Caroline's Secret (9 page)

Why, oh why was she always sticking her foot into a mess where Andrew was concerned? Caroline jerked open the door to the bakery, the bell above the door jangling frantically.

Esther came bustling in from the back, her cheeks pink from the heat of the ovens and the extra exertion.

“Caroline.” She pressed a hand to her chest as if to slow her heart. “You scared me.
Was iss letz?
”

What is wrong?

Andrew is too nice by far? I want to tell him how much he’s come to mean to me and answer all his many questions, but if I do will he forever look at me differently?

“Nothing,” she mumbled.

“It doesn’t seem like nothing the way you came flying in here.”

“Just pulled the door too hard, that is all.”

Maybe she was too sensitive, maybe she was guilt ridden. But when he had asked her about her run-around time, she had panicked and fled. Now she owed him another explanation.

“Now who is the one not telling the truth?”

Caroline shook her head. She had kept her secret for nigh on two years. There was no sense in sharing it now. It would only breed distrust and more problems for everyone involved.

Nay
, her secret was one best not shared.

Caroline looked up from the pan of cookies she had just slid into the oven to see Andrew enter the bakery.

“Hi, Caroline.” He whipped his hat from his head, and she was struck immediately with the urge to fluff the dark, silky strands.

“Hello.” She twisted her hands in the fabric of her flour-streaked apron to still their absurd impulse. She had never been so bold. Not with anyone but Trey, and look how that turned out.
“Wie geht?”

“I wanted to make sure that we are still planning on dinner tonight.”

“Jah.”
Caroline threw a look over her shoulder toward Esther. Then she dropped her voice. “Have him here at seven. We’ll eat and play a board game, then you and I can go out to the park. That’ll give them plenty of time together.”

Andrew chuckled. “It might be better if we stayed.
Onkle
isn’t good at picking up on subtleties.”

Caroline returned his laugh. “You may be onto something.” She had debated on telling Andrew about Esther’s declaration to give up on Abe, but since Esther had changed her mind, Caroline kept that information to herself.

How many secrets was she going to keep from him? She pushed the thought away and concentrated on what he was saying.

“We could send them out to . . . to . . . walk.” Andrew shook his head. “I’m not sure that will make a difference. Maybe we should stick to our original plan.”

“I think you may be right.”

“
Goedemiddag
, Andrew.”

Caroline jumped as Esther spoke behind her. “
Gut himmel
. You scared me.”

Esther smiled as Caroline’s heart continued to pound in her chest. More than anything Caroline wanted Esther and Abe to fall in love, but she didn’t want her dearest friend to know that she and Andrew had any sort of hand in the matter.

“So tonight?” Andrew asked.

“Tonight what?” Esther asked, reaching into the display counter and pulling out a pastry. “Whoopie pie?” she asked, offering it to Andrew.

“Danki”.
He accepted it with a grateful smile, then took a huge bite, leaving Caroline to answer.

“Andrew and I were talking about getting together tonight for supper.”

Esther clapped her hands together. “What a
gut
idea. The two of you can go down to the restaurant, and I’ll keep Emma.”

Caroline shook her head. “
Nay!
I mean, Andrew and I were talking about sharing a meal. All four of us. Me, you, him, and Abe Fitch.”

But Esther was already planning her own evening. “Perfect. He and I can keep Emma while you two go out.”

“But I—”

Thankfully, Andrew picked that moment to swallow and jump into the conversation. “Why don’t we all go to the restaurant for dinner?”

“That’s a fine idea, Andrew. A fine idea indeed.”

He smiled, satisfied with his save.

Caroline breathed a small sigh of relief. “Seven o’clock?”

Andrew finished off the sweet treat then licked the filling from his fingers. “Seven o’clock.”

“Onkle,”
Andrew started as the clock ticked steadily toward the hour of seven. “I thought you might want to change your shirt before we leave.”

“Eh?” His uncle looked up from his work with the hand plane and pushed his glasses a little farther up the bridge of his nose.

Andrew tempered his sigh so it was not quite as discouraged as he felt. “You should change your shirt before we go to dinner.”

Abe looked down at himself, then back up to Andrew. “This shirt is
allrecht
.”

He shook his head. “It’s covered with sawdust.”

Abe glanced down again, brushing the fine particles from his shirt front. “We’re just going to Kauffman’s.”

