Mid-February Paradise, Pennsylvania
THE TALL, DARK-HAIRED Amish man stood amidst the piles of aromatic wood shavings and ran his callused sensitive hands down the oak cabinet front. He closed his eyes, feeling for the slightest imperfection in the wood, but the burled grain was sanded smooth. John Miller was satisfied.
He lifted his lashes as the wood shop door banged open and his best friend, Rob Yoder, entered, rubbing his hands together in an obvious attempt to warm them.
“Brrrr,” Rob muttered. “Still cold out there and I forgot my gloves.”
“You’re late,” John said mildly, turning the heavy cabinet he held with ease.
“I know—I always am. But today I’ve got gut reason.” Rob paused for effect, and John arched a dark brow. “I’ve met a girl.”
John groaned and looked away.
“Nee, nee,” Rob protested. “I mean it—there’s something about this girl.”
“This girl, huh?”
Rob grabbed a brush and a jar of varnish from the work bench. “Don’t give me that look.”
“What look?”
“The one where you think I’m about to do something narrisch.”
John had to smile. He was twenty-six to Rob’s twenty-three and was the more quiet and serious of the two—he knew Rob’s penchant to flit from girl to girl, thinking himself smitten a good number of times per year. “Not crazy,” John said. “Just repetitive. Let’s see . . . who was it last week? Lily? Nee, Ruby, and Susan, and Mattie and—”
“I think I’m in love with her.”
Rob’s quiet words silenced John’s bantering, and he stared at his friend. “You’re serious?”
“Ya,” Rob laughed uncomfortably. “I guess I do sound narrisch, but it’s true, and for once I have no idea what to say to a girl.”
John put aside the heavy cabinet he held and went over to lean his hip against a worktable near his friend. “Surely if you’re in love with her, you’ll find a way to talk to her. Who is she, anyway?”
“Tabby Beiler.”
John tilted his head in confusion as he thought of his young neighbor. “Tabitha Beiler? But she can’t be auld enough for courting . . .”
Rob blew out a sigh of clear exasperation. “John . . . sometimes I wonder where your head’s at. Tabby Beiler is nineteen and beautiful to boot.”
“Nineteen? Who’d have thought?” John murmured, seeing in his mind’s eye a young girl with unruly blonde hair, kapp askew, and a schoolgirl’s dress. “I would have thought her to be twelve or so.”
“Twelve?” Rob snorted. “John, you only think Tabby’s still a kid because time stopped for you the minute Phoebe—”
John tightened his jaw and stared down at the wood of the table beneath his hand. He sensed Rob’s discomfort but didn’t look up.
“Sorry, auld man,” Rob muttered.
John did lift his eyes then and gave a slight nod. “It’s all right . . . I—well, never mind. Why don’t we come up with a plan on how you can talk to Tabitha, especially if she might be your future wife one day.”
Rob grinned. “That actually doesn’t sound too bad.”
“When you would have run for the hills if I’d mentioned the word frau with any other girl?”
“Yep.”
John reached out and shook his friend’s hand. “Well then, Tabitha Beiler has got to be something pretty amazing indeed.”
“Your eyes are like twin blue pools of delight.” Rob kept his voice low and level, a well-practiced inflection of tone. But he realized too late that even though he and John had discussed talking with Tabitha, he did not quite know how to actually talk with a beautiful girl—only how to give her compliments. It was one thing for him to be an acknowledged flirt to the females of his community but quite another to find himself in the rather awkward position of actually being in love with a girl. All of his facile charm seemed rather idle—even to his own ears, and he wondered what she thought as they sat together on a bale of hay in her Aenti Beth’s main barn. He’d snuck in while she was doing the milking and had been pleased by the delightful flush that had stolen to her cheeks at his sudden presence.
“Is that what you really think of my eyes?” Tabitha queried demurely, breaking into his thoughts.
He hesitated a fraction before answering, then quickly recovered. “Ya, but I could go on . . .” He trailed off suggestively, sure she’d want him to continue, like other girls might. But to his surprise, she sighed instead.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, his quick mind running the conversation backward to see what he might have said.
