The Heart's Journey: Stitches in Time Series #2 Read online

  The door opened and Leah maneuvered herself inside with her crutches. “What’s going on in here? You girls having a private chat?”

  Before they could answer, she stepped over to the table. Anna jumped up to hold out her chair.

  “I must say, the three of you are looking a little guilty.” She peered at them over her reading glasses.

  “We’re worried about you,” Naomi said when no one else spoke up. “We’re afraid you’re depressed.”

  “I know,” Leah said, looking at the rain sluicing down the nearby window. “I’m not being very grateful, am I? My fall could have been worse. And people have been so kind coming by to see if I’m okay.”

  “But the weather is depressing,” Mary Katherine said, taking the chair next to Leah’s so she could hold her hand. “You need a little pick-me-up.”

  “A pick-me-up? Like what?”

  “Maybe a little time away.”

  Leah reached into her pocket, pulled out a brightly colored postcard, and tossed it on the table. “You saw this when it came in the mail today, didn’t you? I thought of visiting Ida in Florida. But it’s no use now.”

  Naomi sat down on the other side of her grandmother. “Why do you say that?”

  “I can’t get on a bus like this,” Leah said, gesturing at her foot.

  She sat silent for a moment and then took a deep breath and attempted a smile. “I’ll be fine. Really.” She stirred her tea and took a sip.

  Troubled, Naomi took her cup of tea into the shop and set it on the table beside her chair. She’d gotten a little behind on a quilt commission because she’d been taking care of her grandmother for the past week.

  The Trip around the World quilt required a lot of attention to detail—not that every quilt she made didn’t—but it was perfect for taking her mind off thinking about John.

  Her grandmother hobbled up on her crutches, shaking her head and frowning when Naomi started to put aside the quilt to help her.

  Settled into her chair, Leah leaned forward to study the quilt on its frame. “Beautiful work.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Is this a commission?”

  Naomi nodded. “It’s due in a few weeks.”

  Leah smiled slightly. “You’ll get it finished. You always do.”

  That was back then—the time she called Before John. It was harder now. John would get so upset when she didn’t spend time with him. But she couldn’t say that to her grandmother.

  Naomi thought the shop was so quiet you could have heard a pin drop if she’d dropped one. But it was a nice break. When Leah didn’t speak, Naomi left her to her thoughts.

  When Naomi looked up a few minutes later, she found Leah staring out the window at the gray day. The little Amish doll she’d been stuffing lay in her lap.

  “You sighed again.”

  Leah glanced at her. “Sorry.”

  “I’m sorry. It must be hard to have to sit when you want to rush around.”

  “Ya,” Leah whispered and it seemed her shoulders slumped a little more.

  Naomi set her work down. “Grandmother, Mary Katherine and Anna and I are worried about you.”

  Someone rapped on the window glass, startling them. John stared in, unsmiling, and nodded when Naomi waved. Then he walked on.

  Leah stared after his retreating back. “Why didn’t he come in and say hello?”

  Naomi picked up her needle. “I told you before. He just wanted to make sure I was here,” she muttered. “It was checkin time.”

  “I see,” Leah said quietly. “Naomi, I think we need to—”

  The shop door opened and the bell overhead jangled.

  “Well, look who’s here!”

  Naomi’s hands froze on the quilt.

  “Nick! What a nice surprise!”

  He walked over and withdrew a bunch of flowers from behind his back. “I thought these might cheer you up.”

  How perceptive of him, Naomi thought, watching them. He’d known how Leah would feel having to stay off her feet whether it was at home or at the shop.

  John hadn’t bothered to come by to see how Leah was doing—only to check that Naomi was where she was supposed to be. He’d called the shop but never asked about Leah, only sounded very disappointed when Naomi would say she couldn’t make plans with him.

  She shook her head as if to clear her thoughts. It wasn’t fair to compare the two men. They came from different worlds, different backgrounds. Different views on women.

  So, then, why shouldn’t John have been more thoughtful, more considerate of Leah, Naomi’s grandmother and a member of his Amish community?

