The Wonder of Your Love (A Land of Canaan Novel) (34 page)

“
Ya, ya. Danki
, Vera.” Katie Ann touched her on the arm. “Do you want to stay?”

“No. I have to get home and feed everyone, but I just wanted you to know.”

Katie Ann swallowed back the lump in her throat. She forced a smile.

Vera wasn’t even around the corner in her buggy when Martha reached into her purse and handed Katie Ann her cell phone. She took it, walked outside, and sat down on the porch step. She dialed his number, and he answered on the first ring.

“Eli?” She hoped she had dialed correctly. It had been so long since she’d heard his voice, she wasn’t sure it was Eli who answered.

“Katie Ann?”

“
Ya
, it’s me. I—I just wanted to call and tell you how sorry I am to hear about Hannah. I’m so very sorry.” She struggled not to cry, knowing how hard this must be for him.

“
Danki
, Katie Ann. The doctor said they caught it early, so we are very hopeful. How are you? It’s
gut
to hear your voice.”

It took everything in her power not to break down and tell him how much she missed him, but now was not the time. “It’s
gut
to hear your voice too.” She sat taller and took a deep breath. “Please tell me if there is anything that I can do for you or your family. I will be praying for all of you.”

“I pray for you and Jonas every night. I miss you, Katie Ann.” His voice was soft and sounded so sad.

She felt a tear roll down her cheek. “I pray for you too.” She covered her eyes with one hand.

“Do you miss me?”

“I—I don’t think this is—is the time to be . . .” Her voice cracked as she trailed off.

“It is the time, Katie Ann. I need . . . I need my friend more than ever right now.”

A faucet of tears trailed down her cheeks. “I will always be your friend, Eli. Always.”

“Really? Because it hasn’t felt like that.”

She could hear the anger in his voice, and while part of her wanted to lash out at him for breaking her heart in the first place, she knew his pain was great, and she wasn’t going to do anything to add to it. “I’m sorry, Eli. It was just—just getting too hard.”

There was silence, and Katie Ann assumed that Eli knew exactly what she was talking about. “Long-distance relationships.” He let out a lighthearted chuckle. “Hard work, no?”

She was glad to hear his voice a bit brighter. “
Ya
. Hard work.”

They stayed on the phone for another thirty minutes, not saying much, but not wanting to hang up either. Katie Ann offered to pray quietly with Eli before they said good-bye, and as was always the case, she cried for quite a while after they hung up.

“That’s just terrible,” Martha said about the call, shaking her head as they ate supper later.

Katie Ann placed some peas and ham on Jonas’s highchair tray, having decided the tamales were too spicy for him. “
Ya
. It is.” Despite her resolve, she was starting to cry again.

“Honey, I don’t know why you don’t tell that man how you feel about him.”

“I’m not going to push him into a life he didn’t plan for, Martha.”

“Vera said Eli hasn’t traveled anywhere. If that was the life he wanted, then why isn’t he living it?”

“I don’t know, but I’m not going back to how things were. Being so far away from each other was too hard.” She shook her head.

“Well, I say life is too short.”

Katie Ann was quiet. She didn’t know what else to say.

O
VER THE NEXT
couple of weeks, Katie Ann slipped into a comfortable routine. After she had Jonas in bed, she’d go out to the barn and call Eli. After their first conversation about Hannah, he’d asked her to call him the next night, and at the end of each call, Eli would make the same request, for her to please call the following night. She carried the baby monitor to the barn so she could hear if Jonas woke up. Both she and Eli avoided any more mention about their own relationship, and in some ways, it was like old times. Hannah had a good prognosis, and the doctors had removed the small lump in her breast and anticipated a full recovery without Hannah needing to have chemotherapy or radiation. Eli returned to his old self, laughing and being positive.

Katie Ann had to admit, she was happier talking to him than she was not talking to him. Twice he’d mentioned seeing her, but she sidestepped the idea. Besides, he couldn’t leave his family right now, and Katie Ann was much too busy keeping Martha on an even keel with the wedding only a week away. But there was a huge part of her that longed to feel his lips against hers, the feel of his arms around her. So much so that she was almost willing to endure another good-bye just to have him hold her one more time.

M
ARTHA SAT ON
the edge of her bed eyeing her wedding dress on a hanger across the room. It was a beautiful ivory-colored gown that the lady at the bridal boutique said was tasteful and elegant. Danielle said it looked like an old lady dress, so Martha reminded her that she was an old lady. Martha and Danielle were starting to adjust to each other’s ways, but she worried how Arnold would fit into their routine. In a week, they would vow to love each other forever, and he would move into her house, since his was only a rental. She loved that man with all her heart, but she was having some prewedding jitters on this Tuesday afternoon when Danielle knocked on her door.

“Come in.”

Danielle walked in, her long blond hair in a ponytail and wearing her usual blue jeans and a T-shirt. “I have some news for you.”

Martha crossed herself and looked up. “Please, Lord, let it be good news.”

Danielle smiled. “I got a job.”

Martha crossed herself again, brought her hands together in prayer, and looked up again. “Thank You, God.”