“Nothing,” she hastened to assure him. “I—it may sound like vanity, but I am proud to have my mamm’s eyes, though I cannot remember exactly what they looked like.”
He suppressed his own sigh of relief, feeling back on level ground. Comforting a sad or distressed girl was one of his specialties, but he was surprised at the genuine pang of emotion he felt when he searched her pale face.
“That’s right,” he murmured, inching a bit closer to touch her small hand. “Your parents died when you were very young.”
“Ya, and you lost your own daed when you were but a child.”
“Yes.” He thrilled to the fact that she hadn’t moved away from him. “So we have a bond, you and I.”
She lowered her eyelashes against the cream of her cheeks to nod in silent agreement. Rob decided at that moment that it was time to close up shop; it wouldn’t do to give any girl, even one he was in love with, too much of a thought life about togetherness—just in case something didn’t work out.
So he got to his feet, towering above her but still holding her hand.
“I’d better get going, sweet Tabby,” he said, and she rose to her brief height beside him.
He looked down to where a few tendrils of blonde hair escaped her white prayer kapp as she lifted her face to meet his gaze. He dropped her hand with an abruptness he didn’t feel, narrowly avoiding the desire to sneak a kiss on her cheek. Instead, he took a step away from her and clapped his black hat on. “Until later,” he whispered.
She smiled at him with true beauty, and he had the satisfaction of knowing that she must surely be in love with him as well—perhaps even a bit more than he was with her. It was something to consider. Always keep one step ahead in the game, in love or not, Robbie, he told himself, then sketched her a brief bow and made his way out of the barn door without looking back.
“Ach, Letty! I’m so in love with him.” Tabitha couldn’t help but twirl on the rag rug in her best friend’s bedroom. Then she fluttered her arms in a graceful arc. “I feel as though I could fly.”
It had only been yesterday since Rob Yoder had stolen into her Aenti Beth’s barn, and Tabitha could still feel her cheeks warm when she thought of his daring action in seeking her out. She couldn’t believe that anyone as handsome and well liked as Rob would want to give her attention.
Tabitha giggled when she finally plopped down on the edge of the feather bed mattress next to the other girl. “Ach, Letty, do you think I’m narrisch?”
“Ya,” the other girl replied with a dimpled smile. “Crazy in love.”
Tabitha reached to hug her, then fell back on the bed to close her eyes and daydream of Rob’s brown, wavy hair and his deep brown eyes. His features were both handsome and endearing, and his white teeth had a tiny gap between the front two that complemented his easy smile.
“How can you be in love with him when you’ve only just met?” Letty mused, and Tabitha opened her eyes.
“I feel like I’ve known him forever—like my life was on pause, just waiting for him to come along. I can’t really explain it, but I know it’s true.” Tabitha bit her lip, then laughed out loud as she thought about the secret meeting in the barn. “He held my hand, Letty.”
“What?” Her nicely plump friend leaned down on an elbow and raised her brows. “What did you do?”
“I—I allowed it for a few minutes,” Tabitha confessed.
“Oooh, Tabby, you must be careful of your sweet reputation. I don’t want to say it, but you know that Rob Yoder flirts with many of the girls in the community.”
Tabitha nodded, having already thought of this fact. “I know, but I’m sure he’s different with me. I know it. His eyes are so warm and tender. He makes me feel like the world is going to stop and then start spinning again only when we’re together.”
“Is it spinning now?” Letty asked somewhat wryly.
Tabitha knew her friend was only concerned and reached up to take Letty’s hand in her own. “Do not worry, Letty. I will not get hurt. He’s wonderful!”
Letty squeezed her hand in return. “Ach, I hope so, Tabby. I truly do.”
“And you, whenever I marry,” Tabitha said, “will be my attendant.”
Letty’s kind face flushed at the suggested honor, but then she giggled. “Unless we both fall off the world when it stops spinning.”
Tabitha grinned. “Only then!”