  But Nick was in a business relationship with them—he was a paid driver and made money from the arrangement.

  Just as that thought came to her, she quickly discarded it as being less than gracious. It wasn’t like her to be judgmental.

  “Naomi?”

  She blinked. “Sorry, you said something?”

  “Would you put these in a vase for me? There’s one in the back room, in the cupboard at the rear of the room.”

  Nodding, Naomi took the flowers and carried them into the back room. The deep pink rosebuds immediately scented up the room with a rich perfume as she located the vase, filled it with water, and arranged the flowers in it.

  She carried the vase back out to the shop and set it on the table near her grandmother.

  Leah sighed as she looked at them, but it was a sigh of satisfaction, not of sadness.

  “They’re lovely,” she told Nick. “You shouldn’t have.”

  “Yes, I should have,” he said with a grin. “I remember what it was like to hurt my ankle and how bored I got.”

  “Did somebody bring you flowers?” Naomi couldn’t resist asking as she sat down and picked up her needle again.

  “Why yes, it was a woman,” he said, grinning. “It was Betsy Norris and she was fourteen like me, a cheerleader who’d seen me hurt it at a basketball game.”

  She lifted her gaze and studied him. He stared back, humor lighting his green eyes, and she couldn’t look away.

  Leah stood and Naomi popped up. “What do you need? I’ll get it for you.”

  “You can’t, liebschen,” Leah told her, her lips quirking into a smile. She hobbled away on her crutches in the direction of the ladies’ room.

  Her face felt warm as she sat again and picked up her needle. Nick took a seat on the opposite side of the quilt frame and stretched out his long khaki-clad legs.

  He’d been their driver for years, but she felt a little self-conscious as he watched her work.

  “What’s the pattern?”

  “Trip around the World,” she told him.

  “Interesting quilt for you to make,” he remarked.

  “Oh?”

  “Well, the Amish don’t travel far from home, do they?”

  “We also make Wedding Ring quilts and we don’t wear wedding rings,” she said dryly. “Besides, we’re mostly making quilts for Englischers here, not for our own homes.”

  “Touché,” he said.

  “Hmm?”

  “You’re right.” He glanced behind him, then leaned forward. “Leah seems a little … down.”

  “You can say depressed,” she told him quietly. “Mary Katherine and Anna and I were talking about her earlier. We’ve never seen her like this.”

  “It’s hard when you’re an active person and suddenly you have to sit still.”

  “Talking about me?” Leah asked behind them.

  They jumped. Grinning and shaking his head, Nick got up and helped Leah maneuver herself back into her chair and then set her crutches within reach.

  “I didn’t know you could sneak up on a person when you’re on crutches,” Naomi said, pressing a hand to her thumping heart.

  “It’s a new talent of mine.” Leah gazed at the quilt, seeming lost in thought.

  “Grandmother?”

  “Hmm?” Leah looked up at her and her expression cleared.

  She pulled
the postcard she’d received earlier that day from her pocket and studied it, then looked up. “I’ve decided I’m going to Florida—to Pinecraft—for a vacation.”

  3

  Naomi stared at her grandmother. “You’re what?”

  “I’m going to go visit Ida in Pinecraft. I just can’t stand another minute of this weather and sitting around doing nothing.”

  “But you won’t be able to do anything there!” Naomi felt a little panicked. She didn’t remember her grandmother ever being so impulsive before. It was unnerving.

  “I can sit on the warm sand and watch the ocean,” she said, staring at the image of the Atlantic Ocean on the card.

  “But—” Naomi glanced at Nick, waiting for him to say something.

  “It sounds like a great idea,” he said.

  Naomi glared at him, then turned back to her grandmother. “How are you going to get there?”

  “There’s a chartered bus going there day after tomorrow.”

  “You’re going to try to get onto a chartered bus with these? How will you manage the steps? The seats?” She held up one of her grandmother’s crutches for emphasis.

