Christmas in Apple Ridge (33 page)

“So how did you find me?”

“The driver knew how to get to Hertzlers’ Dry Goods, so our plan was to stop by and ask someone in the store where you lived. But here you are.”

“I’m wrapping up a cake-tasting event for my cousin and aunt and their fiancés.”

He placed his hands on her shoulders, looking bewildered, but his smile gave him away. “So how’d we manage two years of courtship without my ever coming to your folks’ place?”

She put her arm around his waist, not feeling the least bit of warmth emanating from him through his wool coat. “Because they always visit us. And you would have been here for Thanksgiving this year … if the shop hadn’t burned down. But you’ll see my childhood home soon enough. Why don’t you bring the rig up to the front door? I’ll tell everyone a quick bye, and we’ll be on our way.”

He frowned, a moment of disbelief flashing in his eyes. “You don’t want me to step inside and meet your cousin and aunt?”

Not really. She’d have to introduce him to Gideon, which would be awkward. But it’d only take a few moments. “Oh, ya. Sure.” As they climbed the stairs to Beth’s home, they parted a bit.

“Are you hungry?” she asked.

“No.” He reached for her hand.

Holding hands was out of character for Sol, but she didn’t question it. “Did I see other Amish in the van when you were dropped off?”

Lines of frustration showed on his face. “Ya. I rode with the King family. They’re on their way to Lancaster. Since they have the only Amish community phone now that your cake
shop is gone, I had to go there to call you, but no one answered at your folks’ place.”

“You could’ve used the phone at Mackenzie’s store.”

“Ya, then I’d be a spectacle to the Englischers. Besides, if I’d gone there, Katie wouldn’t have told me that her family was coming through Apple Ridge so I could hitch a ride.”

Guilt nibbled at Mattie’s heart, and she couldn’t manage to smile at him. While he’d been doing something very sweet by coming here, her thoughts were a tangled mess over Gideon. “That’s quite a ride just to visit me.”

“Ya. All I can say is I must be crazier about you than I realized. Hunting was no fun with you gone, and my nerves are raw from being closed up in a vehicle with her.”

Her gut twisted with shame. He was being as straightforward and honest as ever, and she wanted to be like that for him too. She tugged on his hand. “Sol.”

He stopped, and the sincerity in his eyes weighed heavily on her. She needed to at least brace him. “Gideon Beiler is inside.”

His expression didn’t change, but his gaze pierced her. “Inside the house? What’s he doing here?”

“Working. He’s the builder, and he’s trying to finish it before their wedding.”

He nodded and motioned toward the door. She reluctantly opened it, and they went inside.

Beth, Jonah, Lizzy, and Omar were in the kitchen, polishing off the cake crumbs on their plates. She introduced Sol around, and he shook each person’s hand. When Gideon walked in, Sol stole a look at her. Her tongue was too thick to speak.

“We keep running into each other, Gideon.” Sol shook his hand.

Gideon’s jaw clenched. “Sol.”

Confusion circled inside Mattie. “When did you two meet?”

“At the hospital the night you were injured.” Sol said it casually while taking her hand in his again.

Mattie glanced from Gideon to Sol, aggravated that neither of them had told her. But this wasn’t the time to talk about it.

“I hear you’re a hunter,” Jonah said. “Bagged anything of late?”

“Not really.” Sol glanced at Gideon. “The woods are busy these days. When too many hunters crowd the same spot, no one goes home with anything.”

Anger flashed in Gideon’s eyes, but whatever he was thinking, he held his tongue.

Sol’s veiled message hadn’t bypassed anyone, and the room vibrated with discomfort. Embarrassment flushed Mattie’s face. She wasn’t some soft-eyed doe caught in Sol’s cross hairs. She pulled her hand from his. “We need to go.”

“Sure.”

They said their good-byes and left the house. Mattie bit her tongue, determined not to say a word until they were in private. She strode across the lawn and the store’s parking lot, removed the tether from the hitching post, and climbed into the rig. Sol got in beside her.

