The Promise of Palm Grove

by Shelley Shepard Gray

  “I know you can hop around on crutches like no other, Eff, but we’re going straight to the buses after the assembly. That means someone needs to help you with your books.”

  “I’ll help Effie,” Josiah called out, already on his feet.

  “That is very nice of you, Josiah. Thank you,” Mrs. Bishop said. “Uh, Josiah and Effie, you two may leave as soon as you’re ready.”

  Effie had learned to always keep her things in order, since needing help wasn’t anything new, and now she plopped her backpack onto the top of her desk. Just as she was reaching for her crutches, Josiah bent down and retrieved them for her.

  “Here,” he said without a lot of fanfare.

  Which was a really good thing, because the rest of the class—Effie and Mrs. Bishop included—were staring at him like he’d just solved every problem in their math book.

  “Danke,” she forced herself to say in a rather cool way.

  In no time, he was holding their backpacks and she was crutching down the hallway.

  The gymnasium was practically empty. The assembly bell wasn’t supposed to ring for another eight minutes.

  “It’s nice getting out of class early,” she said, just so Josiah wouldn’t think she thought he’d offered to help her because he liked her, or anything.

  “Getting out of class is great. But that’s not why I volunteered to walk with you.”

  “Why did you?”

  His lips twitched. “Maybe because you’ve been avoiding me since you’ve gotten back to school.”

  “I have not.”

  “I think differently. You talked to me a lot when I visited you at your house. But now that we’re at school, you’ll hardly look at me.”

  “I didn’t want to put you in an awkward position.”

  Josiah frowned. “What are you talking about?”

  Now she felt even more embarrassed. Did they really have to be talking about this? “I thought maybe you were only being nice to me because you felt sorry for me.”

  He stared at her, his expression serious. Then, to her surprise, he suddenly smiled. “That wasn’t the reason, Effie,” he said at last.

  And when that smile finally penetrated, Effie realized he was telling the truth. She returned his smile. Because it was pretty obvious that nothing else needed to be said.

  AS THE CLOCK’S hands moved again, proclaiming it to now be a quarter after six, everyone who was seated at the kitchen table stared at the phone expectantly.

  But nothing happened.

  Naomi leaned back in her chair. “This waiting is killing me. Leona, you need to get up and call him.”

  “Nee.”

  “Why not?”

  “He wanted to do the calling,” Leona said.

  “Actually, he made it sound like he was going to do the calling because you wanted him to call you,” her mother murmured. “Did you tell Zachary that you didn’t call boys?”

  “Maybe.” When the other four people at the table grinned at each other, she said, “What?”

  “Nothing, dear,” her father said. His expression was the most composed of all of them, but that wasn’t saying too much. Everyone at the table looked like they were on the verge of laughter. Even Naomi’s husband, David, looked like he was having a grand time witnessing her embarrassment.

  “Daed,” Leona said, “if I did say something like that, it was because we were in Pinecraft.”

  “Though it ain’t my business whether you want to call young men or not, I don’t see how who calls who matters,” her father replied.

  “It does to me.”

  Naomi neatly stacked her bread plate onto her empty dinner plate. “I think you need to call him now. We’re going to have to start the dishes soon.”

  “Don’t push, Ni,” David murmured.

  “But—”

  “I mean it,” Naomi’s husband said. “Leona needs to do what she wants.” With a scowl, he added, “That Edmund hardly ever let her voice an opinion. He was always sure he was right. Now that he’s out of the picture, I have to admit I’m not sorry that I won’t be sharing a bunch of meals with him in the future.”

  “I couldn’t agree more,” her father grumbled.

  Noticing how the four of them didn’t even attempt to shy away from bad-mouthing Edmund, Leona looked from one to another with a sense of frustration. “I sure wish all of you would have told me how you really felt about Edmund before now.”

  Mamm shifted uncomfortably in her seat. “We didn’t want to hurt your feelings. I mean, we weren’t the ones who wanted to marry him.”