  “I’m not saying it’ll be easy,” Leah said. “But I’m just tired enough of the weather and this foot to try it. If I don’t, well, I won’t have any right to complain, will I?”

  Leah picked up the doll she’d stopped working on earlier and calmly began stuffing it.

  Naomi glanced across the shop at Mary Katherine and gestured for her to come over. Her cousin raised her brows but finished straightening a display of fabric and walked over.

  “What is it?”

  “Grandmother says she wants to go to Florida.”

  “Grandmother said she’s going to go to Florida,” Leah corrected Naomi.

  She finished tucking the stuffing into the doll and began closing the open seam on the side with small, careful stitches.

  “But what about the shop?” Mary Katherine asked her. “What will we do about the shop?”

  “Take a deep breath,” Leah advised.

  Mary Katherine did as her grandmother had advised but she didn’t appear any calmer.

  “Don’t make me think you can’t run the shop while I’m away when I know otherwise. Who did it when I had the flu? The three of you.”

  Anna came out of the supply room with a bolt of fabric. She stopped. “What’s going on?”

  “Grandmother wants to go to Florida, to Pinecraft, to see a friend.”

  “But—” Anna began, only to be interrupted.

  “No buts,” Leah said, tying a knot and snipping the thread. She began dressing the doll in the tiny little Amish garments she’d sewn. “We’ll sit down tomorrow and assign responsibilities.”

  “I’m going with you,” Naomi announced.

  “Oh?” Leah’s eyebrows arched high above her wire-rimmed reading glasses. “Did I invite you?” she asked without rancor.

  “Otherwise, all I’d do is worry that you’ll hurt yourself again and there won’t be anyone around to help.”

  “I won’t be the only passenger on the bus,” her grandmother pointed out.

  “Doesn’t matter. Family takes care of its own. If you’re going to go to Florida, I’m going to go to make sure you’re safe and to take care of you.”

  “What if I said no?” Leah asked, tilting her head and studying Naomi.

  Naomi bit her lip. “You wouldn’t do that, would you? I’d worry.”

  Leah laughed. “Oh my, now the guilt. We’re Amish, not Jewish, liebschen. Stop with the guilt. Besides, you know that God’s looking out for me.”

  “Well, He must have blinked the other day,” Naomi muttered.

  “Sometimes we don’t understand why we get hurt. Or why we can’t protect someone else.”

  “Huh?” Anna asked.

  Naomi knew what her grandmother meant by her veiled remark. Leah had her own concerns about Naomi being hurt by John. They hadn’t talked about it again since the day Leah had discovered the bruise on Naomi’s arm. Naomi knew that it was because her grandmother wanted her to think about what she’d said.

  She glanced at Mary Katherine and Anna but they were staring curiously at Leah and not focusing on her at all.

  Nick had been quiet all this time. He must have moved because suddenly Naomi became aware that he was still there, patiently waiting and listening.

  “I’ll drive you,” he told Leah.

  She perked up. “You’ll what?”

  “I’ll drive you. We can take the van and you can stretch out on the backseat and be more comfortable.”

  “You can’t do that,” Naomi interrupted. “Your business—”

  “I have two drivers—one who’s been asking for more hours lately.”

  “But the cost,” Naomi, ever practical, said.

  “We’ll work it out,” he said. “I’ve always wanted to see Florida. And I haven’t taken a vacation in two years.”

  Vacation. That was a term she didn’t hear often in the community. The only time some Amish left it was to attend a funeral, a wedding, or some family-related events. She’d heard some of the northern Amish enjoyed visiting Niagara Falls, and some hereabouts went to Florida, to the tiny little town known as Pinecraft where Daniel and his parents lived.

  “Well, then it’s settled.” Leah beamed. “You, me, and Naomi. How soon can we leave?”

  “Good,” Mary Katherine said as Nick left the shop. “It all fell into place.”

  “Ya, didn’t it?” Leah tied the doll’s black wool bonnet on the doll’s head and bounced her on her knees. “God’s will is truly miraculous.”

