If Micah had any lingering doubts about Katie Kay being a gut mamm, they would have vanished when she kept the boys to their normal schedule the next morning while she also got the laundry started. She didn’t give them false assurances about their sister but also acted as if she believed everything would turn out for the best.
It wasn’t an act, he realized, when she helped DJ put on his windbreaker and backpack. As Gemma did each day, she urged him to have a gut time at school and to listen to his lessons.
Suddenly DJ looked upset. When Katie Kay asked what was wrong, he motioned for her to bend toward him. He cupped his hand and began to whisper in her ear.
She hooked a finger in the kerchief she wore over her hair and drew it aside so she could hear him. When he finished, she smiled. “Don’t worry. I’ll take care of that, DJ.”
The little boy gave her a grin and a hug that almost knocked her off her feet. As she went with DJ to the door, Jayden followed, asking for a hug of his own. She lifted him and blew a kiss in his hair. He giggled and wrapped his short arms around her neck. With the little boys, Katie Kay went out to wait for the school bus.
Curious what DJ had whispered in her ear, Micah refilled his cup with kaffi before going to a window with a view of the front yard. Wind blew through the few leaves remaining on the trees and tugged at the black sweater Katie Kay wore over her jeans. She put up one hand to keep her navy kerchief from flying off.
The way she dressed matched how she stood between two communities—the plain one and the one inhabited by Englischers. Glancing around the modern kitchen with its electric stove, refrigerator and dishwasher reminded him how he spanned those two worlds himself, though he was committed to his Amish life. But he’d miss his interactions with the Donnellys and other Englischers if the Leit decided to change the Ordnung and prohibit a plain man from working with a non-plain man. That wouldn’t happen, but it did show him that he wasn’t different from Katie Kay in many ways.
With red lights flashing, the school bus stopped by the driveway. DJ hurried to get on board.
Katie Kay set Jayden down and held his hand while they waved to his brother until the bus rumbled to a start. When she walked with Jayden to the house, she swung their hands between them.
Micah edged back so she didn’t catch him watching them. One thing was clear. All of Katie Kay’s thoughts were focused on the kinder. Where was the proud woman who had insisted on commanding everyone’s attention wherever she went? She wasn’t the same person she’d been a year ago. With a wry laugh, he acknowledged he wasn’t the same person he’d been then either.
Katie Kay came into the kitchen accompanied by the sound of one of Jayden’s favorite educational shows.
Micah couldn’t restrain his curiosity longer. “What did DJ tell you?”
“He wanted to remind me that today was his turn to bring snacks.”
“Snacks?”
She smiled. “Didn’t your mamm ever send treats to school for the scholars?”
“Ja.”
“Gemma told me it’s the same in Englisch schools. The parents take turns sending in a healthy treat for snack time.”
“Mamm’s treats were sweet rather than healthy.”
She laughed. “I think DJ’s classmates would prefer Amish cookies or cupcakes or pie squares, but his teacher insists on healthy snacks. The last time Gemma went shopping, she got grapes and celery and carrots for him to take in. Once they’re cut up, they’ll make great finger food snacks for the scholars.”
“I’ll drive you over to the school.”
“Danki. I was going to ask how to get there. DJ’s directions were pretty confusing.”
Whatever Micah might have said was forgotten when the phone rang. Reaching for it, he heard Sean’s exhausted voice on the other end. There was nothing new to report because Olivia’s condition hadn’t changed. Gemma wanted to let Katie Kay know it was DJ’s turn to bring snacks.
“All taken care of,” Micah reassured his friend.
Relieved, Sean said he’d call later in the day to give them an update. When Micah told his partner he planned to stop by the hospital again that afternoon, he heard gratitude in Sean’s voice.
“You are a gut friend,” Katie Kay said when he hung up the phone. “Sean and Gemma are blessed to have you.” She opened the fridge door before he could reply he wasn’t the only one they were depending on, but he wasn’t sure how Katie Kay would take his words. The girl who had coveted compliments was a woman who seemed embarrassed by them.
