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  Another long silence ensued. “I think everything should be okay, but she is going to have surgery soon.”

  Would this news cause Jacob to return home? And what does the boy need money for? Daniel thought he’d secured a good job selling pharmaceuticals. At least, that’s what he’d last heard.

  He tiptoed down the hallway when he heard Annie saying, “Okay, ya, we’ll talk again when you are able to call.”

  Daniel wanted to ask Annie what was going on, but with his mother being ill, Lena’s cancer returning, lack of a commitment from Charlotte, and Charlotte’s sister showing up he wasn’t sure he wanted to know Jacob’s status. Yawning, he crawled into bed, his thoughts all over the place, but mostly he was worried about his mother.

  Annie extinguished the flame on her lantern, then lay back against her pillow. Closing her eyes, she tried to see Jacob’s face in her mind’s eye, attempting to see him as an Englisch man wearing clothes that had been unfamiliar to him prior to a few months ago. What kind of haircut was he sporting now that he was no longer required to have the standard bob with bangs that men in their community had worn for generations? And, most importantly, did Jacob still love her as much as she loved him?

  She’d tried to push him from her thoughts, and sometimes she could temporarily. But her ex-fiancé was still in her heart, despite her best efforts to get over him and move on. She’d accepted dates from two other suitors in their district, and both had been painfully boring. Jacob was a mess, but he was her mess. And he’d never been boring.

  But Jacob was in real trouble, and Annie wasn’t sure whether to go to his parents—who were battling their own issues with the return of Lena’s cancer—or whether she should confide in her own parents, who were also going through a challenging time with her mother’s bed rest until the baby arrived.

  Annie threw back her sheet and blanket and sat up, dangling her legs over the side of the bed. She would confide in the one person she’d always trusted. A minute later she tapped on Daniel’s door.

  “Can I come in?” She pushed the door open a couple of inches. “Are you still awake?”

  “Nee. I am sleeping. Come back tomorrow.”

  Annie eased the door open and gently closed it behind her. “Light your lantern. I didn’t bring mine, and I can’t see.”

  Daniel huffed, but a few seconds later a match flickered and the glow from her brother’s lantern lit the room. “Can’t this wait until tomorrow?”

  Annie shook her head as she sat in a chair in the corner of the room. “Nee. I need to talk to you now.”

  Daniel fluffed his pillows, folded his arms across his chest, and yawned. “What about?” He held a palm up. “Wait, don’t tell me. This is about Jacob, ya?”

  Annie took a deep breath and nodded. “He’s in real trouble, Daniel.”

  “That’s what happens in the Englisch world.” Daniel yawned again. “What kind of trouble?”

  “There was some sort of problem with his last job. The company relocated, and there was a big layoff or something. Jacob ended up losing his job, and he had to take another job, but he isn’t making much money. He doesn’t even have a cell phone anymore. He had to borrow a phone to call me. I think he wants to come home, but he’s too proud.” Annie hung her head. “I know pride and vanity aren’t looked highly upon.” She slowly lifted her head and held her brother’s gaze. “But he needs money.”

  Daniel stared long and hard at her. “I know you still love Jacob, Annie. But that lad can’t seem to keep his head on straight.” He scowled. “Did he ask you for money?”

  “Nee. Not really.” Annie shifted her weight in her chair and crossed one leg over the other. It wasn’t a lie. Jacob hadn’t come out and asked for money. “I told him about his mother but that I felt like everything would be okay.”

  The truth was, Annie knew otherwise. She’d overheard their mother talking to Aunt Faye, saying that Lena’s cancer was at stage four. The women had lowered their voices to a whisper when Annie passed by the bedroom where they were chatting. But Annie couldn’t bring herself to share that news with Jacob. Not yet, anyway. He had enough to worry about. And instead of telling Daniel what she’d overheard, Annie planned to keep praying for Lena. Maybe with prayer, the cancer would reduce to a better stage.

  “All you can do is pray for Jacob and hope that the boy makes good decisions.” Daniel let out a heavy sigh, and they were both quiet for a few moments.

  “You’re worried about Mamm, aren’t you?” Annie pressed her lips together, keeping her gaze on her brother.

  “Ya. But Aenti Faye will cart her and Daed to the doctor tomorrow. I’m sure everything will be okay.”

  Annie wasn’t tired, but when Daniel yawned again, she stood. “There’s too much going on. Lena’s cancer, Mamm’s risky pregnancy, and Jacob’s predicament.”

  Daniel scratched his cheek as he fought to stifle another yawn. “Jacob’s predicament is of his own making.”

  “I know.” Annie thought back on everything she and Jacob had been through. She’d been tempted to stop taking his phone calls, but love wasn’t an emotion you could corral or control. She shuffled toward the door.

  “Annie.”

  She turned around and raised an eyebrow. Daniel patted the end of his bed, so she walked across the room and sat down. Daniel reached for her hand and squeezed.

  “Let’s pray about all of this. For Lena, for Mamm, and for Jacob.” Daniel lowered his head. Annie did too. It wasn’t their way to pray aloud, but she was glad when Daniel chose to do so. Annie’s bottom lip trembled as she fought the tears threatening to spill as Daniel prayed for those they both loved. When he was done, she stood, kissed him on the cheek, and made her way back to her room.

  By the time she climbed into bed, she could feel the Holy Spirit wrapping around her, the comfort of God’s loving arms, and the peacefulness that came from heartfelt prayer. Now, maybe I can sleep.

