Rebecca's Rose (2 page)

“I do not slink.”

“Afraid someone will see you?”

“I am not afraid of anything.”

“Apparently not.” His eyes twinkled. “Rebecca Miller, the skiing Amish girl. Sounds like a good name for a punk-rock band.”

“I do not know how to ski. I want to learn.”

“Really? Why does an Amish girl need to know how to ski?”

“It sounds exciting. The Amish life is not very exciting.”

“I don’t know about that. I’ll bet milking cows has its appeal,” Levi said.

“Only the first hundred times or so.”

Rebecca had almost forgotten the pain in her elbow when Levi’s probing uncovered another shard of glass embedded in her skin. As the gauze pad scraped against it, she cried out and pulled her arm away.

Levi grimaced. “I’m so sorry. Did I push too hard?”

She cradled her head in her hand and tried to keep the room from spinning. “I think there’s another piece of glass.”

“Let me see.”

With her eyes closed, she took a deep breath and showed him her elbow.

“Ouch,” he said. He handed her the gauze pad to stanch the blood. “Tweezers. I need tweezers.”

Levi looked through the first-aid kit and produced a pair. “This will hurt,” he said.

“I’ve had worse,” she said.

“I’ll bet you have.”

The piece of glass had lodged rather stubbornly under Rebecca’s skin, and Levi tried four times to get a good grip before he succeeded in pulling it out. Rebecca gasped only once and stifled any emotion she was sorely tempted to show. It was a thin half-inch shard, and her cut bled anew when Levi removed it.

He took another gauze pad, poured some antiseptic on it, and gently pushed on her cut. “Any more foreign objects?”

Rebecca shook her head and took a deep breath.

“I still think you need stitches, kid.”

“I’ll be fine. And my name is Rebecca. Unless you want me to start calling you
lad
.”

Levi chuckled. “Sorry, Rebecca. I stand corrected.”

He took more gauze pads from the box, along with a roll of white tape and a small yellow tube. “Now you will get to see my skill in dressing a wound.”

“Do you think you can do a good enough job? I do not want you cutting off my circulation.”

“If your arm falls off, I’ll gladly refund your money.”

He smeared the clear paste on her cut then laid gauze pads over the broken skin and taped them securely. His movements were as gentle as if he were working on a newborn baby. Finally he wrapped a good portion of her arm with a flexible bandage.

“This should keep the gauze in place but still let you move a bit. No skateboarding for at least a week, though. And no skiing, either.” The playful lilt of his voice assured Rebecca that he wasn’t making fun of her, at least not in an unkind way.

“Do you know how to ski?” she asked.

“Sure. But Wisconsin skiing is only fun if you’ve never skied in Utah or Colorado.”

Rebecca swallowed the very big lump in her throat and charged ahead. “Could you teach me how to ski?”

“Me?”

“Not one person I know can ski except for Jacob Glick, and I refuse to let him take me anywhere. You seem smart enough, and I really need to learn.”

Levi sprouted a peculiar look on his face and folded his arms across his chest. “Now, wait a minute, kid. We only just met. How do I know you’re a fun date?”

“Date? I don’t want a date.” Ach, she almost shuddered at the thought. “I want to learn how to ski. I can pay.”

“I don’t want your money. If I take a girl skiing, it’s a date. I won’t take a day off work for a gal pal. I have a reputation to live up to.”

“All right, then, it will be a date. How about in November? When it snows.”

“How about this Friday at the Cowtown Grill? I need to get to know you first, see if you’re a good prospect for skiing lessons. See if you’ve got what it takes to be my date.”

“How will you…what do you want me to do?” Rebecca said, balling her hands into tight fists.

“Meet me there and we can talk. Maybe catch a movie.”

A movie? What if it was something inappropriate? She’d cross that bridge when she came to it. “And then you will take me skiing?”

Levi looked up at the ceiling and considered the question. “It might take three or four dates to really figure you out. Are you up for it?”

Rebecca’s mind raced. She was foolish to think she could spare even a minute. Chores at home demanded all her time, and
Fater
would never approve. But she knew she would have to go behind his back to do the skiing anyway. What would a few outings with Levi matter?

