A Wedding for Julia (29 page)

Ada cracked open a roll of pennies. “God gives His people peace.”

“
Ya
, I know,
mamm
, but maybe we should do something.”

“Keep praying,” Ada said. “Pray and cook and be there for her. Sharon’s a
gut
girl. She’ll be fine.”

“I suppose.” Julia added pickles to her mixture.

“Are you making Guey Louie sandwiches?” Caleb asked. His stomach was full, but maybe not completely full.

“
Ya
. Wednesday is Guey Louie day or vegetable soup. Didn’t you read the menu?” She pulled out four packages of buns, filled them with the mixture, and wrapped them in foil.

“I read the menu, but I didn’t pay attention to it so much. Maybe you should let me try one of those when they come out of the oven.”

“Then I’ll only have thirty-one.”

“Thirty-one is a
gut
number.”

“You already ate.”

“But I worked extra hard today.”

“We still have to make Sunbonnet cake.”

“You’re not going to let me cut a piece of that cake tonight.” Caleb’s hands were becoming wrinkled in the dishwater. He glanced down and realized his skin looked like prunes. He turned his attention back to the stack of dirty dishes, which seemed to be growing.

“I was going to make two batches of batter—one to use for the cake and the other to make cupcakes. It seems cupcakes are a very popular item now.”

“And you’d let me eat a cupcake?”

“You can’t have a cupcake and a Guey Louie. You’ll be sick.” Julia shook her head at him, but she was also smiling.

He was learning to recognize his wife’s mannerisms. He already knew that when she smiled with her ducked head down, she was enjoying their conversation.

“I suppose the sandwich could wait until tomorrow.”

“It probably should. You know, living inside a café could be dangerous. You don’t want to become like some old Amish men who need suspenders to keep their pants up. You might want to watch your waistline.”

Caleb had grown up in a family full of rowdy boys. He’d helped wash dishes a time or two. So it was a natural reaction for him to put his hands into the last of the soap suds, catch a handful, and flick them at his wife.

She stared down at the front of her apron as if he’d thrown some of Missy’s dropping on her, but the shock gave way to amusement, and the amusement was replaced by a look he’d seen from his brothers more than once. It was the I’ll-get-you-back-for-that expression.

He continued to clean while she cooked, and the kitchen was soon filled with delicious smells.

Ada eventually closed the cash box, said good night, and toddled upstairs.

Caleb waited until he was sure they were alone before he stepped behind Julia and slipped his arms around her waist. “Have I told you how beautiful you look in that apron?”

“You’re lucky this apron is dry now.”

He nuzzled her neck. “
Ya
. I shouldn’t have splashed you. For a minute there I thought you were one of my
bruders
back at home. We always played around.”

She turned in his arms and gazed up at him with her pretty brown eyes. “Are you saying I look like your
bruders
?”

“
Nein
. They’re even uglier than I am.”

“You’re not ugly,” she whispered. Standing on her tiptoes, she kissed him softly on the lips.

He reached to lengthen the kiss but she slipped out of his arms like a fish slipping off the line.

“Cake’s ready,” she said with a smile, a mischievous look in her eyes.

Hmm. Somehow he thought Julia Beechy—correction, Julia Zook—realized how crazy she made him. At the moment he would take her over an entire Sunbonnet cake or a tray of Guey Louie sandwiches. But because she was already moving toward the table with the cupcakes, he opened the refrigerator, grabbed the milk and two glasses, and joined her.

Suddenly he didn’t feel tired at all.

Maybe after he’d helped her frost the cupcakes, they would have a small sample for their dessert. Maybe when her work was done, he could talk his wife into taking a nighttime stroll down to the river.

Chapter 24

C
aleb spent all day Wednesday working on the bridge that would connect their property to Aaron’s cabins. The sky was overcast, but the temperatures weren’t cold. It was good weather in which to do the work. Tim showed up bright and early to help. He brought the designs he’d been working on. Caleb chose the most simple one, which was for a bridge three feet wide, using split logs and having two handrails.

“Safe and stable. Have you chosen a spot?”

“
Ya
. Narrowest point, like you said. Let me show you.”

They hadn’t had much rain, so the water level in Pebble Creek was low—maybe only a foot and a half deep. Caleb donned his rain boots and slogged across the water, holding on to one end of Tim’s tape measure.

“Fourteen feet,” Tim called out.

Caleb nodded and headed back. He only paused once to watch a fish dash downstream.

“We’ll add a six foot overhang—three on each side.”

“Makes for twenty feet. David’s delivering wood midmorning.”

“We have time to go to town then and pick up supplies.”

By the time they had returned, David was there waiting. He insisted on staying to help. “I’ve built a lot of things, but I’ve never put together a bridge.”

They had been sawing and hammering for less than thirty minutes when Aaron and Seth showed up.

