“Ouchie,” Cassie said. Wrapping her fingers around Priscilla’s wrists, Cassie turned Priscilla’s hands over and kissed the back of each. “We should get these back under the water.”
Zach held out his hands to take Priscilla’s again. Cassie gasped. “Doctor, what happened?”
He flexed his hands gingerly. Angry red welts crossed both his palms, and blisters marred six of his fingers. “I got off pretty easy.”
In alarm, Cassie grabbed one of his wrists and pulled his hand closer for a better look. If he fastened a pathetic expression on his face, would she kiss him too?
Probably too much to hope for.
“They look terrible. I didn’t even notice. Did you accidentally touch the grate when you pulled Priscilla away?”
“Her dress was on fire,” Linda said, as she came back into the great room with Felty. “The doctor put it out with his hands.”
“You did?” Cassie said.
He shrugged. “I thought stop, drop, and roll might hurt more than it helped.”
Cassie looked at him as if she’d just discovered that his secret identity was Spider-Man. “Thank you.”
“I’m only glad Priscilla didn’t get hurt worse.”
She laid a hand on his wrist, sending a pleasantly warm sensation all the way up his arm. “You sacrificed your hands to save my niece.”
“It’s not that bad.”
“You didn’t know that it wouldn’t be.” She studied the welt across his palm. “No more hog butchering for you. The pain must be something awful.”
He couldn’t stifle a slow smile. “You’re making it feel better and better all the time.”
Her lips twitched, and she blushed. He probably shouldn’t tease her, but sometimes the temptation was beyond his power to resist.
As much as he wanted to get lost in those blue eyes of hers, his hands were on fire, and Priscilla started fussing. He took Priscilla’s hands in his and put them under the running water.
Linda put some soap on a paper towel and dabbed the small amount of blood from Priscilla’s knee while Priscilla and Zach soaked. “How long does Priscilla need to keep her hands under the water?”
“As long as she wants. Then she needs something cool like aloe vera. Do you know what that is?”
“We have a gallon of it,” Felty said, already making a beeline down the hall again. “I’ll be back.”
“But no petroleum jelly. There is a prescription burn cream I can get at the hospital if she’s in a lot of pain, and she should take some acetaminophen right away.”
When Felty came back with the aloe vera, which did turn out to be a whole gallon, Zach pulled his and Priscilla’s hands from the water and dried them gently. Linda poured some aloe vera into Zach’s open hands and then carried Priscilla to the table to tend to her.
Cassie led Zach to the sofa and sat him down to do a little doctoring herself. He spread the aloe vera over his hands and fingers while Cassie opened a pack of gauze pads.
“Are you going to be okay at the hospital?” she asked.
“I’ll be able to get through my shift. It might be a little painful.” Okay, extremely painful, but he wouldn’t freak her out with the details. “The good news is that it doesn’t look like there’s permanent damage.”
She secured the gauze to his palms with a copious amount of tape. The grace of her gentle hands mesmerized him. Oh, how he wanted to touch his lips to those hands and feel her soft skin against his mouth.
Holding his breath, he shoved his thoughts away from Cassie Coblenz and toward the Green Bay Packers. If he had any chance of self-control, he couldn’t let his mind wander into forbidden territory.
The Green Bay Packers had a pretty good team this year, didn’t they? For the life of him, he couldn’t recall who actually played on the team, not while Cassie sat so close.
He cleared his throat. “We’ll have to watch Priscilla for infection, but all things considered, we were both lucky.”
Linda had finished with Priscilla’s hands. They sat at the kitchen table looking at a picture book together. “The Amish don’t believe in luck,” she said.
Cassie nodded. “It wasn’t luck. God watched over us today.”
It was the same conversation they’d had before, and Zach felt more confused than ever. “But if He watched over us, why didn’t He stop Priscilla from falling into the fire in the first place?” He smiled sadly at her. “I’m not trying to be difficult. I really want to understand.”
