Gideon hadn’t realized he’d been nervous until his hands started to sweat. Standing on the Pinkhams’ porch waiting for Faith, he rubbed his palms on the front of his shirt. What’s gotten into you? Gideon paced to the end of the porch where a hanging basket of pink geraniums was in full bloom. He checked the soil. Dry. If one plant was dry, the flower beds along the porch probably all needed watering as well. He grabbed the empty watering can from next to the porch swing and strode to the pump to fill it. He watered the flowers next to the house first, then fed the drooping geraniums.
The screen door opened and Faith stepped outside. “We’ll need bait,” she said, holding up an empty container. “That is, if you still want to go?”
“Jah.” He set the watering can down, then dried his hands on his shirt. “How long do you have?”
She shrugged. “Olivia is bringing supper home after her shift, so I don’t need to help prepare anything.” She handed him a container for bait. “If you want to start looking for worms, I’ll grab Daed’s pole from the equipment shed.”
Gideon trekked to the back of the barn where he found a log to turn. Without much digging he collected several worms.
“Need help?” Faith approached, pole in hand.
“I got ’em.” He stood, brushed the dirt off his knees, then showed her the wiggling critters. “You think this is enough?”
“That depends,” she said with an adorable smirk. “You going to feed them to the fish again?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
She walked alongside him to the buggy. “I seem to recall you had several fish that stole your bait the last time.”
“And I seem to recall that I was the one who baited your hook the time you caught the bigmouth bass.”
“Jah, it was a big bass, wasn’t it?”
He reached for her pole and put it and the container of worms in the back of the buggy next to the tackle box and his pole.
Faith climbed on the bench as he untied Bay. He turned the horse and buggy around, then climbed in beside Faith. One light tap of the reins and Bay started to trot. Without much afternoon traffic, they reached the fishing hole in a short time. Gideon unloaded the poles first and handed them to Faith, then grabbed the tackle box and bait.
She glanced up at the sky. “It’s nice to be outside.”
“You don’t get much free time, do you?” He admired how hard she worked. When she wasn’t at The Amish Table, she was doing laundry, canning, cleaning. Had he not volunteered to do her father’s barn chores, she might have taken on that responsibility, too, since this was hay season and the other men in the district were working in their own fields.
“I don’t mind. Makes me appreciate the days I do have off more.” She drew in a deep breath, letting it out in a satisfied sigh, then laughed nervously when she caught him staring at her.
No denying his feelings—Faith was special. The bishop had been right to lecture Gideon about temptation, because at this very moment, he couldn’t think of anything else but holding Faith in his arms and kissing her.
Gideon cleared his throat. “I guess if we’re going to catch anything we better get down to the river.” He tromped through the tall meadow grass toward the sound of rushing water. As he reached the river embankment, a hawk swooped down, snatched a fish with its talons, then flew off into the distance. “Did you see that?” He spoke over his shoulder as he made his way closer to the water.
“Are you going to say that should have been your catch?”
“Exactly. He stole it.”
She laughed. “It might have been mei fish he stole.”
Gideon sat on the sandy shore. He didn’t have his waders on or he would walk in the current.
Faith sat next to him and began untangling her line.
“Do you want me to bait your hook?” he asked.
“And take credit for the size fish I catch, nay danki.”
He baited his hook and was the first to cast a line. He glanced over at Faith fumbling with the squirming worm. “You sure you don’t want help?”
She poked her finger and yelped.
“Here, hold this.” He exchanged poles and, in doing so, her worm wiggled free from the hook. He chuckled to himself, knowing she would have lost her bait on the first cast. He fastened a new worm on the hook.
A moment later she pulled back on the rod while at the same time reeling in the line.
“Hey, I have something.”
Gideon grabbed the net and waited for her to bring it in closer so he could scoop it from the water.
Her trout was legal but nothing to brag about. Faith found something to say anyway. “Less than five minutes in the water and I caught one. The first one, I should add.”
“With mei pole, mei bait, and mei cast.”
“Oh, don’t be a poor sport, Gideon. Your turn will kumm.”
He handed her pole back to her, then proceeded to remove the fish and rebait his. He cast the line, sending it up stream. Before he felt even a nibble, she caught two more.
“Got another one.” She worked the line, reeling in a slightly larger fish than the last one.
The trout flapped on the sandy shoreline. Gideon placed his foot on the fish to stop it from flapping back into the water.
“This is fun,” she said, watching him unhook her fourth fish.
“Smell your hands,” he said, smirking.
Her face crinkled. “Why?”
“Just do it.” He watched as she lifted one hand at a time to her nose. “Smell like fish?”
“Nett really.”
“Smell like bait?”
She dropped her hand from her face and frowned. “You’re nett jealous, are you?”
“You find that funny?” He finished baiting the hook, then set the pole down and stood.
“It’d be understandable if—”
“If what?” He moved within inches from her and lifted his hand. “Do mine smell like fish or worm guts?”
“You are jealous.”
“Of you having all the fun?” He cupped her face with his hands, then finding her mouth dropping open in a gasp, leaned down and kissed her softly. When he lifted his lips, her bewildered eyes searched his, speechless. He kissed her again, this time more controlled and determined to take his time. She placed her hands on his shoulders, his neck, then she weaved her fingers through his hair, sending tingling sensations over his scalp. She’d melted into his embrace and was giving herself to him. He pulled back. “Nau that, Faith Pinkham, was fun.”
Her dreamy expression morphed into a narrow-eyed stare as his words registered. “Fun! You—you kissed me because it was fun?”
“Yep.” He picked up the pole, cast the line, and forced himself not to glance her direction while his insides were flapping like an oxygen-starved fish. He’d only meant to give her an up-close whiff of fish guts, not kiss her. Ignoring her probably wasn’t the answer either, but his heart had never galloped this hard. He wasn’t about to risk her seeing the effect she had on him. But even focusing on the water rippling around his line, he could feel her eyes on him, demanding an explanation. He needed to say something, but what? Coward.
“So,” he said after a few moments of silence. “You going to cast that line back out?”
She huffed.
He pivoted just enough to notice her crossed arms in his peripheral vision. He opened his mouth to tease her about being so stiff when he got a tug on the end of his line. He reeled in the catch, which unfortunately didn’t measure the legal limit. He tossed the pike back into the water, having to listen to Faith’s mocking chuckle. He laughed along. “Are we going to debate what’s funny again?” he asked with a wink.
Her rosy cheeks turned the shade of a ripened Macintosh, but the blushing glow quickly faded. She glanced up at the sky, then stood. “We should probably go.”
Were those tears forming in her eyes? He scrambled to his feet, tossed the remaining worms into the water, then collected the equipment. He lifted the string of fish she’d caught. “You’re nett wanting to go home because you’ve caught the most trout, are you?”
She smiled. “We’d be here all nacht if we had to wait for you to catch something legal.”
Gideon wasn’t sure why she’d sobered, but he liked that she was teasing again. They plodded through the meadow to where he’d left Bay tied under a tree. He loaded the poles, tackle box, and fish into the back end as Faith climbed into the buggy. Gideon untied Bay, then climbed onto the bench. But instead of releasing the brake, he shifted to face Faith. “I wanted to wait until you were baptized to . . .” His lungs tightened.
“To kiss me?” She fiddled with a loose thread on her dress.
He hooked his thumb under her chin and tipped it up. “To court you.”
She blinked and tears rolled off her lashes. “I can’t court you, Gideon.”