“Sounds like you need help over there,” Aaron said, standing on the opposite bank.

A corner of cabin eight’s roof was just visible over his shoulder. Caleb remembered the cabin well—it was the one farthest from the office and the barn. The path between the cabins curved back toward the river, so that cabins nine and ten were actually closer to the office. He’d had to walk the entire circle, checking each building before bed when he’d lived in the little room in the barn. That seemed like another lifetime now.

“
Ya
. Sounds like you need our help badly.” Seth squatted down and stared across at them.

No doubt the boy would rather do anything than yard work. Boy? He was to marry in another week.

“We could use some help,” Caleb admitted. “If you don’t mind getting your feet wet.”

“I’m way ahead of you.” Aaron held up two pairs of rain boots.

With the five of them working, the bridge took shape quickly. David used a handsaw to cut all of the split oak into thirty-six-inch lengths. Caleb and Seth dug six-foot trenches parallel to the creek on each side—wide enough and deep enough to hold the footings for the bridge.

Aaron notched the footings with an ax. The ends of the logs, which were not split, went into the notches and spanned the creek.

“I can’t believe you were able to deliver these.” Caleb had fallen asleep each night thinking of how they would do this, and now it was all taking shape in front of his eyes.

David grunted as he picked up one end of a log. “Not so hard with the trailer we use for hay and my two best horses.”

“That too heavy for you,
dat
?” Seth waded back across and shouldered the other end of the log.

“I’ll let you know when something’s too heavy for me, son.”

“Just checking.”

“I appreciate that.”

The grin that passed between them assured Caleb they were good-naturedly harassing each other. Then he realized that they were sharing their passions. Seth loved being outdoors. It was why he’d stayed with the job at the cabins for so long. And David loved working with wood, building all manner of things he sold in a shop next to his house. Caleb was guessing it was rare for those two interests to cross, but today they had.

Tim wanted to use a drill, bolts, and nails to attach the twenty-foot logs to the footings on each bank, but Caleb, Aaron, and David all shook their heads. They showed him the Amish way, using wooden pegs.

“For a bridge?”

“They will hold a house together,” Caleb reminded him.

“And a barn,” Aaron said.

“They will hold this bridge longer than nails will.” David set to work as everyone else began laying out the three-foot split logs.

They had stopped for lunch, but they were making good progress and didn’t linger over the delicious food Sharon brought down. Tim seemed surprised that they could finish in one day, and Jeanette had shown up once to take photos of the structure in progress—waiting until the Amish men were out of the picture to snap her pictures. She planned to use them for another blog post.

What they were doing didn’t seem so different from any of the barn raisings Caleb had participated in. Fewer workers, smaller work space, same result.

As the day’s light began to fade, the men gathered up their tools. Aaron and Seth walked across the bridge as they headed back to the other side of the creek.

David cocked his head and shifted his tool belt from his left hand to his right. “You can ride home with me, son.”

“Can’t. Sorry,
dat
.”

Seth had stopped in the middle of the bridge, and he jumped up and down a few times, testing the structure. It was sturdy, as Caleb knew it would be.

“I left my rig at the cabins,” he explained. Then he turned and followed Aaron across the water and around the bend in the path, out of sight.

Tim turned to Caleb and asked, “When are you off again?”

“Saturday.”

“We can put the handrails on then.”

“Sounds
gut
.”

“I can be here for a few hours Saturday morning,” David said. “In the afternoon I promised to take the kids to town to give Anna a few hours alone.”

“I appreciate any help you can give me, but you be sure to follow through on your promise to your wife. With six children, I imagine she can use a break.”

“Soon to be five. She’s having a hard time with Seth leaving.”

“He’s leaving?” Tim asked.

“Not leaving. He’s marrying,” Caleb explained. “He’ll still be in Pebble Creek.”

“
Ya
, but Aaron’s been able to buy more land adjacent to where he lives, and there’s an old house on it. He offered free rent to Seth if he’ll help with the harvest each year. So he and Clara will live there to begin with, which is a real blessing. Clara will be able to lend a hand with her
dat
—”

“How is Menno?” Caleb asked.

“Some days are bad. Others are better.”

“I know both Lydia and Clara are a help to their
mamm
.”

“Sure. And Clara will be able to ride into work with Lydia and Aaron. It works out well.” David stopped next to his buggy. “But it isn’t what Anna imagined. She thought Seth would bring his bride home. Sort of like I thought my oldest would follow me into woodwork.”

“He did some fine work today,” Tim pointed out. “We all did.”

They spent another moment slapping each other on the back and brushing off Caleb’s thanks. Their words echoed in his ears and in his heart as he climbed the steps of his home. The last of the day’s customers were leaving, and Caleb knew the bridge they were building would be worth the effort.