Mose broke off the kiss with a ragged sigh, and he blinked his eyes open, his heartbeat skipping to catch up. Her eyes were still shut a moment longer than his, and he could see the tremble of her lashes against her plump cheeks, and when she opened her eyes, he felt a desperate need to explain himself.

  “You d-d-don’t need to ch-ch-change,” he said. “Gott will provide.”

  As if that explained him kissing her without permission. She was wonderful, and somewhere out there, Gott had the right man for her. Why Gott was waiting so long to provide him, Mose didn’t know, but he did know that Klaus was a well-meaning man, although not a terribly impressive one. If Gott made a woman like her, he would have made a man to match her.

  The fight seemed to have gone out of Naomi, because tears suddenly misted her eyes, and she blinked them back.

  “Mose, that kiss wasn’t fair.” Her voice shook.

  “I just... I need to kn-kn-know that...that...” It wasn’t only his stutter holding him back. His tumbling emotions wouldn’t settle down and make sense. “...that you’re okay.”

  He couldn’t offer anything, and he knew it. That kiss had been impulsive and rash, but he wasn’t even sorry for it, because he’d meant it. He was feeling things for her he had no right to feel, and he needed to know that when he drove away from here, she would be okay.

  He had no right to step in here and kiss her like that, but on some level, Naomi Peachy would always feel like his.

  “I am,” she said. “I will be, at least. It’s okay. I needed to know it.”

  Her fingers fluttered up to her lips, and he felt his cheeks heat. Maybe that kiss hadn’t been fair...

  Across the yard, the door opened and the guests started to come outside again. They were chattering and talking loud enough for them to hear the conversation where they stood by the tree. Trevor was seemingly forgotten, because now it was all about pie.

  Naomi pulled away and shot him an agonized look before she turned and walked briskly back toward the house. He watched her dress ripple out behind her, a stray curl hanging loose down her back. That curl was probably his fault... He followed, but more slowly, and he stopped at the wagon. The horses stamped impatiently, ready to keep going. Their world hadn’t just rocked on its axis.

  What had Mose just done? His heart suddenly started to hammer in his chest as the magnitude of his actions floated to the surface of his thoughts.

  He’d just kissed Naomi Peachy...

  Chapter Nine

  Naomi watched out the window as the wagon rattled out of sight up the drive, and she wondered if her hot face meant that she was flushed red. Mose had kissed her. She’d never been kissed before. In fact, if he’d given her any warning at all, she would have done something very awkward, she was sure. But as it was, there had been something between them that made the moment just...work.

  And Mose—dear, sweet, handsome Mose—had kissed her. Had he been thinking about doing that for long? Did it mean he was thinking about courting her? She wished she knew what it meant! But he hadn’t offered her anything. Maybe it had just been sympathy.

  It seemed to shock him as much as it shocked her, though. Still, Mose wasn’t the kind of man to do anything without thought and consideration. He was very serious, and he often wrote about the importance of thinking before acting, and not simply going along with a feeling. How often had she read something like that in one of his columns?

  Did that mean he’d done just that—considered carefully his feelings for her and his hopes for his future—or did it mean that Mose wasn’t practicing what he preached? He wouldn’t be the first man in all of creation to set up an ideal and then miss the mark himself.

  And yet, all Naomi could think of was the feeling of his lips moving over hers, his strong hands at her waist, and his heart thudding with the strength of thunder beneath her fingertips.

  That had been a kiss! She’d waited thirty-three years to experience her first kiss, and somehow she’d thought it would be with a man she had a hope of marrying, at the very least!

  “Aaron, why don’t you bring these leftover cookies out to the Englisher boy,” Claire said brightly.

  “Can I have one, too?” Aaron asked.

  “You can have one after you bring them out. He’s in the stable. Off you go.”

  Aaron took the plastic container his mother held out to him and scampered outside, leaving the women alone.

