Who got here so early? she wondered as she rushed toward the barn. Happy Birthday! the tag on the balloons said. But no one had signed it.
Nora looked around, thinking Millie might pop out from behind the building—but a tingling sensation made her turn to face Luke’s upstairs apartment at the mill. She waved and blew him a kiss. Maybe he wasn’t up yet—and maybe someone else had given her these balloons—but instinct told her that Luke might’ve surprised her this way. He’d been attentive all week, even as he’d kept enough distance to intrigue her.
When she unlocked the door, Nora stood in the entryway to breathe in the essence of Simple Gifts. Matthias’s leather goods and some scented sachets and candles made her shop smell as inviting as it looked. And if I say so myself, Lord, the store is a feast for my eyes. Yet another gift You’ve made possible.
Nora admired the quilts hanging from the loft railing and the Amish dolls on the sleigh bed. She smiled at the displays of pottery, handcrafted toys and rocking horses, beautifully embellished linens, one of Bishop Tom’s Nativity sets, Preacher Ben’s wrought iron trellises, and so many other wonderful items. For years she’d dreamed of owning a store, but this reality surpassed her wildest fantasies.
“Mamma! It’s your big day!” Millie called from the buggy coming up the driveway. “And happy birthday to ya, too!”
Nora ran alongside the rig to where Lizzie parked it behind the barn. She was immediately wrapped in an excited hug from a daughter who was nearly as tall as she was. What a blessing, to hold this fine young woman after so many years of wondering about her. “Denki, Millie,” she murmured. “You are my best present ever. It’ll be a gut day even if I don’t sell a thing.”
“Puh! You’ll be callin’ your suppliers to restock their displays before ya close up today,” Lizzie predicted as she helped Mamma down from the buggy. “Everywhere I go, folks’re talkin’ about coming to Simple Gifts.”
Nora grinned, hugging her mother and her sister-in-law. “All of us Glick women together for my birthday breakfast—now that’s a treat!” she said. “I’ve got a card table set up on the porch for us.”
From their baskets, Lizzie and Nora’s mamm took a pan of divine-smelling breakfast casserole, pastries from Miriam’s café, and a fresh fruit salad. As they ate and chatted, Nora couldn’t recall a birthday so happy. When they finished, she gave her mother and Lizzie a tour of the store and its merchandise so they’d be familiar with everything when customers started coming.
“How about if you remain in the loft, Lizzie, while Mamma and I circulate on the main level?” she suggested. “Millie’s a whiz at running the cash register, so if she can stay there—at least when we’ve got customers—that’ll keep the traffic flowing. Rebecca’s working this afternoon, and I suspect Mary and Eva Schrock will take a turn then, too.”
“They might have to stay in their own shop,” Mamma said with a wide smile. “Once folks see your place and the mill, they’ll eat at Miriam’s and take in the Schrocks’ quilts and fabrics while they’re there. You just wait and see!”
Nora felt as giddy as a girl as she waited for nine thirty. She arranged a self-serve cooler of lemonade and a coffeemaker on a small table, with a big tray of cookies Miriam and Millie had baked for her grand opening. She was checking the restroom when a familiar voice came from the doorway.
“Can I be your first customer, pretty please? Before I start work at the clinic?”
Nora laughed. “Rebecca! It’s so nice of you to stop by—”
“When I brought your labels yesterday I spotted some stuff I just have to have. I don’t want it to be gone when I come to help,” Rebecca said gleefully.
Nora watched Rebecca move from one display to the next with a shopping basket on her arm, choosing embroidered hankies, scented soaps, three Amish dolls, and one of the tooled leather bags Matthias had made. “I don’t want to take your display,” she remarked as she went to the cash register, “but I also want a place setting for four of that fabulous pottery.”
“I’ll write that in my notebook,” Nora said as Millie began to ring up the order. Then she hugged Rebecca. “You’ve already made my day!”
Rebecca laughed and hugged her back. “Just you wait, Nora,” she said. “The photos on your website—and the beautiful way you’ve set up your store—make you a shoo-in for Willow Ridge’s Business of the Year award.”
