Martha let out a nervous giggle. She reached for the three cookies that had landed
under the dashboard, wishing that the yellow-frosted star could guide them as the
star of Bethlehem had led the wise men to the manger. But it was too late to be consulting
such heavenly guidance, wasn’t it?
“
Jah
, it’s Mary! And it’s
gut
to hear your voice . . .
jah
, well, we’re sorry about how things ended, too. We got pretty put out yesterday and
didn’t give you much chance to talk us back into a better mood,” Mary went on in a
hopeful tone, “but right now we need a big favor, Bram.”
“A
huge
favor,” Martha murmured, shaking her head.
Mary listened for a moment. Her smile indicated that Bram at least hadn’t hung up
on her so maybe . . . maybe they could get out of this mess without catching any flack
from their
dat
or
mamm
.
“Well, we decided to surprise you guys for Second Christmas! Martha and I tossed our
duffels in a buggy and started out this morning before anyone else was the wiser,”
Mary recounted cheerfully. Then she paused. “Trouble is, we’ve hit a chunk of ice
in the road and now a wheel’s broken . . .
jah
, just a second.”
Mary pressed the phone into her coat. “Sister, do you have any idea where we are?”
she murmured.
Martha sighed. “Last town we went through was Cold Stream,” she replied, and then
she squinted at the signs up ahead of them. “But we’re at the intersection of Double
A and Highway 3.”
Mary repeated their location to Bram . . . chatted with him for another few moments
as the sun lit up her relieved expression. “Oh, but I’m so grateful to you for helping
us,” she said. Then her laughter rang inside the buggy. “
Jah
, we’ll owe you for this, for sure and for certain. See you in a little bit, then.”
Martha’s shoulders relaxed. “So, Bram wasn’t still mad at us?”
Mary chuckled as she pressed the End button. “Oh, I figure he’s going to get in a
few licks about girls who take out on a wild goose chase. But he seemed kind of happy
to have something to
do
today.”
“Like us, then. Didn’t want to hang around the house.” Martha reached for the cookie
bin, and chose a butterscotch cashew bar. As she bit into its gooey, crunchy richness,
relief washed over her. “Did he say how long he might be?”
“Probably twenty minutes. He knew right where this intersection was.”
“Maybe we weren’t so far off course, after all,” she remarked. “I guess whatever he
teases us with, or expects us to do in return, well—we’ve got it coming, ain’t so?”
Mary, too, grabbed a butterscotch cashew bar. Then she grinned mischievously. “Bring
it on, I say.”
Martha laughed out loud. “That’s the ticket, Sister! We can handle what’s happened
to our buggy, and we’ll handle Bram and his big ideas along with it.”
Chapter Ten
Nate steered Clyde along the road at a brisk clip, trying not to feel too hopeful.
While this little diversion with the Coblentz twins was a surprise he couldn��t have
hoped for on a day that had been dragging by at home, there were still some issues
to be cleared away before he allowed himself to fall for their upturned noses and
cheerful smiles again. But the bright morning sunshine and the sleigh bells accompanying
the steady
clip-clop! clip-clop!
of his draft horse’s hooves raised his spirits.
“Did Mary sound upset? Like, will we have to put up with their crying when we get
there?” he asked Bram.
Bram, who had been grinning like a little kid ever since Mary had called him, crammed
his fedora lower so it wouldn’t blow off in the breeze. “She sounded mighty glad I
answered the phone, but seemed on top of things, all in all,” he replied. “I can’t
think Martha would be one to weep and wail, either. She impressed me as the more level-headed
of the two.”
“
Jah
, I caught that about her, too,” Nate admitted. “And if she was driving, and they
got to that crossroads at Highway 3 without knowing where they were going, they’re
neither one helpless.”
“
Jah
, and I’m thinking that if I hadn’t answered, they’d have called some other fellow.”
Bram shrugged, obviously delighted at the turn their day had taken. “I hope you can
set aside your pity party so we can have a
gut
time today. After all, this was to be their surprise to us. They want to see us again,
even after—well, that’s not a big deal anymore.”
Nate glanced sideways at his younger brother. “So what did you do after I left? I
thought it was odd that you weren’t that far behind me getting home.” Anybody could
see Bram was keeping a secret . . . maybe another issue to clear up before they took
their relationships with the twins beyond this playful stage.
Sure enough, his younger brother laughed and looked away. “Ohhh, I got the big idea
to ask the girls if they’d want to go into business with me, running an auction barn.”
“And?” Nate asked pointedly. Things were never the way Bram let on at first. It always
paid to dig a little deeper to get to the root of his doings.
“I, um, said I could set them up with a place to stay . . . hinted that I might be
up for jumping the fence—”
“And they told you to go fly a kite, ain’t so?” Nate let out an exasperated sigh.
