She touched her tingling lips with her fingertips. “You’ve been snitching cookies.”
He threw up his hands. “Busted. Haul me away. Your brothers gave me some.”
She smoothed her dress and straightened her kapp. “Stay out of my kitchen. In fact, go home. We’re done for the day.”
“Okay.” He took a step back, stumbled and sat in the snow.
She marched into the house, went up the stairs and straight to her room. After closing the door, she lay down on the bed and pressed her fingers to her lips again. That had been a very fine kiss.
* * *
Luke got up, dusted off his pride and began walking home. He was almost to the covered bridge when Joshua and Mary drove past in their buggy. Joshua drew the horse to a stop. “Need a ride?”
Luke shook his head. “I need to walk.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Women. When someone understands them, let me know. No offense, Mary.”
“None taken. Joshua, I’ll drive on to school and get Hannah. Why don’t you walk your brother home? He looks like he can use some company.”
Joshua handed the reins to his wife and got out. She drove away and he turned to Luke. “Women troubles?”
“Woman. One woman. Emma.”
“Let’s hear your side of the story before Mary gets it out of Emma.”
“It all started so innocently.”
“It always does.”
“One minute I was chucking snowballs at an old friend. The next minute, I was lying next to her in the snow acting like a scoundrel. I got up before anything happened, and she got mad.”
“Most women don’t like a man to act like a scoundrel.”
“That’s not it. She was mad because I didn’t kiss her.”
“Odd.”
“You’re telling me.”
“What did you do?”
“I kissed her.”
“Luke, I have to tell you that might have been the wrong move. Did she slap you?”
He shook his head. “She accused me of swiping cookies and told me to go home.”
“That’s it?”
Nodding, Luke pulled off his hat. “That’s it. It was like I was five again.” He raked his fingers through his hair.
“You got off easy, brudder.”
“Joshua, give me a reason for her actions that I can wrap my brain around.”
“I’m no romance expert.”
“Are all women as confusing as Emma is?”
“I have no idea. If I were you, I’d pretend it didn’t happen.”
“I can try that.” But he knew that it wouldn’t work. He was never going to forget the feel of her soft lips against his.
What do you want me to do, Lord? Is she the one, or am I kidding myself? I need Your help, Heavenly Father. Show me what You desire for me.
The two men walked in the back door of their father’s house and were immediately surrounded by the aroma of gingersnaps, snickerdoodles, chocolate-chip cookies and oatmeal-raisin bars.
They looked at each other and smiled. “Cookie exchange.”
Joshua peeked around the corner of the kitchen. “I’ll distract Mamm, you grab as many cookies as you can and I’ll meet you in the barn. Deal?”
Before they could make a move, their father bolted out of the kitchen with his hand covering his head. “I only took one.”
“And that is the last one you will see until next Christmas.” Their mother stopped in the doorway with a rolling pin in her hand. “What are you boys doing here?”
Joshua being closest took a step back. “Nothing, Mamm. We’re—nothing, Mamm.”
“Go make yourselves useful. The buggy needs to be washed.”
“On it,” Luke assured her.
“Hmmph!” She raised one eyebrow, spun on her heels and went back to the kitchen.
Joshua tried to see the top of his father’s head. “Did she get you?”
“Missed me by a hair. This hair.” He pulled a silver strand straight up.
Luke looked toward the kitchen and then gathered the others into a huddle. “She can’t get all of us. If we rush her, we can snag a bunch of those awesome gingersnaps and get out before she knows who to swing at.”
“Sounds like a plan. Which side of the table shall I take?” Joshua asked.
“What are you guys up to?” Timothy came strolling in from the kitchen with a cookie in each hand.
“How did you get those?” his father demanded.
“These?” He held out his cookies. “I asked Mamm if I could have one. She gave me two.”
Luke’s father turned and looked at each of his sons in turn. “He asked.”
“I still say we rush her.” Joshua rubbed his hands together.
“Shall I go get some for you?” Timothy offered.
“She won’t let you have them. They’re for the cookie exchange.”
“Sure she will.” Timothy handed his uneaten cookie to his father and went back to the kitchen. He came out a few minutes later with a plate of assorted cookies. “You just have to ask nicely, guys.”
Luke took one from the plate. “Stealing them is more fun.” It was the same with kisses, too, but how much better would it be to have Emma give them freely? He had to know how she felt about him.
* * *
Emma waited impatiently in the kitchen for Wayne to arrive with his daughter on the evening of the cookie exchange. Maybe some time with Wayne’s daughter would get the memory of Luke’s kiss out of her mind. It was all she could think about. What had it meant to him? Had it meant anything? She touched her lips again. Had he felt the same thrill that raced through her nerve endings?
Would Wayne’s kiss thrill her in the same way? Wayne was everything that Luke was not. Steady, dependable, grounded in the Amish life and faith. He would make any woman a good husband. If she wasn’t so foolish, she would encourage Wayne’s attention.
