Caroline's Secret Page 7

  “Uh-oh.” Andrew motioned toward the porch as they neared the house. “Do you think something happened?”

  Just as he had predicted, Abe had started the ice-cream maker and was cranking the handle on the side. What looked to be a cinder block wrapped in a towel set on top of the ice-cream bucket. Abe sat on the stairs and cranked while Esther pushed herself in the swing.

  “I don’t know,” Caroline quietly replied. “But it doesn’t look gut.”

  Maybe their matchmaking days were over. And that would mean not seeing Andrew as much, just church and the afternoons that he might stop by the bakery for a snack.

  The idea didn’t set well with Caroline. But that was ridiculous. They were friends. They had committed to the relationship of freinden and helping Esther and Abe find love. Surely that had to mean something. It wasn’t like they couldn’t see each other if the romance fell through between Abe and Esther, but it was a good excuse.

  “You get Esther,” Andrew said. “I’ll see what I can find out from Onkle.”

  Caroline dipped her chin in agreement and made her way past Abe and onto the porch to sit in the swing next to Esther. Andrew stopped in front of his uncle and placed Emma on top of the towel-wrapped cement block. “Emma, sit here and help, jah?”

  The toddler gave a small nod, but squirmed all the same as Abe continued to crank the handle on the old ice-cream churn.

  Caroline leaned in closer to Esther to make sure her words were only heard by the other woman. Not that Abe would be paying attention to them. He seemed completely engrossed in the art of ice-cream making. “What happened?” she whispered.

  Esther shrugged. “Nix.”

  “If nothing happened, why do you look like you just lost your best friend?”

  Esther’s mouth twisted into a grimace and she shook her head. “I’ve been widowed for nigh on thirty years. I just realized today that if Abe Fitch had feelings for me that are stronger than friendship, he’s had a very long time to act on them.”

  Caroline frowned. “So you think because he hasn’t asked you on a date in the last thirty years that he doesn’t want to be more than friends with you?”

  “It makes sense, jah?”

  “No.” Caroline shook her head. “Abe is . . .” She looked over to Andrew’s onkle. He had allowed himself a rest and let Andrew take over the cranking while he sat nearby and sanded on what looked to be a small wooden horse. “Abe is Abe.” She didn’t know how else to say it. She had never met anyone like him before. He was smart and talented but as distracted as they came. “I think if you’re going to capture his heart, the first thing you’ll need to do is let him want it.”

  Esther shook her head. “I can’t do that. That would be most improper.”

  Caroline glanced back to where Abe and Andrew sat. “Improper or not, it may just be the only way.”

  Half an hour later, Abe scooped up the semi-soft ice cream into bowls and passed them around.

  “Yum . . . banana,” Caroline said, taking her first bite after their silent prayer’s ending aemen. “My favorite.”

  “I like strawberry the best,” Andrew said, settling down next to her.

  Esther accepted a small bowl from Abe and took it over to where Emma was playing quietly in the grass with the horse Abe had just finished.

  Caroline was astounded by his talent and generosity, but he insisted that Emma take it home with her.

  “You know if you give her that to eat by herself, she’ll have it all over the place in no time,” Caroline warned.

  “Jah, but she’ll wash up.” Esther handed the bowl to the toddler, then plopped down on the grass next to her.

  “You know what would be gut with this?” Andrew asked.

  Caroline spooned a bite into her mouth and nearly sighed as the yummy concoction melted on her tongue. “What?” she asked, scooping up another bite.

  “Cowboy cookies.”

  Caroline laughed. “You think everything needs cowboy cookies.”

  “Jah. Everything does.” Then he lowered his voice. “What happened between the two of them?”

  “I have no idea,” Caroline whispered in return. She looked from Esther, sitting in the yard next to Emma, back to Abe.

  When they had arrived at the house after church, everything had seemed fine. Between then and now, something had Abe acting like Abe, and Esther acting like he was invisible.

