The Harvest of Grace (16 page)

Thirteen

When Grey stepped out of the shower, he heard voices in his kitchen. He wrapped a towel around his waist and opened his bedroom door a crack. “Mamm? Is that you?”

“Ya. We brought supper. Hope you don’t mind.”

“Ya, actually I do. So we must destroy the evidence as quickly as possible.”

His Daed laughed. “I agree.”

“
Dabber
, Daed,” Grey’s five-year-old son pleaded.
“Ich bin hungerich!”
Ivan urged his Daed to hurry, but cheerfulness was evident in his voice.

Grey had left work a little early that afternoon and taken Ivan fishing, which he did sometimes on Fridays. They’d had fun, but by the time he’d cleaned the fish, bathed Ivan, and then taken a quick shower, they’d both grown quite hungry. Besides, whatever his Mamm had prepared would be better than anything he could fix, including freshly caught fish. He was glad his parents had come over. The house was too quiet most weekend nights.

“Ich kumm glei naus.”
Grey assured his son he’d be out soon. He’d been teaching Ivan more English, as Lennie had suggested. Ivan was catching on well, but Pennsylvania Dutch was still much more comfortable for him.

After Grey dressed, he walked over to his nightstand and slid the letter he’d been writing to Lennie into a drawer under his T-shirts. He’d finish that later. He didn’t mind his parents knowing, and when they did find out, they’d be happy for him. But in the fall, when he and Lennie began courting, he didn’t want his parents put on the spot if someone asked when the relationship had begun. As for himself, he didn’t care who thought what. He’d been faithful to his wife in every nuance of the word even years after she’d shut him out of her life.

Walking into the kitchen, he rubbed his hands together. “Edible food. There’s nothing quite like it.” He took plates from the cabinet and began setting the table.

His Mamm laughed. “Ivan says you cook pretty good.”

“I’m not bad but nothing like you, Mamm.”

They were halfway through the meal when someone knocked on the front door.

“Kumm.”

Ephraim stepped inside and bid everyone a warm hello.

Mamm fetched a plate. “Kumm. Eat with us. There’s more than enough.”

“I can’t stay. Cara’s expecting me at Ada’s House.” He shifted, looking a little uncomfortable. “I didn’t mean to interrupt your dinner.”

“It’s no problem,” Grey said. “What’s up?”

Ephraim handed him a paper that showed the layout of a room. “Israel needs some measurements taken for a set of cabinets he wants built in his shop. I was hoping we could get the information logged this weekend and begin work next week, but I can’t get to it. I was busy doing the books for the shop and lost track of time. I should’ve been in Hope Crossing an hour ago.”

Grey looked over the diagram. “There’s no description of the type of wood.”

“Israel said to check with Lena. He’s wanted this done for a while, and the two of them can’t agree on exactly what’s needed.”

Ephraim had brought Grey exactly what he needed: a legitimate reason to be at Lennie’s—one that would hold up no matter who dropped by unannounced.

Mamm scowled. “I have a question.”

Grey’s Mamm always had questions, lots of them.

She put her elbows on the table and folded her hands. “Israel makes furniture for a living. Why would he hire you to build a set of cabinets?”

“Probably because we can build it faster and better,” Grey said. “That is our skilled area, Mamm, just like Israel could build a kitchen table and chairs faster and better than we could.”

“Okay. That makes sense. So, Ephraim, have you and Cara set a wedding date yet?”

He shook his head, maintaining a casual posture. “We’re hoping for fall, but the languages are giving her some trouble.”

“I ’spect so,” Grey’s Daed said. “If I’d had to learn our languages from scratch as an adult, it would’ve made me think twice about even trying to join.”

“Ya. She’s pretty frustrated right now. And I’d better be going before she’s frustrated with more than just the language.”

Grey’s parents laughed.

Grey walked out with Ephraim. Robbie sat in his truck, waiting. “I appreciate this, Ephraim.”

“I think she stayed home tonight, although that could’ve changed if one of her friends dropped by.”

Lennie had a lot of energy and even more friends, so it was very possible he’d arrive and she’d be elsewhere. Grey went back inside. He saw his parents nearly every weeknight, and he enjoyed their company, but right now he wished they’d head home so he could go see Lennie. The minutes dragged into two hours before his parents left with Ivan.

Grey hitched his horse to a rig. Pitch black painted itself across the summer sky, and he thought he heard thunder rumble in the distance as he drove toward Lennie’s. When he arrived, he couldn’t see any light coming from her home or her Daed’s furniture shop. Disappointment bit.

He pulled farther onto the driveway. The greenhouse glowed dimly, reminding him of a full moon against a field of damp, ripe hay. After tethering the reins to a hitching post, he strode toward one of Lennie’s favorite havens. It tended to be muggy inside the greenhouse in summer, but she’d put in screened doors and windows so she could enjoy working in it at night, free of the day’s overbearing sun and the night’s pesky mosquitoes.

He went to the door and started to knock, thinking that’d be less startling than just barging in. When he heard a man’s voice, he went inside, expecting to find Lennie and her Daed.

Instead, Aaron sat on one of the long workbenches, talking seriously. Lennie stood at another workbench, her back to Grey and her side to Aaron. An oversized pot sat in front of her, and Nicky lay on the dirt floor nearby, watching and wagging her tail.

It felt right to see Elsie’s brother like this. Grey knew firsthand the struggles the young man had been through, and right now he looked better than Grey had ever seen him—healthy, sober, as if he’d found an inner compass. But a twinge of concern pricked him.

“Grey.” Aaron nodded casually.

