Huckleberry Hearts (16 page)

Luke went inside the barn. Norman set the sharp knife on the table and checked the loop in one of the ropes. Zach couldn't resist getting closer to Cassie, just for a minute while they waited for Luke. He squatted beside her next to the fire pit and warmed his hands. Her smile was encouraging.

“It's not too late to back out,” she said. “I won't think any less of your manhood.”

The thrill of being close to her warmed him to the bone. “I'll stick it out so your brothers have no reason to make fun of me.”

“Except the pink shirt,” she said.

“Except the pink shirt.”

“And the hearts.”

Titus chased Jacob and Priscilla around the lumpy patch of ground that probably served as a vegetable garden in the summer. The children giggled with glee as Titus pretended to be a snarling bear. Without looking where she stepped, Priscilla darted away from Titus's claws and tripped over a mound of dirt. Her momentum sent her sprawling onto the grate over the fire.

She screamed in agony as her bare hands met with the white-hot metal.

“Titus, you
dumkoff
,” Norman yelled.

Norman, Linda, Esther, and Cassie all converged to Priscilla at once. Zach bolted to his feet and reached her first. Hooking his elbow around her waist, he snatched her off the grate and pulled her away from the fire pit. He nearly dropped her when he saw the flames crawling up the hem of her dress.

Linda screamed.

“Scilla!” Norman shouted.

If Zach swatted at the flames, Priscilla's legs would have been badly burned. He quickly set Priscilla on her feet and grabbed the burning hem in both his fists. He hissed as a searing pain almost compelled him to let go, but he kept his fists closed until he was sure he'd smothered the flames.

Linda and Cassie both knelt beside Priscilla, who screamed her lungs out. Linda studied one of Priscilla's burned hands while Cassie spoke words of comfort, even though her voice was tinged with panic. Zach's hands felt as if they were on fire, but he nudged Linda aside. “I need to look,” he said.

Linda nodded and pulled her hand away.

Four long, thin blisters were already beginning to form where Priscilla's tender skin had made contact with the hot grate, but thank the Lord, they didn't look to be worse than second-degree burns and the grate hadn't touched her face.

Norman suddenly stood over Zach, taking stock of Priscilla's hands. “Stick them in the snow.”

“No,” Zach said, more forcefully than he meant to. “It's too cold for a burn.”

“Too cold for a burn?” Norman said. “It's the best thing for a burn.”

Zach didn't have time to argue. Without another word, he gathered the wailing Priscilla into his arms and ran for the house. They both needed cool running water. Cassie and Linda followed, but he soon outpaced them. It was hard to outrun a soccer player, even with a child in his arms.

“Norman, watch Jacob,” Linda yelled over her shoulder as she ran.

Priscilla wasn't about to stop crying, not while her hands hurt so badly and a big Englisch stranger seemed to be kidnapping her. “We're going to get some nice, cool water on these hands,” he said, in his most comforting doctor voice. She might not have been able to understand the words, but hopefully his tone would have a calming effect.

She eyed him as if he were Frankenstein's monster and bawled even harder.

“It's okay, Priscilla,” he heard Cassie call behind him.

Linda said something to her in Deitsch. It didn't help.

Zach burst into Anna and Felty's house as if he belonged there. Felty sat on the sofa under the light of a propane lantern reading a book.

Zach set Priscilla on the counter next to the sink. She tried to struggle away from him. “Miss Coblenz, can you help?”

Cassie came around to his side of the counter and placed a hand on Priscilla's thigh. Linda reached across the counter and held Priscilla's shoulders. They both started speaking Deitsch at the same time, no doubt trying to persuade Priscilla to sit still.

She'd cooperate if she knew how much better it would feel under the water. Zach turned on the water and made sure of the temperature. Then taking a gentle hold of her wrists, he tugged her hands under the stream of cool water. She resisted until the water met her skin. They seemed to sigh in relief in unison. It always amazed him that simple cool water could significantly lessen the pain so quickly.

“What happened?” Felty asked.

