inside, Amanda trailed behind them, eager to have a moment alone with him and to reassure him that all was well, but knowing that, given her family’s emphasis on togetherness, that moment would not come anytime soon.

  Chapter Twenty

  Isadora leaned against Amanda’s leg and stared, wide-eyed, at the cow. Her long hair was tied in a messy bun just above the nape of her neck, and she wore a tan dress with small green flowers on it. Lizzie had made it for her from the fabric Amanda had purchased in town just a few days prior. The dress quickly became a treasured possession for Isadora. She insisted on wearing it every day, forcing Amanda to wash it at night if Isadora had dirtied it. One morning, when it hadn’t dried yet, Isadora had refused to budge from where she waited on the porch in her nightgown, and she’d sat there, cross-legged, until it was ready for her to wear.

&nb
sp; Now, Isadora was absorbing everything that Amanda did to the cow. It wasn’t the first time that she had clung to Amanda’s side and watched the way cows were milked. But today was different. Today Amanda had promised to let Isadora try to milk the cow herself.

  “Me now?”

  Amanda nodded. “Ja, if you want.”

  She opened her knees so that Isadora could stand between them, and Isadora braced herself against Amanda’s right leg. Leaning forward, Amanda guided Isadora’s hand to the udder of the cow and helped her to wrap her small fingers around the teat.

  Squealing, Isadora quickly withdrew her hand and pressed against Amanda.

  “Feels funny, ja?” She tickled Isadora’s neck. “Try again, Izzie?”

  The next attempt resulted in the same reaction. Giving up on Isadora’s hands getting any milk flowing, Amanda took over. “Like this. Rolling the milk down with your fingers, not squeezing.”

  Harvey walked by and glanced over the back of the cow, looking first at Amanda and then at Isadora. Because Jonas had taken Anna to a doctor—At last! Amanda had thought—Amanda had offered to help with the afternoon milking.

  “Not working for you, now, is it?” he said with a wink at Isadora. “Might be that she’s broken?”

  Amanda pretended to look surprised, gasping dramatically at Harvey and turning to look at Isadora. “A broken cow? Oh help! We’ll need lots of Band-Aids, don’t you think?”

  She felt, rather than saw, Alejandro watching her, his presence too large to go undetected. She wondered how long he had been standing there, leaning against the wall, hidden by shadows. After his unexpected arrival the day before, and his obvious disappointment in the greeting he had received from both her family and his daughter, Amanda had done as much as she could to shower him with attention after Isadora went to bed.

  But when the sounds of crying filtered down the staircase and into the main room of the grossdaadihaus, Amanda had excused herself and gone to calm Isadora, who wasn’t used to sleeping in the small upstairs bedroom by herself. By the time Amanda finally returned downstairs, Alejandro had already gone to bed and fallen asleep. He hadn’t even stirred when she slipped under the covers, curling her body around him. The sound of his deep breathing gave her enough satisfaction, for she knew that sleep was the one thing he needed more than anything else. Amanda pressed closer against him, putting one arm around his waist and her cheek against his shoulder, and listened to the sounds of Alejandro sleeping. She vowed to make it up to him the following day.