  Normally Esther would be staring at the furniture maker with lovesick puppy eyes. Now she wouldn’t even look at him.

  The upside was Esther managed to get more of the ice cream in Emma than on her dress. At least the toddler wouldn’t be too sticky for the ride home. And that was a gut thing. The slow ride back to town would be uncomfortable enough with the chasm that had cracked between Esther and Abe.

  The rift that had formed between Esther and Abe seemed to grow by the yard all the way back to town.

  Andrew rode back to the bakery with them, and Caroline was glad. Emma was tired from the afternoon’s activities. She sat quietly in Caroline’s lap all the way home, one thumb tucked in her mouth and the other hand fisted in Caroline’s kapp strings.

  Andrew kept casting question-filled glances in Caroline’s direction, but she had no more idea what had happened than he did. Finally she mouthed that she would find out what was wrong as soon as she could and left the matter at that.

  Finally, they arrived back on Main Street. Abe pulled the buggy to a stop and set the brake. Without waiting for any help, Esther slid the door open and hopped to the ground. “Danki for a lovely afternoon.” She gave a quick nod to Abe, then turned on her heel and made her way around the side of the building. Caroline was just stepping down with Andrew’s help when Esther disappeared around the back.

  “Thanks for having us,” Caroline said, including Abe in her sentiment. She shifted to bring the exhausted Emma into a more secure hold.

  Abe gave her a nod but otherwise looked as distant as he usually did. Caroline wasn’t sure if he really didn’t notice that Esther was upset or if he was choosing to pretend like he didn’t know. With a man like Abe Fitch, it was hard to say.

  “Do you want me to take her around for you?” Andrew asked.

  “Nay”. Caroline shook her head. “I’m sure you have a lot to do at the farm.”

  Andrew opened his mouth, then closed it again. “Jah,” he said. “Then I’ll see you later.”

  “Jah.”

  Andrew swung himself into the buggy next to his uncle.

  With a smile and a wave, they were gone.

  Caroline let herself into the apartment and sat Emma in the playpen. It was too early to put her straight to bed. She needed a bath and some supper, but first Caroline needed to talk to Esther and find out what had happened this afternoon.

  She went into the kitchen, where the older woman was slamming cabinets and banging pans.

  “You want to talk about it?”

  Esther shook her head, then retrieved the flour from the cabinet above her head. “I guess it’s not right to ask for God’s help.”

  Caroline hid her smile at the outburst and pulled out one of the dining chairs. She sat and waited for Esther to continue.

  “I mean, there are so many more important issues that we should take to the Lord in prayer. Matters of the heart seem”—she shrugged—“trivial.”

  “Maybe,” Caroline agreed. “But if it is important enough to you that you talk to God about it, then it’s important enough to Him that He’ll listen.”

  “I don’t know.” Esther started measuring out flour, counting to herself as she spooned it into a large mixing bowl.

  When Esther got upset, she baked. Looked like there would be a new bakery item on sale tomorrow. Last year, she’d had a problem with the bank and baked straight through the spring. Four new items were added to the menu, and Caroline had gained six pounds.

  “Are you going to tell me what happened?”

  “Nothing happened,” Esther said, but she didn’t meet Caroline
’s steady gaze.

  “Then why do I get the feeling that you’re not telling me the truth?”

  Esther stopped counting scoops of sugar and sighed. “Abe Fitch has had over thirty years to fall in love with me. It’s a fool’s dream to think that he will at this time in our lives.”

  Caroline slammed her hands onto her hips. “So you’re just giving up.”

  “Jah,” Esther answered, though Caroline’s words were more of a statement than a question.

  “That’s the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard.”

  Esther shrugged one shoulder and started creaming together the brown sugar and butter.

  “Take it back or I’ll go down to the furniture store tomorrow to tell him that you love him.”

  Esther gasped. “You wouldn’t.”

  Caroline raised one brow.

