She’d seen his eyes up close. His beautiful intense eyes. How was she supposed to work around the man now?
He laughed and her heart had jumped and shivered, and her pulse seemed to come alive with a longing she couldn’t explain.
“How you doing over there?” Martha asked after Tanner had left.
Eva pivoted like a guilty child putting her hand in the cookie jar. She’d been staring at the back swinging door for a good five minutes.
Giving Martha a level glance, she said, “I’m fine. I... I’m learning the layout of the place.”
“That door never really moves from that spot,” Martha said, her hands on her hips. “But it does swing both ways.”
“Hmph.” Eva turned back to dusting the dishware display. “I sold a set of plastic cups.”
“The Englisch love those convenient cups.”
“And I’ve rearranged the beach towels.”
“I saw. You did a fine job.”
“I also sold two kapps to some youngies.”
Martha chuckled. “You like to stay busy, for certain sure.”
Eva glanced at that infuriating door again. “I don’t want to lose my job the first day.”
“Eva, if today is any indication, you are one of the best workers we’ve had. It gets downright boring in here at times, and then it gets busy, and we have to hurry up now. You’ve done well with both.”
“If we don’t count the necklaces falling to the floor.”
“That was not your fault.”
“I think it was. He wanted to get away from me and quick.”
“He helped you straighten the jewelry rack, ain’t so.”
“Ja, because I was so frightened and—” She stopped before blurting out all the feelings she’d felt just being near Tanner.
“And you and Tanner had a gut laugh.”
She smiled at that, remembering his laughter. “We did.”
“So that’s something. He rarely laughs.”
Eva glanced at the clock. She had one more hour. Her afternoon had gone by quickly, and she wasn’t too tired. She hadn’t sneezed or coughed, thankfully.
“I like it here,” she admitted to Martha, something in her heart wishing she could have a gut job like this back home.
“I think you will be just fine,” Martha replied. “You got Tanner to laugh and that is worth having to pick up necklaces.”
“Ja.” She grinned and went on with her dusting, her eyes drifting back to the big door. He was back there, working, creating, brooding, thinking.
What did he think about that spark of awareness they’d both felt? She’d never thought of that word awareness before. She’d never thought of a man like Tanner before.
Was it wrong of her to think of him now, to want to get to know him better, to want to understand him more?
She went about her work, straightening knickknacks, fixing bracelets that held dolphins, turtles and fish. Such a different world from hers.
The front doors burst open, and Becky came running in and skidded to a stop midway. “Eva, you’re here.”
Eva laughed. “I am. I work here now.”
“With my daed?”
The smiling woman behind Becky took her time looking over Eva.
“I do work here. Just part-time, but I get to see you more.”
“You like seeing me?”
“I do,” Eva said, bending to give Becky a quick hug. “How were your studies today?”
“I’m learning arithmetic.” Becky counted so fast, Eva lost the numbers in her head. “And reading. I like books.”
“I like books, too,” Eva replied.
The woman moved closer. “I’m Reba, Becky’s cousin. She told me she had a new friend.”
Eva nodded. “We met last night and now I get to see her again.”
“I have to be quiet and stay out of the way,” Becky said as she swayed back and forth, her green dress fluttering like leaves in the wind.
“I’m kind of doing the same thing,” Eva admitted. “I don’t want to get in trouble on my first day.”
Reba said, “Why don’t you go get your snack and maybe Eva can sit with you on the picnic table. I’m sure my cousin is allowing you to take breaks?”
Eva looked toward the door and then Martha. “I don’t know if I get breaks.”
“You do,” Martha said, bobbing her head. “Get you some tea or water and sit with Becky. I’ll let you know if we get busy.”
Eva nodded, thirst and her aching feet winning out.
She only hoped the boss didn’t notice her absence.
Tanner heard giggling again. He might be getting a headache from all the frolicking going on around his store. It had been this way since Eva had come on staff. She’d only been working for a few days, but she sure livened the place up. And Becky talked about her nonstop. They took breaks together out on the picnic table, all the while thinking he never noticed. He did notice and he should be annoyed, but he kind of liked the chatter. He also liked Becky having someone to talk to.
From here, he could see them out the window.
He looked up from a table he’d been commissioned to make with seashells and wood, to find his daughter eating ice cream at the picnic table out back. The bright blue umbrella was slanted so he couldn’t see Eva’s face. But he heard her voice.
“Hmm, gut, huh?”
“Ja,” Becky said, bobbing her head, strands of hair slipping away from her kapp. “Thank you for taking me to get ice cream. I wish I could eat it for breakfast.”
“That’s a very gut idea,” Eva agreed. “With chocolate syrup and a cherry on top.”
“That would be the best breakfast,” Becky responded with a slurp through her lips.
A bad influence, his new sales associate. He should go out there and fuss at her. He smiled before he could get a grip on holding back. He had to admit Eva Miller had brought some excitement into their lives. And all she did was stand there looking both stubborn and afraid in one facial expression, making him regret each word that came out of his mouth.
He heard chatter again when the neighborhood cat came running up, probably hoping he’d get some ice cream, too.
“That’s Fancy,” Becky said, pointing to the black-and-gray-striped cat. “He loves to be rubbed and he likes the kibbles Martha gives to him. Daed said Fancy doesn’t need to eat ice cream, but he is allowed if it drops on the ground.”