She needed experiences—the kind she wouldn’t find on her little farm in Apple Lake. Before they even went skiing, she might be able to convince Levi to take her places she’d never be able to manage by herself and help her check things off her list. She really wanted to finish that list and fulfill her promise to Dottie Mae.

She would simply make time, even if it meant sacrificing sleep to do what must be done.

The downside? He’d expect something in return, like all Englisch boys did.

“What’s in it for you?” she said softly, almost in hopes that he wouldn’t hear.

He looked confused for a minute and then shook his head. “No strings attached, kid. You want my help, and I’m a nice guy. Maybe you can help me make a few girls jealous before we actually go skiing.”

“Okay,” she said, more doubtful than ever. “I will meet you on Friday night. But only because I want to help uphold your reputation.”

He sprouted a grin that seemed brighter, contrasted with his tan face. “Thanks for your help.”

She handed him the ice packs from her knees. He took her hand as she gingerly rose to her feet.

“Better, kid?” he asked.

“I will be able to walk home well enough, lad.”

He threw back his head and laughed. “Sorry. I’ll try not to do it again.” He supported her as she took a few steps. “You’re not walking home.”

“Jah, I am.”

“I’ll drive you. We have to stop off at the health clinic first anyway. I refuse to date a girl with lockjaw. You’re getting a tetanus shot.”

“Levi, get up.”

Levi heard his sister’s voice, but it sounded as if his head were submerged in a tub of gelatin. He rolled over in bed but couldn’t seem to open his eyes. Groaning softly, he wrapped his pillow around his ears.

“It’s two thirty in the afternoon,” Beth said.

Levi opened his eyes to slits and tried to focus on Beth. She pulled up the blinds, and he screamed like a vampire caught in the glaring sun.

Beth put her hands on her hips. “Don’t mess with me, Levi Cooper,” she said in that exasperated tone she used with him when he really screwed up.

He rolled onto his stomach and turned away from the window. “Five more minutes,” he mumbled.

Beth sat on the mattress and bounced up and down.

Levi moaned. “Don’t, don’t. My head weighs a ton.”

Beth kept bouncing while Levi grunted and groaned. “What time did you get in last night?” she asked.

“I can’t remember.”

“You were in bed when I left for school this morning.”

Levi turned onto his back and made his eyes focus on his sister’s face. He gave her what he hoped passed for a smile. “Why are you still going to school? You’re supposed to skip the last week of class during senior year.”

Beth grinned at him sheepishly. “I’m going for a hundred percent attendance.”

“Always the overachiever. I skipped my entire last semester.”

“It’s a miracle you managed to graduate.”

“They felt sorry for me.”

“Well, nobody feels sorry for me, and somebody has to uphold the family name.”

Levi sat up in bed and cradled his head in his hands. “I gladly give that responsibility to you.”

Beth reached over to the small table next to Levi’s bed and picked up the glass of water that had been sitting there for a week. He glanced at it and shook his head.

“Do you want some Tylenol?”

Again Levi shook his head.

“You didn’t miss work today, did you?” she said.

“I don’t work on Wednesdays. Don’t worry, I haven’t missed work yet because of a hangover.”

“I’m afraid it’s only a matter of time,” Beth said, patting her brother on the arm.

“Ouch. Even my skin hurts.”

“Oh, stop, you big baby. Get up before Mom sees you like this.”

Levi sank into his pillow. “I always time it perfectly so that when Mom walks through the door at five-seventeen, I am showered, shaved, and looking like the model son. She has no clue of my undercover work as an international spy.”

“Is that what you do till all hours of the night?” Beth said. “And here I thought you went out drinking with Tara.”

Levi pressed his hands to his eyes. “We broke up.”

Beth, ever calm and levelheaded, folded her arms and studied Levi’s face. “When did this happen?”

“Last week.”

“Your idea or hers?”

“Mine. I caught her with Eddie Manville in the back of his truck. Don’t tell anybody. She was pretty mad about it.”

“After she was the one caught?” Beth stifled a grin. “Well, good. She’s a player, and she was using you.” Beth jumped off the bed and clapped her hands together. “I think we should celebrate your breakup.”

“You’ll regret acting so happy if I get back together with her.”

Groaning, Beth sank back onto the bed. “You’re not going to be that stupid, are you? After how she’s treated you?”

“That’s the way Tara is with guys. It doesn’t mean anything.”