  “Another successful visit,” Naomi said, attempting to sound normal. She reached for the plastic wrap to cover the pies.

  “How is Mose doing?” Claire asked.

  “He’s—” She stole a quick look at her friend, but Claire didn’t seem to be teasing or anything. “His stutter is improving a little, but mostly I think he’s just getting used to pushing past it and getting his ideas out.”

  “That’s a good thing,” Claire said.

  “Yah, I think so...” She turned away from the window. “He said before that he might try and get to know a woman through letter writing. It’s easier for him to communicate that way.”

  “Will he write to you?” Claire asked.

  “He...um...didn’t mention that,” Naomi said.

  “He might have meant it, though,” Claire said. “He’s shy. He might not say things outright.”

  “He does with me,” Naomi replied. In fact, today he’d done far more than speak—that kiss had sent her own mind for a spin, but she didn’t dare mention it to Claire.

  “You two share something special,” Claire said. “You have childhood memories together, and you should see his face when he talks to you. He... I don’t know...he lights up.”

  “Mostly, I talk,” Naomi said with a rueful smile. And when she talked too much, he started feeling sorry for her. That stung.

  “Well, then he lights up when you talk, and that’s something special. He feels something for you—I know it.”

  “You had someone special once,” Naomi said. “I know you don’t like to talk about him, but...what was it like with him?”

  “Joel was not who I thought he was,” Claire said. That was more than Claire had ever said in the past, and Naomi crossed the kitchen and leaned against the counter next to her friend.

  “Did he make promises?” Naomi asked.

  “Yah. Plenty. He said we’d get married. He said he loved me more than anything and that he couldn’t imagine a life without me.” Claire shrugged faintly. “I guess that was a lie, because he most certainly has a life without me.”

  “Where is he now?” Naomi asked.

  Claire shook her head. “No idea. He went to take a job in Indiana—there were farmers looking for help. He never came back. I never heard from him again.”

  “Did you write to his family?” Naomi asked. “Did he die?”

  “He was just a travelling farm worker, Naomi,” Claire said. “I didn’t even know where his family lived exactly, except that they were in Indiana somewhere. It turned out that I knew far too little. Promises aren’t worth much when you don’t know the man behind them.” Claire shot her a curious look. “Is Mose making promises?”

  “No...no!” Naomi shook her head. “Not at all.”

  He wasn’t promising to come back here. He wasn’t asking her to visit him. He wasn’t asking her to wait for him, or even asking if he could write to her. None of it. What kind of a fool was she for kissing that man without even a promise of the future?

  “It’s easy to get caught up in things,” Claire said quietly. “I did, and I thought I was smarter than that.”

  “I think I can understand how easy it could be,” Naomi admitted quietly. “I’m falling for him, Claire, but he’s not asking for me, is he?”

  “I don’t know, though...” Claire sighed. “Mose does feel something for you.”

  “And Joel certainly felt something for you,” Naomi said.

  “You’re right. It’s good to be careful. We aren’t spring chickens, are we?”

  “Thanks for the reminder,” Naomi said with a low laugh. “Mose says he’s a bit worried about us, actually.”

  “Us, or you?” There was the teasing smile, then.

  “Maybe me...” Naomi laughed softly. “For whatever that’s worth. He overheard the tourists say they knew our new worker. Apparently, he’s been caught shoplifting more than once.”

  “Oh!” Claire frowned, straightened. “Really?”

  “Yah.” Naomi sighed. “But it was food he took the first time. It seems that he was hungry.”

  “He sure ate last night,” Claire said, and she walked to the window. “And he’s eating again.”

  Naomi joined her at the window. Aaron and Trevor stood out on the lawn, and Trevor was eating the cookies in one big bite each, gulping them back like a hungry puppy.

  “Mose is worried that he’s not a safe person to have working here,” Naomi said. “He wants us to be extra careful.”