“I know you do,” she said. “Bad things happen. People get sick and die. But God still watches out for us, guides and directs us when we’ll listen. Luck didn’t bring you here today. It was a series of choices and events and coincidences that weren’t really coincidences.”
“Priscilla could have been seriously hurt if you hadn’t snatched her up like that,” Linda said.
Cassie smiled that irresistible smile. “I like to think God had a hand in it.”
Linda coaxed Priscilla off her lap, and the two of them left their book and sat next to Zach on the sofa. Linda laid a hand on Zach’s arm. “I praise the Lord for you today.” She turned to Cassie. “Will you give thanks to the Lord for us?”
Cassie looked mildly surprised. “Now?”
“Jah.”
Cassie glanced at Zach as if she expected him to protest. He didn’t know if he wanted to protest or not.
“Is that okay, Dr. Reynolds?” she asked.
“I don’t mind,” he said.
Linda kept one hand on Zach’s arm and wrapped the other around Priscilla’s shoulders. Cassie, on his right side, laid a hand on his other arm. He didn’t know if he felt encircled or surrounded.
They bowed their heads.
“Heavenly Father,” Cassie began. “We praise You for bringing Dr. Reynolds to us. We are grateful for him and his skills. We are grateful that he has come into our lives to help Mammi and Priscilla. Please take the pain from him today so that he may help the sick at the hospital. Please heal Priscilla so she doesn’t hurt. And is it all right if we ask a blessing on the doctor’s mother? Her arm is broken. Make life easier for her as she heals.”
Even though they were closed, Zach’s eyes stung with unshed tears. How long had it been since he’d heard someone thank God for him? And she had prayed for his mother as well. He didn’t know exactly what was happening, but something stirred deep within his chest, something he hadn’t felt in a very long time. Maybe he’d forgotten what grace felt like.
After his dad died, he had wanted to forget.
They said “Amen” together. Without a word, Linda patted Zach on the cheek, and then she and Priscilla went back to the table and their book.
Cassie’s eyes glowed as she studied his face. “That wasn’t too bad, was it?”
“No. Not too bad.” He fingered the tape around his palm. “Thank you for saying those nice things, especially since you’re not all that fond of me.”
She cocked an eyebrow. “You’re growing on me.”
His heart did jumping jacks. “Growing on you? What does that mean?”
“Like a wart.”
He chuckled. “Or a tumor?”
“Yes.”
He felt his phone buzz in his back pants pocket. It would be a trick getting it out with gauze wrapped around both hands. He scooted to the edge of the sofa so he could reach better. With two fingers, he slid the phone from his pocket and held it carefully in his hand so as not to aggravate the pain. “It’s my mom,” he said, furrowing his brow. “Do you mind if I take this? She doesn’t usually call unless it’s important.”
“Of course. You want to be sure she’s okay.” Cassie ambled to the table and sat down to read with Linda and Priscilla.
“Hey, Mom,” he answered.
“Hey, Zach. Is it too early to call?”
“Mom, it’s four a.m. California time. I should be asking you that question.”
“I couldn’t sleep,” Mom said.
At four a.m., Mom hadn’t called t
o shoot the breeze. “Is something wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong, but I think I’m going to cry. I got the most wonderful package yesterday, and I just had to call and thank you. You are the best son a mother could ask for. But don’t tell Jeff and Drew I said that. They’d be jealous.”
“What package?”
“The paper roses are much prettier than I could have made, even with two hands. You have an incredible list of hidden talents, young man.”
Zach furrowed his brow. “Mom, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“FedEx delivered a huge box of perfect tissue paper roses yesterday. There’s got to be a thousand of them. Just in time for the auxiliary bazaar. A little smashed, but that will be easy to fix. The return address says they were sent from Wisconsin. I thought they were from you.”
“Believe me, Mom, no matter how bad I want to help, paper roses are beyond my ability.”
“Well, who in the world sent them?” Zach could hear rustling as if Mom were rummaging through her box of paper roses for a clue. “There was also a knitted thing at the bottom of the box. It looks like a sleeve to a fuzzy pink sweater.”