Nora’s eyebrows rose. “There’s an award for that?” “There should be!” Rebecca said as she took her bagged purchases. “I can’t wait to see what’s sold by the time I come back later.”
In a few minutes cars and buggies began pulling in, and the women driving them looked as eager as Nora felt. “Come on in!” she called out to them. “What’s a grand opening if I can’t open early?”
Happy chatter filled the store as English and Plain women exclaimed over the items on display. A few men moseyed in with their wives, impressed that Nora was carrying wrought iron and saddles. Nora welcomed everyone, directing them to sign her mailing list at the refreshment table. She was refilling the lemonade cooler when a man called out, “Nora Landwehr? Got a present for you!”
Nora’s jaw dropped. The flower arrangement coming toward her was so large, she couldn’t see the deliveryman’s face until he set it on the checkout counter. “Thank you so much,” she murmured.
Millie’s eyebrows rose. “And I wonder who that might be from?” she teased.
Nora plucked the gift card and stuck it in her apron pocket. “I don’t know, but it’s going on the Brennemans’ table, because it’s too huge to sit anywhere else.”
Nora arranged the bouquet on a placemat at the opposite end of the table from the place setting of pottery. A riot of tiger lilies, gladiolas, hydrangeas, snapdragons, and other colorful flowers encouraged her to inhale their fresh fragrance. When she could stand the suspense no longer, Nora stepped into the office to read the card.
Luke’s familiar printing made her heart pound. Happy Birthday, Nora. I’m Proud of You. I Love You. Luke.
Nora sucked in her breath. She glanced out the window, noting that her parking lot was full—as was the mill’s—but she grabbed her phone anyway.
“The Mill at Willow Ridge,” Luke answered in a businesslike tone. “How can I help you?”
“You can pick me up off the floor,” Nora murmured. “Luke, your flowers just came and I—I don’t know what to say!”
His laugh was low and maybe a little nervous. “You’ll think of something.”
For a moment, Nora drew a blank. She did love Luke, but this wasn’t the time to have that conversation. “Come to the house after our stores have closed, okay?”
“Exactly what I wanted to hear,” he replied with a chuckle. “I’ll be there around six. Right now we’re swamped, and I see you are, too. You go, girl.”
As she hung up, Nora wanted to dance and sing and throw her arms around Luke, but she did have a store full of customers. And that was almost as fabulous as seeing Luke’s declaration that he loved her. Almost.
As the day passed, Nora encouraged Mamma to sit at the Brennemans’ table and be the greeter. When she relieved Millie at the cash register, Nora punched a button that tallied the day’s sales and nearly fell over. More than a thousand dollars had flowed in! As she stuffed a bunch of the cash into a bank bag to keep in her office safe, Nora felt almost light-headed. Giddy, yet seriously amazed.
Bless her, Millie was restocking and straightening the displays—and directing customers to the photo albums Rebecca had made for her, so folks could see some of the items that had already sold out. When Rebecca arrived at one thirty, Nora let her run the cash register.
“Didn’t I tell you this place would be huge success ?” Rebecca whispered as she came behind the checkout counter.
“I sure hope my crafters can replenish my stock early this week,” Nora remarked. “I never dreamed we’d sell so much in one day.”
“Think of all the women who’ll be happy to hear that,” Rebecc
a replied. “You’re going to boost a lot of area families’ incomes, Nora. It’s a ripple effect—you’re touching more lives than you ever thought possible.”
Around three o’clock, Nora encouraged Lizzie to take Mamma home. Her mother looked exhausted but happy as she rose from her chair at the walnut table. “What a glorious day,” she said as she wrapped her arms around Nora’s waist. “I’m so glad I got to share it, too.”
“It wouldn’t have been the same without you, Mamma,” Nora replied quietly. She couldn’t help recalling her first day back in Willow Ridge, when she’d feared her mother had died in bed. How far they both had come, and Millie and Lizzie with them.
