Ack, but she wished things could have simply stayed the same!
At the very least, she wished that he would have approached her brother instead. “I wish you would have gone to Lukas about this.”
He rolled his eyes. “Why? So Lukas could tell me no before I even had a chance to explain myself?” Staring at her intently, he said, “Rebecca, I need you to give me a chance. I know Amelia wants me to court her. I know it. But she ain’t going to go against Lukas, not after losing your daed.”
“Amelia is still grieving our father. She might not be ready to think about courting.”
“Just like you aren’t?”
Immediately, she thought of Jacob Yoder. Would she turn him away if he approached her? After the warm connection she’d felt at Josephine’s, she knew she wouldn’t.
But that was different, wasn’t it?
“Amelia is far more tenderhearted than I am. With Mamm gone, I need to look out for her.”
“You aren’t. Your interference is only going to cause her harm. I don’t want her to start doubting herself or doubting my regard for her. I need to call on her properly.” Sounding even more frustrated, he added, “You have to know how awkward this is for me, Becky. I’m a grown man asking permission to call on a grown woman. You need to respect that.”
“I do.” She stopped herself before saying anything unkind. “I like you, Simon. But you and I both know that you would not be a good match for someone as sheltered as my little sister.”
“You’re serious, aren’t you?”
“I’m afraid so.” Seeing the pain in his eyes, she winced. However, she knew she was doing the right thing. All of them—Lukas, Levi, even their parents—had wanted the best for Amelia. As much as it pained her to admit it, it wasn’t Simon.
Now feeling more sure of herself, she said, “Simon, with our parents now gone and Levi off doing who-knows-what, it’s up to me and Lukas to look after Amelia. She was little more than a child when our mamm passed. In many ways, I raised her.”
“I understand that. But we both know that I am not going to treat her badly. I am not going to take her for granted. I want to look after her, too. You know she would be happy with me.”
Even thinking about Amelia in Simon’s care made Rebecca uncomfortable. “I’m sorry, Simon, but I don’t agree.”
“Don’t say that.”
Seeking to end the conversation without making things even worse, she ignored his harsh tone and angry expression. “Listen, don’t worry about Lukas. I won’t say anything to him.”
“No, feel free to share. I can’t wait to hear what he says.”
She hated hurting him, but she needed to do the right thing, even if it made things between them uncomfortable. “I appreciate you coming to talk to me, and the donut and coffee, too. But my mind is made up. I don’t want you courting her. Ever.”
“Ever,” he echoed. His voice was bleak. “Can I ask what exactly I’ve done that makes me so unsuitable?”
“You know what you’ve done.”
He shook his head. “Don’t be vague. You owe me more than that.”
She really didn’t want to answer him. However, his expression was hard. So different than she’d ever seen it. She owed him an explanation. “I heard rumors about your rumspringa, Simon. And what happened to you.”
He flinched.
Thinking about the whispered comments and veiled references made her stomach feel like it had a cold knot sitting in the middle of it. She imagined that some of what was said about his “running around time” was exaggerated. But not all of it could have been made up. Like her father used to say, where there was smoke there was fire. “Don’t make me say any more.”
“No, you don’t have to say a single thing more,” he said, just as Lukas’s office door opened. Simon walked out the front door as Lukas entered the reception area.
With a sinking heart, she watched Simon turn left, no doubt taking the long way back to one of the older warehouses on the property. She’d just made an enemy out of him, or at the very least, she’d lost his friendship.
Now she was going to have to figure out what to tell Lukas. As much as she had hoped to keep him out of it, she feared that he was going to notice the new animosity looming between her and Simon.
But when?
The clearing of a throat knocked her back into the present. She blinked, then blinked again as she took in who was approaching her circular reception desk. Lukas—with Jacob Yoder by his side. Had she been so fixated on Simon that she hadn’t even noticed Jacob enter the offices?
“Hi, Jacob,” she said.
“Hey. Are you okay?”
She was still pretty rattled from her exchange with Simon, but she sure wasn’t going to tell him about that. “I’ll be fine. I just, um, had a difficult conversation with someone.”
While Jacob continued to watch her, Lukas glanced out the window. “What kind of difficult conversation? And why did Simon just leave out the front door?”
“I’m not sure.”
Lukas’s brow wrinkled. “Huh. Well, what was he doing here? Is there a problem?”
“I don’t think there are any problems that you need to know about.” She held up the takeout cup, which didn’t seem nearly as inviting as it had just minutes before. “Simon just stopped by to bring me coffee and a donut.”
Lukas raised his eyebrows. “From Holtzman’s. Wow, I’m impressed. What did he want?”
Rebecca would have smiled if she wasn’t so upset. “Oh, um, nothing.” When Lukas’s eyes narrowed, she blurted, “He just, um, wanted me to help him with a couple of phone calls. You know how he hates those.” Turning back to Jacob, she attempted to laugh. “That was our friend Simon Hochstetler. He’s a capable man and one of our best managers. He ain’t too good when it comes to talking on the phone, however.”
“It’s good you’re here then,” Jacob said. His tone was steady, but it was completely obvious that he knew she was hiding something.
