An Amish Wedding (17 page)

Which made her pause. Obviously he wasn’t in his early or midtwenties. But by his clean-shaven face, she knew he wasn’t married. Widowed, perhaps? She doubted he was a lifelong bachelor. Someone as kind and appealing as he would have easily found a wife.

Zeke shimmied down the ladder even faster than he’d climbed up and strode toward her. “The
gut
news is it’s an easy fix. Bad news is I’ll have to do it in the morning. By the time we’d get back to my
onkel
’s to get tools and supplies, it would be too dark to work today.”

Naomi nodded. “I agree. What should we do in the meantime?”

He looked up at the roof again. “You don’t have any plastic sheeting by any chance?”

“
Nee
. I don’t have much use for it.”

“Is it supposed to rain anymore tonight?”

“I don’t think so. The forecast in the paper this morning said the rain would discontinue in the evening, which it has. Tomorrow is supposed to be cloudy.”

“Okay. I’ll wait until morning to fix it. Keep the pail underneath the leak. If it does rain, that should contain it.”

Naomi nodded. “For
gut
measure, I’ll pray there won’t be any rain.”

“I’ll add my prayers to yours, then.” He put his hands on his narrow hips, his fingers lightly resting on the waistband of his dark blue broadfall pants. “I’ll see if Chester has any leftover shingles and paper at the new
haus
. If not, I’ll pick some up on my way here tomorrow.”

“Would you like to come in for some coffee?” Despite the chilly weather, he wore short sleeves. Just looking at him made Naomi hug her own arms.

He shook his head. “Chester is probably ready to
geh
by now. He’s supposed to show me the new
haus
tonight.”

“All right.” She felt a tiny bit disappointed he had to leave so soon, and she hid a frown.
Where did that feeling come from?

“I’ll see you tomorrow, then.” Zeke opened the door and started to leave. But before he stepped outside he turned and faced her. “It’s been a real pleasure meeting you, Naomi.”

She stilled at his unexpected words. He shoved his hands in his pockets and walked out the door. She followed him, standing in the middle of the doorway as he made his way to her parents’ house. Was he . . . whistling? A little off-key, but definitely whistling. As she watched him go, she murmured, “Likewise, Zeke Lapp.”

D
ESPITE
N
AOMI’S PRAYERS, IT STARTED RAINING SHORTLY
after Zeke left. Showers continued the next morning. Waking up well before sunrise, Naomi groaned when she heard the rain pummeling the
daadi haus
. She threw on a pale gray dress and white apron, thrust bobby pins into her hair and
kapp
, and shoved her feet into her black stockings and shoes. A knot formed in her stomach. Had it rained all night? She said a quick prayer that the leak in the roof hadn’t expanded.

She hurried to the living room, glancing out the front window at the curtain of rain and wind pelting the glass. She turned on the battery-operated lantern on the small end table by her chair and held her breath as she looked at the ceiling. As she feared, the ceiling was sagging even more, and now a steady stream of water flowed from it.

A chill hung in the room. Naomi shivered, glancing at the coal stove in the opposite corner of the room. She’d hoped to put off lighting it until mid-October. So much for that idea.

But first she had to tend to the leak. She glanced down at the pail underneath the drip. Water splashed against the rim with every falling drop. She bent down to pick up the bucket.

Whoosh!
The ceiling suddenly gave way.

Z
EKE HAD JUST TIED UP
C
HESTER’S HORSE AND BUGGY
next to Naomi’s barn when he heard a faint cry come from inside the
daadi haus
. He quickly tied a loose but strong knot in the reins and ran to the building, leaping over puddles and hurdling the three steps leading to the inside. He threw open the door. As he had feared when he woke up to the pounding rain that morning, more water had leaked into the house. Naomi stood right underneath the leak, her dress soaked through, a steady stream of rain falling on her.

“Z-Zeke?”

His shin rammed into the side of the couch as he hurried to her. When he reached her, he heard her teeth chattering. Without thinking he pulled her out from under the leak. Quickly he whipped off his jacket and wrapped it around her damp shoulders.

“Y-your j-jacket,” she said. “I-it’s g-getting wet.”

“Don’t worry about it. What happened?”

“Th-the ceiling.”

He looked up and saw a hole the size of a soup can in the center of the sag. He groaned.

“Here.” She started to take off his jacket.

His hands covered hers, stopping her. “
Nee
. You need it more than I do.”

The storms over the past two days must have been part of a cold front. He’d noticed the drop in temperature when he’d left his uncle’s house a little while ago. Zeke looked around the living room, dimly lit by the weak light of the lantern. The sun had risen, but the heavy cloud cover prevented much light from coming through the window. He spied a coal stove in the corner of the room. “I’m going to light the stove, okay?”

“Ya.”
She pulled his jacket closer to her, still looking a little shocked. Her white
kapp
hung limp and askew on her head.

Zeke saw a basket of newspapers beside the stove. He picked up a sheet and lit it with the handheld lighter he found on a small shelf near the stove. Holding the lit paper high in the flue, he checked to make sure there was an updraft in the chimney. If not, the house would soon be filled with choking smoke. Satisfied when the wisp of smoke wafted up the flue, he put the paper in the stove, added several more layers on top, and waited for them to catch.