  “Mamm!”

  “I’m sorry, but that is the truth,” she said around a blush. “We all thought you loved him, dear.”

  “We thought you thought his quirks were cute,” Naomi added. “Just because Rosanna and I didn’t like him, it didn’t mean that you couldn’t.”

  “Rosanna didn’t like Edmund, either?”

  David covered his bark of laughter with a napkin. “Sorry, Leona,” he murmured. “All I know is that Michael wasn’t real eager to be sitting across from him too often, either.”

  Leona inhaled, feeling like she should defend herself or her judgment . . . or something. After all, it wasn’t like she’d gone into that relationship blind. She’d really thought she would come to love Edmund.

  The ringing of the phone stopped all conversation.

  Talk about divine intervention!

  Her father glanced at the clock. “Might want to give that young man a lesson in telling time, daughter. It’s now almost twenty after the hour. Best go get the phone before he hangs up.”

  She scampered to the side of the kitchen and picked up the receiver. “Hello?”

  “Leona. You’re home,” Zack said. His voice sounding smooth and perfect. Like butter.

  And though it was foolish and a bit on the dramatic side, she felt like she melted right then and there. “Jah,” she replied, not even caring that she sounded breathless.

  “Did you hear I called?”

  “Jah.”

  When she didn’t say anything more, he added, “Your mother said you might call, but I’m glad I got to you first.”

  “Me too,” she said around a sigh. “It’s so good to hear your voice.”

  “I was just thinking the same thing.”

  She knew she was probably grinning like a fool, but she couldn’t help herself.

  Across the room, her family stared at her in silence, each person looking more intrigued and surprised than the next.

  Then her mother abruptly stood. “Off we go. Into the hearth room.”

  “Oh, hold on, Zack,” Leona whispered, then loudly she said, “You all don’t have to leave.”

  “Oh, yes, we do,” her mother replied. “Leona Weaver, you are my daughter, and I’ve seen you through all sorts of things: chicken pox, disagreements with friends, stitches on your hand. A broken engagement. But in all of your twenty-two years I’ve never, ever seen you look like this.”

  “Like what?”

  “Like you’re the happiest girl in the world,” David said with a wink. Then, to Leona’s amazement, her brother-in-law started leading the way to the hearth room, and everyone else followed on his heels.

  And then she was alone in the kitchen with stacks of dirty dishes and Zack on the other end of the line. “I’m sorry. My family said something . . .”

  “I heard,” he said, his voice warm and kind. “Now, talk to me Leona, tell me how you are doing. I’ve missed you.”

  She pulled the cord out, sat down on the wooden floor, and did just that.

  Chapter 30

  A little more than a month later, after delaying the inevitable for a good ten minutes, Zack wrapped the telephone cord around his fingers and made himself do what had to be done. “Gut naught, Leona,” he murmured. “Sleep well.”

  “Good night, Zack. Will you call again tomorrow night?”

  He smiled, because the anxiousness he heard in her voice sounded a lot like how he was feeling
inside. A little desperate. “Jah. I will call,” he promised. Just like he’d done for the last eight nights in a row, and several weeks before that.

  “Gut. Good night, then.”

  “Bye, Le,” he murmured, then hung up before he found a way to extend their conversation yet another ten minutes.

  When he finally put the receiver in the cradle, Zack sighed. Something was going to have to be done, the sooner the better. It had now been more than a month since she’d left Florida. If he didn’t see Leona in person, he was going to start climbing the walls.

  After that one day when he’d called and spoken to her mother, then talked to Leona later that night, their conversations had gradually become longer and more frequent. He’d gone from having short, ten-minute conversations every other night to talks twice that long every evening.

  Tonight, they’d been on the phone over an hour. It was getting a bit ridiculous. Expensive, too.

  “Zack, you need to buy a bus ticket,” Violet said from the doorway.

