He gazed up at her. “Can we talk later?”
She paled. Shifted. Odd response. “I might be working a double shift.”
“Whenever you get home is fine. Your mammi suggested I talk to you about some information I need.”
Her glance darted toward the door and then back. She opened her mouth, hesitated, then shut it. She shook her head and muttered something he didn’t catch. Probably something about her crazy mammi. His heart sank to realize the woman might have steered him in the wrong direction, yet he couldn’t leave a possible avenue unexplored. Hallie clicked her tongue.
The horse slowly took a step forward.
Kiah stepped back to avoid getting run over. “Your mammi thinks you might know someone in this district with the initials GHB.”
Hallie frowned, gazing over his head as if she was thinking. When she glanced at him again, her expression could only be called a smirk. “George Harold Beiler.” She wiggled the reins and drove off.
A man?
Kiah mentally reviewed the handwriting. It was neat. Beautiful. But some men had pretty writing. Kiah’s best friend, Zeke, who’d recently married, had great handwriting. He said it was because he had to read his measurements.
But the writing had looked feminine.
And most of the return letters had used lavender ink. Not a usual male color choice.
Hallie’s daed stood in the wide-open doorway of the barn watching his daughter drive away. His gaze shifted to Kiah, and his head tilted as if he were sizing him up. He gave a tiny nod as if he had passed some pop quiz. “She works as a waitress in town. I’ll give you directions later if you want to go, order a slice of pie and have some conversation.”
Did he think Hallie knew who GHB was, too?
Or maybe he’d made his interest in her a little too obvious if her mammi and daed picked it up.
Or…Kiah cringed. What was wrong with the woman that she needed so many obvious matchmakers?
* * *
Sometimes it seemed as if the breakfast crowd never left before the lunch crowd arrived. The Friday morning coffee club had filled every seat in the entire overflow dining section. Hallie refilled coffee mugs innumerable times, dodged the expected and inevitable wandering fingers, and delivered breakfasts, doughnuts, pastries, and pies. Now she was left with messy tables, sticky chairs, and a floor that needed sweeping and scrubbing.
At least the coffee club left good tips.
She filled a gray tub to overflowing with dirty dishes, hoisted it into her arms, and turned to deliver them to the dish room.
And there, in plain sight, was Kiah, legs kicked out under a small table, an infuriating grin on his oh-so-handsome face.
Her heart lurched. Why did he have to be so appealing? Handsome?
His teasing green eyes met hers. “Service, please.” Somehow he managed to infuse the words with enough humor that it wasn’t an order, but more teasing. Teasing like Toby used to do. Except sometimes Toby’s teasing had been mean.
But Kiah didn’t resemble Toby at all. He was light-headed with sandy blond hair and green eyes, while Toby was dark-headed with black hair and black eyes. Those eyes always looked angry. Plus, Kiah was tall and slender and Toby was short and stout. Really, Kiah was much more handsome. Did they have the same sense of humor? Would Kiah’s teasing become unkind? It appeared they shared the same careless ease, and Kiah’s presence rubbed salt on the wounds of her broken heart with the constant reminder of what she’d lost.
However, the man in the letters had revealed an unexpected depth. Was it possible this teasing flirt had actually written those letters? Or was there more than one Kiah Esh in the world? The odds of two men by that name coming to Hidden Springs and asking for GHB were more than slim. Nope. As much as she wanted to deny it, this man was her pen pal.
Her lips quirked before she caught the involuntary movement and stiffened them. She liked his teasing. Liked his boldness. It made a part of her sheltered and barricaded heart come to life, as if his humor had slipped through a crack like that sliver of sun through the curtain. However, she couldn’t allow it to gain any more ground. “This section is closed until the other dining room overflows.” She tilted her head toward the exit.
“When I asked where you were, your boss, I guess, her name is Helga, and her name tag said manager…” He quirked a brow.
Hallie nodded.
“She told me to come back here. She said it was so nice to meet your new boyfriend.”
