An Honest Love (9 page)

She removed her hand, the skin on her cheek still burning. “Does it look bad?”

“You have a red mark right here.” His finger brushed against her cheek. Then he yanked away his hand and stepped back from her. “Sorry.”

She wasn’t sure exactly what he was sorry for—accidentally burning her cheek or touching it. For one split moment she was sorry for neither.

Wait a minute. This was Aaron. Her coworker. A man she barely knew anything about. Why would a split-second gesture done merely out of concern affect her at all? Aaron was right; she had to be bored out of her mind for her imagination to run crazy like that.

“Some ice will cool the burn.” He went back to the forge, then glanced at her, not picking up the hammer until she moved away.

“It’s already feeling better.” She took a few more steps back. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have been so close.”

Aaron didn’t say anything. Instead he started pounding. A bead of sweat ran down his face.

Dismissed, she spun around and headed back to the office. Pulling a small mirror out of the top drawer of her desk, she checked her face. The sting had already diminished, and the red welt was hardly noticeable. She was grateful the burn hadn’t been worse.

Elisabeth turned around and leaned her backside against the desk. She should just go home like he suggested. Better than being at loose ends here and getting in the way. Gabe would fire her for sure if she caused any trouble. He wasn’t a harsh man at all, quite the opposite. In fact, after his twin brother had died a few months before Velda was born, Gabe had stood by Moriah’s side. Eventually, Gabe and Moriah had married, and they were one of the happiest couples Elisabeth knew. But he had a business to run, and she didn’t want to do anything to jeopardize that. She enjoyed her job and wanted to keep it.

She put her black bonnet on over her
kapp
, pinned her shawl around her neck, then grabbed her lunch bag and purse. She did have a few chores to finish up at home before getting together with some of her friends later on that night, so taking off early wasn’t a bad suggestion.

As she left the office, she had an idea. On her way out the door she walked past Aaron, making sure she steered clear of the forge. When she called his name, he answered her but didn’t look up.

“A bunch of my friends are getting together tonight at the Troyers’ over on Bundysburg Road. They’ve got a big barn and we’re setting up a corn toss tournament. You should join us.”

“I’m busy.”

“Doing what?” She raised her voice to be heard above the noise at the forge.

He gave her a quick look, his blue eyes impassive. “Stuff.”

“Okay, what kind of stuff ?”

“Personal stuff, all right?” Impatience entered his tone.

“You don’t have to get all snippy about it. I’m just trying to be nice.”

He paused and took a deep breath. “Sorry.
Danki
for the invite, but I can’t make it.”

“How about tomorrow night, then? There’s a singing—”

“Elisabeth, I’m not interested.” He looked back down at the anvil and started working again.

Her feelings pricked, she left the shop and went to her buggy. She thought about stopping in the house to talk to Moriah, but she wasn’t in the mood. Instead her thoughts were on Aaron. Maybe he did have his own group of friends he hung around with that she didn’t know about. That was highly possible, as she didn’t know
everything
that went on in their community.

Then a thought occurred to her. What if he had started using drugs again?

No, that wasn’t possible. She’d been there when Aaron had joined the church. The day he gave that commitment to the Lord in front of everyone he’d promised to put worldly things behind him. Since then, as far as she could tell, he had done exactly that. Besides, Gabe would have noticed if Aaron had been involved in drugs again.

Although she fought to dismiss her suspicions, they didn’t go completely away. She wanted to think the best of him, and other than his standoffish demeanor, he gave her no reason not to.

Judge not, that ye be not judged . . .

The scripture popped into her brain, a reminder that she had no business speculating such things about Aaron. She certainly wouldn’t want her friends or anyone else judging her actions or thinking awful things about her without basis.

“Sorry, Lord,” she said out loud, over the sound of cars passing by her as she steered the buggy down the road. Her father had put the winter curtain over the front of the buggy to keep out some of the cold, but she could still see puffs of her breath suspended in the air as she spoke. “You’re right, I should know better.”

Yet even though she put a halt to her suspicions about Aaron, she couldn’t get her mind off him completely.

“Where’s Elisabeth?” Gabe asked as he entered the shop a short time later. “Her buggy’s not parked in the driveway.”

“She left.” Aaron tossed aside the piece of iron he’d been working on all morning. Three hours wasted, because he’d ruined the end by pounding it too thin. He could use it for something else later, but it was useless as a spindle for the decorative fencing he needed for an order due by Christmas.

Gabe picked up the rod and inspected the end. “What happened?”

“Misjudged the thickness.” Aaron hated to admit the mistake, which shouldn’t have happened considering his experience. Since being given the chance to work for the Millers almost two years ago, he had wanted to prove his worth, first as an employee and then as a blacksmith. Gabe had taken a chance by hiring an ex-drug dealer with a jail record, and Aaron didn’t ever want him to regret that decision.

“Happens to the best of us.” Gabe set the piece down on the nearby counter. “Why did Elisabeth leave? I thought she was staying until three.”

“Slow day. We haven’t had a single customer. She said she finished her work, so I told her to
geh
home.” Never had he been so relieved as when she left. Besides distracting him from his work, she’d been nosy. And relentless, especially about inviting him to join her and her friends, people he didn’t even know. While he was glad she’d taken over the tedious office operations of the business, he hadn’t expected her to be so friendly. That was something he wasn’t used to, not since he’d turned his back on the Yankee world and joined the church.

