by Sarah Price
Oh, how she prayed that everything was all right with this new baby. If labor came early and the baby was born with problems similar to Samuel’s, that would present even more burdens for Anna.
As it was now, Amanda had no idea how her sister would manage the cleaning, the laundry, the cooking, the sewing, and all of her other chores with three children not yet attending school and a new baby. Not to mention that Anna usually helped Jonas with the morning milking. It was too much for one person to handle, and Lizzie could only do so much to help her.
Amanda found Jonas in the back of the barn, busy washing the milking equipment. Although she didn’t see him, she could hear Alejandro talking to Isadora near the cows. Not wanting to alarm anyone, Amanda tried to keep her voice low and calm as she addressed her brother-in-law.
“Mayhaps you may want to come inside, Jonas,” she said softly. “Anna’s feeling some pains.”
Immediately, he shut off the faucet and wiped his hands on his jacket. “Some pains, you say?”
“She says it’s nothing, Jonas, but I know that her back was hurting yesterday. Even the day before, I think.”
He nodded his head, raising his hand to remove his hat and wipe his forehead with his sleeve. “She didn’t sleep much through the night, either. I was wondering . . .”
Amanda could see the worry creep into his eyes. Childbirth was stressful for any couple, presenting many concerns: Would the baby be healthy? Would the mother be all right? Would the delivery, which for the Amish was normally without anesthesia, be difficult? But Amanda knew that this labor presented extra stress for both Jonas and Anna. And if anything happened to her, Jonas would have even more added to his already heavy load.
“Perhaps Alejandro could take her to the doctor,” Amanda offered. “Just to have her checked out, especially with the holiday so near.”
When they entered the kitchen, Lizzie was seated next to Anna, holding her hand as she silently prayed.
Jonas set his hat on the counter and walked over to his wife. “What’s this I hear?” he asked as he pulled out the chair beside her. “Having some back pains, Anna?”
“It’s nothing, I’m sure.”
“Hmm.” He studied her as he rubbed his chin, scratching at his beard. “Mayhaps we best let the doctor decide that, Anna.”
Anna started to argue with him. But another pain overtook her, and as she caught her breath and held her stomach, Jonas quickly looked up at Amanda and nodded his head.
“I’ll go fetch Alejandro,” Amanda said before Anna could put up a fuss.
Once again, she headed toward the barn. This time, however, Alejandro and Isadora were already walking back, their heads bent together as they talked. They didn’t notice Amanda as she approached them. When she called out Alejandro’s name, they both looked up, startled.
“What’s wrong, Princesa?” he asked with concern.
She glanced at Isadora, not wanting to upset her daughter, but decided that she was old enough to know what was happening. “Anna needs to go to the doctor. She has some pregnancy pains.”
Isadora’s eyes widened. “She’s going to have the baby? While we’re here? Now?”
“Looks that way,” Amanda said. “She needs to go to the doctor, Alejandro.”
Without asking any additional questions, Alejandro placed his hand on her shoulder. “I’d be happy to take her, Amanda. Let me fetch my keys and warm up the car.”
Before Amanda could say another word, he had disappeared in the direction of the house. Moments later, she saw him walking behind Jonas and Anna toward the SUV. Both men helped Anna get into the vehicle before joining her. Alejandro gave Amanda a quick wave, a serious expression on his face as he drove away from the house.
With Isadora’s help, Amanda tackled the remaining tasks that usually would be Anna’s or Jonas’s. She was thankful for the work, which kept her busy during the day; otherwise, she knew that she’d be consumed by worry. Several hours after he had left, Alejandro called to inform her that, as they’d suspected, Anna was indeed in labor. Amanda felt a mixture of excitement and fear. Welcoming a new life into the world was always a time for celebration, but Amanda worried that something might go wrong again with the birth.