She demonstrated by letting her ice cream drip off her cone. “’Cause I make messes when it melts.”
“Fancy is enjoying your mess.”
“He is.” Becky grinned and glanced back. “Daed will fuss.”
Silence. Then, “Your daed is just training you up right because he loves you.”
That statement stopped Tanner cold. How kind. Eva could have called him mean and harsh, but she’d told his daughter the truth. He did love Becky.
When he heard Becky’s next words, he stilled, dropping the glue gun he’d been using to shape the shells along the table’s edge.
“Do you have a daed?”
Another silence. Then Eva spoke so softly, he had to strain to hear through the open window. “I did. But he died when I was young. I don’t really remember him, but my mamm always tells me he is here in my heart.”
Tanner held tight, watching his daughter as she reached out her hand to touch Eva’s arm. “Does he really live in your heart?”
“His spirit lives with me,” Eva said. “Because he loved me. But Gott’s will was to take him to heaven.”
Becky touched her own heart. “Then my mamm must live here some, too, ain’t so?”
“I believe it is so,” Eva replied, her words husky and low.
Tanner fisted his fingers, holding so tight to his emotions he could feel his fingernails burning impressions against his palms.
“Daed says she is in heaven,” Becky replied, her ice cream melting and dripping on her hands. “I wish she could really be here. It’s hard to fit all of her into my heart.”
Tanner’s eyes burned while his throat clogged with pain and grief. He watched as Eva leaned over toward Becky, her napkin wiping not at the ice cream dripping from his daughter’s cone, but rather the tears from his daughter’s eyes.
He inhaled a breath and put his hand to his mouth. Then he gripped the dusty counter, his grief followed with a rush of anger. Before he knew what had hit him, he marched out the open back door.
“Becky, time to come inside.”
His daughter whirled as if she’d done something wrong. “Why?”
“Because I said it’s time. I haven’t had a gut visit with you today, and I wasn’t told you’d gone with Eva to get ice cream.”
Eva immediately starting clearing the table. She threw her own cup of ice cream in a nearby trash can and turned toward Becky. “Let’s get you washed up. I need to go back to work.”
Tanner walked close and took Becky’s hand. “I’ll take care of that. And yes, you should get back to work.”
Eva’s smile melted faster than the ice cream. “I will see you again soon, Becky.”
Then she spun around, her head held high, and hurried back inside. Tanner watched her go, a shame washing over him. He’d been rude. But instead of telling Eva he was sorry, he turned to Becky. “You can read your books in the office, okay.”
“Why can’t I stay outside?” Becky asked. “I like talking to Eva.”
“Eva has work to do and you need to rest before dinner.”
Becky’s pout almost made him cave, but fear and grief held him steady. “Kumm. I’ll be done soon, and we’ll go home and sit on the porch.”
“I don’t wanna,” Becky said. But she followed him, her head down.
Tanner didn’t want to cause his daughter any more tears and he didn’t understand why he’d overreacted about her conversation with Eva Miller. Eva had lost her father at a young age, same as Becky had lost her mamm. Nothing wrong with how she’d handled the conversation, but it had riled him all the same. He wished he hadn’t heard it, but he had, and his reaction showed him that he needed to stay away from Eva.
And so did his daughter.
Eva didn’t know what she’d done wrong.
After she’d gone back inside and helped Martha sort some new inventory, Tanner had stayed in the back working while Becky sat quietly in the small office Martha had told her about.
“Becky sometimes reads there or takes a nap on the couch.”
So Tanner had sent his daughter there to avoid Eva? It sure felt that way. She fretted, her mind whirling like a kite lost in the wind.
“Are you tired, Eva?”
She looked up from the colorful floral shirt she’d been unfolding to find Martha’s kind gaze on her.
“Neh, just confused.”
“You’re doing great, but if you have more questions, I’ll be happy to answer them.”
“It’s not that,” Eva said, keeping her voice low. “I think I offended Tanner. Maybe I shouldn’t have taken my breaks with Becky. Or maybe it’s because I walked with her to get ice cream.”
She told Martha what had happened, hoping Tanner couldn’t hear since they were in the other corner of the store.
Martha listened and then nodded. “Hmm. It might not be the ice cream.”
“Then what?” Eva tried to blink away her tears. “I’m afraid I’ll be fired after a few days of work. He does not like me.”
Martha took the shirt Eva held clutched to her chest. “It’s not that, Eva. He’s sensitive about Becky on all accounts. She wonders about her mamm, and he has a hard time explaining why she doesn’t have a mamm like the other girls.”
Eva glanced toward the swinging door. “Oh, no. He must have heard us talking about that. Becky asked me if I had a daed and I had to tell her that he died when I was young. Then she told me about her mother.”
Martha nodded again. “That explains it then.”
Eva shook her head. “Did I do wrong by sharing that with Becky? Is she too young to understand?”
“Neh,” Martha replied on a whisper. “It’s just that Tanner is still tormented with grief, and he takes it hard when Becky brings up her mamm.”
Eva glanced toward the door. “Should I go and explain?”
Martha glanced at the clock. “Your shift is over. You’ve done a great job this week. Go home and rest. This will pass.”
“Do I still have a job?” she asked.
The swinging door flew open, and Tanner came walking toward them, his scowl back.
Eva’s heart tried to burst out of her chest. “I guess I’ll soon find out,” she whispered. Had she ruined her first week at work?