Secret at Pebble Creek Page 6

  *

  The following morning, Eli helped William Conrad carry the last of Jessica Beachy’s kitchen cabinets into the large workroom of Conrad Cabinets. On the opposite side, William stopped and counted. “One, two, three.” On the third count, they carefully set the last cabinet alongside the others on the cement floor.

  Above, large ceiling fans whirled, making a light whistle as a welcome flow of air caressed Eli’s neck. William straightened his knees and sighed as he pressed his palms against his work pants.

  “Word has it that Old Sam’s place is goin’ up for sale. A real estate agent mentioned it in town this morning.”

  Even though Eli was fully aware of the potential sale, he felt an ache in his chest. Would he ever accept that Old Sam’s home would be on the market? That anyone could buy Pebble Creek?

  William swished his palms against each other to dust off the particles, and went on to press his palms against his hips. After clearing his throat, he lifted a challenging brow. “So the new owner of Old Sam’s place … she’s really going to list it?”

  Eli nodded and let out a sigh. “Jah.”

  A soft voice prompted them to turn to the side door, where William’s only daughter waved an inviting hand. “Would either of you care for a glass of fresh lemonade?”

  Eli nodded appreciation. “I’d love one, Mary.” The girl’s shyness made him smile. She was a whiz when it came to plants. Already, she had one of the most productive gardens in the area. And she was only sixteen.

  Usually she didn’t say much until that subject came up. Then her shyness quickly evaporated, and she became a talking plant-encyclopedia. Whenever someone from church had a question about something green, they went to Mary. And as far as creating arrangements, there was nothing she wouldn’t try. No one could match her botanical prowess.

  “Eli, would you like to see my garden before you leave?”

  The light in her eyes told Eli he couldn’t disappoint. “I was hoping you’d show it to me.”

  “After you taste my lemonade.” She beamed.

  “That’s the best offer I’ve had all day.” Eli winked at the girl, who shyly lowered her gaze to her shoes. When she looked up, she turned her attention to the owner of Conrad Cabinets. “Daed?”

  “Extra ice in mine.”

  Eli noted the pink flush of her cheeks. William and Rebecca’s daughter would make someone a good wife when she was older. It was common knowledge that the girl did everything to perfection. She’d inherited her maemm’s interest in gardening and helped Rebecca with her floral business.

  Eli and William focused their attention back on the cabinets. As Eli took in the large room where William worked, the smell of varnish filled his nostrils. Each section of the room seemed to sport a different station.

  Drills, hammers, knives, chisels, and different sizes of boards were visible all over the large area. William turned his attention to one of the cabinets and gestured. “Now, what exactly would you like for me to do with these?”

  Eli joined him, and they meandered past the row of cabinets they’d set in the side area.

  The sound of the door clicking open made them turn again.

  “Lemonade.” Mary handed the men their drinks with a smile, they thanked her, and she left the shop.

  Eli resumed his conversation with William. “Right now, the kitchen’s closed in. I’m opening it up to the dining room and trying lighter wood and a more modern design.”

  Eli went on to explain specifics. A long silence ensued while William assessed what needed to be done. Eli finally broke the silence. “Does that sound doable?”

  William patted Eli on his shoulder and smiled. “I’ll have these done by next week.”

  “Sure appreciate it.”

  “Anything for you.” His grin widened, and he added an extra pat to Eli’s back. “And for Old Sam.”

  *

  That evening, Eli washed his hands in the hall bathroom of his home. While he rubbed his soapy palms together, he considered the interesting girl in Old Sam’s house and how she’d already challenged his steady, uneventful life. As he used the soft blue hand towel, a voice interrupted his thoughts.

  “Eli! Supper’s ready!”

  Eli straightened the damp hand towel on the hook and stepped to the dining room table, where his mother set a cloth-lined basket in the middle. Eli’s stomach growled as he breathed in the delicious smell of homemade yeast rolls.

  But that wasn’t the only enticing scent. He’d glimpsed the fresh batch of sponge cakes on the kitchen countertop. His mother was famous in the area for her specialty. And Eli considered himself very fortunate.

