A Wedding for Julia (13 page)

“
Ya
. I suppose we are.”

“This would be a union in every way. Together we could make a go of it, and I think it would work. But we have to be open to the possibility that it might not.” He nodded toward the lane in front of her house. “I see a lot of businesses start up and close in the first few months, usually because people haven’t thought out all the possible outcomes. Failure is a possibility, though we’ll work and pray for success.”

“Our…our marriage would be about more than the café, though. How could you be willing to do this, Caleb?” She had been staring off into the gathering darkness, but now she turned and looked at him directly. “How can you be willing to commit yourself to me and to my mother?”

Caleb hesitated before he answered. He’d asked himself that same question a dozen times, and he still hadn’t found the words to explain his answer. “Neither of us is getting younger—”

“So I’m your last chance?” Her voice rose, startling a nearby bird.

“
Nein
. I told you of my prayer—my plea for a
freind
. I didn’t ask
Gotte
for a
fraa
, though I remember thinking how lonely I was, how it wasn’t
gut
to be alone. But marriage? I stopped thinking of that a few years ago, I suppose. Somehow, in my mind, that wasn’t going to happen.”

“Surely there were women who were interested back in Indiana.”

“
Ya
, but there was always a reason why it didn’t work out. How about you?”

Julia put both of her hands into her lap and stared down at them. “The same, at first. Lately, with my father and now my mother, I haven’t exactly been marriage material.”

“That’s not true. I could see at Sunday’s luncheon that several men would be interested. Why have you never considered them before?”

She shook her head so hard he could see the strings to her prayer
kapp
stirring in the small rays of light from the sitting room window. “They say they are interested, but they wouldn’t be. Once they visited here, I wouldn’t hear from them again. I’m not saying they are bad men, but if they saw
mamm
and her confusion, and then took a
gut
look at her hands and this house…”

She paused long enough to also look around the porch, as if she were seeing it for the first time. “I know it looks fine from the road, but up close the years of neglect show. I’m aware of the repairs it needs.
Nein
. They would change their mind, and I half expect you will too.”

Caleb scooted his chair so it was facing hers, so their knees were touching, and he reached for her hand. He held it as he had by the river at Aaron’s house. “I won’t be changing my mind. When I commit to a thing, I stay with it.”

Something in Julia’s heart flipped over at those words.
“When I commit to a thing, I stay with it.”

Could she trust him? Did she dare?

No doubt he
thought
he meant them, but then people said things they
thought
were true all the time. Time and trouble often proved them wrong.

“Julia, look at me.”

It took more strength than harnessing Missy, but she raised her eyes to his.

“Marrying this way is unusual. The one thing we need is to trust each other. You need to trust me when I say I won’t run away from your problems.”

She jumped up from her seat and walked to the porch railing. She needed to feel the old boards beneath her palms. This house and her parents were all she had known for so long. Now she was supposed to trust Caleb? She barely knew him.

He was beside her before she realized it, his voice low and close. When his hand covered hers, she looked down. The sight of his calloused hand on top of hers nearly took her breath away. This was all happening so fast, and so many things could go wrong.

“I see Ada’s hands and also her confusion at times. And while this home needs certain repairs, it’s a
gut
solid house. Together we can make a life here, if that is what you want.”

Tears filled her eyes, blurring her vision.

“You won’t make me move?” The words tore from her heart, scratching at her throat as she spoke them.

“Why would I make you move?”

She shook her head and swiped at her cheeks.

“Let me do that.” He reached forward and wiped her tears away with his thumbs.

His hands on her skin sent her emotions scurrying in a dozen different directions. She struggled to remain focused, to control her fears and seek the answers she needed.

“Why would I make you move, Julia?”

“Promise me we can stay in Pebble Creek.” Staring into his eyes, she added, “You don’t own a home here, or…or back in Indiana. Do you?”

Caleb laughed. “
Nein
. I live in Aaron’s barn at the cabins.”

“I couldn’t bear to leave this place.”

“You have my word. Wisconsin, and Pebble Creek, will be our home.”

It was all she needed to hear.

It was more important even than the café, though she heard his promise for that as well.

When he took a step forward and softly kissed her lips, she didn’t move. Instead, she held her breath, wondering what she was supposed to do. He ran a thumb along her bottom lip, kissed her once more, and said, “We should go in. You’re shivering.”

They might not love each other, but he was a kind man. He wouldn’t desert her.

She knew that as he helped her gather up the dishes and they walked back into the house.

