“Mattie, I’m so glad you are feeling gut again,” Lucy said as they walked along the well-worn path between their two homes. “Now we can walk together as often as we’d like.”
“As often as I’d like, maybe,” Mattie corrected. “I have a feeling if you had your way, we’d walk together every single day.”
“Maybe. It is such a pleasure to be outside. And to have free time.”
Mattie looked at her friend fondly. If she was making big improvements on the inside, it was Lucy, surely, who had made the biggest difference on the outside.
To compare her appearance to the way she was last year was to compare night and day. Calvin Weaver’s love had changed so much. Where she used to be timid and unsure, now Lucy was more confident.
Her cheeks were flushed and pink, her eyes were brighter, even her posture was different. While Lucy had always been a beauty, now she was certainly glowing.
“It is such a blessing that you found love with Calvin. Now that you live so close, it’s almost like we’re sisters.”
“I can’t believe our good fortune,” Lucy agreed. “I do love living near you.”
“And you love Calvin, still?”
“Oh, yes!” When Mattie started laughing, Lucy’s cheeks turned bright pink. “I mean, Calvin is certainly a blessing to me.”
Though she ached to tease Lucy some more, Mattie didn’t. Lucy was finally so happy, there was no way Mattie was ever going to do a thing to disrupt that happiness. “I’m sure he is a blessing.”
Lucy looked her way, and then laughed again. “I know I sound just like a teenager after her first date. But I can’t help it, you see. Calvin is so different than Paul.”
“I would hope so!”
“No, I mean, he is always sweet and gentle. And so patient, too.” Her eyes clouded. “Some nights I still have bad dreams about my life with Paul. I wake up with my pulse racing and my body sweating.” She shook her head in wonder. “Yet Calvin never complains. He just holds me close.”
A momentary twinge of jealousy rose up, strong and fierce. With all her will, Mattie pushed it aside. It didn’t matter that she didn’t have someone like that in her life.
And it was just as well, too. The last thing she needed was to have someone to love who she would surely lose when the cancer came back.
No, it was simply better to get used to living on her own. And being grateful for her blessings. She’d survived cancer. That should be enough for anyone.
To ask to be happy too, well, that would be too much to ask.
John Weaver soon found out that locating a chocolate pie in Middlefield hadn’t been all that difficult. He’d ended up asking Amos where to go. And though the man was as crusty as a piece of day-old bread, he knew his food.
“Go to Holtzman’s,” he said without hesitation. “They make a silk chocolate pie that will make a person’s toes curl, it’s so good.”
Well, that reaction sounded a little extreme, but John figured he’d give it a try. After all, Jayne had seemed like she put a lot of emphasis on that particular dessert.
At five minutes after seven, he rang her doorbell. Immediately, he heard the frantic barking of a tiny dachshund.
Jayne opened the door with a harried smile. “John. You’re here!”
He held up his box. “I brought pie.”
Her eyes lit up. “I can’t tell you how happy that makes me. I wanted to have everything perfect for you, but I left work late. Now we know dessert, at least, will be good.”
Those words were enough to set his pulse beating a little quicker. Right that minute, John could care less about steaks. All he needed was Jayne to keep saying things like that.
With effort, he forced himself to act cool and collected. “I don’t need perfect. How can I help?”
With a grateful smile, she handed him a lighter. “Could you go to my porch and start the grill? I’m just finishing up the salad.”
“Sure.” After following her to her kitchen, stepping over a barking Minnie the whole time, John placed his box on the counter, took the lighter, and went out to her grill. To his dismay, the little dog followed at his heels, barking and baring her teeth, circling him like a shark.
“Dog, don’t you do something foolish,” he warned as he stepped over it, turned on the gas, and lit the grill. “I can’t say I’d be all that understanding if you bit my ankle.”
“John, have a seat. I’ll be right out,” Jayne said through the screened window.
