The Widow's Unexpected Suitor
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Lenora Worth
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22
Chapter One
“A gazebo?”
Lilah Mehl stared at her eldest daughter, Sara, and wondered what the bride-to-be would request next. The wedding was only a few weeks away and now Sara had come up with yet another far-fetched idea. And one that would cost a bit of money at that.
“In the back garden, Mamm,” Sara said, her burnished hair shimmering against her white organza kapp. She looked out toward the big back yard. “White and bright and we’ll put sheers draped with flowers all the way around the top. Won’t that be lovely?”
“So lovely,” sixteen-year-old Carol said in a dreamy drawl, her big brown eyes wide with interest. “And we can enjoy it after the wedding. We can have frolics there, and it will come in handy on church days, too.”
Thirteen-year-old Dana bobbed her head. She had hazel eyes, a mixture from both sides of the family, that were now vivid with curiosity. “I’d love that. I can sit there and read or visit with friends. It would be so pretty in the corner of the yard, Mamm.” Slanting her head, she gave Lilah a grin. “You’ve been thinking about how to make that spot look more welcoming.”
Lilah had a flash of a memory from long ago. Her husband, Joshua, had laughed when she’d told him she wanted to make this backyard a sanctuary. “I reckon I’ll have to build you a gazebo or some type of potting shed out there.”
“I’d love that,” she’d replied, thinking that might take a while. Now he was gone, but she’d worked on her garden to keep her grief at bay. Talking about a gazebo only brought that grief back.
“Mamm?” Sara gave her a quizzical stare, as if she wanted to say something more.
“I see you’ve all been discussing this,” Lilah said, a long sigh following her words. She sank down on a chair in the kitchen of their small cottage, the sound of gulls cawing off in the distance reminding her that summer was coming to Pinecraft and so was this wedding. She wasn’t ready for either.
“We’ve tried to work out the details,” Sara said, pulling out her wedding journal. “I have drawn up a plan, and I’ve found pictures in magazines. I have some money saved, and I can contribute to the cost. I’m sure Abram will, too.”
“Abram has to take care of you the rest of his life,” Lilah reminded her beautiful daughter. “Don’t go asking for his money just yet. I have a little left, but honestly, I’m not sure how much more our budget can be stretched.”
Sara’s pout told Lilah this discussion wasn’t over. But for now, it had to be. Lilah had cut corners and gathered willing friends to help make everything from placemats to dresses for her girls. She’d worked in the garden all spring and sold plants to bring in money. People all over the neighborhood came to her for gardening advice and to buy budding plants and vegetables. But she was afraid to call in any more favors.
“Let’s get supper going and we’ll discuss this later,” she told her daughters. “At least we’re finished the dresses, and your lovely colors of mint for your sister, and pink for your attendants will be so pretty with all the flowers blossoming in the yard.”
“That’s the plan,” Sara replied, clutching her worn wedding journal tightly to her chest. She’d been planning her wedding since she was twelve, and now that it was real she’d been adding to her plans almost every day for months now.
Lilah had to blink back tears. She wished her Joshua could be here to see this but he’d died a decade ago after having heart trouble all his life. He’d loved his three girls so much.
“Mamm,” Sara said, wrapping her arms around her mother’s shoulders. “I’ll figure out a way. The gazebo will be pretty for the wedding, but you can sit there and enjoy it after I’m gone. It will have a nice roof so you won’t have to sit in the sun. I thought it might help you...once I’m married and out of the house.”
Lilah touched a hand to Sara’s arm. “Sometimes, you surprise me, you know that? Are you being sincere or just trying to butter me up?”
Sara sat down beside her while Carol and Dana pulled out cold chicken, sliced fresh vegetables and dinnerware. “Mamm, I’m serious. I’ve told you Abram works for a man who builds houses, but this man also creates beautiful gazebos and pergolas.”
Lilah didn’t recall who Abram worked for, but he had a great job that paid well and that’s all that mattered. “I don’t know, Sara. I’ll have to think about this.”
Sara quieted for a moment, that hint of hesitation making Lilah wonder what she was really up to. “After I saw a gazebo photo in a magazine, Abram suggested you’d need something pretty once I move out.”
“She has something pretty,” Carol called out. “My sister and me. You’re not the favorite.”
“You are all my favorite,” Lilah said, thinking she would miss Sara. But she’d have more time to focus on her younger daughters. She’d neglected them lately during all this wedding planning, but not on purpose. Still, they might think that.
Shaking her head, she smiled at her eldest. “This idea is a sweet sentiment, Sara, but we still have much to do over the next three weeks.”
Then they heard a knock at the door.
Sara’s green eyes widened. “I...uh... I might have asked the man to come over and take some measurements and such.”
“Sara?” Lilah stood and straightened her apron. “What man? What have you done?”
“She invited Noah Lantz over here to build you a gazebo, Mamm,” Dana blurted out with an elaborate shrug, her kapp crooked as usual.
“Noah Lantz?” Lilah shook her head. “I know of him and I’m telling all of you, he’s too busy building cottages and tiny homes for tourists to help us out. Why would he want to build a gazebo in my backyard?”