“And you didn’t think you’d upset them by asking them to leave their faith and their
family for—”
“
Jah
, I get that now,” Bram retorted. “The girls have put it behind them or they wouldn’t
have started out for Willow Ridge before dawn. So stow it, all right?”
Nate’s lips lifted. Somehow, even after Bram had made such an outlandish blunder,
the twins had looked beyond his impulsive talk to give him another chance. With any
sort of luck, he, too, might get back into their good graces...
“And there they are.” Bram pointed to a buggy alongside the county road at the intersection
they were approaching. When he waved his arms high in the air, a girl in a black bonnet
hopped out of each side of the rig to wave back.
Even from here, the Coblentz twins looked bubbly and happy and—well, they were certainly
the bright spot in Nate’s day. Adventurous and open to getting out of their comfort
zone. Unafraid, at least from appearances. Maybe he could take a lesson from the way
they were handling this setback in their plans. After all, how many young women had
ever asked him to help celebrate their birthday? And now that he was in the driver’s
seat, in more than one sense, he felt more confident about the direction things might
go today.
When Nate pulled the sleigh alongside their buggy, the twins seemed pleased to see
that he’d come along with Bram, and that made him return their smiles. “Well now,”
he teased as he stepped down from the seat. “Imagine meeting the two of
you
out here—”
“And it’s mighty
gut
to see you, Nate!” one of the twins remarked.
“Lots more fun with the four of us,” her sister chimed in. “But you can see we’re
going nowhere without your help.”
“We did bring a big box of cookies, though.”
“And our sunshiny selves, of course.”
And didn’t they make a sight, smiling up at him? Nate slung an arm around their shoulders
and hugged them both briefly. “Let’s take a look at this wheel, and we’ll decide just
how much this personal pickup and repair service is going to cost you.”
“Best thing would be to take this wheel to Graber’s carriage shop,” Bram said from
where he was studying the damage. “We brought a few tools, but this is a pretty bad
break. More than we can fix for you.”
Both girls’ faces fell. “But that’s clear back in Cedar Creek—”
“And James has closed his shop until after the holidays.”
Nate shrugged. “Not many other carriage makers around here. And it’d be best to leave
the buggy close to home so it’s easier for you to pick it up when it’s fixed, ain’t
so?” he asked. “We can hitch your buggy behind the sleigh, with your horse tethered
behind. Clyde’s strong enough to get us there—”
“But we were figuring on spending the rest of the day—”
“Maybe longer, so we brought along a change of clothes.”
“—having a
gut
time with you fellows.”
“And, truth be told, I’m not wild about Noah finding out what we did to this buggy
we share with him. We didn’t tell him we’d be taking it, see.”
Nate followed the twins’ ping-pong ball conversation as he reached into the bin of
cookies one of the girls—Mary, he was guessing—offered him. As he bit into a ginger
snap that woke up his mouth with its bold spices, he certainly understood why the
twins didn’t want to be seen at home after they’d ducked out of the house. There was
really no need to disappoint them, was there?
Bram had already grabbed a wrench, unfastened the broken wheel, and set it inside
the buggy. He came up and snatched a peanut butter and jelly sandwich cookie from
the plastic bin, slinging his arm around the girl who held it. “Let’s think about
all the possibilities over breakfast somewhere. Not a Plain café, though, or we’re
bound to see folks who know us or know our families.”
“They’ll all be closed today, anyway,” Martha pointed out, and the way she focused
on Nate made his heart skitter. “But if we park the buggy behind James’s shop and
slip Taffy into his stable—”
“That would work!” Mary piped up. “The Grabers won’t be home from visiting kin in
Queen City until a day or two from now! We’ll pay James for a little hay along with
fixing the wheel.”
“See there? It’ll be just that easy to stay out and around for however long you girls
would like,” Bram said as he chose a frosted sugar cookie. “Me, I’m just real glad
you’re both willing to spend time with us again, after the wild ideas I was tryin’
to sell you on yesterday morning.”
Nate, carried along on this wave of good cheer, nodded. “And I hope you two can forgive
the way I took your switch-around so seriously. It’s not like you were trading places
on your wedding day, when the vows would be forever.”
The sisters grinned mischievously at each other. “Now there’s an idea!”
“
Jah
, I’ll keep that idea in mind in case we need it someday!” Martha stood on tiptoe
to leave a noisy kiss on Nate’s cheek. And didn’t that make the morning sun sparkle
on the snow in a million shiny-bright diamonds?
“Breakfast!” Bram declared. “I want to save these cookies for when we’re sleighing
later. Awfully nice of you girls to treat us.”
“So breakfast will be Bram’s treat,” Nate teased. “Let’s hitch up your rig and get
ourselves along. I know of a place outside of Roanoak that serves up a never-ending
stack of pancakes, and we can decide what we want to do after we drop off your buggy.
Sound
gut
?”
“Oh, you don’t know how
gut
,” Martha replied.
“
Jah
, it’s like starting our birthday all over again with a fresh slate. A lot better
than yesterday!” Mary answered happily.
