Between Two Promises (18 page)

“Of course, a person doesn’t vanish in the middle of sledding. Why did you leave without saying something?”

“I wasn’t feeling well.”

Daniel scrutinized Aiden as if trying to ascertain if he were telling the truth. “You coulda at least told me. I woulda taken you back to the inn.”

“I didn’t want to ruin everyone’s fun.”

“You didn’t even answer the room phone.”

“I was out for a while. I went into town for something to eat.”

Grunting and mumbling, Daniel strode into the bathroom. A few minutes later, he came out with his beard wet and his shirt off, probably left hanging over the towel rack the way he’d leave it back at the cabin.

“Are we going to check out and stay at the farm?” Aiden said. “Like Grace wanted?”

“David was probably right,” Daniel said. “Mom’s got enough on her hands without needing to worry over us.”

“I feel bad you’re not spending more time with your family. Maybe you can stay at the farm, and I’ll stay here.”

“I’m spending plenty time with them, and I don’t want you staying here alone.”

“I thought you’d like that idea,” Aiden said. “I’d be out of your way, no worries.”

“Don’t be shussly.” Daniel stripped off the rest of his clothes and, after slipping on his pajama bottoms, climbed into his bed. He gruffly pulled the bowtie quilt to his chin.

Leaning on his elbow toward Daniel, Aiden said, “I had a nice chat with Kevin today.”

“Is that where you been in town, tinkering around with Kevin Hassler again?”

“We had a lot of catching up to do. He’s about the only person around here who gives me the time of day. It’s nice to be open with someone for once.” Aiden didn’t know why, but he was in a mood to poke Daniel, to get a rise out of him. Daniel had come blasting into the room accusing him of being weak, and he wanted to show his strength.

“He knows we’re a couple,” he said.

Daniel’s eyebrows fused together. “How would Kevin Hassler know something like that?”

“I told him.”

“You did what? Why would you do that for?”

“Don’t worry, Daniel,” Aiden said when a shadow descended over Daniel’s face. “Kevin’s been around. He’s divorced twice and dating a girl half his age, that reporter who works for him.”

Daniel shook his head. “Not too smart, Aiden. I don’t want the whole county to know. He’ll probably tell that girl. No telling who she’ll tell.”

“I doubt they’ll make it into a banner headline in the
Blade
.” Aiden snickered.

“You know what I mean.”

“Is it so bad to be known to have a relationship with me, Daniel, even to an Englisher? I know things are different with the Amish, but you’ve been overreacting a lot lately.”

“What else you and Kevin been gabbing about? Does he know about me and Kyle?” Daniel looked almost exactly how Elisabeth had captured him in her portrait—sad, empty. Did Daniel feel the same way about their relationship as he had his and Esther’s when Elisabeth had sketched them? How would Daniel look if Elisabeth were to sketch him and Aiden as a couple? Would his expression excrete the same confusion, remoteness, resentment?

“I never told Kevin about that,” Aiden said, softening his tone. “I would never tell him about you and Kyle. I promised you I wouldn’t, didn’t I?”

“This is too risky, Aiden.”

Aiden shot him a glare. “Oh, you think I’m a risk now? Is that how you see me?”

“Keep your voice down. There’re people here yet.”

Aiden chuckled. “Do you ever hear yourself? You’ve become paranoid.”

“Paranoid? Don’t I have a reason to be? I been worried sick about—”

Daniel’s cell phone buzzed on the night table. He answered. His face went from twisted in irritation to limp with concern.

“What is it?” Aiden asked after Daniel clicked off the phone.

“That was Mark,” he said, staring toward where his feet poked under the bedcovers, the phone clamped in his large hand. “Leah’s real sick. She’s being rushed to the hospital in Decatur by ambulance.”