Her life had come down to two choices—living here with Caleb or living in Pennsylvania with people she didn’t even know.

Which meant her choice was made.

Together they walked into the kitchen. She excused herself and hurried upstairs to check on Ada, who was fast asleep. She had come back down the stairs and was walking through the sewing room when she spied him, standing next to the calendar on the kitchen wall.

Her hands shaking slightly, she pulled it off the small hook, and they carried it over to the table.

“Fall communion is mid-October, and if I’ve heard the rumors correctly, there are already many weddings scheduled for the end of the month. Not everyone has published their intentions yet—”

“Then how do you know?”

“When you deliver groceries, you hear things.” Caleb rubbed his hand over his jaw. “And you see extra plots of celery growing.”

“We’re the more progressive side of the district, but many traditions remain the same. Families still make the creamed celery for wedding meals and put it on tables as center pieces too.”

“It’s the same in Monroe. Lydia’s
schweschder
Clara works at the cabins. She’s always full of news, and she has talked of nothing but announcements and weddings for weeks.”

“I don’t hear that much during Sunday meals, but then I am usually serving food or helping my mother. I didn’t realize we had that many couples of marrying age.”

Caleb nodded, still studying the calendar. “If we consider both the east and west side of our district, I suspect nearly every Tuesday and Thursday from here to here is full.” Caleb ran his finger down the daily squares through November.

“We could have two in one day.”

“Yes. We sometimes did that in Indiana as well. Or…” He turned the page back and tapped the first Tuesday after fall communion—the third Tuesday in October. “Or we could ask Bishop Atlee if this day would be acceptable.”

“So soon …”

“
Ya
. Do you need more time to prepare?”

Julia brushed her palm down the length of her apron, pausing to touch the stitches on the hand-sewn hem. Then she admitted, “I’ll only have a few announcements to deliver.”

“Same here.”

“As far as a dress,
mamm
and I can whip that up fairly quickly.”

“Doesn’t seem as if Ada can sew with the arthritis so bad.”

“True, but she’s wonderful at giving me directions while I cut and pin and stitch the seams.”

Caleb laughed. “I could have guessed she was very
gut
at directing. She also told me I needed to have my hair cut.”

“I’m sorry about that. She shouldn’t have—”

“She was right!” Caleb combed his fingers through his bangs, a slightly embarrassed smile playing on his lips. “I’ve been meaning to take care of it, but there’s been no pressing need until now.”

Julia again touched the October square. “What of the field work? The crops will be in? Otherwise families wouldn’t be able to attend.”

“
Ya
. Corn is coming in this week and next—I’ve picked up some extra work helping. Hay is nearly done as well. According to Aaron, it will be harvested a few weeks early this year.”

“We need to ask Bishop Atlee to make the church announcement, and there’s no service this Sunday.”

“
Gut
point. He could do it the following week.”

“
Ya
.” Julia pressed her hand to her stomach, trying to quell the butterflies circling at full speed. She had to suppress the urge to run to the drawer in the kitchen, pull out her pad of paper, and begin making lists. “October then, the third Tuesday.”

“A little over a month from today.” Caleb’s smile told her all she needed to know. They were actually going to do this. “It’s a date.”

He smacked his hand on the table, as if he’d just won a hand of Dutch Blitz rather than settled on the day of their wedding. “That will give us plenty of time to see to the marriage license.”

“I hadn’t even thought of—”

“Aaron told me all about it.” He explained to her what documents they would need. “And we’ll have to go to Sparta.”

“Sparta?”

“
Ya
. That’s where the county clerk’s office is.”

Julia pinched the bridge of her nose. Already there were complications. “How are we going to get to Sparta? It’s twenty miles away.”

“I’ll handle the transportation, but we should go as soon as possible. I can get off early Thursday if that will work for you.”

“I suppose I could go then, but I might need to bring my mother.”

“No problem. The three of us will have dinner in town together.”

“I don’t think—”

Caleb stood and reached for his hat. “Our new life is an occasion to celebrate, and it will include all three of us. There will be much work to do before and after. For one afternoon, it will be
gut
to pause and enjoy ourselves.”

Julia walked him to the door, her mind dizzy with dozens of details and questions. All of those faded when Caleb stepped out into the night. She thought he’d left, but he darted back across the doorway to squeeze her hand and kiss her once more on the lips.

Without another word he was gone.

She was left standing on the front porch, listening to the night birds, the beating of her heart, and his whistling as he walked toward the barn to retrieve Red.

Chapter 12