“I’m going to be a waitress at the Mountain View Restaurant in Monte Vista.”

Martha smiled. “That’s a nice place. They have the best burgers on the planet.”

Danielle tucked her chin as she raised an eyebrow. Martha knew what was coming next.

“I’ll be working at night, and you’d have to take me there, and I know you don’t like to drive at night, so . . .” She raised her shoulders, then let them fall slowly.

“Yeah, I knew this would be coming. You want a car.”

Danielle sat down beside Martha on the bed. “It seems weird to say that. I mean, you’re not my mom or anything. And you’ve already done so much for me.”

It wasn’t often that Danielle acknowledged Martha’s generosity, so it always touched Martha when she did. “Still no word from your mother?”

“No.” Danielle stared off into space the way she usually did at the mention of her mother.

They were quiet for a while, then Danielle turned to face Martha. “You’re not going to wear that butterfly clip in your hair when you get married, are you?”

Martha frowned, twisting to face her. “Yes, I am. It matches my dress perfectly.”

“I don’t think so. It’s pink.” Danielle shook her head, smiling, but she stopped and tipped her head to one side. “Do you think it’s okay with Arnold that I’m living here?”

“You two seem to get along well.” Martha grinned. “And he knew we were a package deal.”

“Arnold
gets
me. He’s a good guy.” She reached up and pulled her hair tight within the ponytail. “You don’t
get
me sometimes.”

Martha glared at her, but Danielle just chuckled and did the unexpected. She reached over and hugged Martha. At first Martha just sat there. After a moment, she put her arms around Danielle and they held each other for a while.

“I guess I’ll go take a bath.” Danielle eased away and started toward the door. Then she laughed. “I wonder when Arnold’s allocated bath time will be.”

The sound of the girl’s laughter warmed Martha’s heart, so she decided to ignore her reference to Martha’s most-reasonable rules. “I’ll tell you what . . .” Martha reached up and tightened her butterfly clip as Danielle turned around at the doorway. “I have a deal to make with you.”

“Really?” She eyed Martha, squinting one eye. “And what’s that?”

“You go to worship with me every other week, and I’ll buy you a car.”

“To that
Amish
church?” Her eyes grew round.

You’d think I just asked her to make a deal with the devil himself
.

“Yes, to that Amish church.” She pointed a finger at Danielle.

“It’s either my church people, or you can go to church with Arnold, but he goes every Sunday, and they don’t have food afterward.”

“But his church is only an hour long. You’re gone like half the day when you go to the Amish church.”

“Well, Arnold’s church is almost thirty minutes away. So let’s see . . . thirty minutes there, thirty minutes back, an hour for Mass, no meal, gotta go every Sunday . . .”

“Fine! I’ll go with you.” She folded her arms across her chest. “That doesn’t mean I’ll change my mind about God.

Besides, you said it’s mostly in German anyway. I won’t even understand anything.”

“The Lord has a way of getting through to us when it counts.” Martha smiled, glad she remembered some German from her college days to combine with the Lord’s efforts.

“What kind of car?”

Martha cackled. “An old clunker, just like I had for my first car.”

“What?”

“Take it or leave it.”

Danielle sighed. “Fine. I’ll take it.”

Martha smiled as Danielle headed out the door and down the hall. The three of them were going to be a family.

Now she just had to figure out what to do about Katie Ann, who would always be like her daughter—but the girl deserved happiness. The kind of happiness that comes from a family who lives together under the same roof—loving, arguing, and growing together.

Hmm .
. . She could feel the wheels spinning in her head.

Nineteen

K
ATIE
A
NN DIDN’T THINK
G
OD COULD HAVE BLESSED
Martha and Arnold with a better day to get married.

Their wedding was a conglomeration of compromises. Arnold thought they should get married indoors, and Martha wanted an outdoor wedding. Arnold wanted a small gathering, just family and closest friends. Martha wanted to invite every single person she knew.

“It’s not like I get dressed up like this every day,” she’d told Katie Ann. “Seems everyone I know should see me at my best.”

Arnold wanted the priest to preside over the entire ceremony. Martha insisted the job be shared with Bishop Esh, who had agreed with some reluctance. Katie Ann figured the bishop went along with Martha’s request because Martha was as close to being Amish as any
Englischer
they’d all ever known—with regard to her faith only. Her flashy ways hadn’t diminished in the least.

Martha’s husband-to-be didn’t see the need for attendants, but Martha was clear about having Katie Ann by her side. Arnold wanted an evening wedding, but Martha said it would be an all-day affair beginning at eight o’clock in the morning.

“That way we get two meals out of the deal,” she’d said. “Like the Amish.”

In the end Martha won out on every detail, and Arnold had just smiled. “Whatever my Martha wants,” he’d said.

Emily and David offered to host the wedding. They’d recently moved into their new home, and they said they wanted to do this for Martha and Arnold. Martha had played matchmaker between them, and they both wanted to do something special for her. The newlyweds lived on property that Samuel and Lillian had given to their son, and the spacious house was high on a hill with the Sangre de Cristo Mountains to the east and the San Juan Mountains to the west.