T
HE
fluorescent lights in the waiting area cast an eerie hue over the family. No one spoke. Rachel wrung her hands where she sat, staring at her clogs. Samuel, beside her, his gray face drawn, gripped his knees. His grizzled beard dragged across his lap. Daniel, seated between Grace and Heidi, stared down the long hallway. Mark, so mature looking while he sipped coffee from a paper cup, was the only one standing. Not even seventy-two hours married and he already sported the beginnings of the prominent Amish beard. Aiden, away from the others, sat in a corner. Elisabeth, David, and Moriah had stayed behind at the house with baby Gretchen.

After receiving Mark’s phone call, Daniel and Aiden had rushed to the farm in the Suburban to pick up the family and drive them to Decatur. With everyone’s weary eyes fixed on the dark farmland rushing past, Samuel had explained to Daniel and Aiden what had happened.

Leah, right after they’d put her down for the night, had suddenly lost her breath. At first they assumed she was having difficulty swallowing, the way she often did, but this time the spasms worsened. They struggled with her battery-operated suction device to remove the mucus that often built up inside her nasal cavity. Nothing they did worked. She had lost the ability to speak long sentences and had almost no use of her arms to make hand signals to tell them what was wrong. Not until she was near blue in the face did they realize she lacked oxygen.

Mark said he’d nearly raced past the phone shack, his head was so full of Leah. After calling 911, he immediately dialed for Daniel. He was grateful Rachel had tacked Daniel’s new cell phone number on the shack’s wall.

Rachel had ridden with Leah in the ambulance. She seemed the most weary. She told everyone after they’d arrived Leah had gone into complete paralysis during the thirty-minute trip to the hospital. It was the only time Aiden recalled seeing Samuel show overt affection for his wife. He’d put his arm around her waist and gently escorted her to where they both now sat.

Daniel regretted not being with the family to help. He had said on the drive to the farm, his hands clasped onto the steering wheel like a vice, that it would’ve been his responsibility to make the 911 call and, as the eldest son, to calm everyone’s fears. Samuel, too old for such tasks, shouldn’t be expected to shoulder all the family’s burdens. Soon Mark would be moving on with his own life, living on his own farm. And David? Daniel had said he was unsure what to expect from David anymore.

Everyone knew the day was coming. Aiden guessed people never prepared for such moments. Having seen Samuel swing his engli, as he’d often called Leah, high into the air many times, Aiden suspected Samuel, though he’d never flaunt his sorrow, would likely miss her the most. Remembering how Leah would laugh whenever her father lifted her toward the ceiling, Aiden agreed she did look like a little angel about to spread her wings and fly away.

How strange to be at Decatur Memorial Hospital again. The last time he’d wandered its halls was after Daniel had been injured in a buggy accident last year, a few days before Thanksgiving. That was when Samuel had confronted him and asked him to leave Henry for good. Here he was with the family, one year later, as if none of that had ever happened.

Aiden focused his attention outside the window. His reflection stared back at him. Small raindrops dotted the darkened pane. Leaning in closer, he noticed the drizzle had changed over to freezing.

He turned his back to the cold darkness. Inside was clean, bright, the fluorescent lights buzzing overhead, yet his thoughts matched the darkness outside.

Finally, after three hours of waiting, a doctor approached them.

The family gathered around him. The doctor, amiable but grave, told them Leah was in stable condition and would pull through. A collective sigh of relief circled the family, like a set of tires released of air.

“Right now, she’s on a small ventilator,” the doctor said. “We’ll probably be able to remove it in the morning. But she’ll have to start using a breathing machine regularly at night to prevent this from happening again. Most children with MLD eventually do.” He looked at Rachel and Samuel with tight lips. “The machine does require electricity. I know many in your community have utility lines hooked to their homes for medical purposes. It’s not a good idea to release her from the hospital until you can get a line set up by the utility company. Is your home wire ready?”

Samuel shook his head. “My father built the farmhouse many years ago. We have no electrical outlets.” His gray eyes were wide, pleading almost. “But the ministers will permit us to install a small breaker box for her needs, I’m sure.”

Rachel balled her hands under her chin. “But we probably won’t be able to get service until after Christmas, maybe after the New Year. She may have to stay in the hospital for a long time.”

