by Leanna Ellis
“I’m glad you’re so easy to please.”
He grinned.
Footsteps sounded in the hallway, and Naomi appeared again, cradling a bundle in each arm. She looked flushed and pleased. He moved closer and peered down into the little faces. Their eyes were closed, pink mouths relaxed, cheeks round and full. They looked healthy and strong, not that he knew much about babies. Still, they were fresh and pink-skinned and beautiful.
“Would you like to hold them?” Naomi asked.
He looked to the mother for confirmation. “If it’s all right with Hannah.”
“Of course.” She laughed as she scraped scrambled eggs into a bowl. “But you best sit down. They can be a lot to handle.”
He settled into a chair at the table, and not knowing what else to do, he held his arms out awkwardly.
“Here.” Naomi leaned close. “Bend your arm.” She touched the soft place inside his elbow and slipped one swaddled baby into the crook of his arm. She tucked his arm under and around the baby.
His gaze rose to meet Naomi’s and he said, “Do you still write?”
A blush flash-burned her cheeks. She backed away, glancing quickly at Hannah, then fussing over the baby she still held.
Why had he asked that? Shifting in his seat, he focused on the baby in his arms. “Which one is this?”
“That’s Gideon.” She joggled the other baby until he held out his other arm.
“Don’t fret. I won’t drop him.”
She leaned down again, and Samuel breathed in a scent of sunny meadows and wildflowers, flour and cinnamon. He drew in Naomi’s scent like a memory to be savored. Then she deposited the other baby in the crook of his arm. “Gabriel, meet your Uncle Samuel.”
He grinned. “I like the sound of that.”
Her gaze met his, and she backed quickly away. But she kept watch over him like a mother bird fluttering about her nest.
“How do you tell them apart?” he asked.
Naomi smiled as if she held a secret and leaned forward, jostling free the end of one blanket. A loose blue thread looped one baby’s ankle. “Gideon is blue. Gabriel is yellow.”
Grinning, Samuel leaned back, gazing down at his two nephews. Something in his chest opened, and he imagined what it would be like one day to bounce them on his knee or teach them to climb a tree or ride on the back of a horse…and maybe get into a little mischief. After all, that’s what uncles were for. His own Uncle Matthew had taught him how to swipe cookie dough from his mother, who had scolded her big brother with an easy chuckle. Then there was Uncle Dan and Uncle Joseph. They hadn’t been filled with as much mischief, but when he was a boy, they’d kept him on the straight and narrow path and offered a listening ear if ever he needed one.
Samuel longed to protect these babies from knowing what he knew, from experiencing the pain and guilt he’d suffered over the past few months and years. Was it possible to keep something so beautiful from being tarnished by this fallen world?
“Hannah,” he said, his throat thick, “you’ve been blessed for sure.”
She turned, wiping her hands on her apron. “We have, ja.” She carried bowls of biscuits and eggs to the table. “Breakfast is ready.”
“Is Levi coming?” He offered one of the babies back to Naomi.
Hannah reached for her other son. “I’ll go put the boys down and see if Levi feels up to coming to the table this morning.”
After helping Hannah hold both of her babies, Naomi began cleaning dishes at the sink.
Samuel sat at the table. Alone. The air in the room seemed to shrink. “Aren’t you going to eat too?”
“Of course. But if I can get a bit of this chore finished first, then Hannah can relax later.”
He smiled, knowing her kind disposition. She was always thinking of others rather than herself. Even back in school, she’d looked out for the younger children. He spotted a few pots and pans on the stove and decided to help her out. But when he touched the pan, which had held the biscuits, he jerked back, and the pan clattered against a skillet.
Naomi turned. “Are you okay, Samuel?”
“Ja.” He shook his hand. “Burned myself though.”
She went to the freezer and pulled out a plastic bag of frozen peas. “Here.” She laid it against his palm. “I’ve done that a few times myself.”
“I wasn’t thinking.” Which seemed to be a sudden problem.