  “Yah, of course, we will,” Claire said. “I’m a mother. I’m always careful.”

  “I confess I argued about it a little bit,” Naomi said.

  “Is that why Mose drove off like that?” Claire asked. “You were arguing about it?”

  “Did Mose seem upset to you when he left?” Naomi asked.

  He’d been worried, frustrated with her. And then he’d been visibly upset when she’d mentioned Klaus. And somehow that kiss had been conceived of all their swirling, contrary emotions. That wasn’t the way it was supposed to work, was it? But what did she even know!

  “What do we know about him?” Claire asked.

  “Mose?” Naomi said. What did she know about him now that he was a grown man?

  “I mean Trevor.”

  Right. Trevor... That was who they’d been talking about. She’d have to get her balance back here before she made a complete fool of herself.

  “Well, he’s not going to school,” Naomi said. “He has trouble with reading, and I’ll be helping him with that, if he’ll let me. He lives alone with his mother in town. She works a job at a hotel. That’s about all I know.”

  “What about his daet?” Claire asked.

  Naomi shook her head. There didn’t seem to be a father in his life, at least not one the boy mentioned.

  “I find it difficult to see Trevor as a danger,” Claire said. “But we’ll have to be careful all the same. Sometimes men can see things that we women don’t.”

  “Yah...and the other way around, too,” she agreed.

  But her mind wasn’t on Trevor anymore. It was slipping back to the memory of Mose’s kiss—fired up and frustrated, yet tender, too. A thought suddenly occurred to her...

  She had friends who had made life-altering mistakes, and she had to wonder, was she stumbling into her own? Mose was making no promises, and what they seemed to feel for each other was frighteningly powerful.

  Would she be telling this as a cautionary tale one day to another woman?

  * * *

  Later that evening, Naomi served Trevor a hearty supper of beef stew and crusty bread and he did a few minutes of bashful reading with her. He struggled a lot with reading, and as she listened to him stumble over the words, she was reminded of Mose—so much intelligence all locked up. Trevor was a smart boy. He’d caught on to the outdoor work quickly, and being raised in town, it was impressive. But reading seemed to make him stumble, so much like Mose when he tried to talk.

  Naomi pulled out some of Aaron’s children’s books about how a farm ran, and Trevor glanced over the page, his face flaming red.

  “Just try,” she said.

  “It’s a kids’ book,” he replied.

  “Well...” Naomi shrugged. “Maybe you missed some of this when you were younger. There’s no shame in it. We all have things we missed.”

  He shook his head and handed the book back just as Aaron came skipping up.

  “I can read that book!” Aaron announced, and plucked it from Naomi’s fingers. He opened it and started chattering off the words on the page, his eyes lingering only on the pictures.

  “There you are, little muffin,” Claire said, catching Aaron’s hand. “Bath time for you.”

  Trevor watched Claire and Aaron go back up the staircase, his face still pink, all the way to his hairline.

  “He’s just had this one read to him a lot,” Naomi said after a moment of silence. “It’s memorized.”

  “This was a mistake,” Trevor said.

  “It’s not a mistake,” Naomi insisted. “We all start somewhere. I know it’s hard. But the beginning of learning is letting go of our own pride.”

  “If it’s all the same to you, I’d like to hold onto a bit of mine,” Trevor said.

  Naomi smiled ruefully. “You’re clever, Trevor.”

  “I’m not feeling real clever today,” he said. “I know you’re trying to help. It might be better to just let me work and get paid. My mom is fine with me working here. Don’t worry about that.”

  Naomi nodded. “Okay. Well, if you ever want that extra practice, I’ll help you.”

  “I’ll see you tomorrow, Miss Naomi,” he said.

  As quickly as that, her offered help was no longer needed. Why did she feel like she’d just failed him? Somehow, though, she had. Gott had sent this boy to her door, and it wasn’t the wild success she’d been imagining it would be.