“I can finish that.”

He turned around at the sound of Naomi’s voice. He hadn’t heard her leave the room, but she had changed into a dry, long-sleeved dress and a light blue kerchief. At least she wasn’t shivering anymore.

“It’s okay. It will only take a minute.” The newspapers lit quickly. He laid a bed of coal over the glowing embers, then shut the front of the stove and faced Naomi. “I’m so sorry. I should have fixed the roof last night.”

She shook her head. “It would have been dangerous to do that in the dark, with just a flashlight.”

“Still, I could have put some plastic over the ceiling. That would have held the water back.”

“Considering we didn’t have any, I don’t see how you could have.” Naomi walked over to the leak and wiped a droplet of water off the end of her nose.

Still feeling guilty, he moved beside her and picked up the pail. “I’ll take care of this.” Making sure not to spill any water on the dry part of her wood floor, Zeke carefully carried the pail to the door and tossed the water onto the grass just beyond the front porch. He went back inside and put the pail back under the leak. The rain had started to let up a bit, and the water was now coming down in a thin stream.

He looked at her. If she was angry, he didn’t blame her. Although he had to admit she looked cute in her kerchief. If he’d been thinking, he would have come back last night with Chester and put something over the hole, instead of counting on the weather report. If he had, the ceiling would have held.

“I’ll get a mop and clean the floor.”

Surprised, he turned and looked at her again. More light filtered into the room, revealing her calm expression. If she was mad, she had a strange way of showing it.

“When Margaret gets here, I’ll have her get started in the kitchen.” She faced him, consumed with the confidence he’d been attracted to from the moment they met. “We won’t have a normal workday, but that’s all right.”

Zeke couldn’t help but smile. He couldn’t say he wouldn’t be irritated after being doused with cold rainwater. Yet after the initial shock, she now seemed unfazed. He’d never met anyone like her before.

“Goodness, what happened?”

Zeke turned around to see a blond-haired woman walk through the open door, her steps hesitant. Physically she was Naomi’s opposite—light blue eyes, fair skin, and about an inch shorter than he was. But both women seemed to be about the same age, which he guessed to be in their early twenties.

“More problems with the leak,” Naomi said. She crossed her arms over her chest.

The other woman’s gaze darted to the stream of water coming out of the ceiling. “I can see that. What are you going to do?”

Zeke listened as Naomi gave the woman, who was apparently her assistant, instructions. Not wanting to interrupt, he slipped past them and went outside to the buggy. The rain seemed to have lightened up. If it stopped completely he could get up on the roof and replace the tar paper and missing shingles. But until then, he’d have to make a quick repair job inside using the plastic sheeting he’d gotten from Chester that morning. He slipped on his tool belt, then grabbed his supplies.

When he went back inside, Naomi had disappeared. The blond woman stood by the stove, holding her hands above it.

“Where’s Naomi?” he asked.

“Getting a mop. Downstairs. I was just trying to get warm.” She looked at her feet for a moment, then met his gaze again. “I’m Margaret,” she said, her voice cracking on the last syllable of her name.

“Zeke Lapp.” He didn’t mean to sound curt, but he wanted to repair the ceiling. “Do you know if Naomi has a stool or an old chair I could stand on?”

“Sure. It’s in the kitchen. I’ll be right back.”

A few moments later he climbed on the small step stool. He glanced at Margaret, who watched. “Could you give me a hand?”

“Sure!” She hurried over to him. “What do you want me to do?”

“Hold this,” he said, giving her the plastic sheeting. He grabbed three nails out of one of the pockets of his tool belt, then slipped the hammer from its leather loop on the other side of the belt. “Now hand me the plastic.”

He couldn’t be sure, but when she gave him the plastic, he thought he heard her giggle. He glanced down at her and stifled a sigh. Being one of the few bachelors in his community had made him a target for single females between the ages of nineteen and thirty. He’d heard that shy giggle more than once.
Naomi, hurry up!
He had come to Paradise for his cousin’s wedding, not to find a wife.

Chapter Three

N
AOMI CLASPED HER FINGERS AROUND THE HANDLE OF
the mop, grateful that the roof had collapsed when it did. If it had happened during the winter, the small stove wouldn’t do much to keep the house warm, not with cold air and possibly snow coming through the ceiling. As she made her way from the back porch to the front room, she thought about how Zeke’s coat had felt around her chilly body. She had breathed in the mix of scents emanating from the sturdy, dark blue fabric. A smoky wood smell, as if the coat had been hung in front of a fire to dry. The underlying aroma of coffee, which made sense when she saw the small brown stain on the lapel as she took the coat off to change. And a scent she couldn’t identify, but one that had triggered another shiver through her body. One that had nothing to do with being cold.

A pounding sound came from the front room. Knowing that even in the rain she might have customers soon, she quickened her steps. When she walked into the living room, she saw Margaret beside Zeke. He stood on tiptoe on a footstool, hammering a corner of a plastic tarp over the hole in the ceiling while Margaret held the other end. The rain had ceased, but water still dribbled, making hollow plinking sounds against the plastic.