Not to say the Amish were unfriendly. That wasn’t the case at all. But folks made it easy for him to keep his distance. Most men his age were like him, busy with work. Or, unlike him, busy courting and thinking about marriage. He’d never been one to hang out with the Amish crowd at singings and frolics as a teen. Those activities were what the “good” Amish kids did, the ones who joined the church early on and married young, who stayed in the church and raised families. He didn’t fit in with them then, and he wouldn’t fit in with them now.

So Elisabeth’s efforts to bring him into her fold of friends were pointless. Someday she’d get the message. He hoped.

But that wasn’t what bothered him the most. Not even close. What took his thoughts away from his work for the rest of the morning after she left was when he’d touched her cheek. He’d done it out of concern that the burning spark might have flown in her eye. Yet for the briefest of moments he’d felt a spark within him as his gaze met hers. He’d spent the next couple hours trying to ignore his reaction, but judging from the messed up iron rod, he’d failed.

No one could deny Elisabeth Byler was a pretty woman, something he’d noticed more than once before today. But just because he appreciated her looks didn’t mean he was attracted to her. Even if he was, he wouldn’t let her know. Elisabeth was destined to marry a good Amish man, one who’d never strayed into the devil’s playground, much less wallowed in it like Aaron had.

So he chalked his reaction up to loneliness. He’d had a steady girlfriend for several months before he’d been arrested, and he’d missed Kacey something fierce while he’d been in jail. But he had to make a choice, and he’d chosen the safety of the Amish community, a decision he didn’t regret. Over time his feelings for Kacey disappeared but not his desire for companionship. But what Amish woman would want an ex-con for a husband?

Definitely not Elisabeth Byler.

“Aaron?”

Spinning around, he looked at Gabe, who had taken off his coat and already hung it up in the back. “
Ya
?”

“You all right? You seem in deep thought.”

“I’m fine. Just thinking about not making another mistake.”

Gabe nodded and pulled on his leather gloves, preparing for work. As the day progressed, Aaron forced himself not to think about Elisabeth or the past. Yet try as he might, he couldn’t block the loneliness from his mind or his heart.

“What a
wunderbaar
day!” Edna pulled back the curtains in the window in the front room of
Onkel
Zeb’s house. Bright November sunlight streamed inside. “Not a cloud in the sky or a flake of snow on the ground.” She turned around and looked at Anna seated on the couch. “A great day to be outside in the fresh air, even if it is a little chilly.”

“Better than staying cooped up inside.” Zeb walked inside the room, scratching the side of his belly. He hitched up his trousers. “When’s that Byler
bu
getting here?”

“He’ll be here when he gets here.” Edna turned around and faced Zeb. “Don’t be so impatient.”

“Only if you’ll stop being so bossy.”

Anna rolled her eyes, happy that she would be leaving for work soon so she wouldn’t have to listen to her mother and uncle’s ceaseless bickering. She left them arguing in the living room and went into the kitchen to pack her lunch. As she washed her hands in the sink, she looked out the window to see Lukas turning in to the driveway.

A small tickle formed in her belly, as it had lately every time she saw Lukas. Since the singing at his house nearly a month ago, he had been true to his word, and they had developed a natural, enjoyable friendship. He stopped by work at the end of the day a couple times a week to take her home, since she and her mother took turns using the buggy. Today he had taken a day off work to help her uncle fix several broken slats in the barn. How could she not love his selfless generosity?

She froze.
Love
. Had that word really popped into her mind? It had, but certainly not in a romantic context. Even though she thought about Lukas a lot when they weren’t together, it didn’t mean she’d changed her mind about their friendship. The fact that her time at work seemed to crawl by on the days he picked her up wasn’t a sign that she felt any different toward him than she always did.

Picking up the towel by the sink, she dried her hands and kept looking out the window, watching as he parked the buggy and jumped out. His dark blue coat was buttoned up halfway, revealing a light blue shirt underneath. He adjusted his yellow straw hat before reaching in the back of the buggy for his tool belt. Although it had to be heavy, he slung it over his shoulder like it weighed next to nothing.

She checked the clock on the kitchen wall. If she didn’t leave within the next few minutes, she would be late for work, which meant the store wouldn’t open on time. But when she heard the back door open she didn’t move, knowing he would appear in the kitchen in a few seconds.

Just as she heard the thud of his shoes on the kitchen floor, a sudden pain stabbed her abdomen. She doubled over from the intensity of it.

“Anna?”

She could barely hear Lukas’s voice through the haze of pain.

“Anna, what’s wrong?”

A crash sounded in her ears, and Lukas was suddenly at her side. Then just as quickly as it hit, the agony subsided. Slowly she stood up, gazing into Lukas’s worried face.

“I’m okay.” She gripped the side of the sink and straightened. Only then did she notice how close he was standing to her, and that his hand was on her shoulder. Their eyes met.

“Are you sure?”

“
Ya
.” Then she realized she had another problem besides the way she was reacting to him. She couldn’t tell him the source of her pain. Her monthly problems were something she couldn’t even share with her mother, much less with Lukas. But how could she explain what just happened?