Andrew shook his head. “But we’re going with Esther and Caroline.”

“You want to go courtin’, so I have to change my shirt.”

“What if I told you that I think Esther likes you?”

But Andrew had no more started the sentence before Abe was once again bent over his latest project, smoothing out a rough spot his loving hands had found.

“Onkle?”

“Eh?”

“Are you going to change your shirt?”

Abe looked down at himself.
“Jah?”

Andrew laughed.
“Jah, Onkle.”

Abe ran his hand over the spot again, then with a satisfied nod, went to the back room to fetch the extra shirt he kept there.

He returned moments later, pulling his galluses over his shoulders as he walked. Thankfully he had washed his hands, and the strands of hair surrounding his face were dark and shiny with water. It was more than Andrew could have hoped for.

“Ready?” he asked as Abe started past his workbench and slowed. He ran his hand across the top of the bureau he was crafting, an unsatisfied frown wrinkling his brow.

“Just let me—”

Andrew rolled his eyes affectionately and grasped Abe by the elbow. “Come now,
Onkle
. We have women waiting.”

Kauffman’s was busy for a Thursday night. Caroline crowded in with the rest of the group, rubbing elbows with tourists waiting on their own tables.

Millie Fisher ran by, a pitcher of tea in one hand and a pitcher of water in the other. “I am so sorry,” she called to the group at large. “I will have you a table as soon as I can.” Then she hurried away to fill drinks.

Abe stroked his beard. “Looks like a bus must have come in.”

Caroline absently rubbed Emma’s back as she looked around. “Maybe two.” Every table was crowded with
Englischers
wearing shorts and T-shirts. Most of the shirts were the same, telling her without a doubt a tour bus had come into Wells Landing.

Esther tsked. “The chamber of commerce usually tells us so we can be prepared.”

“But it’s good for the town, right?” Andrew asked.

“Jah,”
Abe said.

Millie picked that moment to return and join in the conversation. “But it’s also
gut
to have enough staff on hand to care for them.”

“I think we should make other plans for supper tonight,” Abe said, glancing around the room once again.

Caroline barely saw the crestfallen look on Esther’s face before the other woman hid it behind her usual smile. “I suppose it would be best.”

“I don’t know about you, but I’m
hungerich
.” Andrew patted his belly.

“If we eat here, it’s going to be a while,” Caroline said, adjusting Emma into a more comfortable spot on her hip.

“Why don’t you put in an order to go?” Millie suggested.

Caroline looked at the milling people. Some were sitting, but most stood as all the chairs in the entry had been taken. “I guess we could wait at the bakery.”

“I have a better idea.” Andrew’s so-blue eyes sparkled with something akin to mischief. “We can go play a board game.”

“I could give you a call when it’s ready,” Millie suggested.

“That would be
gut
.” Andrew’s dimples slashed, and Caroline knew that he was quite pleased with the idea. Strange, though; a small part of her felt a little sad that he was only happy because it gave them the perfect excuse to get Esther and Abe together. There was another little part of her that wished he would be just as happy to spend the time with her.

They placed their orders and nudged their way out the door and to the sidewalk.

“It’s going to be busy tomorrow,” Esther said as they started toward the bakery.

“Jah,”
Abe agreed.

Andrew shot Caroline a look.

Tomorrow would be a busy day with two busloads of
Englischers
milling about, buying goods and taking pictures of everything from the
kinner
to their laundry lines. But hopefully the increased foot traffic would keep down the questions Caroline would have to face at lunch tomorrow. Really, she loved her
freinden
, but they seemed determined to marry her off to the first Amish man to come along.

Yet as determined as Lorie and Emily were, Caroline knew it would only delay the inevitable. It was no wonder they thought they saw a relationship brewing between her and Andrew. It was what they
wanted
to see. But would it be so bad?

She pushed the thoughts away as Esther unlocked the doors to their backroom apartment and lit the propane lamps. Caroline had had her chance at that kind of happiness, and it had slipped through her fingers.

“She looks heavy. Do you want me to take her?” Andrew sidled up beside her as they walked into the
schtupp.

The family room.

Family. That was what they looked like standing there. Mother, father, baby.

“I’m fine,” she managed to say through the knot of emotions.

But even as she said the words, Emma leaned toward Andrew, begging him to hold her. Caroline had no choice but to let her go.