Beth scowled. “You’re twenty-one years old and yet still so gullible.”

Levi couldn’t meet her gaze. His reasons didn’t sound very convincing even to him. “I broke up with her because I want her to feel sorry enough to come groveling for forgiveness. Teach her a lesson. Make her jealous and show her what she’s giving up for Eddie Manville and his truck.”

“Sounds like a good plan. Make sure she knows you’re going to break up with her every time she makes out with another guy. That’ll show her who’s boss.”

Levi looked away then brushed off the scolding. He knew what he was doing. “Hey, be nice. I’m just coming off a relationship, and my feelings are very fragile right now.”

Beth cracked a smile. “Oh, give me a break. I haven’t seen you cry yet, and you always cry.” She stood and pulled on her brother’s hand. “Will you at least get up and help me clean the kitchen before Mom gets home?”

“That little four-by-six-foot space with a fridge in it? You can do it yourself in about three minutes.”

“Levi, flake out on me and you’ll end up with your hands in a bowl of warm water while you sleep.”

Levi sat up and put his feet on the floor. His head throbbed painfully, but he wouldn’t indulge the urge to lie back down. The cloudy head and roiling stomach were natural consequences of drinking too much, but he wouldn’t give up liquor anytime soon. Alcohol dulled a worse pain.

“I’m coming,” he said. “Just let me throw up first.”

Beth stood in the doorway with her hand on the doorjamb and eyed her brother. “Mom knows about the drinking, by the way.”

Levi put his face in his hands and focused his blurry vision on the threadbare carpet. “I know,” he said.

By the time their mother came home, Levi and Beth had the kitchen as clean as it would ever be. The forty-year-old cabinets and moldy caulking around the kitchen sink could only be made to look so good.

Levi swiped a towel across the counter as Mom walked through the door. She threw her purse on the small table and plopped onto the sofa in her scrubs without even looking up.

“Hey, Mom,” Levi said.

Instead of answering, she frowned as her eyes moved back and forth across the sheet of paper she clutched in her hand.

“Is anything wrong?” Levi asked.

She stared at the paper and took a deep breath.

Both Beth and Levi marched to the sofa and sat on either side of their mother. As if noticing both her children for the first time, she dropped the paper facedown in her lap and smiled weakly. “Everything will turn out right, Lord willing.”

“What does it say, Mom?” Levi asked, putting his arm around her.

“It’s from your father’s attorney.” She handed Levi the paper and looked up to heaven before pinching the bridge of her nose, the place where her headaches usually started. “We knew this would happen. Beth turns eighteen in three weeks.”

“‘The last child-support payment for your daughter, Beth Cooper, is enclosed,’” Levi read. “‘My client regrets to inform you that he is unable to support your daughter in her college studies, and all financial obligations end with the receipt of this payment.’”

Beth grasped her mother’s arm. “You asked him to pay for my college?”

Mom sighed. “I thought it was worth a try.”

Levi crushed the letter into a ball and chucked it across the room. “You shouldn’t have wasted the paper.”

“Your father has his own finances to worry about,” Mom said. “We can’t expect him to—”

“Why are you always defending him?” Levi said. “The guy is stinking rich. He left us. He left us and then got a really good lawyer who managed to bleed us dry because you didn’t want a fight.”

“I thought that if it turned nasty, you children would be hurt.”

Levi leaped from the sofa and slapped the nearest wall loudly. “You don’t have to justify yourself, Mom. Dad knew how you would react. He took advantage of your good heart because his new girlfriend didn’t want you to get a cent in the divorce. I hate him.”

Mom, who was all of five feet two inches, got up and wrapped her arms around Levi’s waist. She had given up years ago in trying to reach her arms around his neck. He stood a full foot taller. “Come,” she said. “Sit, and we will talk.”

“I don’t want to talk, Mom.”

“You don’t have to carry this.”

He pulled away from his mother’s arms, resisting her efforts to comfort him. “You’ve talked at me until you’re blue in the face, Mom. I’ve heard it all before. It doesn’t help.”

“The weight of unforgiveness is crushing you,” Mom said. “You’ve got to forgive your father, and you must forgive yourself.”

“My so-called dad doesn’t deserve forgiveness. If I forgave him, it would be like pretending he didn’t do anything wrong.”