“I’m not working tomorrow.”
“That’s good. I can take the second buggy.”
“Try not to worry about Mamm. We’ll get to the bottom of it. Don’t rush out and get married until we know for certain if she’s dying or what.”
Willow agreed.
* * *
Willow felt grown up driving herself to work the next morning and she had made certain she woke up in plenty of time to be early. When she stopped in the parking lot, she saw Mr. Hostetler and Liam arriving in their buggy, and they pulled up beside her.
After they exchanged hellos, Willow tended to her horse and then walked into the building with her new boss and his son.
“How are you feeling?” Liam asked.
“A little nervous and excited.”
“Don’t worry about anything. Dat will show you what to do and then Maureen is coming in a bit later.”
Mr. Hostetler said, “Maureen is the bookkeeper I was telling you about.”
“The first thing we need to show Willow is where the coffee is kept,” Liam said with a smirk.
Mr. Hostetler shook his head. “You and your coffee. Surely you can make your own.”
“Not if there’s someone else to make it for me.”
Willow said, “I don’t mind making coffee.”
“See, she doesn’t mind,” Liam said to his father.
“Okay, show Willow where the break room is and then you can come back, Willow, and I will get started with your training.” Mr. Hostetler sat behind his desk.
“Would you like a cup of coffee, Mr. Hostetler?” Willow asked.
“I wouldn’t mind a hot tea. White with one.”
Willow headed to the break room with Liam.
“Don’t be nervous.”
“I’m not nervous.”
“You look it.”
“That’s just excitement, not nervousness.”
He laughed. “Whatever you say.”
They walked into the break room and Liam showed her where everything was. There was a large, complicated-looking electric machine that made coffee using beans, not the instant coffee that Willow made at home.
Liam talked her through it. “I was spending so much money on coffee from the shops every day that I figured it would be cheaper to buy this machine, and the coffee tastes just as good.”
Willow liked the sound of that. She liked a man who was careful with his money and who wasn't wasteful. She followed all of his instructions while he watched, and then she handed his coffee to him.
He took a sip. “Perfect.”
“Good. I just have to remember how to do it again.”
“You’ll need plenty of practice.”
Willow made Mr. Hostetler’s tea and left Liam alone in the break room.
“Here you go. I don’t know if I put enough milk in it,” she said, handing the tea to her boss.
“It looks fine to me. Denke, Willow.” He stood up and moved away from behind the desk. “This desk is yours now, since you’ll be answering the phone and taking the orders and the messages.”
While he drank his tea, he told her what to say when she answered the phone, showed her the price list of all the goods, and then handed her a calculator. “Are you good at math?”
“Very good.”
“That’s great, but for now, all buyer inquiries can be put through to Jenny, and you’ll have to learn from her. If any customers have difficult questions, put them on hold and page someone. You’ll meet the team this morning.”
A few hours into the job, Willow was pleased that it wasn’t as hard as she had thought it might be. She was told she could have her lunch between twelve and one, and then she remembered the lunch that she had brought and left in the buggy. At noon, Maureen said she’d watch the phones and Willow headed outside to get her lunch. When she turned to head back, she was face-to-face with Liam.
“Are you going to go inside?”
“I was planning to.”
“On a beautiful day like this? Come for a walk with me.” He held his own sandwiches up for her to see. “There’s a nice little park not far from here. You don’t have to stay on the premises when you’re on a break.”
“Okay, that sounds good. You're right, it is a beautiful day.”
The park was only a couple hundred yards away.
“Do you like working with your vadder?” Willow asked as they sat down on a wooden seat in the park.
“I haven’t worked anywhere else so it’s hard to judge. I suppose it’s all right, and it’ll be mine one day. That’s extra incentive to do a good job.” He laughed and unwrapped his sandwich. “How are you liking it so far?”
“I like it very much.” Willow bit into her sandwich.
“Have you thought more about running away with me?” he asked with a straight face.
“I haven’t given any thought to running away, with you or anybody else.”
He smiled. “I’ll have to get you to change your mind.”
“You do a lot of talking about going on rumspringa, but so far I haven’t seen any action.”
“Ouch! You’ve got your claws out today. Meow.”
“They’re always out, so watch out.”
He laughed. “I will.”
“Why do you want to go on rumspringa anyway?”
“So I can do all the things I’ve never been able to do, of course. Nearly everyone goes on rumspringa.”
“I’m not interested because I know I’ll come back here anyway, so what’s the point?”
“When you’re older, you might regret not having spread your wings, and then it’ll be too late.”
“I’ll keep that in mind. Denke for the advice, Liam.”
“I might have to go on my own.”
“I think you will.”
Liam pulled a face and Willow giggled.
“I really like the sound of your laughter.”
Willow turned to look at him and he held her gaze, making her feel uncomfortable. She bounded to her feet and her second sandwich fell from her lap.