  He could tell by the tone of her voice that she wasn’t teasing him. Turning to look at her, he nodded. “I know. I keep offering, but she doesn’t want me to come see her yet.”

  “Why on earth not?”

  He shrugged. “She said she wanted me to wait a bit.” Actually, he was trying hard to not take her request wrong. If she hadn’t kept refusing his offer, he knew he would already be in Walnut Creek.

  “Is she still recovering from her breakup?”

  “Nee. I mean, I don’t think so. But maybe she is. She’s just disrupted her whole life, you know.”

  Violet tapped her foot. “Do you think her family is upset with her?”

  “Nee. I know they aren’t. She’s put different family members on the phone to say hello.” He chuckled in an attempt to hide his embarrassment. “I think she simply wants more time. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

  “I know. But it still seems a little strange.” Her eyes brightened. “I know! Maybe she’s afraid to be too forward. Maybe you should go on up there and surprise her?”

  He actually had been thinking about that, but then he remembered how Edmund had never listened to her. He didn’t want to be that way, too.

  “I don’t think that a surprise visit is the way to go.”

  “Sure? She might find it romantic.”

  When a dreamy look appeared in her eyes, he laughed. “Believe me, I’ve thought about it. But I’m not going to pay her any surprise visits. See, I’ve been praying about this,” he confided. “I think the Lord is reminding me to have some patience. I’ve waited this long to find Leona, I can wait a little longer until she’s ready.”

  “You love her, don’t you?”

  “Jah. I really do love her,” he said, not even embarrassed to admit it. “And because I want her love, too, I’m willing to wait until she’s ready to love me back.”

  He just hoped she would come to her decision sooner than later.

  “KNOCK, KNOCK.”

  Glancing up from the letter she was attempting to write Zack, Leona frowned at the unwanted interruption. “Jah, Mamm?”

  Without another word, her door opened. But, to her surprise, it wasn’t her mother who had come to see her.

  “Daed?”

  “Don’t act so surprised,” he said gruffly. “I, um, had a little bit of time this afternoon, so I thought maybe we could visit for a bit.”

  “Is everything all right?” After flipping her letter over, she scrambled to the side of her neatly made bed just as he pulled over the chair from her desk.

  “Everything is fine, I think,” he said.

  She wasn’t sure about that. Actually, she couldn’t remember her father ever stepping into her room simply to chat. And, judging by the way he was sitting—his hands practically holding his knees in a death grip—she was pretty sure he didn’t have a simple chat on his mind.

  When a full minute passed, Leona searched for something, anything, to say. “I was, uh, just writing Zack a letter.”

  His shoulders eased. “I’m glad you brought that up. See, that’s just what I wanted to talk to you about.”

  “My letters to Zack?”

  Looking at her intently, he said, “Leona, I’m thinking those need to stop.”

  “What!?” Before he had a chance to answer, she shot off another question. “Why?” Foolishly, she felt tears fill her eyes. And wasn’t that just the worst? It seemed all she’d been doing since she’d said goodbye to Zack in Pinecraft was attempt to hold her tears at bay.

  “Calm down, Leona.” Looking at her with a tender expression, he added, “My word, you always did wear your heart on your sleeve.”

  “Daed, I like writing Zack. I know we talk a lot on the phone, too, but I feel like I need to write him every day, too.”

  “Leona, what I’m trying mighty hard to say—in between all of your interruptions—is that it’s time to stop fussing around and start making plans to see him.”

  He might as well have been speaking Greek. “Daed, you’re saying you want me to go back to Pinecraft to see Zack?”

  “Last time I checked, that’s where he was. And, I might add, we all think he sounds just as miserable as you do on the phone.” While she gaped at him, his brown eyes—eyes which matched her own—filled with humor. “Leona, it’s time you were happy, don’t you think?”

  “You . . . you don’t think it’s too soon?”

  “Too soon for what?”

  “You know, Daed. Too soon to fall in love again?”

  She inhaled, waiting for some special words of wisdom that only her father could share. But instead of spouting out anything of worth, he tilted his head back and laughed.