“All right,” he called back, trying not to notice that the dog’s barks were becoming fiercer.
With one more glare at the little red-haired wiener dog, he walked right past it and took a seat at the black wrought-iron dining set.
Minutes later, Jayne came out with a tray of iced tea. The minute she appeared, Minnie lay down next to them and fell silent.
Glad for the reprieve, John stood up to help Jayne, taking the tray from her in an easy movement. In the handoff, his fingers brushed hers.
Jayne stilled, looked at him in wide-eyed wonder for a moment.
John swallowed and tried to think of something sweet to say that didn’t sound too forward.
As the dog bit his ankle.
“Ach!” he said with a jerk, toppling the plastic glasses on the tray. “Jayne, hey, I’m sorry—” he began as the dog growled and circled again.
He jerked away, sending the glasses to the ground. Tea sprayed out. The little dog whimpered and ran away.
“Oh!” Jayne said again, grabbing the tray from him and plopping it on the table. “Oh, John. That dog!” She bit her lip. “I don’t know what could be wrong with her. She’s usually such a sweetie . . .”
He glared at the dachshund’s retreating back end. “Except when she’s biting people.”
She pulled him to a chair. “I’m so sorry. Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. She didn’t break the skin,” he said. “Well, hardly,” he corrected, seeing the tiny bite mark. Well, that’s what he got for wearing flip-flops with his jeans. If he’d had on boots, no damage would have been done.
Jayne bit her lip again, her eyes tearing up.
Now he felt terrible. It wasn’t like it was her fault the little wiener dog was a menace!
Without thinking, he reached for her hand. “Jayne? I’m sorry. Did I break all your glasses?”
“It’s not that. They’re plastic. Oh, John. I’m so sorry.”
Linking his fingers through hers, he eyed her again, then couldn’t help but chuckle. “Jayne, I spilled the tea all over your shirt.”
She looked down at her floral blouse in dismay. Then, to his surprise and pleasure, she started giggling. “I look horrible. And Minnie bit you. What a terrible first date.”
“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” he said. “I was nervous and now, well, I think it’s all uphill from here.”
Her eyes widened. “You were nervous, too?”
“Jayne, it took me two weeks to ask you to dinner.”
“I didn’t think you were ever going to ask!”
Slowly, he pulled back his hand. He could have held it all night, but John thought it was probably best to let her put on a fresh shirt. “How about you change and I’ll put the steaks on?”
“That sounds perfect,” she said with a sigh. “Thanks. I’ll be right back. And I’ll lock up Minnie in my room.”
“I think that sounds like a fantastic idea.”
He smiled at her as she walked away. For the life of him, he couldn’t ever recall having a better laugh with a woman.
The rest of the evening passed in a blur of easy conversation and flirty glances. They talked about their pasts, and about their futures, and even about little Katie Weaver.
The pie was as good as Amos had proclaimed.
When it came time for him to leave, John kissed her on the cheek, though he instinctively knew that if he’d moved his lips to the left just a few inches, she would have welcomed them just fine.
Just after 10:30, he reversed his truck down her driveway and realized that, if he didn’t put the car windows down, he would be able to continue inhaling the faint scent of gardenias lingering on his clothes.
He was still thinking about those eyes of hers, and the way they’d sparkled in amusement while sharing a story about Katie bossing him around, when he happened to see an Amish woman walking on the sidewalk beside a tall, lanky teenaged boy. The boy had a youthful swagger in his stride—obviously he didn’t care to be seen walking by his mother’s side.
The mother’s hands were primly clasped in front of her. Her posture was erect, her chin up. But her expression was so sad, John did a double take through his rearview mirror.
Then he felt a lump in his throat.
The woman was Mary. For a second, he thought about pulling over. Seeing if they wanted a ride. But of course that would have been too pushy. He hardly knew them, and it was obvious Mary was in no mood for conversation.
John found himself worrying about Mary and her boy all night.