“She burned herself on the fire pit,” Linda said. “It is a blessed day that the doctor was so quick.”

Cassie's smile glowed like a campfire on a frosty evening. “Thank you a million times, Doctor.”

Zach fixed his eyes on Priscilla's hands. “I'm glad I was nearby.”

Felty closed his book. “I always say that no good can come out of the you-know-what.”

Priscilla's crying soon subsided to a whimper as the water washed over her burns. Zach still held her hands in his, so he hadn't gotten a good look at his own burns, but they felt better under the water. With any luck, he'd still be able to wield a scalpel. Or a stethoscope.

He turned to Cassie. “Will you check her legs for burns?”

Cassie lifted Priscilla's dress to reveal a hole in Priscilla's stocking where she had scraped her knee. “No burns,” Cassie said. “Just a little scrape.”

“I'll get a Band-Aid,” Linda said. She marched down the hall to the bathroom.

“And some gauze pads,” Zach called.

“And some gauze,” Linda repeated.

Felty followed Linda down the hall. “I'll go get your mammi up so she can be part of all the goings-on.”

In spite of the pain, Zach couldn't help but smile at Cassie. The bandanna had fallen off her head somewhere between the fire pit and the house, leaving her curls free to frolic like so many golden sunbeams on her head. What he wouldn't give to walk his fingers through those curls.

She eyed Priscilla with deep concern.

“Will you ask her if it's feeling better?” he said.

She said the words to Priscilla in Deitsch. Priscilla nodded. She pulled her hands from Zach's grasp and held them up for Cassie to see.

“Ouchie,” Cassie said. Wrapping her fingers around Priscilla's wrists, Cassie turned Priscilla's hands over and kissed the back of each. “We should get these back under the water.”

Zach held out his hands to take Priscilla's again. Cassie gasped. “Doctor, what happened?”

He flexed his hands gingerly. Angry red welts crossed both his palms, and blisters marred six of his fingers. “I got off pretty easy.”

In alarm, Cassie grabbed one of his wrists and pulled his hand closer for a better look. If he fastened a pathetic expression on his face, would she kiss him too?

Probably too much to hope for.

“They look terrible. I didn't even notice. Did you accidentally touch the grate when you pulled Priscilla away?”

“Her dress was on fire,” Linda said, as she came back into the great room with Felty. “The doctor put it out with his hands.”

“You did?” Cassie said.

He shrugged. “I thought stop, drop, and roll might hurt more than it helped.”

Cassie looked at him as if she'd just discovered that his secret identity was Spider-Man. “Thank you.”

“I'm only glad Priscilla didn't get hurt worse.”

She laid a hand on his wrist, sending a pleasantly warm sensation all the way up his arm. “You sacrificed your hands to save my niece.”

“It's not that bad.”

“You didn't know that it wouldn't be.” She studied the welt across his palm. “No more hog butchering for you. The pain must be something awful.”

He couldn't stifle a slow smile. “You're making it feel better and better all the time.”

Her lips twitched, and she blushed. He probably shouldn't tease her, but sometimes the temptation was beyond his power to resist.

As much as he wanted to get lost in those blue eyes of hers, his hands were on fire, and Priscilla started fussing. He took Priscilla's hands in his and put them under the running water.

Linda put some soap on a paper towel and dabbed the small amount of blood from Priscilla's knee while Priscilla and Zach soaked. “How long does Priscilla need to keep her hands under the water?”

“As long as she wants. Then she needs something cool like aloe vera. Do you know what that is?”

“We have a gallon of it,” Felty said, already making a beeline down the hall again. “I'll be back.”

“But no petroleum jelly. There is a prescription burn cream I can get at the hospital if she's in a lot of pain, and she should take some acetaminophen right away.”

When Felty came back with the aloe vera, which did turn out to be a whole gallon, Zach pulled his and Priscilla's hands from the water and dried them gently. Linda poured some aloe vera into Zach's open hands and then carried Priscilla to the table to tend to her.

Cassie led Zach to the sofa and sat him down to do a little doctoring herself. He spread the aloe vera over his hands and fingers while Cassie opened a pack of gauze pads.