Boyfriend? She used to have a boyfriend. Not anymore. Had he introduced himself that way or had Helga merely assumed that any young man asking for her must be a boyfriend?
“What’s with all these people matching us up?”
“I don’t know and I don’t like it.” Hallie shifted the heavy tub and sighed. If her boss sent Kiah back here, Hallie had no choice but to let him stay. If she were honest, she wanted him to anyway. She also needed to think up more GHB names to “help” him. If he only knew…“I’ll be right back to take your order.”
“Coffee and a slice of pie for both of us. I don’t care what kind. Your boss said to tell you to take a break. I ordered fifteen minutes of conversation, too.”
He ordered conversation? That could be done? Hallie frowned at him but she could see how he had charmed her near-retirement-age boss into giving her an unscheduled break. That smile? That dimple? Those good looks?
However, she wasn’t in the mood for either coffee or pie. She was in the mood to be contrary. She carried the tub to the dish room and returned with a cup of coffee, a slice of caramel apple pie, a glass of cola with ice, and a bowl filled with grapes, apple and orange slices, and strawberries. She set the coffee and pie in front of him, then set her cola and fruit on the opposite side of the table before sitting across from him.
“Oh, it does feel good to sit down.” If only she could kick off her shoes and socks. “I may not get up again.” She only half joked, because in her haste to leave him behind, she hadn’t been able to find her shoes this morning and had borrowed her younger sister’s sneakers. They pinched and she’d definitely have blisters.
Kiah studied her name tag. “Your name really isn’t Holly like the Christmas plant.” As if he hadn’t believed her. “H-a-l-l-i-e. That’s an odd spelling. What’s your given name?”
“You don’t go by your given name. How do you spell Kiah?” No way would she share her real name.
“Touché.” But his gaze remained fixed on her name tag. “Hal is short for Henry. Is your name Henrietta?”
“Good guess.” But wrong, wrong, wrong. Her name was Hallelujah. She took a sip of her cola and tried not to smirk.
“Henrietta, in the interest of full disclosure, despite our matchmakers, I am here to find the woman I love.”
She tried not to react. But…“Hallie, please. Not Henrietta.” She’d forget to answer. “And is your girlfriend lost?”
He picked up his fork and toyed with the pie. “I only know her initials. GHB. And that she’s a scribe for The Budget. Good thing I like puzzles.” He chuckled. “Unfortunately, I’m not very good at them. Because I imagined she was you. Can you help me find her?”
Chapter 2
Kiah glanced away from his rapidly crumbling pie to look at Hallie. He hadn’t taken a single bite of it yet, instead mutilating it with his fork. It was all nerves, of course. Never had he imagined explaining to his love-at-first-sight girl that he also was in love with an unknown scribe.
Sometimes an interest is just an interest.
And sometimes it isn’t.
He took a deep breath and studied the pie while he prayed for wisdom. Which was an interest and which was real?
He peeked at Hallie. Exhaled. His interest in her was real. Very real.
The crust was super flaky. Whoever made it was an excellent crust maker. He stabbed a slice of apple.
Hallie’s lips pursed as if she were deep in thought. “How do you know it’s a woman? I think George Beiler would be a good place to
start.” She twisted a grape off the stem.
Kiah’s face burned. “It’d be rather awkward if she’s a he. Besides, most of the letters were written in lavender ink. And they were scented.”
“Scented?” Hallie’s eyes widened and she scooted her chair farther from the table. She picked up a raw apple slice.
“Like lavender. Like you.”
Hallie paled. “Popular scent. It’s supposed to be calming.” She bit into the apple slice.
Kiah shrugged. “Maybe so. My mamm likes it.” He nodded at her bowl of fruit. “She likes fruit like you do, too.”
“Your mamm?” She sounded strangled.
“No. She. GHB.” He’d read and reread the letters so many times he almost had them memorized. In fact, he’d brought the precious letters along in a leather pouch to prove his identity if he needed to. “Please, Hallie. Help me find her. That will keep the matchmakers from pairing us together while I’m here with my parents.” Jah, right. But maybe she’d believe it. He doubted it, though.
