Chapter 21
Annie couldn’t believe her eyes when she walked into the church kitchen Saturday morning. The regular pancake crew was there, busy mixing dough and preparing to feed the people already lining up outside. But they had a newcomer helping them. Nathan was wearing one of the big white aprons and busily preparing a pan of sausages to go into the oven.
“Oh, hi, Annie,” he casually said when he saw her. “I think they have enough workers in the kitchen. You can help set tables.”
“I didn’t expect to see you here,” she said, wondering what his presence meant. Was he trying to prove that he was willing to donate his time as well as his money?
“I didn’t expect to be here. Can we talk about this later? The doors will open in a few minutes.” He turned to another volunteer and asked whether all the syrup pitchers were full.
Leave it to a Sawyer to take over, even though most of the men in the kitchen were twice his age or older. Oddly enough, when he suggested something, someone hopped to do it.
“Fine,” she said. “We can talk at your convenience.”
He smiled broadly, although she couldn’t imagine what was so amusing.
Although she liked working with church members, the pancake breakfasts were her least favorite volunteer activity. She served pancakes five days a week, and the large crowd kept her running throughout the morning. The event was over at one p.m., but there was still a lot of cleaning up to do. The kitchen had to be made ready for the Sunday coffee hour. The tables in the fellowship hall had to be cleared and stored until they were needed again, and Annie got busy stripping away paper tablecloths and stacking the folding chairs.
She told herself it didn’t matter what Nathan was doing in the kitchen—if he was still there—but she hadn’t thought about anything else all morning. What could he possibly say to her that was important enough merit a morning at the pancake sale?
The volunteers gradually left, congratulating each other on the record turnout.
Grace was among the last to leave, cornering Annie to tell her how much she enjoyed getting to know Mattie.
“She enjoys your company immensely,” Annie said, keeping one eye on the kitchen door to see if Nathan was coming out to talk to her.
“Well, I’d better be going,” Grace said. “I promised to bake tart shells for the teashop.”
Annie watched the elderly woman leave, then checked that everything needful had been done to make the room ready for coffee and cookies after tomorrow’s service.
“Good, you’re still here,” Nathan said, coming up to her without the apron when the place was deserted.
“You have flour on your cheek,” she said just to be saying something.
“Pancake flour. The stuff flies everywhere when you pour it out.” He brushed it away. “You’ve put all the chairs away. Come into the kitchen. There’s a stool there.”
“Why do I need to sit?”
“I’ll show you.”
Nathan steered her to a high stool beside one of the counters.
“Sit and close your eyes,” he said in a firm voice.
“I don’t want to play games,” she protested.
“Trust me and shut you eyes.”
Annie did as he told her, but not without reservations. She peeked when he untied her running shoe and pulled it from her foot along with her sock.
Her ankle resting on his hand, she felt something slide unto her bare foot.
“Okay, you can look.” He looked up and smiled.
“My shoe!” Well, technically it was her mother’s but she was still glad to get it back. “I looked everywhere for it.”
“Sorry, I wanted to surprise you by having it fixed at the shoe repair shop.” He didn’t release her ankle.
“That was very thoughtful. Thank you.”
She bent to remove the shoe, but he wasn’t having it.
“There’s more.”
“I only lost one shoe.” Well, technically it hadn’t been lost since it was lying in her front yard when he picked it up.
“Be quiet.” He leaned forward and gently brushed her lips. It was the nicest way she’d ever been told to shut up.
“I’m a little slow about some things,” he admitted in a low voice. “But when I saw you in your party gown, I admitted to myself that I want you in my life.”
“Nathan.…”
“No, let me finish.” He caressed the top of her foot and gazed into her eyes.
“I knew how special you were when you walked into my office looking for a job. I’m in love with you, Annie. If you don’t feel the same way about me, I hope you’ll at least give me a chance to convince you we belong together.”
“I never expected….”
“I always thought love at first sight was a myth. You don’t know how happy I am to be proved wrong—although I did take time for many second looks.”
“I love you too,” she said in a whisper.
He looked up, a delightfully surprised look on his face. “You do?”
“Yes, emphatically yes. But I never thought.…”
Nathan stood and cupped her chin, leaning forward for a kiss she could feel all the way to her toes. The shoe dropped to the floor.
“I learned something today,” he murmured close to her ear.
“Oh?”
“Volunteering myself is much more satisfying than writing a check. I think you have a lot to teach me. It may take the rest of my life.”
“I can’t imagine there’s anything I could teach you. You’re an attorney.…”
“A greatly overrated profession unless I can persuade my father to take the firm in a different direction. I want Sawyer and Sawyer to represent people who really need help. With you as my inspiration, I hope to change the way we pick clients. But that’s not what I want to talk about now.”
Annie slid off the stool into Nathan’s arms, and nothing had ever felt quite so right.
“Tonight we’re going to celebrate,” he said.
“But I have to work.”