Her eyes were solemn and assessing, her touch light as she held his injured hand between her palms. “You were trying to help.”
His attempts at helping often backfired. Maybe he’d made a mistake coming back here. Maybe he should have left the past behind him.
“You never answered my question.” He tossed the bag of peas and caught it. “Are you still writing?”
“Sometimes.”
Chapter Fourteen
Andi hitched her gym bag over her shoulder and headed to her Toyota Yaris. She didn’t bother zipping her jacket as the night air cooled her heated skin. The parking lot still had a number of cars lined up, but she had no more clients for the evening. And she had less than twenty minutes to make her appointment.
Tossing her stuff in the backseat, she backed out of the parking space. She peered over her shoulder to check for any approaching cars.
A face appeared in the side window. Her heart shot into her throat. She slammed on the brake, jolting her forward and back. The features settled into place, and she recognized the new trainer at the club. He had curly blond hair and a casual I-know-I’m-hot smile. The dashboard clock warned she had little time. Rolling down her window, she offered a tight smile. “Hey, Seth. What’s up?”
“Wanna get a beer?”
She’d been anticipating this since the first day Seth had walked into the club with that cocky swagger and roaming eye. “Can’t tonight. Sorry.” But she wasn’t.
Disappointment blinked, but his smile remained in tact. “Gotta hot date?”
“Don’t you know it?” She kept her personal life personal. Samuel had been gone less than a week, and already she felt the itch of needing to be out and about on the town. She’d thought about meeting friends last night but had ended up staying home, watching a rerun of 24. How sad was that? And she’d just turned down a hot guy, who turned her off more than on. What was wrong with her? “Tell you what. Get a group together and we’ll all go out Friday, okay?”
Two blinks later, he took it in stride. “Sure. Sounds good.”
Backing out of her parking space, she imagined Samuel in his hometown of Promise. Oh sure, he’d made it sound like he would be working hard. But didn’t he always? That didn’t slow him down when it came to partying. Probably every hormone-addled girl in his old district was baking him apple strudel in an effort to gain his attention. No matter what the Amish said, they knew what was what and played for keeps—especially where men were concerned. Some plain teenage girl was probably already trying to get her short, blunt, claws into him. Probably thought she could latch on to his heart through his stomach. But Andi knew how men worked. And their heart had a direct link to a lower organ. Those Amish girls didn’t have a thing on her.
She parked with three minutes to spare. The rearview mirror revealed makeup intact, lips moist. She jerked out her ponytail and swung her hair over her shoulders.
When she’d met Brydon, he’d introduced her to a book by some crazy British dude. At first, she’d thought Brydon was simply coming on to her with the Brit’s recounting of his sexual exploits, but he’d actually looked embarrassed by the topic when she brought it up. And boy, she’d thought folks from the eighteen hundreds had been stuffed shirts, but she’d been wrong. They were adventurous.
Over the past week, she’d read about crazy secret groups that believed wacky stuff about angels or gods visiting them and dispensing freaky religious orders. The British dude probably just wanted
to get laid. And boy had he. The women back then must have been gullible or stupid or maybe they wanted it just as bad. But with him? From the pictures she’d seen, he wasn’t much of a catch.
And neither was Brydon, but she figured he wanted something for himself. Didn’t they all? And maybe it would be fun to try out some of the bizarre Brit’s exploits.
“Andi?” The voice came from a shadowed hedge to her left.
She whipped around and smiled with relief at the dark figure. “Brydon! What are you doing out here?”
“Watching for you.”
“Am I late?”
“I got off early.” He stepped out of the shadows. “So I waited out here for you.” He tilted his head back to survey the stars. “Nice night, huh?”
“Yeah.” His awkwardness, she decided, made him cute.
“Found some books you might find useful. Checked them out with my card.” He held out a small stack. “Found a couple of interesting articles that might benefit you too, so I copied them. Would you like to…uh…” He paused and tilted his head awkwardly.