Within the hour, Katie Kay had the fruit and vegetables prepared. She helped Jayden with his coat while Micah hitched Rascal to the buggy.
The little boy squirmed on the seat, excited about riding in the buggy to his big brother’s school. He let out a cheer when the low, red brick building came into view. Katie Kay warned him to be quiet when they went inside, and he pretended to zip his lips closed. Micah wondered how long the kind would remember his promise.
Checking in at the office, they were directed to a room a couple of doors down the hall. Micah opened the door, and every student in the room turned to stare at the door. DJ ran to them. Taking them by the hand, he tugged them into the room.
He turned and announced, “This is my daddy’s friend Micah and his friend Katie Kay.”
Micah hid his chuckle when he saw Katie Kay’s cheeks flush a pretty pink as speculation bloomed in the teacher’s eyes. She should recall if a kindergarten teacher took everything a kind said as the truth, then the teacher was going to have to swallow a lot of tall tales.
“This is the first time we’ve ever had our morning snacks delivered in a buggy,” said the teacher as she came to collect the trays covered with aluminum foil. “Thank you for bringing them. Will you be picking DJ up? I know his parents have given you approval to do so.”
“No,” he said. “He should come home on the bus.”
“All right.” She hesitated and then said, “DJ told us his little sister is ill.”
“Ja, she is,” Katie Kay replied. “That’s why we brought the snacks instead of Gemma. We’ll let her know you were asking about Olivia.”
“Thank you.” The teacher opened her mouth, then closed it and gave them a smile before turning to her students. “Let’s tell DJ’s brother and his friends thank you for bringing us snacks.”
“Thank you,” said the scholars as one.
Jayden was reluctant to leave. His gaze focused on an easel with paints beside it. Micah herded the little boy ahead of him out of the room. As soon as they emerged into the crisp day, Jayden began chattering like a blue jay about everything he’d seen and asking when he could go with DJ to school.
Katie Kay answered each question until the kind became fascinated with watching cars and trucks pass the buggy. He jerked his arm up and down, and he grinned when one of the tractor-trailers blew its horn. Fortunately Rascal wasn’t bothered by the noise.
“DJ’s teacher seems nice,” Micah said as he turned them off the main road. He didn’t have to watch for the big trucks so he glanced at Katie Kay. “But I could tell she wanted to ask us a bunch more questions.”
“Englischers are curious about plain folk.” She smiled. “Otherwise, there wouldn’t be so many of them spending their vacations in Lancaster County. You must get plenty of questions from your clients.”
“Not really.” He rested his elbows on his knees and held the reins loosely. “Most of them, whether they’re Amish or Englisch, are interested in getting the work finished. That’s what I get questions about. Is it okay if I drop you off at the house and then head over to the hospital?”
“Of course.” Her smile warmed. “I don’t think I could stop you from being with your friend.”
He looked away. She wasn’t right. He could think of a reason to remain with Katie Kay, but he’d be a fool to kiss her again and risk his heart once more.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
* * *
When, the following day, Micah said he wasn’t going to work again, Katie Kay was relieved. Throughout the night while she tried to get the boys to go to sleep, she worried about Micah being on a roof when his thoughts were elsewhere. A single wrong step, and he could have been heading to the emergency room, too.
Only an hour before dawn, Micah had convinced the little boys to sleep on the air mattress with him. She doubted he got any sleep, because his eyes were shadowed with deep gray arcs. She’d snatched less than an hour herself before getting up to make breakfast.
As they were finishing the meal, sharing more of the freshly made bread delivered to the house, Micah asked the boys if they wanted to help him clean out the van after he pulled it into the garage. She was pleased that he realized the wind was too strong and cold for the little boys to spend much time outside. Nobody spoke of DJ going to school because the kinder were dragging with exhaustion.
She waited until the little boys had followed Micah outside and then she found the phone number of the school. The woman who answered said that if DJ stayed home more than a couple of days, they would make arrangements to get his lessons to him.
“Tell Gemma and her husband that we’re praying for them and their little girl,” the woman said before hanging up.