Zach felt as if someone smacked him upside the head with a snowball.
“Zach? Are you still there?”
“It’s a cast cover.”
“A what?”
“The pink thing is a cast cover, Mom. For your arm.”
“Oh. How cute. Regina and the other ladies will love this.”
He kept his voice low and glanced at Cassie but quickly looked away so she wouldn’t know he was talking about her. “I know who sent it.”
“Who was it?”
“Can I call you back?”
Mom never needed an explanation for strange behavior. “Okay. In the meantime, could you get an address for me to send a thank-you note?”
“I love you, Mom.”
“Love you.”
The line clicked dead, but Zach held the phone to his ear as if he were still talking. It gave him a chance to stare at Cassie without needing an excuse to say anything.
Anna had told him she was going to knit a cast cover, but no doubt Cassie, the art history major, was very good at making tissue paper roses. He’d mentioned that his mom needed tissue paper roses. It would have only taken Cassie a few phone calls to figure out exactly what to do.
An invisible hand reached inside his chest and clamped onto his heart. He’d never wanted anything like he wanted Cassie at this very moment—this beautiful, angelic woman who prayed for him and baked yummasetti and made a thousand paper roses for a person she didn’t even know.
He wanted her. Ached for her. And not in the lustful way a guy usually wanted a pretty girl—though the physical attraction was certainly there. He wanted to sit next to her in the quiet of the evening and watch the sun dip below the trees. He wanted to share a laugh and a bowl of popcorn and grow old with her.
He yearned to be the kind of man she wanted. The kind of man who loved her with a pure heart.
She must have felt his gaze on her because she lifted her eyes to him. He felt like a blind man seeing a sunrise for the first time. The sensation pulsed into his veins with every heartbeat until his whole being flooded with love so profound he thought he might suffocate.
She smiled at him and turned away, trying to give him some privacy for the phone call he wasn’t on anymore.
How long had he been holding his breath? Did he even remember how to breathe?
This was what love was supposed to feel like. The desire to give himself completely to another person, to live and die for her whether or not she returned his love.
He’d shared mutual attraction with the girls he’d dated, a cheap imitation of the real thing, like the difference between rhinestones and diamonds.
He loved Cassie Coblenz. The thought made him feel so light, he could have scored a dozen goals without breaking a sweat. No one would have been able to stop him, not even a bulked-up keeper with a death wish.
Could she ever love him?
His resolve to win her trust took on complete urgency. The goal wasn’t just to convince her to go out with him. Now he had to convince her to love him, convince her that he was worthy of her love.
But he wasn’t worthy. The list of his flaws would fill a nice-sized bookshelf at the Reg.
The thought only strengthened his resolve. He wasn’t worthy yet.
If he’d learned anything from medical school, he’d learned that the impossible became possible with grueling hard work and the will to accomplish it.
He’d convince Cassie to love him or break his heart trying.
A knife twisted in his gut when he contemplated what might be at the end of this. Was he fooling himself to think he’d ever be good enough? Or that there weren’t a dozen guys right here in Bonduel more virtuous?
It didn’t matter. Cassie was worth fighting for, even if he ended up a casualty on the cruel battlefield.
He’d fight for her with every last breath he had.
Anna came rolling down the hall on her handy knee scooter she had borrowed from her grandson Moses. She might as well have been on a skateboard for as fast as she moved. For a woman of eighty-four years, she wasn’t very cautious.
Felty came behind her, carrying her latest knitting project and a blanket.
“What happened to my little pumpkin?” Anna said as she rolled all the way to the kitchen. Zach cringed as she nearly crashed into the table before she squeezed the hand brake.
Priscilla held up her bandaged hands for Anna to see and was rewarded with the reaction that every grandchild wishes for. Anna oohed and aahed and clucked her tongue sympathetically, inspiring Priscilla to make little whimpers in proof of how much she suffered.
Anna cupped Priscilla’s chin in her hand. “A brave girl like you deserves a cookie and a big glass of chocolate milk. Three cookies. And some graham crackers with frosting. Felty dear, will you bring the cookie jar to the table?”