She smiled. Nerdish maybe, but definitely cute. And innocent in the ways of women. Oh how she could educate him. “How about we grab some coffee?” she offered. “There’s a diner nearby. And we can look over what you found.”
His Adam’s apple plunged and surged when he smiled. “I’d like that.”
Something in his dark gaze made her feel off kilter.
Chapter Fifteen
Samuel walked into the bedroom carrying a tray of food. Levi sat upright in bed, propped up by a bank of pillows, his middle still bisected by stark white bandages. Across the room, a crib held both sleeping babies. Samuel settled the tray across Levi’s straightened legs, picked up a plate for himself, and plopped into the rocker. After offering a silent prayer, he forked some noodles.
Levi tore apart a piece of bread. “Everything okay at the barn?”
“Good.” Samuel chewed the beef and noodles.
A strange noise hummed in the room. Searching for the source, he heard it again and his gaze locked on to the blanket covering Levi. A patch of the blanket twitched and shook. Then Samuel recognized the sound as one he’d heard at Andi’s apartment. “You have a cell phone, Levi?”
A few Old Order Amish were allowed to have mobile phones, depending on the district and its elders. Sometimes the accommodation was made for businesses, as long as the phones were stored out in the woodworking shops or barns. Some Amish even had special sheds built between farms to house telephones shared by neighbors. The purpose of avoiding telephones wasn’t a fear of technology, so much as an attempt to separate the Amish from the fracturing influence of the secular American culture and the ability of phones to lure one away from family and community. Samuel had seen enough English teens answering cell phones and texting while sitting at restaurant tables with their friends and family to know firsthand that cell phones did not bring unity to a community.
Still, Levi didn’t have the kind of business needing a phone. Maybe it was for medical emergencies? After all, Hannah had recently delivered twins and he’d been injured. An Amish neighbor in Harmony Hollow carried a cell phone so he could hitch rides to the hospital for cancer treatments. Still, that was the exception, not the rule.
Levi didn’t answer Samuel’s question directly or quickly. Instead, his lips flattened, and he set the bread back on the plate, slid one hand beneath the blanket, and retrieved a small black cell phone. He lifted it to his ear, cleared his throat. “Yes?” Levi listened to the voice on the other end before saying, “Better.”
Levi sounded awkward. Was it because he wasn’t used to talking on a phone? Or was it because Samuel was watching him?
Samuel focused on his plate of noodles.
“All right,” Levi said. “I will do that then. Good. And thank you.” Levi clicked a button on the phone and laid it back on the bed, this time above the covers, as if saying, “Well, now that the secret is out, what’s the point of hiding it?”
This new development was his brother’s business. Samuel wouldn’t sit in judgment of Levi, just as he hoped Levi would return the favor.
After an awkward minute, Levi cleared his throat again, scooped up peas, and then gulped iced tea. “That was Roc Girouard. On the phone there.”
Samuel’s gaze snapped toward Levi. “You keep in touch with Roc?”
“I do. He is a good man.”
Samuel chewed on that for a moment. He thought back to that time six months ago when Roc and Rachel lived in his parents’ home. “Didn’t Roc go back to New Orleans?”
“He lives here now. He married Rachel.”
Surprised, Samuel nudged a noodle with his fork. Roc and Rachel had claimed to be married while staying in Samuel’s parents’ home, but then Samuel had learned that was false, a lie created so Roc could better protect Rachel. They must have fallen in love then and gotten married. Samuel sighed in frustration. Of course no one had told him—simply more lies from his father.
Since they were now married, it made sense why Levi would keep track of Roc. Rachel was his sister-in-law through Hannah. “How is Rachel? Her baby?”
“Good. One day my boys will play with their cousin. But I see Roc more often,” Levi said. “Easier since Rachel is being shunned.”
Samuel looked up, ignoring his dinner. “Marrying an Englisher is not taken lightly.”
“They married not long after they returned.” Levi smiled. “Hannah and I attended their wedding. It was very small. But I believe they are good for each other.”