  “You would.” Esther shook her head. “Fine,” she conceded. “I won’t give up. But I’m certainly not going to invite him to nachtess every night.”

  “You just leave that to me.”

  “How did you get to be so stubborn?” Esther asked.

  Caroline smiled. “I learned from the best.”

  Dear Mamm,

  I hope this letter finds you well. I am sitting in the park waiting on my freinden to join me for middawk. Emma is playing in the dirt, digging with a plastic shovel. I hope the town does not get upset that she tore up the grass in that spot. I don’t think it will ever be the same. Seeing that big patch of missing grass reminded me of the time that the pigs got out of the pen and into the front yard. They tore out a big spot in the grass and you came out of the house waving a broom and a dishrag. I laughed so hard I barely made it to the outhouse. The grass never did grow back.

  I guess that is just another reason why pride is a sin. We should not become dependent on the physical things around us for our happiness, but should rely on God. The same thing can be said for grass as well as automobiles.

  It is so strange that the bishop here allows the church members to have tractors. And with rubber wheels, no less. It is nothing to see an Englisch car, a horse and buggy, then a tractor chugging along behind it. But they tell me the soil here is too filled with sandstone rocks for them to farm it any other way. Other than that, Oklahoma is not so different than Tennessee. Yet that doesn’t make me miss you any less.

  I do not know if I will ever be able to return home. It is something that I pray about every day as well. I am confident that God will reveal His plan to us in His own time. I just wish that He would do it soon.

  Give my love to Dat.

  Love,

  Caroline

  Chapter Seven

  Caroline penned her name to the bottom of the letter and willed herself not to cry. She had made choices, and she would stand by them. It was the only way.

  “Goedemiddag.”

  She looked up, shading her eyes from the sun as Andrew dropped down opposite her at the wooden picnic table.

  “Hi, Andrew.” She folded the letter so it would fit in the envelope, then glanced over for a quick check on Emma before she sealed it.

  “Where are the rest?”

  “Lorie and Emily?” She shrugged. “Most times they are here before me. They must have gotten busy doing something else.”

  “You looked pretty busy yourself.”

  She shook her head. “Just writing a letter to my folks back home.”

  “If you want to get it into the mail today, you’d better hurry. Fred Conrad was running early.”

  “I would like to get it out as soon as possible, but . . .” She trailed off as she glanced toward her daughter.

  “Go ahead,” Andrew said. “I’ll keep an eye on her.”

  She bit her lip. “I don’t know . . .” It wasn’t so important that she should inconvenience Andrew. It could go out tomorrow.

  “It’s just around the corner. You’ll be back before she even knows you’re gone.”

  His words of the Sunday before came back to her. Why didn’t she trust anyone else with Emma? Maybe it was time she started. “Okay,” she said, pushing up from the narrow bench seat. “I’ll be right back.”

  Of course, everyone else had the same thought as she, to hustle to the post office to get their letters and packages out before the truck left for Tulsa.

  Caroline shifted impatiently from one foot to the other, glancing every few seconds at the large industrial clock on the wall.

  It was only minutes before she had her turn, buying a stamp and sending her letter on its way.

  In no time at all, she was down the street and back to the park.

  But Andrew and Emma were nowhere to be found.

  She sucked in a deep breath as her heart began to pound. They couldn’t have gone far. The restaurant . . . the bakery . . .

  Caroline dashed across the street, ignoring the car horn that followed after her.

  If something had happened to Emma . . .

  She burst through the bakery doors, the bell above the door tinkling furiously with her entrance. It was lunchtime, and the place was empty, just a couple of Englisch patrons looking for cakes and such for their special occasions.

  She sucked in another breath, trying to calm her erratic fears as she spotted them. Emma was sitting on the table top, her thumb in her mouth and tears on her cheeks. Andrew was seated before her, his head bent over his task.

  “Why are you here?” Her voice sounded shrill even to her own ears. She sucked in more air and tried to calm her nerves.

