The Heart's Journey: Stitches in Time Series #2 (3 page)

Nick appeared before her a few minutes later, holding a cup of coffee for each of them.

She blinked and took the cup from him. “I thought you’d gone.”

“I told you that I’m not leaving until we can take Leah home.”

Naomi bit her lip and glanced at the door where Leah had disappeared with a nurse.

“She’ll be okay,” he told her quietly. “She didn’t seem to have any injuries other than the ankle. But even if she had, she’s a strong woman.”

She found herself lapsing into thought again. Leah was strong, like Nick said.

A lot stronger than she was. Her grandmother wouldn’t be acting weak like she was right now, staying with someone she knew wasn’t right for her. Leah wouldn’t have fallen for someone like that in the first place. She was too smart. Too confident. Even when she’d lost her husband and the years passed, she never let anyone know she was lonely—even when it was easy to see the loneliness, the sadness in her eyes when she thought no one was watching. She’d never fallen in love with someone who charmed her.

And Leah would surely never let anyone pressure her into thinking she needed to have another
mann
to be a complete woman.

No one had pressured Naomi into becoming engaged. But so many of her friends from school had already married and had children by now. They’d given up their jobs while they took care of their young children and appeared so content they—

“Look who’s here,” Nick muttered, interrupting her thoughts.

Naomi glanced up and saw John striding toward her.

“When did you call him?”

“I didn’t,” she muttered. “He just … finds me.”

Nick stood, but John barely acknowledged him.

“What’s taking so long?” John asked, taking off his hat and impatiently tapping it against his knee.

Not,
Is she okay
?
Are
y
ou okay?
Naomi noted, then chided herself for being critical. After all, she was sitting here wishing they’d hurry up.

But that was because she was nervous having someone she loved behind a closed door. She needed to
see
that her grandmother was okay.

Just at that moment, a nurse stuck her head out the door and gestured to Naomi. She got up and hurried over.

“The doctor wants to talk to you.” She looked up, over Naomi’s shoulder. “You’ll have to wait here.”

Naomi glanced at John and saw that he was frowning at the woman. “But—”

“Sorry, sir,” the nurse said briskly, already turning away. “Miss, come with me.”

Leah was sitting on a gurney, listening intently to the young doctor pointing out something on her X-ray.

“How do you do,” he said, holding out his hand and pumping Naomi’s enthusiastically. “I was just explaining to Mrs. —”

“Leah,” she inserted.

“Leah,” he said, returning his attention to the X-ray. “I was just pointing out to Leah here that it doesn’t look like anything’s broken, but she’s got a nasty sprain.”

He looked at Naomi. “I have a question for you. I understand you’re Leah’s granddaughter. Tell me, how is she about listening to what a doctor asks her to do? How is she about bed rest?”

Naomi’s mouth quirked. “Well, I don’t remember her ever being hurt like this. And she’s never sick. But she can’t sit still for two minutes.”

Leah sniffed. The doctor laughed.

“I suspected so. My mother doesn’t sit still, either. I don’t think any of them do.”

“Well, I’m a grandmother, but thank you, young man,” Leah told him.

The doctor raised his eyebrows, then turned to the X-ray. “I think it’s a bad sprain. I don’t see any fracture.” He handed her a printout. “Follow these directions and call your own doctor for a follow-up appointment.”

Naomi helped her into the wheelchair and wheeled her to the checkout window.

“This is ridiculous,” Leah muttered as she read the sheet in her hands. “I can’t stay off my feet this long. I have a shop to run, a house to take care of.”

“We can take care of everything,” Naomi told her. “Let’s just get you home.”

“Nick! You stayed!” Leah exclaimed.

He walked toward them. “I told you I would. I’ll go get the van and pick the two of you up at the door.”

“I can take them home,” John told them.

“Hello, John,” Leah said quietly. “I didn’t know you were here.”

“Mary Katherine told me where she was when I went by the shop.”

“Do you have your buggy outside?” Nick asked him.