Nate smiled at both girls, but especially at Martha.
It
is
better than yesterday. And you can be the hero if you get past the way Roberta dumped
you last spring.
Roberta? Who’s Roberta?
Nate chuckled as he tied the shafts of the buggy to the back of his sleigh. Once Bram
had fastened Taffy behind the buggy with a lead rope, they took off like a Plain parade
headed back toward Cedar Creek. With Martha beside him and Bram cozying up to Mary
in the backseat, it promised to be a Second Christmas such as he’d never imagined
when he’d gotten up this morning.
And wasn’t it just like the Coblentz twins to make life
fun
again?
As Mary sat beside Bram in a booth at Flo’s Down-Home Diner, she closed her eyes over
a bite of chocolate chip pancake smothered in warm strawberry syrup. The four of them
were talking and laughing as though yesterday’s conflicts hadn’t happened, and the
rest of the day shone bright with promise. Bram and Nate were devouring three eggs
apiece alongside their pancakes. A large side order of bacon sat in the center of
the table, and as Nate reached for a couple of slices he gazed at her with a . . .
curious expression on his face.
“Am I right that you baked most of those fabulous cookies, Mary?” he asked.
She blinked. Nate was studying her very intently, so she squirmed a little and her
face got hot, even as she sat close enough to Bram that their thighs brushed. “
Jah
, that would be me.”
“And I
like
that about you, Mary. Enough that I want to get to know you better—even though I’m
pretty sure it’s Martha who makes my clock tick,” Nate continued in a low voice. “What
say you sit up front in the sleigh with me this afternoon while your sister spends
some time with Bram? If we’re eventually going to pair up, I’m thinking we brothers
and sisters need to understand each other before we make any commitments.”
Martha’s eyebrows rose. “So, you’re saying it’ll be like when we girls decided to
switch around on you—”
“Except this time everybody knows about it,” Nate finished. “Truth be told, I still
have trouble telling you apart.”
“And this early on, I’m all for keepin’ things light.” Bram scraped the last of his
eggs onto his fork, grinning. “I say let’s do it! We all need to be
gut
friends with each other, first and foremost.”
Martha rolled her eyes. “This, coming from the fellow who was all set to hire both
of us girls yesterday. And rent us an apartment, too.”
Mary giggled as she elbowed him. “Don’t believe for a minute we couldn’t keep your
head spinning so fast that you’d never know which one of us was which, Bram. You wouldn’t
stand a chance, you know.”
“I figured that out on the way home yesterday. Had plenty of time to think about what
a fix I would’ve been in, had you two gone along with my ideas.” Bram smiled at Martha,
his dark eyes sparkling, and then he grinned at Mary. “But when you called me this
morning, I was just happy—and relieved—that you’d set that all aside. I thought I’d
really messed things up.”
“Oh,
jah
, you had! Big time,” Martha remarked as she took a slice of bacon.
“But we didn’t tell our parents the part about jumping the fence with you,” Mary continued,
twinkling with this happy chatter. “So all we heard about for the rest of our birthday
was how badly
we
had messed up, letting you two hard-working boys from a
gut
family leave us behind.”
“But don’t let it go to your heads.”
“We’re just in this for some fun, after all. But we really do appreciate your coming
to our rescue—”
“And feeding us this wonderful-
gut
breakfast.”
Mary smiled to herself. She and her twin could still make both of these boys strain
to keep up with the way they finished each other’s sentences and followed the same
train of thought with their rapid chatter. Nate’s suggestion was indeed a way to keep
from getting too attached too soon . . . a way to double date and keep all their options
wide open.
So when Nate urged Clyde into a trot again and they headed north to Cedar Creek, Mary
felt bubbly and light. She loved the happy sound of the sleigh bells. The same farms
they’d passed in the darkness now glowed in the late-morning sunshine and cardinals
called from tree to tree. It felt comfortable to sit with Nate, to sense that he was
coming out of his shell—maybe setting his misfortune with his former fiancée behind
him, at last—even though she knew she’d be happier with his brother. Martha looked
contented, too, bundled up in the blanket Bram had brought along. They had about half
an hour before they got to the carriage shop.
“I know!” Mary said. “Let’s play a game of True Confessions. I’ll ask a question we
all have to answer, and then it’ll be somebody else’s turn to ask something.”
“Oh, that could get wild in a hurry,” Bram remarked.
“
Jah
, but it’s only a game. All in fun,” Nate said.
“But here’s our chance to share our deep, dark secrets—or not!” Martha said. “What’s
your question, Mary? Make it a
gut
one, now!”
“Hmmm.” Mary thought for a moment. “What’s something your brother—or sister—does that
really sets you off?”
Beside her, Nate laughed loudly. “That one’s easy! Bram gets these hair-brained ideas
that he blurts out before he thinks twice. So then he not only steps in it, he puts
his foot in his mouth!”