It was five o’clock before the last customers left the store. “What a find!” one of the English ladies said as she and her friends went to the door with their sacks. “We’ll come earlier in the day next time—”
“And thanks for taking my order for a rocking horse and a set of those pretty sheets,” her friend chimed in. “Your shop has so many wonderful things in it!”
When the door closed behind them, Nora turned the sign in the door to Closed and sank into one of the Brennemans’ chairs. She grinned at Rebecca and Millie and they all started laughing.
“Can you believe what people bought today?” Nora crowed. “Bedroom sets and quilts and pottery—and a ton of little stuff !”
“I don’t think anybody left without buying or ordering something!” Millie said as she perched on the edge of a chair beside Nora.
“You’ll need to be ready for crowds like this all during autumn, when folks like to be out driving,” Rebecca said. “And then it’ll be the Christmas season! I’m so glad I got to help today, to see all your hard work pay off, Nora.”
“Ah, but it was your website design and Internet savvy that got shoppers to come,” Nora pointed out gratefully. “Otherwise, we’d be just another store in the Missouri countryside waiting for folks to find us. I couldn’t have done this without you, Rebecca.”
Rebecca shrugged modestly as she grabbed her purse from under the counter. “I’ll see you girls next Saturday. I’m meeting Dad for dinner.”
“And I’m helping Ira deliver checks and pick up eggs for the mill store.” Millie stood and opened her arms wide. “This was such a great day, Mamma. I’m so glad ya wanted me to help.”
As Nora embraced her daughter, she blinked back grateful tears. “You gave me a chance to be a part of your life again, Millie,” she replied in a breathy voice. “For me, that’s been the best blessing of all.”
When her two helpers had gone, Nora let out a long, tired sigh. Her legs ached. Her head swam with details she had to see to—following up on orders for her crafters, and tallying their sales to figure their checks, and—
Luke’s bouquet reminded her that there was more to life than doing business. Perhaps the element of Plain living she most admired was the insistence on keeping the Sabbath as a day of rest rather than as another day for retailing. And her rest started right this minute.
Nora took the gift card from her pocket. Happy Birthday, Nora. I’m Proud of You. I Love You. Luke. She shut off the security monitor, the fans, and the lights and wrapped her arm firmly around the vase holding the flower arrangement.
As she crossed the yard, she saw Luke waiting on her porch. Her heart thrummed. Though she’d been burned by the man who’d provided her ticket out of dead-end poverty, Nora knew Luke was different—a down-to-earth fellow that Tanner Landwehr would dismiss with a lift of his salon-tanned nose as he sped off in his high-dollar car with his new trophy wife.
Nora now felt at peace with that. Tanner’s leaving her was the best thing that could have happened, because then she’d allowed God to step in and lead her back to Willow Ridge and her family. A whole new life. A whole new faith.
“Congratulations, Nora-girl,” Luke murmured as he patted the seat of the porch swing. “Your store’s a hit—and then your customers came to visit mine. Good thing I saved back a few things for our supper.”
Supper. The last thing Nora wanted to do was feed this man, but that would only be fair if he’d brought the food.
“I’m cooking your birthday dinner, okay?”
Nora nearly dropped the flower arrangement before she set it on the porch floor. “That’s the best offer I’ve had all day.”
“More offers where that one came from,” Luke hinted as she sat down beside him. “But I’m reminding myself to woo you. To let you make the next moves.”
Nora rested her head on his shoulder and slung her arm around him as he pulled her close. “You’re smarter than you look, Hooley,” she teased as he bussed her temple. “Your flowers and note still have my head spinning.”
“As well they should. I was trying to get your attention.”
“One request,” she murmured.
“Only one?” Luke’s chuckle rumbled in his chest.
“It’s your birthday. Milk it for all it’s worth.”
“I do want to spend my time with you, Luke,” she whispered, “but it’s only been a month—”
“I’m every bit as scared of a forever relationship as you are, Nora,” he admitted. “But with you, I see the potential for a day-to-day adventure instead of a life sentence. That’s a major change of perception for me.”
Nora lifted her head to gaze into Luke’s deep green eyes. He didn’t waver. Didn’t wiggle his eyebrows or try to hide behind humor or innuendo. “You’ve never sent anyone flowers before, have you? Never told another woman you loved her.”