When the children arrived home from school, Amanda reassured them that everything was fine and that soon they’d meet their baby sister. Thankfully, Lizzie and Alecia helped care for the children, and the evening passed quickly. Still, Amanda couldn’t stop herself from being anxious. Later that evening, when she finally put the children to bed, Amanda found herself alone in the kitchen. Her body ached from exhaustion. For almost a half hour, she sat in the chair by herself, praying to God that he would take care of her sister. When the clock chimed nine times, Amanda sighed and slowly got up. She blew out the lantern and headed for the stairs, hoping that she would easily drift off to sleep. She wanted to wake in the morning to hear the news about her sister and the baby instead of worrying about it all night.
“Princesa, wake up.” Alejandro nudged her softly.
Amanda’s eyes flitted open, and it took her a few seconds to adjust her eyes to the dark room. Alejandro was standing by the bed, and from what she could see, it appeared that he was already dressed for a day of work in the barn, except when Amanda looked around the room, she realized the morning had not come yet.
What was going on?
“Is everything alright?” she asked groggily. Panic started to set in. Was something wrong with her sister or the children?
Alejandro must have sensed Amanda’s worry because he quickly shook his head and patted her lightly on the arm.
“Nothing is wrong. It’s actually very good news, mi amor. Your sister had her baby just two hours ago.”
“What?” Amanda replied, still trying to get her bearings. Her mind was in a fog.
“Sí, it’s true. Your little niece has made her grand entrance into the world.”
“She did?” Amanda asked in wonder.
“Sí. She did,” Alejandro whispered back to his wife.
“And she is . . . ?”
He smiled down at her as he set the flashlight he had been holding on the nightstand. “Perfect in every way, Amanda. And Anna is just fine. She’s insisting that she come home tomorrow, but the doctor convinced Jonas to have her stay an extra day.” He chuckled to himself as he bent down to remove his boots. “Her determination reminds me a little of someone else I know.”
Amanda sank back into the pillow, ignoring his comment and focusing on the joyous news. “How wonderful! What perfect timing that she had her baby while we are here!” She watched as Alejandro started to get undressed. “To think, if she hadn’t, we might not have met our new niece for a long, long time.”
In the limited light from the flashlight, she saw him pause, obviously reflecting on her statement.
“And how amazing for the children!” she added. “They’ve never been able to share in the excitement of a cousin being born!”
As he unbuttoned his shirt, he appeared deep in thought. She was about to ask him what was wrong when he turned to her. “I had forgotten how small newborns are,” he said. “And if I didn’t know any better, I’d believe this little girl is a born performer.”
Amanda laughed. “A . . . performer?”
“¡Sí! I heard her crying all the way in the waiting room! Such strong lungs!”
“Not to mention a captivated audience waiting with bated breath to meet her,” she added as she pulled back the covers so that Alejandro could join her underneath. “I don’t know who is more excited . . . Sofia, Nicolas, Isadora—or you.”
Alejandro wrapped his arm around Amanda, pulling her against his body as he kissed the back of her neck. He gave a soft sigh, one that sounded surprisingly similar to the one that Amanda had given as she watched the children walk to school earlier that morning.
“It’s late and you can barely keep your eyes open, Princesa.”
“You must be exhausted, too,” Amanda remarked.
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br /> “I’m used to it, but you’re right. We should both go to sleep. Tomorrow will be a big day.”
“Good night, mi amor,” he whispered into her ear.
She lay in his arms, listening as his breathing slowed, sleep finding him quickly after such a long and exciting day. How beautiful and plentiful are God’s gifts to us all, she thought as she shut her eyes, hoping she would be able to fall asleep as quickly as Alejandro had.
Within minutes, she, too, drifted off, her head nestled in the crook of Alejandro’s arm as he held her, his chest pressed against her back in a loving embrace.
Chapter Sixteen
In the morning, Amanda heard Alejandro get up, and without his asking, she slid out from beneath the covers.
“Stay sleeping, Princesa,” he whispered in the darkness. “I can handle the chores. It’s too early and cold.”
