Malena’s heart kicked into a gallop. She could hardly believe his daring at touching her in public. He looked as surprised at himself as she was. But someone had to do something—say something—
He showed her his fingertip.
Frosting.
She let out a breath and chuckled. “Denki.” She must make it look like a joke. He was being playful, that was all. “Mamm says that when I was a baby, I enjoyed my food with my whole face. I guess nothing’s changed.”
“Deborah is like that now,” Rebecca said, her easy tone smoothing the moment over. “It runs in the family.”
“Nothing wrong with enjoying your food,” Alden said. “God provided it for us—I’m sure He knows it shows gratitude.”
“That’s right,” Ruby said, a smile in her quiet voice. “Imagine going to all the trouble of cooking a big meal, and people picking at it and complaining. I wouldn’t want to make your mother feel that way, never mind the Lord.”
“That’s why we say grace, isn’t it?” Noah said. “We say thank you before, and enjoying food is a way to say it during.”
“Some churches say grace again afterward,” Malena added.
“That’s a lot of gratitude,” Cord said, tipping his head back to toss a loaded corn chip into his mouth. “Especially for a bunch of people who just ate at … what was their name?” he asked Zach.
“Bontragers’.”
“You were the one who wanted to come,” Malena reminded him. “Was it what you expected?”
He shook his head. “I didn’t know what to expect. What’s with the girls on one side, boys on the other?”
She lifted a shoulder. “It’s the same in church.”
“But you guys are dating.”
Puzzled, Alden said, “So?”
“I don’t know. You could hold hands under the table. That’s a missed opportunity in my book.”
“We don’t display affection publicly like that,” Noah told him. “If somebody did, they’d get ribbed about it forever.”
“Besides, if we’re singing a hymn, we’re supposed to be thinking about the words and what they mean, not about who’s holding our hand,” Malena said.
“Is that what you do?” Cord’s voice was a silky challenge. “Think about hymns and God and not about Stolzfus here?”
She was not going to let him tarnish those sweet moments of listening to Alden sing. Of being glad that of all the places she could be, she had managed to be right across from him through no planning of her own. As though der Herr had chivvied the two of them gently into place, right where He wanted them.
She lifted her chin. “What I think about in the privacy of my own mind is none of your business.”
He laughed. “Gotcha. Of course you were thinking about your boyfriend. Nobody can be that religious.”
The word seemed to echo in a room gone suddenly silent.
Alden could practically hear the others wondering if they should reply or not. But someone had to say something. “I guess it depends on how you’re brought up,” he said in as measured a tone as he could muster. “Most people don’t come into a person’s home and criticize them, for instance.”
Cord jumped on him like a rooster on a lizard. “I wasn’t criticizing her.”
“Glad to hear it.”
Cord leaned back in the easy chair and a mask seemed to fall over his face. A mask that looked world-weary and a little dangerous. As though it might be one of the parts he’d played in the past, or was trying on for size. “You have something against me, Stolzfus?”
The room was still so quiet Alden could hear Naomi’s engagement clock ticking on the oak mantel.
Malena shook her head, as though answering a different question. “No, that’s not it. He’s a working rancher, remember, not one of those men riding motorcycles. “He’d say you got, too. And more quietly, like he doesn’t really care, because he’s stared down a coyote and a mountain lion, and another man doesn’t hold much of a threat for him.”
What nonsense was this? Who was she talking about?
Cord stared at her, too, his eyes rounding slightly. “Are you giving me notes?”
“I don’t know what that is, but whoever that was just now, it wasn’t you. And it wasn’t this man you’re going to play in Ride Forever.”
Alden let out a long breath. Now he saw what she’d done.
“Well, I’ll be.” Cord rose and stood there a moment, hands on hips, shaking his head.
“There,” she said, pointing at him. “My father does it just that way.”
“You think I should play him like Reuben?”