“No, you don’t. I persuaded your friend Marie to substitute for you.”
“You were sure I’d agree?”
“No, not at all sure, but sometimes a guy has to take a risk. At worst, you’d be angry. You’re not, are you?”
“No, I’m very happy,” Annie said with a smile.
“I love you,” Nathan said again, lowering his lips for a long, sweet kiss, then helping her put shoe and sock back on.
“But what will your parents think? I can’t be the woman they want for you.” Annie only knew his mother by sight and by reputation, but she had to be the most intimidating person she’d ever encountered.
“Dad will think you’re great, and Mom is a realist. She’s been waiting a long time for me to fall in love. She’ll probably console herself by having the house redecorated.”
“My grandfather likes you—and of course, my mother does too.”
“We have a lot to talk about,” he said, taking her hand and walking out of the kitchen with her. “But I’ve smelled enough bacon and pancakes to last me until the next time the church does this.”
“You’d volunteer to help again?”
His grin told her all she needed to know.
Epilogue
Nathan came through the door of Daisy’s Flower Shop with flakes of snow powdering his hair. They’d named the business after a dear friend of Mattie’s who’d passed away many years ago. Annie loved the tribute to her partner’s childhood friend, and she loved Mattie even more. Any doubts about their partnership had vanished as the older woman helped her get the business running.
But Nathan wasn’t there to buy flowers. He grinned broadly when he spotted Annie and his great aunt behind the counter.
“You look like you’ve been out in a blizzard,” Annie teased.
“No, I’ve been at my tailors getting fitted for my wedding tux,” he said, taking off his gloves and rubbing his ruddy cheeks.
“Better dry off,” Mattie
said, handing him a tissue from behind the counter. “What brings you here on a day not fit to stick your nose outside.”
“I wanted to see what two of my favorite women are up to.”
“I’m up to going home before the weather gets any worse,” Mattie said. “It wouldn’t do for me to be catching a cold when your wedding is only eleven days away.”
“That soon?” Nathan asked with mock concern. “My mother hasn’t found her mother-of-the-groom dress yet, but she’s working her way through New York shops like a snow plow clearing the roads.”
“Probably has ten dresses in her closet that would do just fine,” Mattie muttered. “Maybe she should shop there.”
“Now Mattie.” Nathan cautioned. “You promised to make nice with her.”
“Only until the wedding is over. In all my days, I’ve only been to one wedding at Christmas time. Seems to me our little church in Iowa was so cold everyone except those in the wedding party wore overcoats. Didn’t matter then what anyone was wearing.”
“What about the reception?” Annie asked.
“Cake and punch in the church basement,” Mattie said. “In those days people didn’t mortgage the family farm to pay for a wedding.”
It was one of the elderly woman’s favorite themes. Nathan and Annie only smiled and waited for her to get her coat and leave.
“The shop looks gorgeous,” he said when his great aunt had left. “Did you make all those wreaths?”
“I did, thanks,” Annie said, looking at the Christmas decorations hanging on a wall of pegs put installed for that purpose. “They’ve been selling so fast, I might have to make more.”
“When you’re not running the shop, helping your mother make your wedding gown.…”
“I know,” Annie said laughing. “I’m working more than when I had multiple jobs. But it doesn’t seem like work now that I have my own shop—mine and Mattie’s.”
“Is that working out all right for you?” he asked, unbuttoning his “lawyer” garment, a long black wool coat with broad lapels. A colorful red plaid scarf made him look more approachable.
“Splendidly,” Annie said, stepping out from behind the counter and into his arms, his kiss more than worth getting slightly damp from melting snow.
“The weather is so bad I thought you might want to close early,” he said.
“Maybe I will as soon as I show you my plans for our wedding flowers.”
“I’d love to see them, but I’m not going to pretend they’ll be more beautiful than my bride. The twenty-seventh seems a year away. Are you sure you don’t want to elope?”
Annie laughed. “My mother is spending every possible minute working on my dress, and Gramps has already written his homily for the ceremony. He’s thrilled to be able to give the bride away and still be in charge of the nuptials.”
Nathan followed her to the workroom at the back of the shop to see her sketches.
“Since my bridesmaids are wearing red velvet, I thought white flowers would be best for their bouquets. I love red, but it can be overdone. My bouquet will be white roses, lace, and baby’s breath.”
She quickly noticed Nathan watching her instead of paying attention to her designs.
“You’re not looking!” she playfully accused him.
“I’m looking at my beautiful bride-to-be.”
Annie couldn’t fault him for that. She put aside her sketches and cuddled against the sweater vest he was wearing under his coat.
“You’ll have a long time to do that,” she said, tilting her head for the kiss she knew was coming.
“Annie,” he said before his lips met hers.
How could the sound of her name hold so much love? She silently thanked the Lord for bringing this kind, wonderful man into her life and for the future they would share together.
THE END
Annie's Answer Page 15