“If Dr. Reynolds hadn’t been here, it would have been much worse,” Cassie said, smiling at Zach from across the room. His pulse had never raced so fast.
Anna turned her twinkly eyes to Zach. “Doctor, this is working out better than even I could have seen. You deserve a cookie too. Cassie made snickerdoodles.”
“I love snickerdoodles,” he said. And Cassie. He loved Cassie.
“You can have four,” Anna said.
“Mammi, you really should be off your feet,” Cassie said. “I’ll hand out cookies.”
Anna made a wide turn with her scooter and rolled in the direction of the recliner. “Be sure the doctor gets as many as he wants.”
Even though she could have probably done a dozen pull-ups, Zach reached out and helped Anna settle into the recliner. Felty handed her the knitting and laid the blanket over her legs. “Snug as a bug in a rug,” she said, giving Zach’s wrapped hand a squeeze. He tried not to wince. “Doctor, you are a gift straight from heaven.”
Titus opened the door, stamped the snow off his boots, and came into the house. He immediately went to the table and laid a hand on Priscilla’s shoulder. “How is she?”
Linda gave Priscilla a pat in the cheek. “The doctor says she is going to be okay.”
Titus knelt down to be eye level with Priscilla. He patted her on the head and said something to her in Deitsch.
Linda frowned. “It’s not your fault, Titus. She knows to stay away from the fire.”
“I shouldn’t have pretended to be a bear. If I’d known how terrifying I was, I would have been a bunny. Priscilla wouldn’t have run from a bunny.”
“Accidents happen,” Felty said, as he picked up his book from the end table and sat down to read. “Especially when you’re doing you-know-what.”
Titus shifted the toothpick from one side of his mouth to the other. “Norman says I’m a walking accident. But he didn’t make me cry this time.”
Cassie handed Titus a snickerdoodle. “You’re the kindest, best cousin anyon
e could ever ask for. Most boys your age completely ignore the kinner. You play with them. You’re everybody’s favorite.”
Linda put her hands over Priscilla’s ears. “Norman needs to mind his manners.”
Zach would have liked to teach him some manners right now.
Titus’s toothpick drooped until Zach was sure it would fall out of his mouth. “Norman never did like me much. I think Aendi Esther agrees with him.”
Felty stared at his book as if he could read and talk at the same time. “Esther’s had a bee in her bonnet ever since she was little. Don’t pay her any mind, Titus. She has a heart of gold.”
“But she likes Elmer Lee,” Titus said. “She smiled real wide at him when he got here. Did you know she’s missing a tooth in the back?”
Cassie seemed to snap to attention. “Elmer Lee is here?”
Zach tensed. Cassie claimed to have no interest in Elmer Lee, but Elmer Lee was an Amish guy, and whether she wanted to admit it or not, Cassie found Amish guys fascinating. She thought they were the only “good” men in the entire world. Who knew what other powers of persuasion Elmer Lee had? He could probably lift tree trunks and anvils with his bare hands and climb windmills in a single bound.
“Elmer Lee stuck the pig since the doctor wasn’t there to do it.”
“I don’t need to hear that,” Felty said.
Great.
Elmer Lee had come just in time to save the day. Zach could hear Norman already. Finally, somebody who knows how to do something useful. Someone worthy of my sister. Somebody who knows how to stick pigs and fixes roofs for widows and orphans.
Zach kind of wanted to throw up. He was completely out of his element.
Titus took a bite of his cookie with the toothpick still at the corner of his lips. His chewing didn’t seem to disturb the toothpick at all. Had Titus ever swallowed one of his beloved toothpicks? “Aunt Esther is keeping a tight hold of the baby and won’t let Jacob near the fire. They sent me to check on Priscilla and fetch the rest of you out to scrape the hog carcass.”
Cassie scooted her chair from under the table. “Linda should stay with Priscilla, and Dr. Reynolds’s hands are injured, but I’ll come out.”
Huckleberry Hearts Page 16