“Then you don’t think she should be shunned?”
“It is not for me to say, is it? Hannah grieves for her sister, though. So we see them occasionally, but…not for reasons you might think. And we do not discuss these visits with others.” Levi gave a warning glance.
Samuel raised an eyebrow, but he gave a nod of understanding. He would not say anything either.
“I do not lie,” Levi added, a tone of defiance in his voice. “I want you to understand that, Samuel.”
“You’re not Pop.”
“No, I’m not. Our actions—Hannah’s and mine—could lead to our own shunning at some point. But I must protect my family, and I will.”
This man who lay in the bed seemed so different from the brother he had known growing up. Levi acted more like Jacob, skirting the rules and playing with fire. Maybe that was simply part of adulthood. Samuel had done his share of that in the past few months, so he wouldn’t judge. Besides, it had been three years since he’d seen Levi. Yet in a world where nothing with the Amish changed in hundreds of years, much had changed.
“When I was injured,” Levi said, “Roc canceled a trip he’d planned to find a missing friend so he could help out. He is a good man. And he loves Rachel as she loves him. They are devoted to each other and to Josef’s son.”
“The child won’t be raised Amish then?” Samuel asked.
Levi shook his head. “Both Rachel and Roc understand we are all in a battle. And this battle strips away the dividers between religious institutions.”
Samuel’s eyebrows rose. A battle?
“But I get ahead of myself.” Levi scratched his beard. “Samuel, our father sent me a letter a while back. He expressed concerned about you…about an English girl you have been seeing.” Samuel opened his mouth to deny it, but Levi rushed on. “Hear me out. You are a man now, Samuel, and can make your own decisions. I will not lecture you as Pop most probably already has.” He shrugged. “Besides, as you can tell from what I’ve said about Roc and Rachel, I do not think marrying an Englisher is the worst you can do—if it’s the right Englisher. Rachel’s situation is different, of course, because she was baptized. If you were to marry an Englisher, you would not be shunned because you have not been baptized.”
“Are you telling me not to get baptized?”
“I’m
not telling you anything you don’t know, Samuel. You must make your own decisions. However, marrying outside our community can be a rocky path. You were raised Amish. When you become a parent, you might be—”
“Whoa, I’m not about to become a parent.”
“It is a consideration before you make a big decision. Like marriage.”
“I’m not about to get married either.”
Levi nodded slowly. “Now that you know about…Jacob and how—”
“I don’t know anything about Jacob.” Samuel stiffened in response to Levi’s jabbing words. His gaze shifted to the cell phone beside Levi. “Or about you.”
“A lot has changed in three years.”
“Yes,” Samuel agreed, “it has.” He dropped the fork onto his plate, having lost his appetite.
The gravity of the discussion weighed on Levi’s expression, making his face look long and shadowed. Blue smudges deepened his eyes. “I regret that you were lied to, Samuel, about our brother. I never wanted to be a part of that. And I regret the last few years we were separated. A family should be together. But I believe you are here now for a reason.”
Reason? What reason? Had it been the plan all along? Was Levi’s injury just an excuse? Was this Pop’s way of getting him away from what he considered a bad influence? But Andi hadn’t put him on the path to truth. His father’s lies had—
“Wait a minute.” Samuel stood, grabbing the plate he’d forgotten about which almost toppled. The fork, however, clattered against the rocker and hit the floor. Samuel shoved the plate onto the tray. “Are you saying Pop sent me here? Was this some kind of a trick you were both playing?”
“Samuel,” Levi said, his tone too parental, “I only know that you volunteered to come here and help on the farm while I am laid up. For that, I am grateful.”
“Was Pop ever going to come here himself?”
“Not that I was aware of.”
So he had been manipulated. Anger curled his hands into fists. Pop had played him for a fool. Maybe Levi was speaking the truth. Then again, maybe not. Who could he trust? Only himself. And he’d surprise them all by not playing their game. He’d do what he wanted. And coming here was only the first step on his own road.