She took the reins and tapped them on the horse’s back. “That was uncalled for.”

“What?” He looked totally innocent.

“Comparing me to a deer. I’m not prized game, Sol.”

“I don’t think he picked up on it.”

“Of course he did, and so did everyone else.”

He shrugged. “I don’t care.”

“I do.” When the horse flinched, she knew she needed to tone down her voice. “And why didn’t you tell me Gideon came to the hospital?” She pulled out of the parking lot, taking a different route toward her home so they’d have time to settle this.

“You were under enough stress at the time without me adding something unimportant to you.”

“Make up your mind. You didn’t share it either because it’d be stressful for me or because you didn’t think it mattered.”

He stared out the frosty side window for several minutes. “Do you know what this is?”

“What?” she snapped.

“Our first argument.” He propped his arm on the door of the carriage.

Until now she’d not thought about the fact that she and Sol never quarreled. She and Gideon had on numerous occasions. At various times they played, worked, and fought hard.

With passion and gusto
—that’s what Gideon used to call it. And then he’d smile, causing her heart to melt as he confessed that he wouldn’t want it any other way … until Ashley came along.

Sol tapped his fingers on the fake wood on the dashboard. “Who is Gideon seeing these days?”

She shrugged. “I’m not sure.”

“But you’d like to know.”

“I didn’t say that.”

“True. But you didn’t say, ‘I don’t care,’ either.”

She slowed the rig, pulling into a Mennonite church parking lot, and came to a halt. “I want to say it.”

His features were lined with hurt. He scraped frost off the window with his fingernail. “You told me you let Gideon go because you refused to marry a man who had feelings for someone else. You wanted all or nothing. Remember us talking about that?”

“Ya.”

“Here’s the problem, Mattie. I feel the same way. I’m not
interested in making a big fuss if you have feelings for someone else.”

“But I … I like who we are.” Tears filled her eyes.

Sol cradled her face. “I do too. But your answer tells me I may have spent too much time thinking you’re in love with me.”

She pulled away, wiping her cheeks. “Are you breaking up with me?”

“No.” He leaned back on the seat. “I hope that never happens.” He brushed the back of his fingers down her face. “But I’d like you to sort out your feelings.”

She tried not to gape at him. “Gideon’s a cheater and a liar. You and I are good for each other.”

“I think he regrets breaking up with you.” Sol rubbed her tears off his fingers. The disappointment in his eyes cut her. “He beat me to the hospital when you were hurt, and he looked pretty shook up that night.”

Her heart raced at the thought of losing Sol. “What are you saying?”

His amber eyes tugged at her heart. “I’ll be in Ohio on Christmas Eve. I hope you’ll be there for the singing. If not, we’ll both know I’m not the one for you.”

“I’ll be there several days before then. I promise.”

W
ith keys in hand, Gideon went up the stairs of Beth and Jonah’s place.

Beth followed him, carrying a couple of bolts of fabric. “Sorry about coming by the Snyder place and interrupting your work. More than needing you to unlock the place, I don’t want to walk across the floors until you verify they’re dry enough for Mattie to get in here and work.”

After finishing the floors, he’d purposely kept all the keys, trying to ensure that no one walked on the floors until they were dry. He slid the key into the deadbolt and turned it. When he opened the door, a strong smell of lacquer greeted him. Four days ago, two days after the cake tasting Sol had interrupted, he’d thoroughly cleaned the unfinished floors and then shellacked them. He’d locked up the house, leaving two windows slightly open, one in the wash house and one in the master bedroom. But that wasn’t enough to disperse the smell.

At the time he did the floors, he hadn’t known Mattie needed Beth’s supersized oven to bake Lizzy’s wedding cake.

He knelt before entering and pressed on the floor in different spots. “It’s not the least bit tacky.” He stood and motioned for her to go in ahead of him.

“Good.” She stepped inside. “Sorry about the miscommunication. It never dawned on me that you were ready to do the floors this soon.”

“It’s not a problem for me, just for Mattie.”