But the only man whose attention she wanted was Luke. Not dependable. Not a member of her faith. Not good husband material. Why couldn’t she get over him?
Now that the store was finished, she wouldn’t see him as much. That was for the best. She needed to concentrate on helping her father and her brothers in the coming months.
Roy came through the room with a rolled up magazine under his arm. “What’s for supper?”
“I’ve got ham and beans on the stove. You and Alvin can just help yourselves when you’re ready. What are you reading?”
He pulled the periodical out and held it up for her inspection. “It’s a magazine that tells you how to set up solar arrays, how to install them and how to wire them. Luke gave it to me. It’s really cool. He said I might be able to go to school to learn this.”
“Luke shouldn’t promise things he can’t control. Your father and the bishop will have to decide if it is acceptable. What if we can’t afford it?”
“Luke didn’t promise anything. We just talked about it. Don’t forget to bring back lots of cookies.” He tucked the magazine under his arm and went outside.
Emma heard a buggy arrive a few minutes before five. Wayne was prompt. Another point in his favor. Going to the door, she held it open. He stepped down from the buggy and lifted out his child. She held a small white plastic pail to fill with cookies.
Wayne walked to the door. “Emma Swartzentruber, this is my daughter, Sophie. Sophie, this is my friend Emma. She is taking you to the cookie exchange tonight.”
Emma knelt to put herself at the child’s level. “Hello, Sophie. I’m pleased to meet you. We’re going to have so much fun. There will be lots of kinder there for you to play with and good things to eat.”
Blond with pale blue eyes, Sophie held on to her father’s leg and looked painfully shy.
“I will remind you.” Emma rose to her feet. “Wayne, I want to thank you for this chance to get to know Sophie. I shall take good care of her. I’ll bring her home about seven. Is that acceptable?”
“I reckon.” He tipped his hat and left.
Sophie went to a kitchen chair and sat down. She turned her pail first one way and then the other.
“Shall we go to the party?” Emma tried to put some eagerness in her voice.
“Okay.” Sophie followed her outside but balked at getting in Emma’s buggy.
“What’s wrong?” Emma bent to her level.
“It’s fancy. I can’t ride in a fancy buggy. It has the orange sign on the back.”
“It is okay for you to ride in my buggy. My church wants us to use the slow-moving-vehicle sign.”
Sophie shook her head. “Nope.”
It was too cold for Emma and the child to walk all that way. Emma went to the house and searched for a dark piece of cloth to cover the sign. She found one that worked. Sophie studied it for a few seconds and nodded. “Okay, but you can’t turn the lights on.”
“I won’t.”
“My mamm died last year. Daed doesn’t like me to talk about her.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Daed says he might marry you. I don’t like that.”
“If you don’t like it, I for sure won’t marry him, but you might like me when you get to know me.”
“Maybe. Can we go to the party now?”
“Yes, we can and we are going to have a wonderful time.”
* * *
Luke stood in the corner of the living room, waiting and watching for Emma. Rebecca stopped beside him. “She’ll be here.”
“Who?” he asked with indifference.
“Emma. You aren’t fooling anyone. It’s easy to see how you feel about her.”
He gathered his nerve. “I do care for Emma but I don’t know how she feels about me or about Wayne. Do you?”
“I can ask her.”
“I was hoping you’d say that.”
She just chuckled as she walked away.
People from his church group and others mingled throughout the house. Children had been relegated to the basement. The downstairs room ran the entire length of the house and was used mainly for parties and singings for the teenagers.
Long tables held goodies in every shape and form from brownies to cookies to cake and pie. People were required to bring a large pail of treats, set them out and then fill up their pail with treats made by someone else. There were several group games in progress downstairs and the noise level was high. Older people sought the comfort of his mother’s plush sofa and chairs in the living room. Not caring for crowds, Luke picked a spot where he could watch for Emma without having to visit with people.
He spied her the minute she walked in, but he didn’t know the child with her. Was it Wayne’s daughter? Or some other relative of Emma’s that he didn’t know about? He gathered his courage and made his way across the room. He’d soon know if she was still angry with him, but for the moment he was going to take Joshua’s advice and act like the kiss hadn’t happened. “Evening, Emma. Who have you got with you?”
Her smile looked strained. “This is Sophie Hochstetler. Wayne’s daughter. She and I are getting to know each other. Sophie, say hello to Luke.”
Sophie buried her face in Emma’s skirt. “I can’t talk to strangers. They might be shunned.”
Emma lifted the child’s face. “I know for a fact that Luke is not shunned.”
“I don’t like him.”
“Not many people do,” Luke said with a smile, hoping to tease her out of her sour mood. If Emma was getting to know Wayne’s daughter, it must be serious between them.
Sophie scowled at him. He smiled at Emma. “This may be a job for Hannah and Bella.”
“That’s just who I was going to find.” Emma looked around the room.
“Basement.” He nodded toward the steps.
“Danki.” She went downstairs with the child and he didn’t see either of them again for over an hour.