Andrew’s smile beamed. “I think she likes me.”

What’s not to like?
“
Jah
, I think she does.”

Esther chose that moment to return to the room, Scrabble and Upwords in her arms. “That’s because you sneak her cookies when Caroline isn’t looking.”

“Andrew.” Caroline turned toward him.

The faint pink of a blush stained his face from forehead to chin and even reached down to his neck.

“I just wanted her to like me.”

She couldn’t really be mad at him. “Now that you have accomplished your goal, will you please switch to apples or carrots?”

Andrew made a face and bounced Emma on his hip. “I suppose.”

But he whispered something to the toddler, and Caroline was certain it was a promise for cookies to be mixed in with the healthier foods.

Caroline shook her head with a smile and sat down at the table.

Andrew sat down across from her, Emma still in his arms.

“You can’t play Scrabble and hold her.”

He raised one dark brow in a look so mischievous, it made her almost laugh. “Are you afraid I’ll have an unfair advantage?”

“I just—”
I’m just not used to having people to help
.
To hold Emma, to share her with
. “She’s getting too big to carry around all the time.”

Andrew smoothed a hand down Emma’s dark curls. “When she gets too heavy I’ll let you know.”

Out of reasonable protests, Caroline let the matter drop.

Esther set up the board while Abe passed out the letter stands. They each chose their tiles and the game began.

“English or
Deutsch
?”

“Deutsch,”
Andrew said on top of Caroline’s request of “English.”

Abe looked from one of them to the other, then back to Esther.

She shrugged. “English,” Esther said. “How often do you get to work on English spelling?”

“That’s a
gut
idea,” Abe said. “The four of us hail from three different districts, which means three different
Deutsch
spellings.”

Esther blushed at the compliment and smoothed the pleats of her apron.

“
Jah
, you’re right,” Andrew agreed. “It would be harder to play in
Deutsch
since the language was never formally written down.”

“English it is,” Abe said.

“I’ll get the dictionary.” Caroline pushed to her feet and went to fetch it.

“No looking for words,” Esther said emphatically. “That’s cheating. You have to have a word in mind to use the dictionary. Agreed?”

“Agreed,” they echoed.

“One more thing,” Andrew added as Caroline set the book on the side of the table. “Can we have a snack while we play? I’m hungry.”

“Dinner will be ready in just a little bit,” Caroline said, but Esther was already on her feet.

She returned moments later with a plate stacked high with tiny slices of bread covered in a creamy white cheese.

“This is something we’ve been working on at the bakery.”

“What is it?” Abe eyed the offering with a look akin to distrust.

Andrew apparently had a more adventuresome outlook and snagged three of them before Esther could make room on the table.

“It’s a bruschetta. A toasted bread with goat cheese. We thought the
Englischers
might like it.”

“I know I do.” Andrew reached for another piece and gave it to Emma before grabbing another for himself.

“You’re going to be too full for supper,” Caroline chastised with a smile and a shake of her head to take the sting from her words.

“Don’t be so sure,” Esther said. “My John could out-eat men twice his size.”

“Jah,”
Andrew agreed. “I would eat even more if I farmed.”

“I don’t know where you put it all.” Caroline shook her head just as the phone rang.

“That must be the restaurant.”

Esther deposited the plate on the table and rushed to the front of the bakery where the business phone was located.

While she was gone, Caroline took Emma from Andrew and sat her in the high chair. The toddler slapped her hands against the tray as if demanding food.

Andrew chuckled. “Someone else is still hungry too, I see.”

“
Jah
, but the
boppli
is still growing.”

Andrew pulled a hurt face. “I am too.”

Everyone laughed.

“Come on.” Andrew motioned to Caroline to follow him to the door. “Let’s go get the food. There’s no sense in everyone walking down there.”

He was absolutely right. But what a perfect plan for them to go and leave Esther and Abe with a little time alone.
Ach
, alone with a fifteen-month-old. But at least they’d have to make some sort of conversation with each other.

“I think this night is a big success,” Andrew said as they started down the sidewalk back toward the Kauffman Family Restaurant.

“Jah.”
Caroline nodded, the strings of her prayer
kapp
dancing around her shoulders. “I was worried when I saw that the restaurant was so full.”

“But this is better,
jah
? We can eat and talk and not have to worry about gawking
Englischers
.”