Jo Ann - The Amish Bachelor's Baby

“When we get some.”

Miriam had told him how much fun she had with the Wagler twins, but he hadn’t known Annie possessed a dry sense of humor. She wasn’t trying to flirt with him, either, and he’d heard several of the community’s bachelors saying Leanna was eager to marry. Maybe asking Annie instead of her twin hadn’t been such a mistake after all.

When they reached the main road, Caleb held Dusty back. Traffic sped past. Most cars were headed to ski resorts in Vermont, and the drivers couldn’t wait to reach the slopes. Local drivers complained tourists drove along the uneven, twisting country roads as if they were interstates.

Two minutes passed before Caleb felt safe to move onto the road. They didn’t have to go far before he signaled a left turn. He held his breath as a car zipped by him, heading east, but he was able to make the turn before another vehicle, traveling as fast, roared toward Salem.

“Everyone’s in a hurry,” Annie said as she turned her head to watch the car vanish over abandoned railroad tracks.

“I hope they slow down before they get hurt.” Pulling into the asphalt parking area behind the building where ghosts of painted lines were visible, he said, “Here we are.”

“Your bakery is going to be here?”

“Ja.” He was still amazed he’d been able to buy the building in October.

It had served as a supply depot for the railroad until the mid-1960s. The parking area and the pair of picture windows on the front were perfect for the shop he had in mind. Its wide eaves protected the doors. The building needed painting, but that had to wait for the weather to warm. As a few stray snowflakes wafted toward the ground, he couldn’t help imagining how it’d look in May, when he planned to open.

“Why a bakery?” she asked.

“My grossmammi taught me to bake when I was young, and I enjoyed it.” He didn’t add he’d been recovering from an extended illness and had been too weak to play outside.

She glanced at him, and he suspected she wanted him to explain further. He didn’t.

Walls. Keep up the walls , he reminded himself. Getting close was a one-way ticket to getting hurt again. He wasn’t going to do something that dumm again.

Not ever.

* * *

The wind tore at Annie’s coat and shawl when Caleb opened the door on his side and got out. When she reached for her door, he called to her. She had to strain to hear his voice over the wild wind.

“Head inside. Don’t wait for me.” He grabbed a wool blanket off the floor. “I’ll tie up Dusty. I want to put this over him to keep him warm while I give you the nickel tour.”

She nodded, but she wasn’t sure if he saw the motion because he’d already turned to lash his horse to a hitching rail. The building would provide a windbreak for the horse.

After hurrying through the back door, she paused to cup her hands and blow on them. She wore heavy gloves, but her fingers felt as if they’d already frozen.

It was dusky inside. Large boxes were stacked throughout the cramped space. She wondered what was in them. Not supplies, because the room didn’t look ready for use. Paint hung in loose strips between the pair of windows to her left.

She stood on tiptoe to look for writing on the closest box. She halted when she heard a quiet thump.

It came from beyond the crates. She peered around them. A door led into another room.

Was someone there?

Should she get Caleb?

A soft sound, like a gurgle or a gasp, was barely louder than her heartbeat. If someone was in trouble in the other room, she shouldn’t hesitate.

God, guide me.

She took a single step toward the other room, keeping her hand on the wall and trying to avoid the big crates. Her eyes widened when she saw a silhouette backlit by a large window. She edged forward, then froze as a board creaked beneath her right foot.

The silhouette whirled. Something struck the floor. A flashlight! It splashed light around the space. A young woman was highlighted before she turned to rush past Annie.

“Wait!” Annie cried.

A boppli ’s cry echoed through the building.

“Stop!” came a shout from behind Annie.

Caleb!

“There’s someone here,” she called as she spun, hoping to cut off the woman’s escape.

She ran forward at the sound of two bodies hitting each other.

Caleb yelled, “Turn on the lights.”

“Lights?”

“Switch...on the wall...by the door.” He sounded as if he was struggling with someone.

She flipped the switch and gasped when she saw the person trying to escape from Caleb.

It was a teenage girl, holding a boppli . Blonde and cute, the girl had eyes the same dark green as Caleb’s. The boppli held a bright blue bear close to his cheek and squinted at them in the bright light.

Annie started to ask a question, but Caleb beat her to it when he asked, “Becky Sue? What are you doing here ?”

B ecky Sue?

Caleb knew this girl and the boppli ?

Annie wondered why she was surprised. Caleb knew everyone who came to Harmony Creek Hollow. Was this young woman part of a new family joining their settlement? There was one empty farmstead along the twisting road beside the creek.

Annie faltered when she saw the shock on Caleb’s face. His green eyes were open so wide she could see white around the irises, and his mouth gaped.

Then she remembered what he’d said after calling the girl by name.

What are you doing here ?

He wasn’t shocked to see Becky Sue. He was shocked she was in his bakery.

What was going on?

As if she’d asked that aloud, Caleb said in a taut tone, “Annie, this is my cousin, Becky Sue Hartz. She and her family have a farm a couple of districts away from where Miriam and I grew up.” He closed his mouth, and his jaw worked with strong emotions.

The girl shared Caleb’s coloring and his height. Annie wondered how alike they were in other ways.

Stepping forward with a smile, she tried to ignore the thick tension in the air. “I’m Annie Wagler. I should have guessed you were related to Caleb. You look alike.”

“Hi, Annie.” Becky Sue’s eyes kept cutting toward Caleb. Her expression announced she expected to be berated at any second.

Why? For being in the bakery? It wasn’t as if she’d broken in. The door had been unlocked. However, even if Becky Sue had jimmied a window and climbed in, her cousin would have forgiven her.

“And who is this cutie?” Annie tapped the nose of the little boy in the girl’s arms, and he chuckled in a surprisingly deep tone.

For a moment, Becky Sue lost her hunted look and gave Annie a tentative smile. “This is Joey. He’s my son.”

Her son? The girl didn’t look like much more than a kind herself. If Annie had to speculate, she would have guessed Becky Sue was sixteen or seventeen. At the most. The little boy, who had her flaxen hair, appeared to be almost a year old.

Shutting her mouth when she realized it had gaped open as Caleb’s was, Annie struggled to keep her smile from falling away. Though it wasn’t common, some plain girls got pregnant before marriage as Englisch ones did. Or had Becky Sue been a very young bride?

As if she’d cued Caleb, he asked, “Is your husband with you?”

Becky Sue raised her chin in a pose of defiance. A weak one, because her lips trembled, and Annie guessed she was trying to keep from crying.

“No,” the girl replied, “because I don’t have a husband. Just a son.” When Caleb opened his mouth again, she hurried to add, “I’m not a widow, though that would be convenient for everyone, ain’t so?”