“He’s the man Abram works for,” Sara replied. “I know I’ve mentioned him before.”
“Not by name,” Lilah said. “Abram doesn’t talk about his new job very much, but I imagine Noah Lantz has to be too busy to stop and build something in my yard, wedding or no wedding.”
“Let’s hear him out and see what he says,” Sara replied as she hurried to the door.
Lilah didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Had she spoiled her girls to the point that they’d ignore her motherly concerns? This wedding and its demands had become a wake-up call for her, making her wonder why she was just now seeing things clearly.
When the door opened, she stood still and firm, her back ramrod straight, and took in the sight of a man she’d only seen on billboards. He was tall, muscular and had thick salt-and-pepper hair and a nice smile. His eyes were a deep blue that startled her. But she ignored all of that and got right to the point.
“I’m so sorry you came here this late, but there must be a misunderstanding,” she said, waving him into the small sitting room. “You can’t possibly have time to build a gazebo in the yard before my determined daughter’s wedding. So thank you anyway and gut night.”
Noah Lantz started chuckling, which made him look more approachable and normal, but it only added to her surprise and anger.
He gave her an endearing glance. “Is that how you greet guests who come to your home?”
“Neh,” she said, her spine stiffening even more. “My girls just informed me of this ridiculous plan to hire someone to build this gazebo thing in time for a wedding that is less than a month away. Who does that?”
“I do,” he said, his tone gentle and full of an amused sparkle. “I’d love to build a gazebo for you, Lilah Mehl. That is, if you’ll let me.” He grinned and held his hands on his suspenders. “Because right now, it looks as if you’d rather bite nails than let me enter your home.”
Lilah stepped back. “I’m so sorry. Where are my manners? We can talk, ja. But we were just about to eat supper.” A moment went by before she did the proper thing. “You could stay and join us if you’d like.”
Sara let out a gasp, her eyes blazing with fire. “I had not planned on this.”
Lilah gave her a motherly stare. “I had not planned on hiring someone to do work we don’t need and pay them with money I don’t have. He will stay for supper.”
Noah’s deep blue eyes widened in appreciation. “That sure does sound gut, but I must admit I’ve never had a supper invitation worded in quite that way. I accept. Denke.”
Lilah could feel the heat of a flush on her face. She motioned him into the small dining room, while her eldest daughter glared at her as if she’d burned their food. “Mamm, he doesn’t need to stay for supper.”
“You heard me,” Lilah replied in a whisper. “I can’t be rude. You didn’t tell me you’d already invited him here, so you’ll just have to get over whatever you’re feeling right now. He will have a meal with us while we talk about your gazebo idea. Unless you want to be the one to tell him to leave.”
Sara let out a huff of breath. “This isn’t going the way I’d thought it would go.”
Lilah smiled and touched her daughter’s arm. “That’s for certain sure. Not what I’d planned either. Use your manners and remember the lesson you’ve learned tonight.”
Noah Lantz entered the dining room, his presence making the room shrink. He looked larger than life, the same as he looked on the billboards advertising his housing company. He had dark hair with a touch of gray at the temples, but he looked as healthy as a horse to her. Lilah patted her own golden-brown hair and hoped her gray wasn’t showing.
Don’t be vain.
“Do you need to wash up?” she asked to hide the flurry of tingling nerves cascading against her skin. What was wrong with her?
“I’ll show you the washroom,” Carol offered, clearly intrigued by all this. “It’s right this way.”
Noah went into the small washroom, but quickly came back to the dining area, his deep gaze taking in the driftwood gray table and chairs and Lilah’s love of fresh flowers. Did he find her cottage lacking?
Turning to Lilah, he said, “It’s nice to meet you. I’ve seen you at church but never had the opportunity to speak to you. When Abram told me you were to be his mother-in-law, I was surprised. He and Sara really want to make the gazebo happen. I hope you’ll hear me out regarding this project.”
“I’ll hear you out,” she replied, her tone sweet and kind, her mind racing as she tried to remember seeing him at the church up the street that the Mennonites shared with the Amish. “But I don’t need a gazebo in my yard.”
Noah nodded. “If you say so. I sure am hungry.”
He went to help the girls pour tea while Lilah stood there, her heart hammering a new tune, her mind opening to things she’d shut down years ago.
He was a nice man. A nice widowed man, from what she’d heard. They did have that in common, at least.
Noah hadn’t expected to eat supper with Lilah and her curious daughters, but now that he was here enjoying thick slices of cold chicken, he realized he missed this—being with others at the end of the day, laughing and joking, telling the latest news or gossip. Sharing.
He missed sharing his life with someone special. His wife, Janeen, had always filled his days with laughter and fellowship. She’d forced him to go to many a frolic or singing just to get him out of the house. She loved walks in the park because she could watch the children playing there. She loved people, loved chatter and discussions and festivals. He didn’t care so much for other people—at least not being with them. She’d called him an introvert.
A person who is comfortable being by himself.