You’ve put your foot in your mouth now! What if he says—
“Nope.”
Nora let out the breath she didn’t realize she’d been holding. Luke was thirty, with a string of sweethearts in his past, yet he’d saved those three words—along with an important part of himself—for this day. For her. “Wow. Thanks,” was all she could manage to say.
“You’re welcome,” he replied softly. “I’m glad you understand that confession. And value it.”
Luke kissed her then. Nora fell into the luxury of his lips and the slow, easy way he engaged her. When her stomach rumbled loudly, he chuckled. “Shall we hit the kitchen? I only know how to cook one thing—”
“And it’ll taste fabulous, no matter what it is,” she assured him. “I’m so starved, I could eat the wrapper instead of the bread and not know the difference.”
Luke held the screen open while she unlocked the door. He went back for her flowers and a grocery sack he’d brought along. When he’d set everything in the kitchen, he turned one of the chairs so it faced away from the table. “Have a seat,” he insisted. “You’re going to sit on your throne while I take care of you. No arguments.”
Nora’s eyes widened. Luke ran warm water into her dishpan and then reached into his sack for a greenish bottle. As he drizzled some foaming gel into the water, aromas of eucalyptus and chamomile filled the kitchen.
“Time for a soak,” he said as he knelt before her with the frothy water. He gently removed her shoes and socks. “You should invest in shoes with more cushion and support, Nora. We can’t have these fabulous legs wearing out before their time from the hours you’ll spend on the hard floors in your store.”
Nora let out a long sigh when Luke placed her feet in the warm water. He took one foot between his hands and began to knead the tired muscles, lavishing extra attention on her calves, the ball of her foot, and her arch.
Her head fell back and her eyes closed. When Luke Hooley had first swaggered over to introduce himself, Nora could not have imagined him on his knees, paying such loving attention to her aches and pains—much less offering to cook. “Ohhh,” she moaned as he continued his massage. Then she chuckled. “You were born to serve, Luke.”
His laughter teased at her ears. At her heart. “It’ll only get better,” he murmured as he picked up her other foot. “It’s the do unto others thing, and I’m going first. Looking forward to the payback.”
“Ah, the Golden Rule as it was originally
intended.” Nora opened her eyes to find Luke gazing up at her. “Where I’ve come from, it was usually restated as he who has the gold, rules.”
“But you’re Plain now. The giver—and receiver—of simple gifts.” Luke finished her other foot and placed it back in the warm, fragrant water. “If I’m to keep to my honorable intentions, I’d better get myself to the stove. You’re a beautiful woman, Nora, and I’m a needy man.”
Once again his words surprised her. She’d never figured Luke for a guy who would admit his deeper feelings. It was so gratifying that he insisted she was beautiful, and that he wasn’t hustling her with his heady words.
“Skillet?”
“Bottom drawer of the stove,” Nora replied.
“Toaster?”
“In the pantry, where the solar panel plug-ins are.”
Luke smiled at her as he spooned butter from one of Bishop Tom’s little tubs into her skillet. “You’re not going to get wired for electricity, are you.”
Nora liked it that he’d made that a statement rather than a question. “I’ve adjusted to using lamps and gas appliances, so I can’t see tearing into the walls to install wiring.”
“Good girl.”
Nora liked the way Luke said those words as an endearment rather than a term that diminished her. “I feel helpless sitting here while you—”
“Is helpless a bad thing?” he countered with a laugh. “I enjoy doing this for you, Nora . . . thinking about how I’ll render you helpless in a different way one of these days.”
As images of intimacy filled her head, Nora’s breath escaped her. How was it that the man at the stove could make her crave lovemaking with the merest suggestion of it, while Tanner’s affections had often left her—
That’s behind you. Go with the flow . . . with Luke.
He cracked six brown-shelled eggs into the skillet, unwrapped a packet of sliced bread that looked like Miriam’s, and stepped into the pantry to use the toaster. “Plates?” he asked.
“Above the sink, to the left.”
Harvest of Blessings Page 26