Zach laughed, and Malena joined in. “If you did, it’d be an awfully quiet movie,” Zach said. “Our father doesn’t say much.”
“But you have a point. I should be studying the characters I have all around me. They’re authentic.” He waved a hand vaguely in the direction of the downstairs bedrooms. “I have to make some notes. Good night.”
And before anyone could say a word, he strode down the hall without even lighting a lantern. Alden hoped there was one in his room.
“What just happened?” Ruby wondered aloud in Deitsch when they heard the bedroom door close. “Did I miss a whole conversation somewhere?”
“Noah can tell you,” Rebecca said, “if you’d like a ride home. It’s pretty late to be out on the highway, and it’s on his way.”
“That’d be nice. Denki, Noah. Becca, I’d love the recipe for those cupcakes sometime. You know Dat’s sweet tooth.”
And just like that, the living room emptied. Ruby left with Noah, with whom it was safe to accept a ride because he was taken, and Zach and Rebecca went upstairs, leaving Alden alone with Malena … just as if they really were courting.
Suddenly he didn’t know what to do with his hands—the hands that made his living, that held the reins. The hands that still felt the softness of Malena’s skin as he’d swiped away that bit of frosting. Better to put them to work.
He collected the dishes and took them into the kitchen, where Malena was already filling the sink with hot water.
“How did you manage to do that just now?” he asked quietly, aware that her parents’ room was just on the other side of the wall.
She made a sound like hmph. “The quickest way to distract that boy is to make it about him. Did you see him pull on that face like a mask? I knew he was playing a part. So I pretended I was—oh, I don’t know. A teacher?”
“You did well. And got rid of him, too. Bonus.”
She huffed a silent laugh while he found a dish towel and began to dry their mugs. “I have to say I wasn’t expecting our first date to be like this.”
“This wasn’t a date,” he protested. “It was just a ride home.”
“But it was interesting. Fun. Eventful.” She turned her head to smile at him as she washed the saucepan, and he lost his train of thought.
Her skin looked as soft as a rose petal in the lamplight. And the twin dents in her cheeks just invited kisses pressed into each one. His gaze found hers. The saucepan made a muffled sound as it fell from loosened fingers and submerged itself in the soapsuds.
If she had been a magnet and he a piece of iron, he could not have resisted her pull any less. Her lips parted in surprise, as though something in her recognized something in him that she had never seen before.
He bent just a little—his lashes drifted down—
Someone cleared his throat and Malena sucked in a breath and seized the saucepan, scrubbing it within an inch of its life.
Reuben Miller’s lips twitched as he opened a cupboard door. “Thought I might get a drink of water.” He’d taken the time to pull on a pair of pants and a shirt before he came into the kitchen, though his feet were bare. “You still here, Alden?”
“Just—” Alden’s throat closed. “Just helping Malena.”
“I see that.”
What did he mean? Alden’s thoughts flapped around in his skull like crows scared out of a tree.
“Cord go out?” He drained the glass of water and handed it to his daughter.
“Neh.” Malena washed it, handed it to Alden, then pulled the plug and scrubbed down the sink. “He went to his room just before the others left.”
“He’s here?” Malena nodded. “Well. Gut. Means he’ll get up at the regular time.” He walked over to the entry to the hall. “Guess I’ll leave you two. Don’t be up too late.”
“Dat, wait.” Malena hung the cloth up to dry and leaned on the counter as her father came back in. “Cord’s last day is Wednesday. What if we had a fishing frolic and fish for supper?”
Reuben nodded. “Sounds good. You’re sure he’s leaving?”
“You agreed to a week, Dat. Unless his trainer comes. I’m going to run him through roping a hay bale from a moving horse tomorrow.”
“I’m due at the Rocking Diamond to shoe their second trail string on Tuesday,” Alden said.
Reuben moved a little closer, though they were speaking in Deitsch and even if Cord could hear, he wouldn’t understand. “I have to say, I’ll be glad when he moves on. Seems like all our conversations these days revolve around him. Not sure two hundred dollars a day is worth that. Mei Fraa says we may as well have a television in the house.”