He picked it up and shook off the dirt. “I didn’t want to make you upset.”
“You didn’t,” she said.
“This is no good anymore.” He threw the sandwich into a clump of grass.
“I should get back inside and learn some more things, since this is my week’s trial. I want to make a good impression.”
“You’ve already made one on me.” He smiled and gave her a wink.
“The lumberyard isn’t yours yet, so you're not the one I need to make a good impression on.” She started walking back to the office and he walked after her.
He caught up with her, and said, “Do you want one of my sandwiches, Willow?”
“Nee, I’m fine, truly. I’ve had enough.”
“Would you like me to take you out for dinner one night? Maybe Saturday?”
“Why, because you made me drop my sandwich in the dirt?”
He laughed. “I’m not sure that it was my fault. Nee, because I want to see more of you.”
“I can’t on Saturday night.” Right then, they reached the office.
“Are you busy on Saturday night then, Willows?”
She turned around to face him and frowned. “It’s Willow, Liam, and yes, I am.”
“I hope you’re not going out with another man.”
He said it as a joke, as though he didn’t think she would be. She didn’t laugh, and then she took her place behind the desk.
“Willow, are you going out with another man on Saturday night?”
“You say ‘another man’ as if we’re dating or in some kind of relationship.”
“Don’t play with words. Are you dating someone?”
“No, but I am going out with someone on Saturday night, and I don’t want to say who it is.”
He straightened up and looked cranky. “I’ll find out.”
“Don’t make a fuss. It’s nothing. Now I need to get back to work.”
Just then Mr. Ho
stetler walked into the office and stared at his son. “Don’t you have something better to do, Liam?”
“I’m still at lunch, Dat.”
“I don’t see you eating anything, son.”
“Okay, I guess lunch is officially over.”
When Liam left the office, Mr. Hostetler said to Willow, “Was my son bothering you?”
“Nee, Liam and I are good friends.”
“He can be a little overwhelming at times.”
“Everything’s fine.”
Chapter 7
Willow’s parents were delighted when they found out she was going out with Samuel on Saturday night.
“I knew you’d like him,” Willow’s father said while she was waiting for Samuel to collect her.
"I hope you can understand that I need to know whether I like him," she countered.
He nodded, saying nothing more.
Willow’s mother sat on the couch just smiling while Willow paced up and down. Normally her mother had sewing or crochet work in her hands, but this evening she had nothing. “Come here,” she said.
Willow walked over and her mother straightened her dress, and then said, “Tie the strings of your prayer kapp together.”
“Do I have to? No one does,” Willow said.
“I think it looks better. Please yourself. I can’t force you to.”
“She’s fine like that,” her father said.
Willow sat down next to her mother. “How are you feeling tonight, Mamm?”
"Why do you keep asking me that? Do I look sick or something?”
“Nee, you don’t. You look lovely. As pretty as ever.”
Her mother chuckled. “I’m just hoping you get along with Samuel and I’m glad that you are going out with him, and you're giving him a chance.”
“That’s all we ask,” her father added.
“It sounded like a whole lot more than that the other night. You were talking about discussing our marriage.”
“We didn’t know you’d have such a bad reaction to that.”
Willow’s eyebrows flew upward. “It’s not every day someone is told they have to marry someone.”
“He’s a good man, and sometimes parents do know best,” her father said.
“We shall see.”
“He’s a bit older than you, he’s mature, and he’d look after you.”
Willow looked into her mother’s eyes, knowing Mamm wanted her daughters to be secure when she died and didn’t want that burden to lie on her husband. “I’ll be okay, Mamm. And if I don’t marry soon, I can look after myself. There’s no hurry for me to marry, is there?”
“There is a chance Samuel won’t wait around forever. He could marry someone else.”
“He could’ve done that at any time, and he hasn’t,” Willow pointed out.
“That’s him now,” her father said.
Willow looked out the window. “Yes, that’s him. Do I look all right, Mamm?” She smoothed her hands down her dress.
“You look beautiful.”
“Denke, Mamm.”
“Don’t forget your shawl,” her father called after her.
Willow hurried out of the house, lifting her shawl from the peg at the back door as she went past. She approached the buggy and Samuel jumped down and tried to help her.
“I don’t need any help. I’m fine.”
“It seems quiet at your house tonight.”
“Violet has gone out with Nathan and it’s only my parents there.”
Once they were both in the buggy, he turned the buggy around and headed back down the drive.
“How are you doing at your job?”
“Good. Only a few more days to go of the trial, and I love it.”
He glanced at her. “That’s good when you can find work you enjoy. Liam works there, doesn’t he?”
“Jah.”
“How are you getting along with him?”
“Good. We went to schul together. Do you know him very well?”
“He’s my cousin.”
“That’s right.” Willow giggled. “I forgot.”
