by Marta Perry
Kimi slapped her phone facedown on the bed. “Can’t you learn to knock, you idiot!”
Sally scowled at her. “Don’t call your bruder names.”
“It’s pronounced brother, and tell him he should knock.”
Ryder rolled his eyes. “If I knocked, you’d just tell me to go away. Guess what?”
Ryder, an eight-year-old bundle of energy, was Sally’s secret favorite. Maybe it was because they shared the same red hair and overabundance of freckles. His parents had placed him in a special program for hyperactive children. Because of that, he only went to school in the mornings. He and Sally spent every afternoon alone together and they both enjoyed it.
Kimi sat up cross-legged on the bed. “Okay, I’ll guess your news. Mom and Dad have decided it’s better for me to be an only child so they’re giving you to a needy family for Christmas.”
Sally crossed the room and snatched up the phone. “I’m keeping this.”
Kimi’s mouth dropped open. “Why?”
“That was a mean thing to say. Until you apologize to your...brother...I keep the phone.”
“Oh, for real!” Kimi crossed her arms and glared at Sally.
Smiling, Sally slid the phone in the pocket of her jeans.
Kimi caved. “This is so unfair. I’m sorry...bruder.”
“That was not a sincere apology.” The girl’s imitation of Sally’s Amish accent didn’t offend her. It made her more homesick. She picked up her mother’s letter.
Kimi huffed and threw herself back against her headboard.
Ryder held his hands wide. “Doesn’t anyone want to hear my news?”
“I do,” Sally said.
“Dad’s taking Mom to Paris for Christmas.”
Kimi screamed and leaped off the bed. “We’re going to Paris?”
Ryder dropped his hands to his sides. “You didn’t let me finish. Dad is taking Mom to Paris and we are going to Grandma’s. Yay!”
Kimi’s face fell, but brightened again quickly. “New York isn’t Paris, but it’s still better than Cincinnati. Grams will take me shopping at all the best places.”
Ryder folded his arms, a gloating expression on his face. “Not that grandmother, Kimi-Ninny. We’re going to Ohio to spend Christmas vacation with Grandma McIntyre on her farm.”
“No! Not there!” Sally said.
The two children turned shocked faces toward her. She quickly recovered her composure and tried to look unaffected. “I mean, I’m sure you’ll have a wonderful time.”
“On a horse farm in the middle of nowhere? Not likely,” Kimi snapped.
Ryder tipped his head to the side. “I know why Kimi doesn’t want to spend Christmas with Grandma McIntyre, but why don’t you? I thought the Amish liked horses.”
“I want to experience a non-Amish Christmas in the city. I’ll talk to your mother about it. I don’t think I’ll be needed.”
Kimi looked at Sally with an odd expression. “Grandma McIntyre broke her leg last week. She can’t keep an eye on Ryder, and I’m not going to babysit him for two weeks.”
Sally pressed her lips together tightly. What did God have planned for her? Not to be the wife of Ben Lapp, that was sure and certain. So why was He sending her to the very place where Ben had a job?
“Did you know our grandmother used to be Amish?” Ryder asked.
Sally smiled at the boy. “I do. My father is a contractor. He built the new stables on your grandmother’s farm. That’s how I learned your mother was looking for a nanny. Your grandmother put in a good word for me and I got the job.” Sally hoped her odd reaction would soon be forgotten.
A malicious gleam sprang to Kimi’s eyes. “I know why you don’t want to go. It’s because he is there.”
Sally closed her eyes. She would never share another confidence with Kimi. No matter how lonely she was or how much she needed to confide in someone.
“Who are you talking about?” Ryder asked.
Kimi’s grin bordered on evil. She held out her hand. “His name starts with a B. Shall I tell my blabbermouth brother more, or can I have my phone back?”
* * *
“The grandbrats are coming for the entire Christmas break. Somebody shoot me now.”