  He knew Maemm would want to know all about Jessica Beachy, so he wasn’t surprised when she broached the subject. While she organized the dishes, he sensed her curiosity to know more about the newcomer.

  “Tell me about your day, Eli. I’m dying to hear all about Old Sam’s great-niece.” As Maemm stepped away to the kitchen, she asked, “What’s she like?”

  Before he could answer, she went on. “She must have been very special to Old Sam. But in all the years I knew Sam, he never mentioned her.”

  As Eli pulled out a chair at the dinner table, they all took their usual seats at the table. All five of them. Maemm, Daed, Wayne, John, who’d been named after his dawdy, and Eli.

  They all bowed as Daed blessed the food. “Amen.”

  When Eli opened his eyes and lifted his chin, he considered how to tell his folks that Jessica planned to sell Old Sam’s Pebble Creek property. As Maemm passed the fresh peas his way, he was fully aware that Jessica’s plan would need to be addressed. And now was as good a time as any to break the shocking news to his family. He frowned.

  His father spooned a large helping of chicken and dumplings, turning to Wayne and then Eli as he did so. “You must have a lot of news. Looks like we’ve got ourselves a new neighbor.”

  Eli was quick to note Wayne’s silence, and let out a decisive breath as he regarded his daed, who dished up a large helping of garden peas. “There’s one thing for sure, Jessica Beachy has a list of fix-ups. She seems nice. Englisch. Is from St. Louis and it’s her first time in the country.”

  The others looked at him with keen curiosity.

  Excitement edged Maemm’s voice. “I’ll take sponge cakes over to give her a big, warm welcome. And she’ll certainly need help getting situated. Maybe I can help her clean.”

  Eli gave a quick shake of his head. After clearing the knot from his throat, he looked around the table. “I hate to tell you this, but she’s gettin’ the house all fixed up to sell.”

  He paused while taking in the jaws dropping around the table. Wayne lowered his gaze to his plate. A long, tense silence ensued. If someone had dropped a fork, the sound of metal meeting the shiny oak floor would have been too loud.

  John finally broke the silence. “You surely don’t mean she’s going to sell Pebble Creek?”

  At the same time, Eli’s parents stopped eating and looked at each other in dismay. Offering a small nod, Eli faced his mother’s worried expression. He softened his voice to a more sympathetic tone. “I’m afraid so. And she’s having it wired for electricity … just in case the buyer’s Englisch.”

  When his mother smiled a little, he drew in a small breath of relief. His daed didn’t respond. Eli was quick to note his frown and the tiny creases around his eyes that appeared when he considered something serious.

  “You know, your daed and I have always considered Pebble Creek ours.” A nervous laugh escaped Maemm’s throat as she eyed her husband with affection. “From when we were kids, we met there … right at Pebble Creek … to talk and throw pebbles into the water to see who could make the bigger splash.”

  Levi smiled with affection at his wife. “Your mother, I’ve got to tell you … she gave me a run for my money. She had quite an arm.”

  She gave a gentle roll of her eyes before meeting Eli’s gaze. “Your father … he’s just bein’ kind. As you know, I was
quite a bit younger than him. And he always seemed so tall.”

  After taking a drink of water, she returned her glass to the white napkin on the oak table. Ice cubes clinked against her glass. “Did you know that Levi and I even carried stones from the creek-side all the way up to the top of that hill?”

  Eli nodded and waited for her to go on.

  “It might sound crazy, but we took them several feet at a time. Then we’d set them down and rest.” She chuckled. “They were heavy. Finally, we got them to the top and used them to sit on.”

  Daed talked under his breath while he buttered his hot roll. “We even named the creek. The name … it became obvious to both of us.”

  Several heartbeats later, Maemm’s voice was barely audible. “Pebble Creek.”

  “Annie and I … well, we spent as much time together there as we could. We asked permission, of course. Our time together there … it never did seem long enough, did it?”