Katie Kay’s fingers lingered on the phone as she set it in its cradle. Those simple words offered such comfort, and she’d make sure she passed them on to Gemma and Sean. Katie Kay hadn’t caught the name of the woman on the phone, but she guessed Gemma would know.
Hoping that working with Micah would calm the boys enough so they’d take a nap later, Katie Kay did the breakfast dishes and cleaned the house. She was surprised how much she enjoyed taking care of a home when she wasn’t being criticized for missing a cobweb or leaving dust on a table. For the first time, she began to imagine what it would be like to have a house and family of her own like Gemma did.
And a husband, too, to complete the happy picture?
A sigh drifted from her as she stopped the vacuum and began to reel up the cord. Who would want to marry her when she carried another man’s kind?
Micah had offered, and she’d turned him down. He’d told her he wouldn’t ask her again.
What a mess she’d made of her life! All her hopes of experiencing things she couldn’t while among the Leit taunted her. She’d gotten her wish but in ways she’d never reckoned.
Katie Kay flinched when the doorbell sounded through the house. Who could it be? She glanced out a nearby window and didn’t see a buggy. Inching closer to another window with a view of the porch, she gasped when she saw the tall redhead reaching to push the doorbell again.
Rushing to the door, she threw it open. “Cherokee! Come in. What are you doing here? Why didn’t you call to let me know you were coming?”
“Because I don’t have a phone number for you.” Cherokee wrapped her in a warm embrace.
Curvy was the best description of Cherokee Smith, who dated Austin’s best friend Vinnie. Though Cherokee had never said, Katie Kay suspected she came from a wealthy family. The redhead never seemed to wear an outfit more than once, and her clothing was in the latest style from the fashion magazines she’d shared with Katie Kay while the men were watching sports or sitting on the stoop to smoke.
Today she’d draped gold bangles around her wrists, as well as a trio of necklaces over her black turtleneck sweater. Her earrings were large and gaudy with bright gems that might be costume or real. Katie Kay had no idea.
“How did you find me?” Katie Kay asked.
“Vinnie saw the license plate on the van you were driving.” Cherokee winked as she added, “I had a friend do a little digging, and he found this address.”
Katie Kay suspected Cherokee’s friend wasn’t involved with any type of law enforcement, but decided she didn’t want to know why he had access to such information. She motioned toward the living room. Her friend began talking as fast and nonstop as Jayden had in the buggy yesterday. Unlike the little boy who’d been positive about the idea of going to school like his big brother, Cherokee listed every reason she had to be miserable.
Sitting on the sofa after she’d moved aside the afghan as if it were a soiled diaper, Cherokee said, “The biggest problem is you aren’t around to keep Austin under control.”
“I never was able to do that.”
“Maybe you didn’t think so, but he acted less immature when you were around. Until he found out you were...” Her gaze focused on Katie Kay’s abdomen. Looking away, she added, “Then he became more of a jerk than ever.”
“I’m sorry.”
“You don’t have anything to be sorry for. I wish Vinnie would spend less time with him and more time with my friends. He says they don’t want to talk about anything interesting, and they don’t like him because he drinks too much and yaks about sports all the time.”
Katie Kay tried to relate to such problems, but it was impossible. She hadn’t realized how far behind she’d left her life in Lancaster and the group of young adults who could hardly be called friends. They quarreled and made fun of others when they weren’t around. She’d felt uncomfortable but hadn’t defended anyone. Shame flooded her while Cherokee continued to complain about people Katie Kay knew and some she didn’t.
When Cherokee halted in the middle of a word, her mouth dropping open, Katie Kay started to ask what was wrong. The eager voices of DJ and Jayden burst into the room as the boys ran to where she sat on the rocker. They talked at the same time, each trying to be heard, about Micah letting them help him sort out the nuts and washers stored in the van.
But the boys weren’t who had caught Cherokee’s attention. Behind them, Micah leaned one shoulder against the doorway. His gaze was focused on his partner’s sons, and Katie Kay couldn’t mistake the expression in his deep blue eyes. He wanted little ones of his own, kinder he could teach as he was Sean’s boys.