* * *
Emma finally managed to get Sophie to play with some of the other children. Rather they were playing and Sophie was watching them, but at least she wasn’t clinging to Emma’s hand.
Rebecca stopped beside her. “How is it going with Sophie?”
“Not great.”
“How are things going with Wayne?”
Emma knew she could tell Rebecca the truth. “Not great, either.”
“What seems to be the problem?”
“Me.”
Rebecca leaned closer. “Care to elaborate on that?”
“When did you know Samuel was the one for you?”
“I realized it when I couldn’t fall asleep at night without thinking about him. Who do you fall asleep thinking about?”
Not Wayne. “I don’t care to say.”
“Someone has asked me to be their go-between.”
Emma’s pulse jumped up a notch. Was it Luke? “Who asked you?”
“I think you know.” Rebecca leaned away with a decided twinkle in her eyes.
“Luke.” Emma’s excitement dimmed. A growing sense of annoyance settled in her chest. He could have asked her anytime they were together in the store or on the buggy ride to the hardware store or after he’d kissed her in the snow. Why did he feel the need to send a go-between?
Was she that hard to speak with? Did he expect her to reject him? Scold him? He could kiss her, but he couldn’t ask her a simple question.
Emma folded her arms. It wasn’t a simple question or she would have an answer for Rebecca at this very moment and she didn’t.
“Well?” Rebecca prompted. “What shall I tell him?”
* * *
The party was winding down when Luke finally met up with Rebecca. “Have you had a chance to get Emma alone?”
Her smile was forced. “I did.”
“She doesn’t want to go out with me.” His hopes withered on the vine.
“That isn’t exactly what she said.”
“What did she say?”
“That you’re a big boy now and you can ask her yourself.”
“That’s not bad, is it?”
“It was more in the way she said it.”
“I see.” So it wasn’t good.
“If God wants you to be together, Luke, you will overcome every obstacle. Samuel and I are proof of that.”
“At least I didn’t get shut down.”
Rebecca nodded and walked away. Luke considered his next move. Emma hadn’t said no. Was she waiting to say that to his face? He could see her doing that.
He started down the steps to the basement to locate her. She was easy to spot. He never had trouble picking her out in a crowd. There was just something special about her.
Standing by Mary and Joshua, Emma was encouraging Sophie to pet Bella. It wasn’t working. Sophie was afraid of the dog and batted at her if she ventured too close. Hannah came to stand beside him. “I don’t like her. She said my dress was too fancy. It’s not. Mammi Ada made it for me. She doesn’t like Bella, either.”
“Maybe she’s never had a dog.”
“That would be sad,” Hannah said with a quivering lip.
It would be sad for the motherless child to be fearful of everything including the most lovable mutt in the world. She was blessed to have Emma watching over her. He might selfishly want Emma to choose him over Wayne, but there was more than his feelings at stake. He walked up to Sophie. “Hi, remember me? I’m not shunned.”
“Can we go now?”
“How would you like to go down to the river? Have y
ou seen it at night? It’s very pretty.”
“That’s a goot idea. I’ll get our coats.” Emma cast a relieved smile his way, and he knew he’d made the right decision.
When she had the child bundled up, Luke opened the back door, and they walked out to find a young couple smooching on the garden bench. He cleared his throat and the couple sprang apart. It was Noah and their neighbor’s daughter, Fannie Erb.
Luke walked past and whispered, “Carry on, bro.”
“Will do.”
Luke and Emma continued down to the water’s edge with the child. Away from the noise and the crush of people, Sophie slowly relaxed. After a few minutes, she looked at Luke. “Can I throw a rock in the water?”
Emma crouched beside her. “You can throw every rock you find in the river. Just don’t get too close to the water.”
“Danki.” She picked up a pebble from a spot free of snow and chucked it in. The ripples spread out, sparkling in the moonlight.
She spun to Emma. “Did you see that?”
“I did. Try throwing two rocks together,” Emma suggested.
Sophie became more animated as she tossed stones and ran along the riverbank.
“How did you know she would do better outside?” Emma was looking at him with curiosity.
“You could pick them out in prison, the ones who couldn’t tolerate being closed in. She had that look of panic on her face.”
“I’m glad you saw it. I was at my wit’s end.” Her eyes held a softness he hadn’t seen before. Not when she was looking at him. Could he kiss her again? Would she let him? The thought had barely formed when a shriek split the night.
Chapter Thirteen
Emma dashed away from Luke and ran to the water’s edge. Sophie, cowering and crying, was backed up against a tree as Bella tried to interest her in a stick. She laid it at the girl’s feet and pushed it closer.
Emma picked Sophie up. “It’s all right. She won’t hurt you. Go away now, Bella.”
The dog walked off with her head down. Sophie kept her arms locked around Emma’s neck. “I don’t like her.”
“I’m sorry she scared you.” Emma turned to Luke. “I need to take her home.”
“I’ll drive you.” He hurried away to get her horse and buggy hitched.
An Amish Noel Page 14