  Annie merely offered an affectionate smile. Levi shook his head and swallowed. After finishing off his peas, he met Eli’s gaze and smiled. “Your maemm and me … sometimes our folks would let us go to the creek if we finished our chores early. And then … after I came back for the wedding … well, you know the story. We started meeting there again. Things were the same, but somehow they were different.”

  Eli noted the light color filling his mother’s already rosy cheeks.

  Levi eyed Annie. “It seems like it was yesterday, doesn’t it?”

  She nodded. “But when you left …” She lowered her gaze and waved a dismissive hand. “We won’t talk about that. I’m so grateful that Levi decided to come back to his cousin’s wedding.”

  “God guided us to meet again. And”—he looked around the table before sipping his coffee—“God blessed us with a happy ending. Meeting up with your mother after a decade apart … now I don’t care what you say, that was no coincidence.” He cleared his throat and spoke in a more emotional tone. “That’s what you call God’s hand at work.”

  Eli watched his mother’s eyes glisten with moisture. “Jah.”

  He loved the expression of love and affection between his father and mother as they drifted back in time. “We had some heartbreaking moments there.” Levi’s voice cracked. “But at the end of the day, they got resolved. Annie and I … when we agreed we couldn’t marry because of our difference in faith, we prayed a lot.”

  “And God rewards the faithful,” Annie cut in. “That’s what Mamma always told me. But she was right. Because Levi came back to town. Unexpectedly, I might add,” she said, addressing her children. “And that very time we met at Pebble Creek was when your father told me he’d join the Amish church and we’d get married.”

  “Annie …” He chuckled lightly. “Ya see, she made the best sponge cakes I’d ever tasted.”

  Everyone laughed.

  “She still does. And she always wanted a happy ending for everything.”

  Maemm lifted her chin. “I still do.”

  “And that’s why I should have known all along that we’d marry.”

  “Happy endings are what we all want, right?”

  Eli thought about the question before finally nodding agreement. “I guess so.”

  “Every secret we ever shared was said at Pebble Creek. But there’s something else …” She breathed in and closed her eyes. When she opened them, her voice was barely audible. “It’s where I used to dream. But I wasn’t the only one.”

  She darted a quick, mischievous glance at Levi. “Since we were kids, Levi imagined building a home there.”

  John lifted a curious brow while he swallowed the last bite of his roll.

  Eli stopped eating and digested the statement. He’d always known Pebble Creek was special to his folks; he’d never realized that Daed had dreamed of building there.

  He swallowed a bite of chicken and looked at his father with skepticism. “Is it true, Daed? Did you try to buy the land from Old Sam? Did you think he’d sell it to you?”

  After a slight hesitation, Levi reached for the casserole dish and spooned more dumplings onto his empty plate. “I never asked him. I’d given it some thought, but I just didn’t feel right about it.”

  He paused to load his plate with more peas. “I mean, if he had sold it to me, where would he have gone? And the last thing I wanted was for him to think we wanted him to move so we could buy his land.”

  Eli considered his daed’s words. And Eli agreed. Asking Old Sam for Pebble Creek, the place he called home, would have been wrong.

  “The whole thing … I guess it wasn’t meant to be. To my knowledge, he didn’t ever plan to sell it … at least, not as long as he was alive.” He grinned.

  “But the Lord took care of us.”

  Levi waved a hand in gratitude. “Annie and I built this beautiful home.” He shrugged before going on. “Pebble Creek was always a dream.” He paused and then said with emotion, “A dream that never went away.”

  Eli met his daed’s gaze. “But dreams are gut, jah?”

  The response was a slow nod. The corners of Eli’s lips dropped as he considered the depth of his parents’ attachment to the property that Jessica Beachy now owned. An idea popped into his mind. A long silence ensued before he decided to voice his thought.

  “Could we buy it, Daed? I mean, if we all pitched in?”

  Wayne and John glanced at each other with a curious intensity until John spoke up.

  “The cost of land is sky-high these days. And the part behind Pebble Creek, it’s prime.”

