Maybe she wouldn’t tell him that last part right away. She had to save something for later on. No sense in hitting him with everything at once.
Yes, she decided. It was time that she called Melvin, had him join her for Christmas, maybe. And then he would have the chance to do what they all, including Levi, had already done—fall in love with Emmy.
* * *
“So it’s a Tuesday normally, a Wednesday when you’re busy on Tuesday, and a Thursday if you’re busy on Wednesday and Tuesday. Am I getting this right?” Tillie asked. Once again, she was seated at the dining room table surrounded by overpowering scents and bottles of goat milk lotion.
“Got it in one,” Leah said.
“I still can’t believe how many orders the website brought in,” Gracie said with a shake of her head.
“The Internet is where it’s at,” Leah said.
“I think next year we should put a time limit on when they can order to have it for Christmas,” Hannah said.
“Good idea,” Gracie said. “I think. Only what happens if they order after that?”
Leah shook her head. “I’m not really sure. We’ll have to figure it all out. But Hannah’s right; we need a deadline so that we can start preparing for the next holiday.”
“Valentine’s Day?” Tillie asked.
“Chocolate-scented lotion,” Gracie said. The smile on her face showed how proud she was of her unusual creative streak.
“You know,” Hannah said. “That’s not quite a bad idea.”
“Or we can mix scents and name them after famous couples,” Leah added. “Like Romeo and Juliet.”
“Samson and Delilah?” Gracie laughed.
Hannah pushed back her chair and stood. “Some of this stuff might be good. I’ll go get a piece of paper and pen.” She bustled from the room while Leah and Gracie laughed and Tillie tried not to be jealous.
Just a couple more days and she would be forced to leave Pontotoc. Unless the impossible happened—unless she could manage to talk Melvin into staying, confessing, and marrying her.
Like a flash of light in the dark, Levi’s face appeared in her thoughts.
It was perplexing, to say the least. Why was she thinking about Levi Yoder at a time like this?
But she knew, in her heart. Levi Yoder was a good man. He had been hurt, practically devastated, by the loss of his wife and child. And yet he had taken her in, given her and Emmy more than they had a right to ask for. She found herself with him never far from her thoughts. But that was an impossibility. Worse than Romeo and Juliet, worse than Samson and Delilah. Even if she stayed in their community—and she wasn’t going to be allowed to—but after confessing, going through baptism classes, and finally joining the church . . . Who would say Levi would even want her after all that?
Who said he wants you now?
His loss was fresh. But by the time she went through all those steps, he probably would have already found somebody else.
She shook her head at herself. Her thoughts were going all over the place like one of those super bouncing balls kids get out of the gumball machines.
“What’s wrong?” Leah asked.
“Nothing,” Tillie said.
Leah shot her a look. “We all know that that’s not the truth.”
Hannah picked that moment to come back into the room, pen and paper in hand. “What’s not the truth?”
“Tillie is claiming that nothing’s wrong today.”
“I’ve just got a lot on my mind,” she said.
“You say that and it’s just like saying nothing at all,” Leah chastised.
“Are you going into town to call him today?” Gracie asked.
“I can take you in my car if you like,” Leah offered. “We can go to my store and use the phone there.”
“And you can take a lot of these lotions with you at the same time,” Hannah said. “Two birds.”
“Jah. I suppose I must.” Her conviction of the night before had faded to gray in the morning light. In the dark hours she’d been confident that calling Melvin and telling him about Emmy was the greatest idea ever. Now she merely felt like it was the only idea she had. The only choice she had.
She supposed it was. The man deserved to know that his child had been born. But for Tillie it was more than that. Would he forgive her for walking out? Would he want to take her back? Would he help her raise Emmy? And the biggest one of all, could they do it Amish?
Chapter Twenty-One
“I really appreciate this,” Tillie said. She and Leah had just pulled up into the parking space behind Twice Blessed. Still, the thought of contacting Melvin made her stomach plummet like it had the time she rode the roller coaster when the fair came to town. But she was excited to see her sister’s secondhand store.
Leah pocketed her keys and together they walked around to the front of the building. “We park in the back so there’s plenty of space out front for customers,” she said. “And the Amish bring their buggies back here so their horses aren’t on the main street,” she added.
Tillie had been surprised to see a buggy parked behind the shop, but it wasn’t like horse and carriages were unheard-of in Pontotoc. Any time of day there would be two or three parked at Walmart. It was simply a part of life. But she hadn’t considered the idea of her Amish friends and neighbors shopping at Leah’s store. The thought made her miss her community all the more. It was ridiculous, but there it was.
“You don’t go in the back door?” Tillie asked as they rounded the corner to the front facing Main.
“Sometimes,” Leah said. “But since there’s a buggy in the back, I figure there’s an Amish person in the storeroom looking at the Amish exchange clothes.”
Her sister went on to explain how she kept Amish clothing in the back in a special place so people could come and take as