Lennie wheeled around, a beautiful smile greeting him. Her gloved hands were covered in potting soil, although he couldn’t imagine what needed to be potted in mid-June. Her eyes moved to his and stayed. “Grey.” Pulling off her gloves, she walked to him. “What brings you here tonight?”

When she moved in close, he couldn’t find his voice. He pulled the work order from his pocket.

Pleasure danced in her gorgeous bluish green eyes as she took the paperwork from him. “Oh, for Daed’s shop?”

“Ya.” He pointed at the schematic. “But he’s asking for an abundance of storage space for the amount of room we have to build in.”

“We’ve talked about it before, but it’s been a while. Give me a minute, and I’ll walk over with you.” She went to her workbench. “Are these cabinets going to be open faced?”

“It’s my understanding that he’s leaving that up to you.”

“That’s because he’s playing chicken.” She opened a tube of glue, spread it on the edge of a broken pot, and squeezed two pieces together before passing it to Aaron. “Hold it just like that. If you do, I’ll come by your place tomorrow and invite Sylvia to an outing tomorrow night or Sunday.”

Aaron mocked frustration. “But you already agreed to do that.”

“Ya, and now I’ve added a price tag. Stay put. I’ve wanted that pot glued for quite a while. Now that you’ve volunteered to hold it just so for the next several hundred minutes …”

“Lena.” Aaron elongated her name, fussing and laughing. Then he shifted his attention. “Grey, any chance you’d be willing to help milk the cows once in a while?”

“I’m willing. I helped your Daed whenever I could right after you left. But then he hired a young woman …”

“Sylvia Fisher.”

“Ya, that’s her name.”

“And I bet she asked you not to come anymore.”

“She was nice about it, but ya.”

“See, Lena, I told you. Sylvi is weird. Who turns down good help in exchange for the grand prize of working seven days straight, week after week?”

“Sylvia, I suppose.”

Grey listened to the banter, and the concern tugged at him again. “Lena.”

She looked surprised, but he didn’t know why. She pointed at Aaron. “You stay.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

When she opened the door, Nicky bolted ahead of them. Lena left the greenhouse, carrying a lantern. Grey followed her, and she gave him the light.

“You called me Lena,” she whispered as they walked across the dark yard toward the small shop behind the house.

“So?”

Laughing softly, she dug a skeleton key out of her pocket and shoved it into the lock on the shop’s door. “I don’t know that I’ve ever heard my real name come from your lips.”

“What are you doing?” His muted voice fell against the humid air.

Jiggling the key, she looked up at him. “Currently I’m fighting this door. In a moment I’m hoping to be kissed.”

He took over the key but couldn’t make it open the lock. “I don’t think you realize how much Aaron likes you. He’s home and sober, and maybe he’s looking for a girl.”

“He’s doing no such thing. Not by coming here, anyway.”

The door jarred as he finally unlocked it. “You’ve been his only connection within this community for months. He wrote to you at least once a week. And you answered, right?”

“Sure. But this is Aaron. I know him, and he’d never think like that toward me.” She set the lantern on a workbench. “We’re friends.”

“Just be a little more … distant in your responses to him.” He slid his hand into hers. “For his sake.”

“Okay.” She tilted her head back. “I miss you. It was so much easier to get quality time at Allen’s back when we were just friends.”

“I even let you win at checkers.” Her scent of lavender mixed with roses and violets drifted into his soul.

She smiled up at him. “Evenings and mornings and weekends will be ours soon enough.”

He squeezed her hand and lowered his lips to hers. The soft sweetness of her called to him.

The screen door to the greenhouse banged shut, and he knew Aaron was heading their way. “Aaron,” he whispered, brushing her cheek with a kiss.

She caressed his hand before putting several feet between them and then motioned toward the empty wall. “How deep does Daed want the cabinet?”

“Hey, Lena,” Aaron called as his footsteps echoed off the small wooden porch of the shop.

“Ya?”

He opened the door and walked in. “I think the pot is secure enough to hold together while it finishes drying, and I need to head out. It’s been thundering, and I have to get back so I can promise Sylvia it won’t rain.”

“You can’t promise that.”

Concern flashed through his eyes. “Well, I can’t make it come true, but I can and will promise it.”

“Why?”

“Because she knows the hay we’ve cut will lose at least half its value if it rains before we get it baled and out of the field.”

It sat well with Grey that Aaron seemed to care how the farm was doing. He’d never seen that in him before.

“Grey, would you give him a lift home?” Lena asked. “After cutting hay all day, he walked here.”

Grey folded the papers and shoved them back into his pocket. He knew that underneath Lennie’s request to give Aaron a ride was her desire for Grey to spend a little time with his son’s grandparents. After the way Michael, as head of the school board, had refused to stand up for her last year, he found it illogical that she cared so much about him and Dora. But he appreciated that she did.

“Sure.”

Fourteen

From the dessert booth in Ada’s front yard, Cara kept an eye on the road, looking for Ephraim. When the sun finally went down, the temperatures dropped, but humidity clung to the air as thunder rumbled. The streetlights illuminated the area surrounding Ada’s House, and shots of lightning blazed across the distant sky. The storm seemed to be skirting them.

After a day of helping Deborah and Ada bake in a hot kitchen, she soaked in the cool reprieve. Deborah ran the register, and Cara boxed up the orders as they sold one dessert after another. Customers buzzed everywhere.

She noticed an unfamiliar rig come to a halt about halfway down the block. Amish friends in carriages didn’t park down the block. They used the hitching post or the barn behind the house.