Besides, he wanted to be paired with her.
She muttered something that sounded like “If only.” Then finished three apple slices and a handful of grapes. But she leaned toward him, a faint twinkle in her blue eyes. “How well do you know her—or him?”
“I know her so well, I could pick her out in a room filled with strangers.” Maybe he shouldn’t have boasted that, but it almost seemed as if it could be true. He mentally listed a few things. She loved the color lavender, loved fruit, had an aversion to buggy racing…and her sweet spirit filled her letters.
For some strange reason, his comment caused Hallie to brighten. She straightened and leaned a little nearer, mischief lighting her eyes. “I still think you need to talk to George Beiler. There is also Gabe Brenneman and Gideon Brunstetter. I don’t know their middle names, though. But George is a deacon and he keeps track of visitors to the community, so he would be the logical one to write for The Budget.”
Kiah sighed. “Okay. Give me directions and I’ll talk to them, but I still think GHB is a young, unmarried woman.”
“Why do you think that? Other than the lavender ink and scent, I mean.” Hallie’s gaze slid to the left and she stood. “My boss just motioned that I need to get back to work. I’ll bring your ticket out.” She picked up her bowl and glass, both still mostly full, and headed for the kitchen.
Kiah doctored his coffee with a packet of sugar and a little plastic cup of creamer, and finished both the hot beverage and the caramel apple pie by the time Hallie returned with his ticket and written directions to the homes of the three men she’d mentioned. She also carried a rag and a carpet sweeper as if she intended to clean the room.
“The apple pie was great. And it was nice talking to you.” Although she was sort of reserved and not overly friendly. Though maybe it was because she was at work. He glanced at the bill. She started to wipe a nearby table. “You didn’t charge me for yours.”
“It wasn’t a date. And I get some things free. Pay at the counter up front.” Short. To the point. If only she’d delivered it with a sweet smile like the brief one at her home earlier.
“Danki for talking to me.” He tried to make her smile again. “See you tonight.” He stood.
Her brow quirked in response—whatever that meant. There might have been a flicker of a brief smile, and she gathered his dishes, turned, and walked away.
Okay, then. He now had a second reason for staying. He wanted to win Hallie’s friendship. He’d wanted that since the moment they met. And he wanted to make her smile. A real one that reached her eyes and eliminated the lingering depths of sadness filling them. She did have a valid reason, though, and grief knew no timetable.
Kiah picked up the maps she’d drawn to the three men’s houses and looked them over. They should be easy enough to find. He pocketed them and headed toward the register with his ticket.
A very round, middle-aged Amish woman wearing a pine-green dress smiled at him. Her name tag read Suzy. “Did you enjoy your meal?”
He handed her the slip of paper. “It was good. Danki.”
“So you’re seeing our Hallie.” It wasn’t a question. Suzy leaned closer. “Don’t hurt her. She’s fragile. If you do, you’ll have a lot of people to answer to.”
Kiah raised his eyebrows.
Suzy glanced around and lowered her voice. “Her previous boyfriend died in a tornado not too long ago. A year now, I think.”
Right. He knew that. His best friend had explained it to him when he met Hallie over a year ago and she’d sternly rebuffed his attempt to be friendly. She was pretty. A guy would have to be blind not to notice. But the woman—then and now—was only remotely friendly. At least not as friendly as GHB was in her letters.
Speaking of which…He studied the woman behind the register. She probably knew a lot of people in the area. “Do you know a woman whose initials are GHB?” he asked Suzy. “I’m looking for the scribe for The Budget.”
“Gracie Bontrager,” she answered without hesitation. “Except her middle name is Lynn and she’s married.”
“To my best friend,” Kiah said. His lips twisted at the thought that Zeke’s bride could be a pen pal to another man…and what would Zeke have to say about that?
Suzy laughed as if he’d told an outrageously funny joke.
“There’s also Ginny Baer, Gabriella Brenneman, Regina Beachy—she goes by Gina, Abigail Byler—she goes by Gail. Oh, and Gloria Brunstetter. Just to name a few.”