“Who’s that?” Cherokee asked, and Micah pushed away from the wall, his easy pose vanishing.
Katie Kay stood. “Micah, we have company. Komm and let me introduce you.”
Micah walked toward her. She ignored the questions visible on his face because she couldn’t answer them while Cherokee and the boys were listening.
“This is my friend Cherokee,” she said, hoping her voice didn’t shake. “Cherokee Smith.”
If Micah was as shocked by the woman’s name as Katie Kay had been the first time she’d heard it, nothing showed in his smile. “Nice to meet you, Cherokee.”
“Nice to meet you.” Cherokee eyed him with candid admiration before giving him a slow, appreciative smile.
Katie Kay curled her fingers so tightly her fingernails cut into her palms. She almost gasped at the strength of her irritation at how Cherokee was flirting with him. Cherokee had a boyfriend. She didn’t need to intrude on...
Intrude on what? her rational mind demanded. It wasn’t as if she and Micah were a couple. Still, she couldn’t halt the jealousy searing her veins like liquid flame.
And the guilt. When she’d flirted with guys, had Katie Kay irritated other women as Cherokee was her? She’d never considered how other girls felt. Probably because she knew her flirting didn’t mean anything.
Maybe Cherokee’s didn’t either. Thinking that failed to ease the fire of jealousy within her. She had no idea how to douse it, and it made her uneasy. Only someone in love could be jealous, ain’t so? And she wasn’t in love.
She gulped as she glanced at Micah, and their gazes collided. The heat in his eyes urged her to melt right into his arms.
No! No! She couldn’t be in love with him. She’d told him twice she didn’t want to be involved with him. Twice! And now...
But she couldn’t ignore how quivers raced through her each time his hand brushed against her, even just in passing. And his eyes, which could alter from storm-blue to the crystalline of a summer sky, invited her to find out if her memory of his kiss was as wunderbaar as she remembered.
She was grateful when Cherokee spoke again, freeing Katie Kay from her thoughts.
“Are these your little boys, Micah?” Her friend’s grin broadened.
“No,” he said. “Their parents are at the hospital with their sister, who has pneumonia.”
Cherokee instantly grew serious. “Oh, I’m sorry. Is she going to be okay?”
“Ja,” Katie Kay said, aware of the little boys listening to every word.
Micah excused himself and the kinder, so he could put an end to the conversation. She was glad when they returned to the kitchen to grab pie squares before heading to the garage.
Cherokee walked to a window. She whistled. “I understand why you didn’t bother to come back, Katie Kay. Don’t tell Vinnie I said this, but you’ve traded up. Your buddy Micah is swinging a heavy tool belt into the van as if it doesn’t weigh anything. Nice muscles on that farm boy.”
Katie Kay sat on the rocker, hoping Cherokee would take the hint to return to her chair. As her friend sat across from her again, Katie Kay asked, “Why did you drive here by yourself? I’ve heard you say too many times to count the countryside gives you hives.”
“Why am I here?” Cherokee’s eyes widened. “I thought it was obvious.”
“It probably is to someone who’s had more than three hours sleep total for the past two nights. Micah’s keeping the boys busy in the hope they’ll sleep tonight and not wake up every few minutes calling for their parents.”
“Poor little kids.” Clasping her hands on the knees of her stylish jeans, she smiled as her bangles clattered together. “I came out here to see how you’re doing. Austin treated you really, really bad. I couldn’t believe it when I heard what he did to you. I didn’t think he would be low enough to abandon you in the middle of nowhere.”
“It actually wasn’t far from my family’s house.”
She waved aside Katie Kay’s words. “That doesn’t make any difference. Austin was a jerk. Vinnie thinks so, too.”
“Vinnie was with us that night.”
“I know.” Her mouth tightened into a straight line. “I didn’t talk to him for two days after I heard, but then I realized he was scared Austin would do something to him, too. If he gets kicked out of the apartment, he doesn’t have anywhere else to go except to his parents’ house and they won’t let him come back.”
Katie Kay lowered her eyes. What if she returned home and Daed and her sisters and brother turned her away as Vinnie’s parents had him?