But she refused. Jonas had stayed at the hospital with Anna and the new baby, and she knew that milking all of those cows was practically impossible for just one person, especially with that new milking system.
So when Alejandro bundled up in a heavy winter coat, she put on Anna’s work coat, buttoning it up to her throat so that she didn’t catch a chill. She shivered as they walked outside, her cheeks feeling the blast of cold before the rest of her body did.
Alejandro opened the door to the dairy barn and stood aside, waiting for her to step through first. Alejandro hadn’t put the cows to pasture the previous evening because the temperatures were supposed to dip well below zero, which meant that, in addition to feeding and milking the cows, they would have to clean the manure from the cement floors.
Amanda walked through the barn, careful not to slip on the slick floors, and gave each cow some grain while Alejandro disappeared to the back of the barn where the milking pen was. She knew that he needed to wash the equipment, making sure that it was sterile, even though he had done the same after milking the cows the previous afternoon.
When she joined him in the new milking pen, the sun had still not begun its ascent and the only light came from the propane lantern that hung overhead.
“All fed?” he asked when he saw her.
She nodded, her eyes taking in the room. She tried to figure out how, exactly, this new milking system worked. The pit in the center of the room appeared to be where Alejandro would stand while the cows were herded to stand beside the railing. Strange contraptions that looked like octopuses hung from a pipe that ran horizontally below the ceiling and toward the back of the room. Certainly, that was what sucked the milk from the cows’ udders and transported it to the holding tank at the far end of the barn.
“Let’s start bringing them in, sí?” Alejandro said. Without waiting for her to respond, he walked through the open doorway into the pen where the first cows would be herded to await their turn for milking.
In the quiet moments of dawn, they worked side by side. It didn’t take Amanda long to understand how the new automatic milking machine operated. It helped that Alejandro took charge and jumped down into the milking pit. Without being told, Amanda began to herd the cows, two at a time, into the cordoned-off holding area so that Alejandro could sterilize their teats before attaching the milking cups to each one.
It was an unspoken division of labor, exactly like their marriage had always been. Over nine years of working together, in perfect unison. Whether they were in Miami performing at a concert or working inside a barn in Lititz, they balanced each other by providing unwavering support. Even when their travel schedules were grueling, they operated in sync with one another. The harmony in their marriage was something that any other woman would have found difficult to achieve. For Amanda, however, it came naturally.
While Amanda waited for Alejandro to finish, she stood back and watched him perform his tasks, not once complaining about the stench of cow manure or the physical work. She couldn’t help but smile as she wondered what his fans would say if a photo of him looking like this suddenly appeared on social media.
“Princesa?”
She looked up, her thoughts broken off at the sound of his voice. “Hmm?”
“You look like your thoughts are a hundred miles away.”
She leaned against the metal door that kept the cows in the milking corridor. “If your fans could see you now,” she said with a small smile.
He chuckled and tossed a brown paper towel into a bucket. “I think they would be surprised to see Viper knee-deep in cow dung instead of lying on a lounge chair by a pool somewhere. Geoffrey would certainly have a heart attack. Not exactly exuding sex appeal, am I?”
“I don’t agree at all,” Amanda protested in a soft voice. “I find you rather appealing just like this.”
Alejandro’s eyebrow arched and, in an alluring voice, he added, “You do, do you?”
She tried to hide her smile.
As he stood in the concrete milking pit, he leaned against the lowest rung of the railing that surrounded it. He crossed his arms over his chest. There was something soft in his gaze as he stared at her.
“You always have sex appeal,” she whispered at last. “To me.”
He took a deep breath and glanced at the cows that were gathering behind the fenced area of the pit. “Well, I think you’d better stop right there unless you want to give the cows a show, no?”
Amanda blushed and returned her attention to the work at hand. After a few moments of silence, she said in a soft voice, “It’s been nice. Being here.”