Ben Lapp smiled at Trent’s gloomy tone and continued brushing the mare he had just finished exercising. Trent Duffy, the head groom at the McIntyre Stables, had a way of making any little problem sound dire. “Mrs. McIntyre will be happy to have her grandbabies here for the holidays.”
“I’m not talking about her son Sam’s kids. I’m talking about her daughter Michele’s two brats.”
Ben fumbled and dropped his brush in the straw.
Sally Yoder worked as a nanny for Michele Higgins. She wouldn’t come along on a Christmas family gathering, would she? Surely not.
Snatching up the brush, he checked to see if Trent had noticed his reaction. Trent was busy unwrapping Lady Brandywine’s front legs. Ben resumed his work. “So the whole family is coming. That’s nice.”
“No, Michele and her über-rich husband are going to Paris. Just the kids and their nanny are staying. Hey, didn’t I hear the nanny is a friend of yours?”
Ben closed his eyes and bowed his head. Sally Yoder had managed to make his life miserable for two solid years. “Nee, she’s not a friend.”
“That’s right. She left the Amish or something, and now she is shunned or whatever you people call it.”
Ben ran the brush along the mare’s sleek brown neck. “Sally is not shunned. She never took the vows of baptism. She is free to choose the Englisch life. I’ve known her since the first grade, but we’re not friends.”
“Englisch?”
“It means English. What we call people who aren’t Amish.”
“Someday you’ll have to explain to me about the shunning stuff. Would you hand me that curry comb?”
Ben stopped brushing and slipped under his horse’s neck to hand the metal comb to Trent. Maybe he could arrange to be gone while Sally was here. Mrs. McIntyre had been good about giving him time off in the past for weddings and such. The loss of salary would be a small price to pay to avoid seeing Sally. “When did you say they were coming?”
Trent looked out the open stable doors. “If I’m not mistaken, that’s their car pulling up to the house now.”
Ben’s faint hope evaporated. So much for making his escape. Still, the McIntyre horse farm was a good-sized facility. He could stay out of sight if he tried.
Trent led his horse to her stall and closed the lower half of the door. “They’ll want help carrying in the luggage. Michele won’t lift anything heavier than a hundred dollar bill. Must be nice to have all the money in the world.”
“I’ll finish up here for you,” Ben offered.
“No way. I’m not going to be the only one getting yelled at for scuffing her expensive bags. Come on.”
Ben looked out the stable doors toward the black SUV parked in the drive. A woman with bright blond hair, a fur-trimmed coat and tall leather boots got out of the driver’s seat. A boy about eight charged out from the backseat and came running toward the stable.
“Ryder, get back here,” his mother yelled. He stopped. Ben could see the indecision on his face.
A young woman in jeans and a short leather jacket with a long braid of fiery red hair hanging over her shoulder got out next. She held out her hand to the child. “Ryder, come greet your grandmother first.”
Ben looked closer. Dark glasses obscured her face but he knew that voice, and it didn’t belong to a woman who looked so...Englisch.
The boy ran back to her. “But I want to see the horses, Sally.”
“They will still be there after you say hello to your grandmother.”
She glanced around the yard. Was she lookin
g for him? Ben stayed where he was. For two long years, Sally Yoder had made a complete fool of herself running after him. She never understood that he wasn’t interested. She wasn’t the kind of woman he was looking to settle down with. Still, he had been shocked when she took a job in the city.
Trent slapped him on the back. “Let’s go. The bags won’t get any lighter.”
There was no point in putting it off. He would have to endure two weeks of Sally throwing herself at him at every turn, but then she would leave with the family. It wouldn’t be fun, but he would manage. He stepped out of the barn and walked toward the car in resignation.
A second, younger girl with black hair got out and stood huddled against the cold beside her mother. “Please, don’t make me stay here. I will die of boredom. Let me come with you.”
Her mother patted her cheek. “Your dad and I need some alone time. You’ll have a wonderful two weeks with your grandmother.”
“No, I won’t.”
Michele walked toward the house, leaving the children standing beside the car.