“No, a friend dropped me off. I can call a driver.”

“One’s already here,” Leah said quietly but firmly. “Nick stayed to take us home, so I’d like him to do so.”

She turned to Naomi. “Let’s go. I can’t wait to get my ankle up.”

“When will I see you?” John asked, putting his hand on Naomi’s arm as she began pushing the wheelchair toward the door.

She stiffened and glanced down at his hand, then into his eyes. “I’m sorry, I’ll have to take care of Grandmother tonight so it’ll have to be another time.”

“But—” He sighed and dropped his hand. “Of course.”

“If you need a ride home, I can drop you off on the way,” Nick told him as they started walking toward the exit.

“
Danki
,” John said.

But Naomi noticed he didn’t look very happy about it. Nick pulled the van up to the ER entrance and they piled in—Naomi and Leah in the back, John riding shotgun with Nick.

Leah allowed herself to be persuaded to turn sideways on the backseat and rest her ankle on Naomi’s lap. A nurse had filled a plastic bag with ice, wrapped it in a towel, and sent it with them for the ride. Naomi held it in place as they rode.

“How’s the pain?”

“I’ll live,” Leah said, managing a smile.

But Naomi saw the pain in her eyes and squeezed her hand to comfort her.

When she glanced up, she saw Nick give her a brief glance in the rearview mirror. Just as she met his gaze, John looked back at her and saw her looking at Nick, and something in his eyes flashed, an expression she recognized: anger.

Nothing was said, but it didn’t have to be. Naomi was sure the look lasted only a moment. It felt like minutes. She let out a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding when he turned back in his seat.

She felt her hand being squeezed and realized that her grandmother was sending her a silent message.

Nick slowed the car, flicked on the turn signal, and pulled into the parking lot of a drugstore. After he stopped the car,
he turned in his seat. “Give me the prescription and I’ll run in and get it filled.”

“There’s no need,” Leah told him.

He held out his hand. “Trust me, you’re going to need it later. These things always feel worse in the middle of the night. I ran track in college and had my share of injuries. Now hand it over.”

With a sigh, Leah pulled the prescription from her purse and handed it to him with a twenty.

He got out, ran through a drizzle that had begun to fall, and disappeared into the drugstore.

Naomi watched John stare in the direction Nick had gone. It was so quiet in the car you could hear a pin drop.

“An ice bag,” Leah said suddenly. “And some Epsom salts to soak my ankle tomorrow.”

She winced as she moved her foot from Naomi’s lap and rested it on the floorboard of the car. Reaching into her purse, she withdrew another twenty and pressed it into Naomi’s hand.

“Will you go get that for me?”

John turned in the front seat. “I can go.”

“No,
danki
, young man,” Leah told him. “Naomi knows what I need.” She made a shooing motion with her hands at Naomi.

Then she turned to John and smiled a smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “Besides, you and I haven’t had much opportunity to talk and get to know each other, have we, young man?”

Naomi glanced back as she got out of the van. John gave her a beseeching look. Biting back a smile, she closed the van door and started toward the drugstore entrance.

“She looks depressed.”

“I know.”

“What are we going to do?”

Naomi motioned with her hand for Mary Katherine and Anna to move back so she could close the door to the cozy little back room of the shop.

“She’s been that way ever since she got the postcard this morning,” Naomi said as she filled the teakettle and set it on the stove to boil.

“Postcard?” Anna asked as she dug into the cookie jar.

“From Florida,” Mary Katherine told her, taking the cookie jar away. “Save some of these for other people.”

“But you’re not eating them,” Anna protested.

“Some of us have self-restraint.”

Anna made a face at Mary Katherine as she got out mugs and set them on the table.

“She won’t stay home and when she’s here all she does is stare out the window. We have to do something.” She sighed. “She wouldn’t have had her accident if she hadn’t been rushing after me that day. All this because I needed to get away for a few minutes and calm down.” She sighed again.

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.