He started to lean more heavily against the railing but thought better of it, as the concrete wall of the pit was dirty. Pushing away from it, he took a step toward her. Neither one cared how dirty they were after doing the morning chores. He touched her arm and pulled her toward him, embracing her loosely against his chest.
“I reckon that I just forgot what it was like, spending time together as a family without the crush of the media and the constant obligations. It’s given us time to . . .”
She hesitated. How could she describe what she felt? She had grown so accustomed to schedules and people and smiling for cameras that she had forgotten the simple values of her childhood. Even more important, she now realized how much her children needed exposure to these values. Their lives were far too chaotic, yet, at the same time, they were insulated and sheltered, too. The same children who traveled abroad on a regular basis, eagerly navigating the world of pop culture, couldn’t even walk to school. “Time to just be. To live life the way it was meant to be,” she finally added, giving a little shrug of her shoulders. “Don’t you ever feel that way, Alejandro? At least just a little?”
She couldn’t help wondering what he was thinking, given the way he continued to look down and study her face.
He took his time before he responded, never once looking away from her. “Claro, mi amor,” he said at last in a gentle, nostalgic voice. “Spending time with the family without the demands of managers and music labels, fans, and paparazzi has been nice.”
She sensed that he had more to say. “But?” she coaxed.
“But nothing. It’s been very nice.”
His lack of further commentary surprised her, and she blinked. “That’s it? Just . . . nice?”
He laughed. “Did you want me to disagree with you, Princesa?”
“I’m . . . I’m not sure,” she admitted cautiously.
The truth was that she wasn’t certain what she wanted, but she hadn’t expected him to agree with her. Where was his lecture about how wonderful their lives were—the house, the yacht, the trips, and the money? She had thought that he would have brought up the private schools and advantages for their children; they would, after all, never starve and had golden opportunities available to them without putting forth any effort.
But he hadn’t. Instead, he had agreed with her. And she certainly didn’t know what to make of that. In the past, everything had been about work for Alejandro. The only time she’d ever seen Alejandro relax in such a way had been when he first came to the farm after the
accident in New York City. Even on their extensive vacations abroad, he always had people around him and was always aware of the cameras. It had been only on this trip that no one had paid any attention to the international sensation known as Viper. Even the paparazzi had neglected to show up to sneak photos or follow them on their outings.
“It’s been so different this time,” she said, breaking the silence. “I didn’t think you’d enjoy yourself so much.”
“Does it please you?” he asked.
“It pleases me, yes,” she confessed. “But I worry that you are anxious to return to your life.”
In response to her admission, Alejandro playfully groaned. “I will never understand women. I haven’t said anything about our life because I am happy here with you and the children. We are living our life, no? That is all that I need to be happy.”
“Is it?”
He took a deep breath and studied her expression. “Why would you question that, Princesa?”
She shrugged and averted her eyes. “You agreed too readily with me. It doesn’t feel sincere.”
“¡Ay, mi madre!” He released her from his hold and ran his fingers through his hair. “I would think you’d be happy that I agree with you, no? Isn’t that what all wives want from their husbands?”
“Not me. I only want to please you, Alejandro,” she answered honestly. “To support you in your life, both professionally and personally.”
“I feel the same, mi amor,” he replied in a more serious tone. “I live to make you happy. And you seem to have found that here. Same with the children.”
“But it’s not real, Alejandro. We are just pretending, aren’t we?”
For a long moment, he stood there, a puzzled look on his face. She wondered what he was thinking, if she had crossed a line. But she spoke the truth. In a few days, Christmas would be over, and they would leave Pennsylvania. The relaxation would end the moment they arrived at the airport and the cell phones began to blow up with messages and e-mails. Social media would again become Isadora’s primary focus, and the younger two children would be reunited with their nanny once again, freeing Amanda to continue with her obligations while Alejandro returned to travel and appointments and, eventually, more concerts. Their brief hiatus in Pennsylvania was nothing more than a staged break, a momentary what-if that would be forgotten within days, if not hours.