Ben approached the group. “Would you like some help with the bags?”
Sally pulled her sunglasses off. The stare she gave him dropped the temperature by ten degrees. “Hello, Ben. Come along, children. Let’s get out of this awful weather.”
She shepherded the children into the house without a backward glance. Ben watched in stunned surprise as she walked away. Sally hadn’t gushed about how glad she was to see him or how much she had missed him. Had she really changed so much? He wouldn’t have thought it possible.
How could she go from mooning over him for years to ignoring him?
He honestly hadn’t expected her job in the city to last this long. To begin with, he thought she’d left because she hoped he’d realize he couldn’t live without her. She was wrong on that score. He enjoyed his Sally-free time. Until today, he thought the only thing that would stop her foolishness for good was for him to marry someone else. Unfortunately, he hadn’t found the right woman. Yet. But he sure wasn’t going to settle for a wild-spirited redhead with no demut.
Sally suffered from a serious lack of humility. When he chose a wife, it would be someone who knew the meaning of meekness and modesty. Someone who didn’t question the old ways at every turn and didn’t make him feel like a trophy buck in a hunter’s sights each time she looked at him.
He pulled a pair of suitcases from the back of the SUV and headed for the front door. He knew what he wanted in a wife and Sally Yoder wasn’t it. Somehow, he would avoid her for the next two weeks if he had to hide in the haystacks.
Chapter Two
I can’t do this.
Sally caught her lower lip between her teeth to stop it from trembling. She couldn’t spend two weeks pretending she didn’t care that Ben was here, too. How could she hide her feelings for so long?
“Welcome, everyone, and Merry Christmas.” Velda McIntyre, an elegant woman with piercing blue eyes and gray hair cut in a short bob, rolled forward in her wheelchair. She was dressed in a pink jogging suit. A cast covered her left leg from hip to toe.
The Higgins family stood in the large foyer in an awkward group. Sally remained in the background, willing the suddenly shy children to show their grandmother some affection. She heard the door open behind her. She didn’t have to look to know it was Ben.
He was the last man on earth she wanted to see. No, he was the only man on earth she wanted to see. She wanted to drink in the sight of him. She wanted to gaze into his beautiful brown eyes and apologize for her abrupt manner outside and for so much more. Instead, she focused on her hostess.
Mrs. McIntyre’s face glowed with excitement. She clapped her hands like a child. “I’m so happy to see all of you. We’re going to have such a wonderful old-fashioned Christmas. Come here and give me a hug, Ryder. You’ve grown so much.”
“Does your leg hurt?” Ryder inched closer.
“It was silly of me to fall on the ice and break my old bones just before Christmas, wasn’t it? It only hurts when I’m not getting a hug from my favorite boy.” She held out her arms.
Ryder jumped forward and gave her an enthusiastic squeeze. Kimi, still pouting after two hundred miles, gave her a lukewarm embrace.
The elderly woman didn’t seem to notice. “You children have no idea how much fun I have in store for you. We’ll bake cookies the way my mother and I did when I was your age, Kimi. We’ll make a real gingerbread house, too, and decorate it. Your grandfather always said it wasn’t Christmas without one. How does that sound?”
“Totally awesome, Granny.” Kimi couldn’t have sounded more uninterested if she tried. She didn’t want to be here and she didn’t care who knew it.
“What do I get to do?” Ryder asked as he leaned on the arm of her chair. For him, a farm was the perfect place to spend Christmas vacation.
“I haven’t forgotten about you. You can help with the cookies, too, but I’m giving you a special mission. I’m sending you to find us a Christmas tree. Your sister will go along with you, but you are in charge of finding the perfect one.”
Ryder grinned. “I’ll find the best one on the lot, Granny.”
Mrs. McIntyre hugged him. “You can’t find the perfect Christmas tree at a lot, dear. You have to take a sleigh ride up into the forest the way your grandfather and I used to do with your mother. You’ll see dozens of trees to choose from, but you will know the perfect one when you spot it. Trent, you can take them up above Carson Lake tomorrow, can’t you?”