“I suppose an actor is the next best thing to having a movie walking around,” Alden agreed with a grin.
“Sooner he’s back where he belongs, the better I’ll feel.” Reuben’s gaze settled on Malena. “You’re all right, Dochsder? The burden seems to be falling on you and I’m regretting it.”
“I’m all right, Dat. I’ve got Alden to protect me.” She smiled up at him, and Alden felt the flush climbing in his cheeks. Somehow the thought of deceiving this man even a little felt wrong.
Malena clearly saw it. “I mean it, Dat. Alden and I are pretending to date so Cord will keep his distance.”
That gaze, that could be so compassionate for a hurt calf or so full of laughter with delight in his children, chilled to the point Alden could almost feel the temperature drop. Like a storm front moving in on a sunny day.
“He giving you grief? If he is, he’s off this property tonight.”
Malena put a hand on her father’s arm. “Neh, truly. He’s done a bit of flirting, and the quilt auction—” When her throat closed, he put his own ropy hand over hers. “Well, I can’t say I’m happy he won my quilt, but what’s done is done,” she finished softly. “Anyway, Alden agreed to pretend to be my boyfriend for two weeks. Until Cord is gone back to wherever he came from.”
“Pretend, nix?” Reuben patted her hand and released it. “Does your mother know?”
“She will when you tell her.” Malena’s smile was full of relief that the truth was out. “This isn’t like Rebecca’s trouble in the spring. When everybody thought she was engaged—including Andrew King.”
“If you say so.” Reuben’s gaze flicked to Alden. “What do you think about it?”
“I don’t want him bothering her,” he said as bluntly as Reuben ever could. “He’s backing off already. But the rest of the family should know.”
“Hm.” Reuben turned back to Malena. “He’s got no business looking at you, Dochsder. You’re Amish. Baptized. What interest does he think you could have in a worldly man?”
“He doesn’t know that, though, Dat. To him, it’s just religion. Not a way of life. Not a commitment that can’t be broken without … eternal consequences.”
“And you can’t just explain that to him?”
“He’d mock it,” Alden said. “Make light of it. He already has, when he tried to pick a fight this evening. Not that any of us are going to take him up on it, but it’s clear this is the first time he’s ever been around Amish folks. Better to hold him off using a way he understands.”
“Only for two weeks,” Malena stressed.
“I see.” Reuben looked from one to the other, then turned for the door. “Shame it’s about him again, nix?”
It took a good ten minutes before what he meant sank in, and by then, Malena was waving good-bye from the door.
As he untied his horse, Alden felt as though he’d just walked through an earthquake. Or more accurately, had a shakeup of the heart.
Reuben approved of Alden’s courtship of his daughter.
Not for pretend. For real.
The next morning at breakfast, it was all Alden could do to keep his mind on the things of this earth—such as conversation with his family that made sense, and actually eating what was on his plate. He forgot to take his thermal mug of coffee with him when he left, and had to turn around and walk back for it while Mamm waited for him at the end of the lane.
As he left the second time, Beth giggled behind the screen door and he distinctly heard the word Freierei. Courtship.
That hadn’t taken very long. His sisters had eyes in their heads, and they’d probably seen Malena get into his buggy as they’d gone past. The funny part? As unlike him as this behavior was, he wasn’t even pretending. He’d heard that love had several symptoms, like a tendency to stare off into space and forget things.
“Is everything well with you, mei Soh?” He and his mother walked to work each morning—it was only a couple of blocks and left the horse and buggy for the girls if they needed them.
“Ja, Mamm. I just didn’t get much sleep last night, that’s all.”
“Thinking about Malena Miller?”
It was lucky he’d just swallowed a swig of coffee, or he’d have spat it down his shirt. “What?”
“A man doesn’t bid nearly two thousand dollars on the quilt of just anyone.”