  She hopped off the bed. “Daed, I’m being serious.”

  “Oh, daughter. Of course you are,” he murmured as he got to his feet as well, then promptly enfolded her into the warmest hug ever. After pressing his lips to her brow, he pulled back and looked her in the eyes. “But what you don’t seem to understand is that you already have fallen in love again. It’s done.”

  She blinked. Then realized he was exactly right. All she’d been doing since she’d returned from Pinecraft was biding her time until she thought everyone else would be able to accept her new relationship. Her mind—and her heart—had already decided that Zack was the man for her. The right man for her.

  “You’re right,” she said.

  Stepping away, he grinned. “I know I am. You can’t stop love, child.”

  Watching him walk out of her room, then close her door softly behind him, Leona repeated his words in her head.

  Her father was now officially the smartest man she’d ever known. He was exactly right. No matter how hard she’d tried, she hadn’t been able to stop love.

  She hadn’t even been able to slow it down.

  Marching to the bed, she picked up her letter and tore it in half. She now had a far different letter to write. And after that, she had a bus ticket to buy.

  Chapter 31

  Leona held a bus ticket in one hand, a backpack on her shoulder, and a matching quilted duffel bag in her other hand. She was ready to return to Pinecraft.

  Standing on either side of her were her two best friends in the world. And they were currently looking forlorn.

  “I can’t believe you’re going back to Pinecraft without us,” Mattie exclaimed. “I’m so jealous.”

  After sharing a smile with Mattie, Leona chuckled. “I bet you are. After all, one Daniel Brenneman is pining for you.”

  “I wouldn’t say he’s pining. But in his last letter, he did say he wanted to come see me soon,” Mattie admitted.

  “I hope you told him to get on the bus,” Sara said.

  Mattie lifted her chin. “Of course I did. I’m not as stubborn as some people we know.”

  “I haven’t been stubborn. I just wanted to be sure I was making the right decision this time.”

  Sara shook her head in exasperation. “Leona, you were sure from the moment you saw Zack
in that tree.”

  “This is true.”

  “So, you’re going to stay with Miss Beverly again?”

  “Jah, though it’s going to feel strange, staying in a regular guest room instead of our attic space.”

  “You’ll have to tell us all about it. Write fast!”

  “I will.”

  At her sisters’ urging and her parents’ blessing, she’d decided to spend two whole weeks in Pinecraft. She wanted to be able to spend as much time with Zack as possible, as well as have a real idea about what her life might be like living there.

  She and Zack had talked about a lot of things during their many, many lengthy phone calls. They’d discussed their love for their families and their goals for the future. No matter where their conversations took them, though, they always ended up at the same place.

  Both wanted to be with people who made them happy, who lifted them up. And, it seemed, they’d found these things in each other.

  Neither of them had wanted to be coy about where their relationship was headed, especially not after she’d relayed her father’s words of wisdom. Leona knew while she was in Pinecraft, she was going to be making plans with Zack about their future.

  It felt so different than everything she’d done with Edmund, it was hardly worth comparing.

  Suddenly, aware of everyone boarding the bus behind her, she hugged her girlfriends goodbye. “I love you both,” she whispered. “I would never have survived all of this without you two. I don’t know how I’ll ever be able to repay you.”

  Mattie winked. “Don’t worry, Le. I’m sure I’ll be enough trouble soon enough. Sara, too.”

  After hugging them again, Leona boarded the bus. She had brought some knitting, two books, and a pillow. She wasn’t worried about how to pass the time.

  She just wished she knew how to convince the driver to drive as fast as possible. Now that she was about to see Zack again, she could hardly wait.

  SIXTEEN HOURS LATER, Zack was standing next to Beverly in the parking lot. Next to her was another man, Eric Wagler, who she’d introduced as the new owner of the inn. Zack had a feeling they weren’t the best of friends, though they seemed to be getting along all right.