  Yes, everything had fallen into place. Naomi told herself that she should be happy that her grandmother was going to have a break from the weather, from the enforced confinement because of her injury. Just a few minutes ago she’d offered to go along and make sure her grandmother would be safe and cared for on her trip, hadn’t she?

  Nick had offered a solution for the trip that made her grandmother happy. So why, Naomi asked herself, did she feel uneasy about the whole thing?

  “It’s ridiculous. You can’t go.”

  Naomi stared at John. “What?”

  “It’s unacceptable,” he said, wiping his mouth with a napkin.

  She knew her cousins—and many people—thought of her as quiet, slow to anger. But she could feel her temper rising at his words.

  “It’s just for a week or two, for Grandmother—”

  “No.”

  “What do you mean ‘no’?”

  He glanced around him, then at her. “Keep your voice down. Have you forgotten we’re in a public place?”

  It had been his idea for them to come here. He’d dropped by the shop, asking if they could have supper. Well, he hadn’t asked. He’d insisted. Mary Katherine had pulled her aside and told her she should spend the evening with John since she’d be away for a while.

  “I’ll be right there at the house tonight with Grandmother,” Mary Katherine reminded her. “John’s right, the two of you haven’t seen each other since Grandmother got hurt.”

  So Naomi had agreed to have dinner with John when she really needed to be home figuring out what to pack for the trip and that sort of thing.

  Now, she watched him as he continued to eat, totally unaware that she was fuming at his pronouncement. “John, I’m not asking you for permission.”

  John’s eyebrows went up and he paused, his fork halfway to his mouth. “Of course you are. We’re engaged.”

  “Even if we were married, we’d be discussing this, not having you tell me what to do like you’re my father.”

  “It’s a wife’s duty to obey her husband.”

  She sat there, trying to think of what to say. Where was the charming man she’d fallen in love with who’d seemed so easy-going? She didn’t want any unpleasantness before she was going out of town.

  “Look, your grandmother will be fine. She’ll be back before you miss her.”

  He glanced at
her plate. “Are you going to eat that?” he asked, gesturing at her plate with his fork.

  She pushed her plate toward him. “I’m not hungry.”

  “Waste not, want not,” he said, scraping the meat and vegetables off her plate onto his.

  When she stayed silent, he looked up. “What? I’m a hungry boy. I worked hard today.”

  He broke open a biscuit, buttered it, then took a huge bite. “These aren’t as good as yours. You should see about making them for this place.”

  “I’m too busy at the shop.”

  He grunted and took a second bite before putting it down on his plate.

  “Could make some extra money,” he said. “Listen, just think about it. We could save faster toward getting a place of our own after the wedding. Then we wouldn’t have to move in with my parents for a while.”

  Her stomach did a lurch. “I can’t give you any money this week. I’ll need it for my share of the trip expenses.”

  “We discussed that. You’re not going.”

  The waitress stopped by to inquire about interest in dessert. John ordered his favorite pie. Naomi shook her head when the woman looked at her.

  “More coffee, too,” John called after the waitress. He stood. “I’ll be right back.”

  Naomi watched him walk to the restrooms at the rear of the restaurant. She stood, reaching into her purse for money. When the waitress returned with the pie and the coffeepot, Naomi asked for the check.

  “You’re paying?” the woman asked and then just as quickly shook her head. “Sorry, it’s none of my business. It’s just usually the Amish guys pay.”

  “It’s okay. I’m calling it a treat.” There wouldn’t be another.

  “You’re leaving?” the woman asked as she pulled the check from her pocket.

  “Absolutely.” She handed her a tip and started to walk away, then stopped and turned back. “Oh, but he’s not. Don’t clear the table. He’d be disappointed if he missed dessert.”

  While he waited, Nick tried to focus on the book he was reading, but it was no use.

  He was crazy to have offered to take Leah and Naomi to Florida. It was bad enough to be harboring a crush on a granddaughter of Leah’s—especially one who was engaged. He knew better than to develop feelings for an Amish woman. There was no way that could go anywhere.