“She’s been doing what she can from her home—making the fondants and preparing some of the smaller decorations. But her Mamm insists on helping, and Mattie doesn’t want her to be on her feet much more. It’d be better if she can work here from now on.”

Wondering if Sol was still in Apple Ridge, maybe even staying with Mattie’s parents, Gideon put a key into Beth’s hands. “You ladies can both come in and out as needed.”

“Denki.” She slid the key into her coat pocket and pulled out a sheet of paper. “This is a list of what I need to have done before the gathering.”

While he read over it, Beth went down the hall and into the master bedroom.

“I think most of these things could wait a few days,” he called out.

He really didn’t want to spend time in the same house as Mattie, trying to protect the lie he’d told.

Maybe Jonah was right. Had he not protected Mattie at all? Still, telling her now was unacceptable. She and Sol were together, and he’d never do anything to change that.

But Jonah’s words lay heavy across his shoulders, like a two-ton support beam that needed to be anchored in place, not toted around by a mortal man.

At the time of his lie, he’d considered it acceptable, even honorable—like Rahab, who betrayed her own city through a lie and brought favorable treatment to her whole family. Gideon had chosen to betray himself in order to open the door to good things for Mattie.

A lie would’ve been unacceptable if he’d wanted to get away with something for selfish purposes. But he hadn’t profited from the lie. On the contrary, he’d paid dearly for it.

Beth walked back into the room, carrying the bolts of fabric. “What did you say?”

“I said I think I could wait on this list until after Lizzy’s wedding.”

Her lips hinted at a slight pout. “But Jonah’s family is arriving at the end of the week, and I want everything comfortable for them. They’ll be tired after coming all this way. I’d like to at least have all the shelves up in the closets and pantry, blinds
or curtains on the windows, and gas night-lights installed so they don’t hurt themselves if they get up in the dark.” She held a piece of fabric near a window for a moment. “The pegs need to be made and inserted into the wainscot before Jonah’s family arrives. And—”

“I read the list, Beth.” Gideon lifted his tool belt off the countertop. “Go run your store. Or make curtains. Or something.”

“Good idea.” She took a few steps and stopped. “You will be nice to Mattie, won’t you?”

Gideon chafed at the question. “Not a problem.”

Beth pulled the door closed behind her.

He decided to start in the kitchen. Whatever he accomplished in adding shelves and such would make Mattie’s preparation for the gathering easier. If he put in some extra hours now, he might get done and be out before she arrived.

Gideon had installed one shelf in the pantry when the front door opened. The sound of pans clattering to the floor indicated it wasn’t Jonah. Gideon took a deep breath and went to the foyer. Stooping, Mattie gathered several pans.

He grabbed one, and she gasped, falling onto her backside. “Good grief.” She got to her feet. “You startled me.”

“Sorry, Mattie. I guess you couldn’t hear me coming over the rattling of pans.”

“Jonah said you were working on another job for a while.”

“I was, but Beth came by with a list of items for me to finish.”

Scowling, Mattie went into the kitchen. “Sounds like Beth and I need to talk. She can’t expect us to work together like this.”

“That’s what I told her. But my protests fell on deaf ears.” He picked up the rest of the pans and followed her. “Do you need help bringing more stuff in?”

“No. Whatever I managed to remember to bring, I can tote myself.” She laid her small spiral notebook on the counter.

Gideon had seen Aden at Zook’s Diner that morning and asked him about the drawings. He said he was nearly finished re-creating what he remembered. Gideon reminded him of some of the cakes she’d done that he knew about, and Aden promised to do his best to sketch them.

Mattie’s countenance softened as she fiddled with the pages in the notebook. “I’m leaving for Ohio as soon as I can after Beth and Jonah’s wedding.” She lifted her eyes to his, and the sadness in them bothered him. “Whatever is happening between us here isn’t good for me and Sol.”

Gideon held her gaze, wishing he could have one day alone with her. Just one day to keep in his memory for the rest of his life. One day with no lies or anger or hurt between them—nothing except forgiveness and friendship.