“Are you going to be okay at the hospital?” she asked.

“I'll be able to get through my shift. It might be a little painful.” Okay, extremely painful, but he wouldn't freak her out with the details. “The good news is that it doesn't look like there's permanent damage.”

She secured the gauze to his palms with a copious amount of tape. The grace of her gentle hands mesmerized him. Oh, how he wanted to touch his lips to those hands and feel her soft skin against his mouth.

Holding his breath, he shoved his thoughts away from Cassie Coblenz and toward the Green Bay Packers. If he had any chance of self-control, he couldn't let his mind wander into forbidden territory.

The Green Bay Packers had a pretty good team this year, didn't they? For the life of him, he couldn't recall who actually played on the team, not while Cassie sat so close.

He cleared his throat. “We'll have to watch Priscilla for infection, but all things considered, we were both lucky.”

Linda had finished with Priscilla's hands. They sat at the kitchen table looking at a picture book together. “The Amish don't believe in luck,” she said.

Cassie nodded. “It wasn't luck. God watched over us today.”

It was the same conversation they'd had before, and Zach felt more confused than ever. “But if He watched over us, why didn't He stop Priscilla from falling into the fire in the first place?” He smiled sadly at her. “I'm not trying to be difficult. I really want to understand.”

“I know you do,” she said. “Bad things happen. People get sick and die. But God still watches out for us, guides and directs us when we'll listen. Luck didn't bring you here today. It was a series of choices and events and coincidences that weren't really coincidences.”

“Priscilla could have been seriously hurt if you hadn't snatched her up like that,” Linda said.

Cassie smiled that irresistible smile. “I like to think God had a hand in it.”

Linda coaxed Priscilla off her lap, and the two of them left their book and sat next to Zach on the sofa. Linda laid a hand on Zach's arm. “I praise the Lord for you today.” She turned to Cassie. “Will you give thanks to the Lord for us?”

Cassie looked mildly surprised. “Now?”

“Jah.”

Cassie glanced at Zach as if she expected him to protest. He didn't know if he wanted to protest or not.

“Is that okay, Dr. Reynolds?” she asked.

“I don't mind,” he said.

Linda kept one hand on Zach's arm and wrapped the other around Priscilla's shoulders. Cassie, on his right side, laid a hand on his other arm. He didn't know if he felt encircled or surrounded.

They bowed their heads.

“Heavenly Father,” Cassie began. “We praise You for bringing Dr. Reynolds to us. We are grateful for him and his skills. We are grateful that he has come into our lives to help Mammi and Priscilla. Please take the pain from him today so that he may help the sick at the hospital. Please heal Priscilla so she doesn't hurt. And is it all right if we ask a blessing on the doctor's mother? Her arm is broken. Make life easier for her as she heals.”

Even though they were closed, Zach's eyes stung with unshed tears. How long had it been since he'd heard someone thank God for him? And she had prayed for his mother as well. He didn't know exactly what was happening, but something stirred deep within his chest, something he hadn't felt in a very long time. Maybe he'd forgotten what grace felt like.

After his dad died, he had wanted to forget.

They said “Amen” together. Without a word, Linda patted Zach on the cheek, and then she and Priscilla went back to the table and their book.

Cassie's eyes glowed as she studied his face. “That wasn't too bad, was it?”

“No. Not too bad.” He fingered the tape around his palm. “Thank you for saying those nice things, especially since you're not all that fond of me.”

She cocked an eyebrow. “You're growing on me.”

His heart did jumping jacks. “Growing on you? What does that mean?”

“Like a wart.”

He chuckled. “Or a tumor?”

“Yes.”

He felt his phone buzz in his back pants pocket. It would be a trick getting it out with gauze wrapped around both hands. He scooted to the edge of the sofa so he could reach better. With two fingers, he slid the phone from his pocket and held it carefully in his hand so as not to aggravate the pain. “It's my mom,” he said, furrowing his brow. “Do you mind if I take this? She doesn't usually call unless it's important.”