Tillie looked around as they stepped inside. But her perusal was interrupted when Brandon caught sight of them.
“Tillie! And Leah!” he greeted, walking to the front of the store as he spoke. “I wasn’t expecting you today. Isn’t it cousins’ day part three?”
Leah affectionately patted him on the cheek. “You should be glad I like your sass,” she said. She passed him her car keys. “There are two boxes of lotions and soaps in the trunk. One needs to go to the back where we can get it ready to ship and the other one needs to come up front for the shelves. They’re marked.”
Brandon took the keys from her and nodded. “You just like my work ethic. Because you know you can treat me like a slave.”
Leah smiled at him and shook her head. “Buy you lunch?”
“Boondocks Grill?”
Leah rolled her eyes. “You’re going to turn into a fried green tomato,” she said.
Brandon grinned. “I’ll take my chances.”
Tillie watched the exchange between aunt and nephew. They really were close, and it had all happened in the time that she had been gone. And if Melvin . . . She stopped that thought. She couldn’t think that far in advance. She had to keep her perspective. First thing was to tell him about the baby, second thing was to hope that he came to visit. And the third thing was praying that everything fell in line from there.
“The phone’s over there when you have a mind,” Leah said, pointing to a charging station with a cordless phone in the cradle. “Or do you want a tour of the store first?”
Tillie nodded. “Jah, please.” She did want to see her sister’s store and all the hard work she put into the enterprise, but it didn’t hurt that it delayed, even if for just a bit, her calling Melvin.
“So you can see the shelves where we keep the lotions and soaps. We have a lot of people come in from outside just out of curiosity.”
“And they come in just for the lotion?”
“Sometimes. I think the red labels help. Brandon and Shelly designed it for us. I think they did a good job.”
“Me too,” Tillie agreed. “And they’re not . . . ?” She didn’t have to finish the sentence.
Leah shrugged. “They say not, but I think they’re really good together.”
“Well, the display does look pretty.”
Leah had constructed wooden shelves on which to stack the bottles of lotion and cakes of soap. Most were stored in mismatched baskets, a display that somehow had a country charm even though it lacked consistency. The bars of soap were wrapped in cellophane and tied with a red bow. A deep red crimson, like Christmas. The label itself had a logo with a curly-cue G and S intertwined.
“Gingerich Sisters,” she said.
“Or Glick,” Leah added.
Gracie might not be their sister by birth, but she was as close as.
“I try to keep hot ticket items toward the front. This time of year, it’s small appliances, books, sweaters—things that people can give as Christmas gifts. It all shifts come the next holiday or if I see something is in good demand.”
“In demand?” Tillie had no idea secondhand items could come into demand.
“Yeah. June is good for dishes, due to all the English weddings. Picture frames and that sort of thing for May, with the graduations. And then sometimes things go in demand just because. Like microwaves.”
“Microwaves?” Tillie asked. They’d had a microwave at the day care center and used it to reheat things, mostly coffee that had gotten cold while they were working with the kids. It was a convenient something to have, but Tillie couldn’t imagine it coming in “demand.”
“‘Mine is not to reason why,’” Leah quipped. “The rest of the household goods are behind the front area, clothes behind that, and then the Amish in the back. That way Amish can come in through the back door and leave and not have to worry any with the front, and their horses are safe behind the building.”
“It’s a good setup,” Tillie said. She was proud of her sister. And impressed. Briefly she wondered if Leah might have a place for her on staff. But could she really stay so close to home and not be a part of the community she loved and missed?
As much as she wanted to say yes, she knew the answer was no. If she couldn’t stay in Pontotoc, if she couldn’t live with the Amish, if she couldn’t join the church and be a part of the community where she had grown up, she was going to have to move away. It would just be too painful to be so close and an outsider.
Voices from the back of the store reached her. Brandon was coming in the back with the lotion and soaps that he had gotten out of the car. He must have stopped to talk to the Amish woman whose buggy was parked out back. Her voice sounded familiar, but with so much tumbling around inside her head as she took in Leah’s store and tried not to think about calling Melvin, Tillie couldn’t quite place it.
“Let me check,” Brandon said. A moment later he appeared from the back of the store carrying the box labeled DISPLAY. “Aunt Leah, the lady in the back wants to know if you would be interested in adding any baby furniture to the section.”
“The Amish section?” Leah asked.
“You want to talk to her?” he asked.
Leah nodded and walked to the back of the store. Unsure of what to do with herself, Tillie followed behind.
“Hi,” Leah greeted the woman. She turned and Tillie was surprised to see that it was Mims Yoder.
“Tillie! It’s so good to see you.” Mims’s greeting sounded genuine enough, yet Tillie couldn’t help but wonder what the chances were of running into her at