“I’ve heard auction fever is real. Now I know.”
“The first two hundred wasn’t fever,” his mother pointed out in the voice of experience. “I wish you had got Glacier Lily. But if not the quilt, then perhaps the Maedsche who made it?”
“Have you been talking to mei Schweschdere?”
“Who, me?” his mother said innocently. “Your sisters did mention that this actor is hanging around her a little too much. I’m surprised Reuben hasn’t put a stop to it, since the man is right there in the house.”
“Malena and I are putting a stop to it,” he said, making up his mind not to dance around her question any longer. “We’re pretending to court so that he backs off.”
“Are you, now?” Her brows rose under her black away bonnet. “Do Reuben and Naomi know?”
“We told Reuben last night.”
“I see. Know the difference between pretending and lying?”
“Neh, what?”
“There isn’t one.”
Trust Mamm to get right to the meat of the matter. “It’s only for two weeks. Until Cord leaves the valley.”
“And then what?”
“Then … we pretend to break up. Or …”
“Or you find out that courting a girl isn’t just make-believe?”
“Something like that,” he mumbled.
They parted at the intersection, where there was a gas station on one corner and a bar on the other, marking the official beginning of downtown. His mother walked across the highway and let herself into the quilt shop, where Malena’s Amish Diamond quilt hung in the window. As he watched, Mamm gently removed the advertisement for the school auction from the glass, so as not to disturb the display of complementary fabrics she’d placed around the quilt.
Downtown was coming awake, with doors opening and racks of things to buy carried outside to be placed temptingly at the door. He’d best do the same, in case some of the folks who had driven a long way for the auction were still holidaying in the Siksika and the last of their money was burning a hole in their pockets.
His main task today was to start on a garden gate for the town’s only bed and breakfast, a rambling farmhouse near the creek. A For Sale sign had been swinging in the wind in the front yard since spring, with no takers, apparently. The owners had done some sprucing up, including landscaping that included an herb and vegetable garden, discreetly fenced to keep the deer out. It was this fence that needed a nice wrought-iron gate.
Once he made the frame today, he’d leave the twisted bars and decorative curlicues for Thursday. If he was going to the Rocking Diamond tomorrow, he’d need to replace some inventory in the farrier wagon and make sure he had enough shoes and nails for the entire string of horses. He expected the job would be completed by Wednesday night, in time for the fishing frolic, but with horses, you never knew. Doc MacDonald might find injuries in the feet that would delay the process and mean another visit.
The morning went by quickly, and the afternoon, too. He even managed to sell two paper towel holders and an entire curtain rod set.
“I’m going to use this as a quilt rack,” the Englisch woman said as he wrote up her receipt. “How perfect to have an Amish-made quilt rack. Now all I need is an Amish quilt. Were you at the auction on Saturday, young man?”
“I was,” he said, handing the slip to her. He’d already put the turned rod, spiral finials, and wall brackets in her car. “I bid on the Glacier Lily, but didn’t get it.”
“I did, too!” She beamed at him. “Didn’t take me long to drop out, though. Wasn’t that something? I sure wish … Never mind. I’ll find one somewhere that doesn’t cost two thousand dollars.”
He indicated his mother’s shop. “The same quilter made that one in the window.”
The woman’s eyes filled with surprise, then steely determination. She marched across the street to Rose Garden Quilts, and in a moment, the Amish Diamond came down from the rod it had been hanging on and was whisked into the interior of the shop.
A few minutes later, he watched the woman place the big plastic bag carefully in the back of the car, then drive away with the same kind of triumphant expression the hunters wore when they filled their tags. Good for her.
But he couldn’t help a pang inside, even as he reminded himself Malena would appreciate her share of the price. Because there went another piece of her heart.
Ah well. On the bright side, it was kind of nice that her quilt would hang from his ironwork. Somewhere in Nevada, where the woman lived, a part of them would be together.
Even if no one else ever knew.