  Andrew turned calmly toward her, and that was when she saw the blood.

  She uttered a quick prayer as she rushed toward her baby.

  “She fell,” Andrew said as he continued to dab at the wound with a disinfectant. He blew on it as Emma started to whimper from the sting.

  “Were you not watching her?”

  He jerked as if she had slapped him. “I was. I watched her stand, start to run, then trip and fall.”

  Caroline scooped Emma up and away from Andrew. “And you did nothing to stop it?”

  “There wasn’t anything I could do. She fell that fast.” He snapped his fingers.

  Once she had seen her mother, Emma’s bravery fled, and she dissolved into tears once again.

  “Here,” he said, reaching out to Emma. “Let me.”

  Caroline, heart still pounding, adrenaline pumping, turned away from him. “I think you’ve done enough for one day.”

  Andrew watched helplessly as Caroline walked away, cradling the crying Emma to her.

  He hadn’t done anything wrong. It was an accident. Caroline was completely overreacting.

  “She’s very protective where the boppli is concerned.”

  He could only agree with the truth in Esther Lapp’s words. Caroline was more than protective; she was sheltering and obsessing.

  “Now, I shouldn’t say anything, but I can tell you this. As far as I know, that baby is the only person she has left in this world.”

  He shook his head. “She told me her parents are still alive in Tennessee.”

  “That may be, but I have yet to meet them. She hasn’t gone any farther than Tulsa since she got off that bus two years ago.”

  “What are you saying, Esther?”

  “Just give her some time, Andrew Fitch. She’ll come around.”

  Caroline had finally stopped shaking by the time Esther locked the doors on the bakery and they headed toward their backroom apartment.

  Emma’s knee was bruised and cut, but she seemed not to notice the wound as she ran ahead of Caroline.

  “She seems no worse for wear,” Esther said casually. A little too casually. Caroline hadn’t lived with her friend for the past two years and not come to know that when Esther used that tone, she had something on her mind. Caroline would know what it was soon enough.

  “Kids are resilient,” she replied.

  “Fifteen-month-old babies are always falling.”

  Caroline closed the door behind them as Esther headed for the kitche
n. “And that means what?”

  Esther shrugged, and she started the soup for their supper. “Just what I said; fifteen-month-old babies fall a lot.”

  She eyed her friend. “Best get whatever it is off your mind, Esther.”

  “Yelling at Andrew was not the way to handle the situation. He was trying to help the child.”

  “But—I mean . . .” Caroline realized she wasn’t angry with Andrew, but with herself. She had left them alone. She should have been there for her daughter. Yes, accidents would happen. “I overreacted today.”

  Esther unwrapped the loaf of crusty sourdough bread they would have with their dinner. “That you did.”

  She had hollered at Andrew, made it seem like the accident was all his fault. He was her friend and she should have never treated him so poorly.

  And most of all, she owed Andrew a big, big apology.

  “Andrew, there’s someone here for you.”

  He looked up from the project he was sanding to find his cousin standing in the doorway of the shop. His eyes felt gritty and sleep deprived. He hadn’t rested more than a couple of hours during the night, tossing and turning as he recalled the anger in Caroline’s eyes.

  He pulled off the safety glasses and resisted the urge to wipe his face on his sleeve. There was enough sawdust on his clothes to fill his eyes with grit for real.

  “I’ll be right there.”

  “You might want to, uh . . .” Danny took a step toward him, dusting his clothes. Then he shook his head as if it were a hopeless endeavor. “Take a bath,” he finished.

  “No time.” Andrew pushed past his cousin and stepped into the main showroom of the furniture store. He had to finish this project for the First Methodist Church. They had said for them to take their time, then called back to put a rush on the order. Evidently the new pastor was to arrive in Wells Landing two weeks early.

  But once he saw her, he wished that he had taken the time to clean up a bit more, at least get the wood shavings out of his hair. But it was too late; she had already seen him.