Oh. He sagged. This search might take longer than the weekend.
Suzy took his meal ticket and rang it up. “Why?”
“I want to find her.” He took out his wallet. “Do you mind writing those names down? That’ll get me started.” Those and the three men Hallie was sending him to visit. Those men would be dead ends, though. He was sure of it. But he’d go anyway, just to eliminate the slight possibility that one of them might be the scribe. And he’d earnestly pray they weren’t.
Of course, if they were, it’d be a good excuse to pursue Hallie.
Suzy tore off a sheet of paper from a notepad and wrote down the five names. “I’m off work tomorrow if you want company on your quest.”
Kiah eyed her. Surely she wasn’t asking him out. She might not be old enough to be his mamm, but she was close to it.
Suzy giggled. “I know what you’re thinking, you naughty, naughty boy. I’m happily widowed.”
Kiah’s face heated.
Wait. What? Happily widowed?
“I have a son close to your age, I daresay.” Suzy winked.
“I can go with him, if he needs his hands held, Suzy.” Hallie appeared from somewhere and dumped a plastic bag full of peppermint candies into a wicker basket on the counter. The glance she aimed at Suzy was almost a warning. Back off. He’s mine. But maybe he imagined that. Or wished it.
Kiah didn’t need his hands held. But it might help to break the ice, so to speak, to have a native with him. Plus a bonus—he might be able to tease a real smile from Hallie’s lovely face. It’d be worth a try.
For a brief moment, he considered being overly dramatic, throwing himself at her feet and going to the extreme. A year and a half ago, he wouldn’t have thought twice about playing the fool. But based on what he’d learned about Hallie, it would probably backfire. So he produced a hopefully benign smile—one that gave no hint of the eventual teasing sure to come. “Appreciate that, Hallie.”
She gave a brusque nod and didn’t glance at him. Or maybe she did. A brief peek.
A perfectly good smile, wasted. He probably should’ve thrown himself at her feet.
She crumpled the bag the candies had been in, turned, and started to walk away. Hips swaying. He could watch that all day.
He forced his attention back to Suzy.
Suzy looked at him with expectation. As if he was supposed to…what?
Behind her, in the gift shop, the manager, Helga, straightened a display of faceless plain-dressed dolls and eyed him, b
row raised.
Oh. The waitstaff believed he and Hallie were dating for some weird reason. You’re the one who’s going to marry our Hallie. Her mammi’s disconcerting words replayed. They left a funny tickle in his stomach.
Kiah opened his mouth to say something. What, he didn’t know. He glanced at Hallie. “See you later, sweetheart.”
The words were unintentional. They just emerged without thought. But they felt right on his tongue.
Hallie stumbled. She turned, long enough to glare at him; then she squared her shoulders and strode away.
Her reaction wasn’t what he would’ve hoped for if he’d planned it. If she was GHB, he’d be reeling right now from the rejection…then resolving to change her mind.
But Suzy’s mouth gaped.
Never mind heated. Kiah’s face burned. Had he told her that he was in love with GHB and not courting Hallie?
Somehow his short-term memory had faltered and he wasn’t sure. Of anything.
But making Hallie smile raised a good ten points on his mental must-accomplish list. Even if GHB was in some way unsuitable, his trip would be a roaring success if Hallie laughed.
When Kiah had come to this area eighteen months ago as a volunteer after the off-season tornadoes, the Mennonite missionary in charge had said, “God sent each one of you here for a reason. Find it.”
Kiah glanced away from Suzy to the woman scurrying down the long hallway back to the small room where he’d had his pie.
This might be why he was so attracted to Hallie.
After all this time, he’d found his reason.
* * *
Hallie speed walked down the hallway to the overflow dining room and the stack of napkins and the still-warm silverware from the dishwasher waiting to be wrapped up in them.
The man was insufferable. That’s all. And so hugely appealing there should be a law against it. It probably was against the Ordnung in some way.
The Amish Secret Wish Page 2