Feeling warm, she smiled at him softly.
Lukas’s bark of laughter interrupted the moment. “Jah. He hates talking on the phone more than anyone I’ve ever met. Will you handle his calls?”
“Of course I will. You know I’ll help Simon with anything I can.” With effort, she kept her expression easy and open. It was difficult, though, because she hated lying.
“Gut. Danke.”
“Thanks ain’t necessary.” Remembering what she’d offered Jacob, her cheeks flamed. “So, did you decide to visit the mill?”
“I would have, but after our conversation, I decided to do a little soul-searching, too. I came in for a job.”
“A job here?” She looked from Jacob to Lukas in confusion. “I thought you were farming your parents’ land.”
“Jah. Well, like your teaching job, farming wasn’t really a good fit for me.”
Lukas grinned. “Jah. It seems that there’s more than one person in Charm who is searching for the right occupation.”
Knowing he was teasing, she raised her chin and tried to look full of herself. “Discovering the right path for one’s future ain’t all that easy, Lukas.”
Jacob grinned. “Oh, let him tease ya, Rebecca. The way I see it, I’m in pretty good company.”
His gentle flirting made her insides flutter. Afraid she was about to either say something silly or turn bright crimson, she picked up one of the many pencils on her desk and started fiddling with it.
Lukas said, “Jake here has even more experience than I realized. I just hired him. He’s going to work over in the far warehouse, building frames for Millers Builders.” Handing Rebecca a blue file folder, he added, “All the papers that he needs to fill out are inside. After he completes them, will you get him processed? He’ll start next Monday.”
“Of course I will,” she replied as Lukas walked away. When they were alone, Rebecca smiled at Jacob. “Welcome to the Kinsinger family. I hope you will enjoy working here.”
He smiled back. “Danke, R
ebecca. I’m glad to be here.”
She realized right then that she was glad he was there, too. She just wished his arrival hadn’t come on the heels of rejecting Simon’s request to court Amelia.
There was something very difficult about welcoming a man like Jacob into her life while putting up roadblocks for another man who had been nothing but kind to her for as long as she could remember.
Chapter 15
The way Rebecca was looking at him made Jacob realize that he’d made the right decision. No matter how hard it had been to accept that he wasn’t ever going to be able to take his brother’s place and farm the land, it seemed the Lord was in complete agreement. How else could Jacob explain that Rebecca’s sweet smile had been the first thing he’d encountered after accepting Lukas’s generous job offer? He needed no other sign that he was doing the right thing.
Realizing he was staring at Rebecca foolishly, he clasped the folder Lukas had left on the counter. “It is gut to see ya. I trust you are still doing well?”
She tilted her head to one side and smiled softly. “I am. It looks like you are, too.”
“I am, indeed. Our little talk yesterday really helped. Thanks, again.”
“After talking with you I felt better, too.”
He loved how easily she blushed around him. He lifted up the file folder. “So, would you like me to read through all the paperwork and bring it back to you?”
She was still gazing at him like she had a secret. “Well, you could do that, Jacob,” she said slowly. “But if you have the time, you could simply fill it out here. That way I’ll be able to enter all your information in the computer. I can give you a key and a time card, too. And maybe even take you on a tour of the property, if you want one.”
He wanted one. Well, he wanted to spend more time with her. “You have time for that?”
“Today I do.” She ran a hand over the surface of a desktop that looked freshly polished.
“I guess that means you talked to Mrs. Mast.”
“I did. After we talked, I finally got up my nerve and told Rachel that I wasna going to be able to continue to help her out anymore.”
“I wondered if you did.” Noticing that she looked uneasy, he said, “So, how did she take it?”
“I’d be lying if I said she looked happy about my news, but it seemed to go well enough.”
“Based on what Lilly’s told me, I think Mrs. Mast really cares about her students. Once she realizes that you weren’t the best fit for her class, she’ll come around.” Hoping to be encouraging, he brightened his tone. “I bet she already has.”
“I really hope so.” She bit her lip as a new shadow entered her expression. “She and I have been friends for a long time. It’s hard telling a friend something they don’t want to hear, you know?”
“I know. It’s because you don’t want to disappoint them.”
“Jah. Exactly.” The dimple popped in her check. “Anyway, now I am just going to be working here.”
That didn’t sound like a bad thing at all. “So we’ll be seeing each other all the time.”
She chuckled. “It would seem so.”
Jacob had a feeling that there was far more to that story, but it sure wasn’t his place to prod her for more information. Instead, he picked up the folder, grabbed a pen from the container on her desk, and walked over to a nearby chair. After grabbing a magazine to use as a makeshift desk, he began completing the forms.
“Let me know if you have any questions about the papers,” Rebecca said as she straightened a stack of folders that didn’t look like they needed straightening at all.
“I will, though none of it looks difficult.” Most of it was basic information: his address, contact information, and payment options. There were also questions about his transportation needs. Kinsinger offered van service to Amish workers in the morning and evening. He checked that he would need to be picked up and dropped off.
When he was almost done, he glanced at Rebecca. To his surprise, she was staring at him. Curious, he smiled at her.
She blinked, and immediately looked away.