  Naomi went to the door, and as Trevor’s car pulled out, a buggy turned into their drive. Naomi recognized her friend with the reins in her hands. The sky was growing dusky, and when Leah reined in the horse and tied off the reins, she could see how slowly Leah was moving. This heartbreak had changed her.

  Leah smiled tiredly as she walked up the steps.

  “Do you have time for some tea with me?” Leah asked.

  “Always,” Naomi said. “Come on in. You look too thin, Leah. I’m going to tempt you with pie and cookies, too.”

  Leah smiled faintly, and she followed Naomi inside. She sank to a kitchen chair and let out a soft sigh. Leah looked older now—not just in the experience that was evident in her sad eyes, either. There were lines around her mouth that hadn’t been there before. Anger simmered deep inside of Naomi’s heart. No one should have the power to do that to a woman—no one!

  “I’m glad you came,” Naomi said. “I’ve been worried about you. But I didn’t want to intrude if it was my sister you were wanting to talk to.”

  “Your sister has been through more than most have, so she understands,” Leah said.

  “You miss Daniel, don’t you?” Naomi said.

  Overhead Naomi could hear the soft murmur of Claire’s voice, running water and Aaron’s laugh. Naomi pushed the children’s book aside on the tabletop.

  “I do miss him,” Leah said. “And I haven’t been telling many people what’s going on, because I kept hoping he’d come back for me. But he hasn’t. I wrote a letter and his answer...wasn’t promising. I decided it might be time to start being honest with people instead of using up my energy in pretending things are better than they are.”

  “Oh, Leah,” Naomi said softly. “I’m glad you decided to share with me. We’re friends. And in this house, we’re all single. So we might understand better than your married friends do.”

  “Your sister pointed that out,” Leah said.

  “Good. She’s right,” Naomi replied. “This is what friends are for.”

  Naomi poured two mugs of tea and then went and got the leftover molasses pie and some plates. When she had a healthy wedge of pie in front of her friend, she took a seat again.

  “You need to start eating again,” Naomi said. “And doing things you enjoy.”

  “Like what?” Leah asked.

  “Like visiting me!” Naomi said. “I should have come to you, though. I should have insisted.”

  “It’s been a hard time,” Leah said with a shake of her head. “You didn’t make any mistakes. Don’t worry. I’m the one who made a mistake in who I married.”

  “Yah?” How heartily was Naomi supposed to agree here?

  “I think that is what it comes down to,” Leah said. “And you’re being too polite to say it. You know how our mothers warned us that our choice in husband would affect the rest of our lives? Well, I’m living that right now.”

  “Isn’t there any way to fix it?” Naomi asked. “You did love each other. I think you still do love him.”

  “Daniel thinks I make him a worse Christian,” Leah said.

  Naomi frowned. “That’s unfair of him!”

  “He still thinks it,” Leah replied. “He said he felt closer to Gott before he tried to share a home with me. But living with me, he’s angry all the time, he feels far from Gott, and he says I just will not cooperate with him.”

  “Cooperate?” Naomi said.

  “He wants me to see things exactly the way he does,” Leah said. “And I don’t! What am I supposed to do, lie?”

  “Do you remember when we were little girls, we took a pact together that we’d never, ever tell a lie?” Naomi asked with a sad smile.

  “And that very day, your grandmother made that chicken pie you hated so much,” Leah said. “And you said you loved it.”

  “It was my mammi...and I love her.” Naomi sighed. “You and I were two peas in a pod. That’s what my mammi told me.”

  “Well, don’t follow me down this path,” Leah replied. “It’s very painful.”

  “Did you have any warning that it would be this way?” Naomi asked.

  Leah took a bite of pie and chewed thoughtfully.

  “I knew he was much more conservative than I was,” Leah said after she’d swallowed. “But I thought that we would find our own way. I thought he’d appreciate my thoughts and how I see things. I thought I might bring him some joy because he seemed so...serious.”