He quickly shook his head. “I’m afraid I have too much work to do before the snow moves in, but I can spare Ben for a few hours.”
“Will you take them, Ben?” she asked.
“Sure. I’d love to take the kids on a sleigh ride.”
Just the sound of his voice brought tears to Sally’s eyes. She furiously blinked them back. How pathetic was it to be head over heels for someone who didn’t care about her? She studied the large painting of a horse on the wall instead of looking at him. She would just have to get over him.
Please, dear Lord, let it happen soon.
Mrs. McIntyre said, “You will have to cut the tree down with a saw, Ryder. It’s hard work, but Ben can help you. He’ll lash the tree to the back of the sleigh for the ride home, too. The harness bells sound so merry when you’re dashing across the snowy fields. You’ll never forget the sound. And on your way back, you will stop and visit my mother. She lives with my two brothers and their wives on a farm a few miles from here. They haven’t seen you since you were a baby, Ryder. Mama was so excited when I told her you were coming. She’ll have good things to eat and hot tea or cider to warm you before you start home again. I only wish I could come with you.”
Sally saw Mrs. McIntyre’s eyes mist over. She chanced a glance at Ben. He wore a kindly smile that told her he cared about his employer. Sally had missed his smile. When Ben looked her way, she focused on the painting again. She didn’t want him to see how much she still cared.
Going away had been for the best. She was more certain of that now than ever. She didn’t have an Amish heart. She tried hard to fool herself and everyone else into believing she belonged among the Plain people, but she always knew she would leave one day when she found the courage.
She had decided to make a play for Ben when she was eighteen because she knew he would never propose to a girl like her. She ran around with the wild group of teens. He stayed on the straight and narrow. She kept up the charade of being madly in love with him to discourage her family and other young men from pressing her to marry. Marriage would bind her to the Amish life forever.
Her plan worked. Until she made the mistake of actually falling for Ben. Soft-spoken, caring, always helpful, he was a wonderful fellow but she had been right. He had no interest in settling down with her. Her plan had one side effect she hadn
’t counted on. She learned there were several young women in her community who wouldn’t go out with Ben because they didn’t want to risk hurting her feelings. After making such a fuss about him for so long, she couldn’t convince them she had suddenly stopped liking him.
That was when she found the courage to leave.
Ben deserved someone who embraced the Amish faith and way of life wholeheartedly. She wasn’t that woman, but she wouldn’t stand in the way of his happiness.
“Can we go get the tree now?” Ryder asked.
Mrs. McIntyre laughed. “Settle in your rooms first. Ben will take you tomorrow. Ben is a groom here. He’s Amish, Ryder. Do you know what that means?”
“Sure. Sally’s Amish, too. They talk funny and only drive horses and buggies. Mom cussed a lot when we got stuck behind a buggy on our way here.”
“Not a lot, Mother,” Michele said quickly.
Mrs. McIntyre turned her attention to Sally. “You’re from the Hope Springs area, too, aren’t you? David Yoder’s daughter, right? He did a fine job building my new stables. I suspect from the way you’re dressed that you’re enjoying your rumspringa.”
“Yes, ma’am. I’m grateful you told my father about this position and that you vouched for me.”
“Your father said you were a fine, upstanding young woman. That was good enough for me.”
“I don’t know what I would do without you,” Michele added quickly.
Mrs. McIntyre looked pleased. “Do you and Ben know each other, Sally?”
“We do.” Sally gave him a cool smile. He dropped his gaze to his boots and didn’t say anything.
Mrs. McIntyre patted the wheels of her chair. “I’m so grateful you agreed to come along and help me look after the children over Christmas vacation, Sally. We must make sure you get a chance to visit your people while you’re in the area.”
“I would love that,” Sally said eagerly. A visit to her family would cheer her up and get her away from Ben. Maybe she could convince Mrs. McIntyre to let her stay for several days.