  The senior Miller finally commented, “As much as your idea appeals to me, I don’t think we could come close to affording it.”

  Levi glanced at Annie. “Besides, we’d never even think of leaving this home that we built together after we married. But there’s something we can do. We can pray for a nice family to move into Sam’s house to make new memories.” He grinned before going on. “Kids running around the yard. A mother baking homemade pies in the kitchen. That’s what Sam would have wanted.”

  Finally, Eli’s mother offered a smile of agreement. “Jah.”

  His brothers were quick to add their nods. For some reason, Eli felt the need to assure his mother that Jessica seemed to be a good person. “You know, she’s from Missouri, and I kinda understand why she wants to sell.”

  His mother raised an inquisitive brow and leaned forward in her seat.

  Lifting his palms, Eli crossed his legs and then lowered his hands to rest on his thighs, tapping the toe of his shoe while he explained. “I mean, she did inherit the land. I can’t really blame her for wanting to sell when she’s not even from this area. Her job, her life …”

  He offered a conciliatory lift of his shoulders and sighed. “They’re not here. It would be like us moving to Missouri, I guess.”

  Maemm’s eyes glistened with moisture and her voice wavered. “Of course. I can see why she doesn’t plan to live here. It’s just that Old Sam …” She looked down a moment before glancing around the table. “I can’t help but wonder what he would think if he knew she was putting the land up for sale.” She followed with a small shrug.

  Eli nodded agreement.

  With a helpless sigh, she said, “I know it’s not my property, and it’s really none of my business, but for the life of me, I can’t imagine that he would leave it to someone he thought would sell. I won’t pretend to know what was going through his mind, especially near the end, but I think I could say with a fair amount of certainty that he intended to keep that land in his family, even if that meant leaving it to a distant relative. That’s how he was. Family meant everything to him, even if they weren’t close.”

  For some time, the only sounds were the light clinking of utensils against plates as Eli considered his mother’s comments, and thought about the new owner of Pebble Creek.

  Levi spoke in a low, thoughtful tone. “Old Sam was wiser than any of us. I know he had never met his great-niece, but I’m sure he knew things about her and her family
that we don’t.”

  He added, “Old Sam must have believed that Jessica would live here.”

  Chapter Four

  That evening, Eli stayed on Jessica’s mind while she lit the wick of her vanilla candle and took a seat on the living room sofa. Years ago, a counselor had recommended scented aroma for relaxation.

  She breathed in the calming smell while she considered everything she’d learned about Old Sam. While she contemplated Eli, she closed her eyes a moment.

  Strangely enough, there was something about the Amish builder that comforted and excited her at the same time. How could that be? It was an emotion she’d never experienced.

  Her gaze drifted to the fan. As the air blew on her hair, she turned her head to the window that offered a beautiful view of what Eli had referred to as Pebble Creek.

  It was her understanding that this wasn’t the official name but rather what it had been called for years by his family, dating back to when his parents were kids. As the pleasant scent of vanilla filled the air, the sun began slowly melting into the western sky.

  She stood and stepped to the window for a better view. The colors were a mixture of the most beautiful hues she’d ever seen. It was as if an artist had spilled different shades onto a canvas. She let out a sigh of relief. In St. Louis, she’d never really paid attention to sunsets.

  But here, out in the middle of nowhere, she couldn’t believe she’d never admired the sky before. As the sun continued to dip, the colors became a notch lighter. She couldn’t take her eyes off it.

  The warm breeze floated in through the open window, moving some loose hairs into her face. She shoved them back over her ears.

  She smiled as she admired the beautiful creek. Her mind drifted to the story of Eli’s parents, two kids meeting there and falling in love.

  Jessica turned and made her way to her open suitcase, where she began unfolding her clothes and looking forward to a clothes rod.

  “Old Sam.” She shook her head. “We are as different as night and day, yet I still feel so close to you. Why couldn’t I have met you?”

  She considered the man who’d left her this place and frowned. “I don’t even get to thank you.”