Only now, he hated being by himself.
“Is the food that bad?” Dana asked, her gaze studying him as if he were a bullfrog.
Noah snapped to attention. “Neh, the food is wunderbar gut,” he admitted. “I was just remembering.”
“Your wife.” Lilah’s statement hit him with a soft wave of grief that crashed through his heart with a pounding velocity.
He nodded. “I don’t get out much.”
Sara glanced from Noah to her mamm. “Do you have friends?”
“Sara!”
Noah held up his hand. “I do have friends, ja. Your Abram and I have become gut friends. But I’m the quiet type. I am comfortable without a lot of people around.” He took a sip of his sweet tea with lemon. “I miss my Janeen at times such as this.”
Dana gave him another long stare. “You mean, you don’t like eating supper alone, ain’t so?”
“Dana!” Lilah shot her blunt daughter a warning stare, then shot him an embarrassed, apologetic look. “I’m sorry. I have taught them manners but they are curious.”
“Your daughters are smart,” he said to Lilah. Too smart. He’d need to remember that and watch his manners around this little cottage full of women.
“They are indeed,” Lilah replied. “Let’s take our dessert and go out onto the back porch. Just you and me, so we can talk in private about this gazebo.”
“I want to hear,” Sara said, her tone as sharp as a kitchen knife. “I have ideas.”
“Me, too,” Carol replied, her words more cautious.
Dana bobbed her head. “Ja, lots of ideas I’m guessing.” She was having fun.
“Neh,” Lilah replied, her gaze on Sara. “You sprung this...idea on me so now I need to hear the facts—how much will it cost and do I have that kind of money? Do we need a gazebo for the wedding? Do I want construction going on in my yard for the next few weeks?”
“I need to be in on that,” Sara said, giving her mother an intense glance. “I’m the bride.”
“I’m the one who’ll decide about the gazebo,” Lilah replied, her tone as firm as a two-by-four piece of lumber.
Noah held his amused smile behind what he hoped was a solemn expression. But suddenly he missed being a daed, too. More than he’d realized. Why was it so hot in this little kitchen and dining room? He felt a trickle of sweat shivering down his spine.
“Girls, bring the kaffe and key lime pie out to the porch—just ours, please. You three can have your pie after you’ve done the dishes.”
Sara gave her mamm a long, complicated stare that held so many emotions, Noah didn’t even want to unpack it. Abram Troyer had warned Noah about the Mehl women. But Abram’s daed and Noah went back a long way. He was mostly doing this as a favor and a wedding present. Well, a present that could keep on giving after the wedding. Lilah Mehl looked as if she belonged in a gazebo, her hair so prim and proper even when the waning sun hit it and turned it to gold, and her polite manners once she’d decided he’d be having dinner with them, so refreshing and sweet.
Whoa. He needed to do the job and keep on moving. His heart would never go through another loss again. Never.
He remembered Abram’s words regarding the Mehl girls.
“Tough, stubborn and a bit spoiled. But their mamm, Lilah, is the salt of the earth.”
He followed Lilah out onto the deep back porch. “This is a nice place to enjoy the evening.”
She smiled. “My Joshua bought us this house the first time we came down to Pinecraft. Back then, houses here were not that expensive and he loved the warm sunshine and the ocean air. We worked hard to renovate it. Then when his heart got so bad, we sold our farm and moved here permanently. He was supposed to rest and get better but he loved working with the local farmers. We had several good years together before his weak heart just gave out.”
Noah studied the sturdy porch posts and the solid white railings. “He built this porch?”
She nodded. “Now my daughter thinks I need a gazebo to distract me after she leaves. Joshua mentioned projects he wanted to complete, but he never got to them. Sara is a lot like her daed, always dreaming up things she plans to do, but not always following through.”
He smiled at that. “I don’t think she liked you asking me to supper.”
“She doesn’t like most of what I decide, but she shouldn’t react so strongly about supper since she invited you here without my knowledge.”
“It is kind of her to think of you, though. Wanting to build something that can last a lifetime is never a bad idea.”
Lilah laughed, the sound as sweet and melodious as the butterfly wind chimes hanging at the end of the porch. “I’m not so sure she’s thinking completely about me and my wants and needs.”
Noah nodded and stared out at the garden. “You have cultivated a nice backyard here. I can see why Sara wants to get married out amongst the roses and palm trees.”
“She loves the wisteria and jasmine and the old magnolias. That’s why she picked May as the month for her wedding.”
“Your jasmine will look pretty growing around a white gazebo. Like a wedding cake, for certain sure.”
Lilah gave him a steady, unyielding stare. “You make it sound so romantic. Is this the part where you pitch the sale, Noah?”
He chuckled. “Neh, Lilah, this is the part where I convince you to trust me. I can build you a near-perfect gazebo, but building trust requires a different kind of skill.” He leaned toward her, his rocking chair squeaking. “A softer skill.”
Lilah Mehl stared into his eyes and waited for a beat or two before she looked out into the gloaming. Then she let out a soft sigh and turned to face him again. “When can you start?”