“Maybe we can get a service drop on an emergency basis,” Daniel said, placing his hand on his mother’s shoulder. “I’ll call the utility company first thing in the morning.”

Samuel looked to his son. “That will be goot, Daniel, danke.”

The family’s unity touched Aiden. But their togetherness also troubled him. He chastised himself for having those same bitter resentments when little Leah and the family suffered.

“In the meantime,” the doctor went on, “family members can come back into the ICU to see her.” He eyed Aiden, the only one of the group wearing English clothes. He didn’t ask who he was or why he had come (perhaps he thought Aiden was their driver), but the look was clear. Family members only.

Aiden sat staring at the white tiled floor, his forearms pressed against his thighs, and wanted to understand why Daniel hadn’t ushered him along with the family to Leah’s bedside, despite the doctor’s obstinate insinuation. Daniel’s mind must’ve been too full of Leah to think about him. Or even to glance back with a reassuring smile before he and the family disappeared down the hall.

He peeked at their coats, tumbled in a heap on two chairs across from where he sat. His coat lay crumpled next to him.

Two hours later, Daniel and Aiden were heading back to the bed and breakfast in a freezing drizzle after having dropped the family at home. Aiden struggled to keep a positive attitude. He mentioned how nice it was that Leah’s medical expenses would be paid for by community funds earned from flea markets and livestock auctions. Daniel’s silence meant he’d either agreed or had too much flooding his mind to reply. Neither mentioned their argument prior to Mark’s telephoning.

Tension filled the truck. Tension about Leah, about how they failed to reach out to one other when they both needed comforting the most. For the first time since they’d been living together as a couple in Montana, Aiden feared touching Daniel. Aiden sank into his seat, his lips firm, and stared at the wet darkness speeding past.

Without warning, the truck skidded to the right. Intuitively, Daniel veered the truck in the direction of the skid. Aiden held onto the dash. They came to a jarring stop against a road sign halfway buried under a snow bank.

“The headlights don’t work,” Daniel said, toggling the switch. He got out and walked to the front of the truck.

Climbing back in, he said, “Both headlights are busted, the bumper’s dislodged, and I think we’re leaking coolant. We won’t be able to drive back to the inn in this condition. We’ll have to get a tow.”

Aiden leaned his head against the headrest. “Right when you think an already horrible night couldn’t get any worse,” he breathed.

Chapter Fourteen

N
EXT
morning, Aiden stayed at the inn while Daniel walked to the Amish-owned mechanics to check on the status of the Suburban. Last night, Aiden had been surprised when Daniel had told him the tow truck operator worked for a local Amish auto mechanic. According to Daniel, the Amish shop was one of the most renowned in the county, and people brought their vehicles there from as far as Champaign. An hour later, Daniel texted him that the truck wouldn’t be ready until after Christmas and one of the Amish mechanics would be giving him a buggy ride back to the farm, where he was going to help install the outlet for Leah’s ventilator.

Rather than be cooped up in the room, Aiden preferred to get some air. Apparently, Daniel did not want him at the farm, since he had not suggested Aiden meet him there. He figured he’d visit with Kevin and ask if he wanted to grab brunch. Although it was Christmas Eve, he knew his former boss well enough that he would be at work.

Sure enough, Kevin was at his office, but Aiden dared not enter. Through the frosty windowpane, he eyed Kevin and Carolyn, locked in a passionate embrace. His initial surprise mutated into envy. Aiden could not hug Daniel so brazenly anywhere in Henry. Not even in the privacy of their room at the inn. Only in the woods did Daniel allow Aiden to show him affection. The only critters to ever spy them expressing their love—handholding, hugging, kissing—were the woodland animals and the occasional wide-eyed hiker.

Watching Kevin and Carolyn’s blurry figures pressed against each other, Aiden longed to get back to Montana. To be with Daniel in their cabin. Or in their tent in the backcountry. Away from Henry.