This was Willow’s first real date out alone with a man and she was excited. She tried not to remind herself of the fact that her parents liked him so much. She didn't want to be forced into anything. But it wasn't his fault that they both had pushy parents.
Soon they were in town and Samuel stopped the buggy in a nice area where there were many restaurants.
"Where are we going? What restaurant?"
"You'll soon see."
"Have you been there before?"
"I have."
Willow wondered if he had been there before with a girl. She hadn’t heard his name attached to any girls and she was sure she had heard all of the rumors circulating; his name definitely hadn’t come up.
She got out of the buggy as soon as it stopped.
After he secured the horse, he said, “It's up this way." His head nodded up the street.
They walked along the sidewalk together and Willow felt even more on edge.
Once they'd been shown to a table in the dimly lit restaurant, and had been handed menus, Samuel leaned close to Willow. “Okay, now that we’re here, you can tell me what's up with you. Why the sudden change? You suddenly like me now, or what?"
Willow knew he was referring to her asking him not to tell his parents he was interested in someone else like they’d planned. "It's just that … It's hard to say, really."
"You seemed pretty anxious for me not to go ahead with telling my parents the story about my liking someone else."
Willow looked down at the empty table setting in front of her. She couldn't tell him that she suspected her mother was dying and she was willing to sacrifice herself to marry him to make her mother happy in her dying days. Her cheeks grew hot. He would've thought she liked him. When she looked up, she saw him frowning at her.
"Whatever it is, you can tell me. I know you're not madly in love with me. So what is it?"
"It's just that I thought we could see how things go and then take things from there."
"I can see you're not going to tell me," he said.
"Maybe because there's nothing to tell."
He chuckled, and then said, "Whatever it is, I'm glad that you've come to dinner with me tonight. Let's just concentrate on enjoying ourselves."
"That sounds like a very good idea." Willow felt the knot in her stomach relax.
The waiter returned and they quickly made their choices from the menu, and when the waiter left, there was silence between them.
Samuel seemed nice and gentle. Maybe she could fall in love with him if she knew a little bit more about him.
"Tell me some things about yourself," she said, fiddling nervously with the knife and fork in front of her.
"You know I'm an only child and I don't have a lot of relations. There are the Hostetlers on my mudder's side and there are plenty of them, but there aren’t many on my vadder's side."
"And you get on with them all okay?"
"I'm probably closer with people who aren't my relations. Liam’s my closest cousin in age and he's quite a bit younger than I am. And that's probably why we were never that close."
Not wanting to talk about Liam, she asked, "So what do you want for the future?"
"I'm happy if things stay pretty much the same as they are now except that I’d like a fraa and kinner. I want a happy home full of the laughter of children. I suppose that's because there was only me in my family. I would like to have as many kinner as Gott gives me."
Willow hadn't given too much thought to how many children she wanted.
"How about you?" he asked.
"I guess I would be happy with just one or two. I guess whatever happens happens."
After they'd had about twenty minutes of getting to know one another, their meals arrived.
Willow stared at his baked salmon. "That looks delicious."
"Do you want a taste?" he asked.
"Do you mind?"
; "Here, I'll cut some off for you." He cut a portion of his fish and put it on her plate.
"Do you want some of my steak?"
He shook his head. "Nee, denke. I don't eat a lot of red meat."
"Why not?"
"I prefer chicken or fish."
Willow popped the salmon into her mouth and it melted like butter. "Mm, that’s delicious."
He laughed. "Do you want some more?"
"Nee, but denke. I've got plenty to eat here."
When they finished eating, he took a sip of his ginger beer. "Willow, you have the most beautiful eyes."
She looked at him and could see that he was being genuine, that he was not just trying to flatter her. "Denke."
"I'm trying to decide what color they are."
"I know some people say they're brown and some people called them green. Sometimes they look like a bluish green, so I’m told."
“Whatever they are, they’re lovely."
"Yours are nice too. I've always loved blue eyes. Your mother has the same blue eyes as you."
"I guess that proves I'm not adopted," he said with a laugh.
"Did you once think you were?"
"It's crossed my mind from time to time. But my mother has too many stories of when she was expecting me and the birth and everything for her to be lying about it."
"She told you about the birth?"
"I'm afraid so. It was more information than I cared to know."
Willow put her fingertips over her mouth and giggled. "My mudder won't even talk about that kind of thing to me and Violet. She says it is just something we women have to go through. I mean, if I'm going to have to go through it one day, I would like to know a bit about it first. Maybe I'll have to talk to your mudder."
He smiled. "She’d probably like that very much."
“It must've been hard for her, wanting other children and not having them. I imagine it would have been very frustrating for her."
Samuel nodded. "She had a couple of heartbreaking miscarriages before I was born. She mourned, and people didn’t understand. They just told her to try again."
"Sometimes people have to go through something to fully understand it. That would’ve been devastating for her. I hope that never happens to me."
Amish Willow Page 5