Not wanting to embarrass her, he stared at one of the forms. But instead of carefully filling it out, his mind drifted back to Rebecca. What was she thinking?
Had she been staring at him?
And the way she’d averted her eyes? Well, it was almost like a shy schoolgirl around a crush. At least, that was how he remembered girls acting back when he’d been at school in Pinecraft.
Could it be that she felt the same attraction for him that he felt for her?
Ten minutes later, he finished everything and brought it to her. “Here you go.”
“Danke.” Not quite meeting his eyes, she took it. “Now I just need to enter everything in the computer. It will take about fifteen minutes or so.”
“I’ve got time.”
“I can do that for ya, Becky,” a petite young woman said brightly as she strode forward.
Rebecca turned to the girl. “It’s new employee information. You’re going to need to start a file for Jacob. Have you ever done that before?”
“I have.” The girl smiled at Jacob. “Are you a new employee?”
“I am. My name’s Jacob Yoder.”
“Hiya. I’m Mercy Graber.” Her bright smile widened, showing a little gap between her two front teeth. “I’m kind of new, too. I’ve only been working at Kinsinger’s for six months. And only at the reception desk for a couple of weeks.”
“She’s already doing a gut job, though,” Rebecca said as she stood up. “How about I take you on that tour now?”
“Sounds gut.”
Mercy looked at him and Rebecca with a puzzled frown. “Oh, do you want me to do the tour? It’s no—”
“Nee. I want you to input the paperwork,” Rebecca said firmly. “I will take Jacob around.”
“Oh!” Looking a little sheepish, Mercy smiled again. “All right. I understand now.”
Jacob could have sworn he heard Rebecca groan as she walked around her workstation. He did his best to keep his expression blank, though it was tempting to grin.
“Let’s start in the back and work our way forward,” she said.
He waved a hand. “Lead and I’ll follow.”
Looking a bit flustered, Rebecca strode forward, opened the front door, and motioned for him to join her.
When the door closed behind them, and Rebecca was practically marching toward the back of the property, Jacob spoke. “Do you not care for Mercy?”
“What? Oh, I like her fine.”
“Ah.”
Her steps slowed. “I guess I couldn’t have been more obvious, huh? She’s a good worker and tries hard. I just sometimes feel like I need to make it clear that she helps me, not the other way around.”
“I can understand that. That happened from time to time when I was working on jobs in Sarasota. Some men wanted to be in charge all the time, even when they didn’t know what they were doing.”
She grinned. “Exactly. Mercy’s enthusiasm sometimes needs to be tempered a bit. Or it might be a case of me needing to be more patient with her.” Turning, she said, “This here is the main gate, where all the big trucks load and unload shipments.”
He was impressed. “It’s a big place. I didn’t realize Kinsinger’s covered so much property.”
“Before we asked all workers, both Amish and English, to get on email, we used to hire teenagers to run messages around. Those boys were constantly on the run. It’s a big property with almost two hundred employees.”
“Quite a legacy to take care of.”
“I suppose it is,” she said. “Funny, I never thought of the company like that. In fact, I usually considered it a burden because my father spent more hours here than he did at home.” She closed her eyes, hating how selfish that made her sound. The mill had supported her family for years.
“Is that why you were working at the school?”
“Jah.” She looked at him out of the corner of her
eye, then said, “I was trying to find my place. It’s funny, but once Lukas pretty much assured me that I could leave and even got Mercy to fill in, I started realizing that I didn’t want to leave my job as much as I thought I did.” After a moment, she rolled her eyes. “I also have to tell ya that those kinner scared me half to death.”
“Scared you?” Now, that caught him off guard. She seemed like a pretty confident woman. Her brother had also told him that she handled a lot of things at the company. Even though she’d said that she hadn’t enjoyed her time at the Amish school, Jacob would have never thought that she would use a descriptor like that. “Most of those kinner weren’t very big, Rebecca,” he teased.
“It wasn’t their height that scared me, it was how demanding they were. Plus, I didn’t always feel like I could help them.” Lowering her voice, she added, “That’s what scared me the most. I hated that.”
“I feel that way with Lilly.”
“Rachel told me that Lilly is going to need some special instruction because she’s so bright. Does that worry you?”
It felt good to talk about his insecurities. “Not at all,” he said after a moment. “I simply want her to be happy. To be frank, I’m kind of glad that she has something else to focus on. Those first few weeks after her parents died were so hard on her.”
“I can imagine.” Her voice sounded a little melancholy.
Jacob wondered if she was referring to her father’s death. But before he could think of something suitable to say, she seemed to realize that they were standing motionless in the middle of the loading bay, and started walking again.
“I’ll take you into each building,” she said over her shoulder. “But don’t feel like you need to learn your way around. The men on your team will show you what to do and where to go on Monday.”
“Whatever you want to do is fine.”
She led him into a large warehouse. “This is where you will probably be working. It’s where most of the carpenters work. We also keep all the special-order pieces of lumber here.”
“Special order?” He loved listening to her speak about Kinsinger Lumber. She might not realize it, but there was a lot of pride in her voice whenever she talked about her family’s company.
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