“Tell Vinnie not to bother arguing with Austin,” she said to her friend, so she could ignore her own thoughts. “He’d be wasting his breath. I’m done with Austin.”
“I’m glad you finally wised up.”
“Wised up? I thought you liked Austin.”
“I love Vinnie, and, unfortunately, Austin comes along as part of the package.” Her mouth twisted. “If I could think of a reason Vinnie would listen to, I’d convince him to dump Austin. Austin is a spoiled brat who thinks only of himself. A real user and a loser, but I don’t have to tell you that.”
Had Katie Kay been any better when she’d fled Paradise Springs and gone in search of everything she thought she was missing out on? She’d heard opposites attract, but she and Austin had been too much alike.
Had been.
She dared to believe that while he lived in his extended childhood, doing as he wished and wheedling others to do what he didn’t want to do, she’d grown up. Six months ago, she wouldn’t have been willing to take care of someone else’s kinder. She wouldn’t have felt satisfaction in putting a gut meal on the table or cleaning up after the family.
“So...” Cherokee leaned forward. “Are you and cute Amish guy an item?”
She hoped that explaining how Micah had found her walking along the road in the rain would satisfy her friend’s curiosity about him. But Cherokee kept asking questions. How long had Katie Kay known him? How had he gotten those great muscles? Had he asked Katie Kay out?
Katie Kay should have expected it, because her friend was obsessed with everyone’s relationships, including movie stars she’d never met. Any attempts to change the subject were fruitless until Katie Kay happened to mention the plans her daed and Wanda Stoltzfus had made.
“Your father is getting married to Mr. Cutie-Pie Amish Guy’s mother?” Cherokee sighed. “Does that mean he’s off-limits to you? That would be a shame.” Her grin returned. “You could grab him right now and find a justice of the peace and get married.”
“I’m not getting married now.”
Her eyes widened. “Oh? Because of the baby? Vinnie told me that Austin said you two agreed you were going to give it up for adoption.”
“I haven’t decided yet.” The words tasted like sawdust in her mouth, and her stomach twisted at the idea of abandoning her boppli.
“You’re going to need to. After all, the kid has got to be a complication when you’re in love with a man who’s not the baby’s father.”
“Who said anything about love?” she snapped and then wished she hadn’t.
Cherokee chuckled. “Nobody, but I’m not stupid, girl! You never looked at Austin—not once—like you look at Mr. Cutie-Pie Amish Guy.”
“His name is Micah!”
“I know, and you’re quick to jump to his defense. That’s proof you’re in love with him.”
Katie Kay hadn’t ever realized Cherokee was so perceptive. Usually she hung on to every word Vinnie spoke and didn’t seem to have a single thought in her head. There were depths to the young woman that Katie Kay hadn’t guessed existed.
“Is your dad having a big wedding? He’s some honcho, isn’t he?” Not giving her a chance to answer, Cherokee smiled and added, “Maybe you’ll catch the bouquet and your Cutie-Pie Amish Guy will take the hint and propose.”
“We don’t throw a bouquet at an Amish wedding. There isn’t a bouquet, though sometimes there are flowers on the tables during the wedding meal. More often, there are vases filled with celery.” She smiled. “That’s one of our most cherished wedding traditions.”
When Cherokee asked about other traditions, Katie Kay was relieved. They talked a half hour longer before her friend had to leave so she could return to Lancaster at the time she’d told Vinnie.
“He gets worried if I’m late,” the redhead added. “Isn’t that sweet?”
Katie Kay made a sound Cherokee must have taken as an affirmative because her friend stood, gave Katie Kay a hug and went to the door. With a wave of her fingertips, she was gone.
Silence fell on the living room. Cherokee may not have intended them to, but her words reminded Katie Kay that Daed was getting married, and he would have a much bigger family to worry about. She didn’t need to cause him extra distress. It was time for her to face her mistakes.
Long past time.
But how? She bowed her head and began to pray, hoping God would listen to her heart, which was confused about everything in her life. About going home. About having the boppli on her own. And about what she was going to do, because Cherokee was right. She was falling in love with Micah.