  Charlotte woke up early Saturday morning with Lena on her mind. She’d learned that Lena’s surgery would be in a couple of weeks. Was there an urgency they weren’t aware of, for it to be scheduled this quickly? Or maybe it was just easier to schedule medical procedures in Lancaster, as opposed to MD Anderson in Houston.

  Charlotte wished Lena were having the surgery at MD Anderson since it was considered the top cancer hospital in the country, but Lena had assured her that the hospital in Lancaster would be fine and convenient for the family.

  After Charlotte let those thoughts soak in, she recalled her conversation the night before with Andrea, when Charlotte had returned her call. Her sister didn’t sound like the same woman she’d met at the funeral. She was friendly, said she already knew Charlotte’s address, and would see Charlotte at ten o’clock, if that was okay. It was odd, but Charlotte was going to embrace this opportunity. She was also excited to meet her niece. Bella.

  She picked up around her house, opened some of the windows enough to let a cool breeze swirl around, and drew some of the blinds she normally kept closed so the house would fill with sunlight. She’d come to terms with the fact that she wouldn’t be putting electricity in the house anytime soon. The electrician had called her with a bid, and, as she’d expected, it was way out of reach.

  Her heart thudded against her chest as her stomach churned. She sat on the couch and watched the clock on her mantel ticking away the minutes. At ten forty-five, she walked to the window and stared past the trickling of orange and yellow leaves floating to the ground. But not a car in sight.

  Pacing her living room, she finally got out her cell phone and dialed the number Andrea had called from, and the call went straight to voice mail. After another hour Charlotte made a sandwich and tried to focus on a crossword puzzle. She finally fell asleep on the couch but awoke when she heard footsteps on the porch and a baby crying.

  Hustling up, blinking her eyes, and almost tripping over her living room rug, she went to the door, then pushed open the screen. Andrea’s eyes were swollen and red as Bella scre
amed so loudly her cries sounded like she was choking. The baby was clutching a little purse to her chest.

  “Come in, come in.” Charlotte stepped aside so they could go inside, and she quickly followed them to the middle of the living room. “Does she need a bottle or something?”

  Andrea shook her head as she let a pink diaper bag slide off of her shoulder. “She just screams, all the time.”

  “Hi, Bella.” Charlotte leaned down to get a better look at her niece, although tears streamed down the baby’s flushed cheeks as she gasped for breaths. Bella’s yellow shirt was stained with something purple, and she only had on one white tennis shoe.

  “I must have lost one of her shoes on the way in.” Andrea bounced the baby on her hip. “Please stop crying, Bella,” she said softly, like maybe she’d said it a hundred times before.

  “Can she have a peanut butter cookie?” Charlotte was out of her league. She hadn’t been around babies much. Andrea nodded.

  Charlotte left and returned with two cookies. She handed one to Bella, but the toddler slapped it from her hand.

  “Bella, no!” Andrea gave Bella’s hand a gentle slap, then put the baby on the floor. Bella rolled onto her stomach, buried her head in the rug, and kicked her feet, still holding tightly to the little purse. “I’m sorry she’s acting this way.”

  Charlotte forced a smile. “Maybe this is the start of the terrible twos?” She wanted to get to know her sister, and she was curious why Andrea had changed her mind.

  “Listen, I’m sorry I bolted at the funeral. I’m really sorry about that. I’ve just been trying to process everything.” Andrea shrugged. “You know, about Janell, Ethan’s death, and, well . . .” Raising her shoulders again, she spoke louder over Bella’s wails. “It’s just been confusing.” She looked around the living room. “Can I use your bathroom?”

  “Sure.” Charlotte pointed down the hall. “Go through my bedroom and you’ll see it on your right. Kind of a weird setup, but it’s an old house.”

  Andrea hurried off, so Charlotte picked up the cookie and set it on the coffee table, then she tried to pick up Bella, but the child kicked both legs and wiggled on her tummy. “Hey, Bella,” she said in a whisper. “I’m your Aunt Charlotte. Are you thirsty?” Maybe your diaper is wet? “Hey, sweetie.”

  Bella stopped crying, stopped kicking her feet, and rolled onto her back. Then she just stared at Charlotte, still gasping for breath a little. But it was like someone turned off a faucet. Then she smiled, and Charlotte could see a mouthful of teeth. She had blonde ringlets that hung almost to her shoulders, dimples, and long, dark eyelashes above hazel eyes.

  “You are a beauty,” she whispered, trying to recall what her sister looked like as a baby. She couldn’t remember, though.

  “Wow. How’d you do that?” Andrea walked back into the room and stopped a few feet from them.

  Charlotte stood up and shrugged. “I didn’t do anything. She just stopped crying.” She offered Bella the cookie again, and this time she took it.

  Andrea quickly helped her daughter sit up. “I don’t want her to choke.”

  Charlotte felt like they were on borrowed time, in case Bella became unhappy again. “So, where do you and Bella live?”

  “In Hershey.” Andrea sat on the couch. She’d grown into a beautiful woman with thick brown hair and doe eyes that were a deep shade of brown. “Hey, are you Amish? I noticed when I was in the bathroom that there isn’t any electricity.” Her eyes scanned the room as if to check for power.

  Charlotte shook her head. “No. This used to be Ethan’s house, and he’d become Amish before he died.”

  “Oh, yeah. I remember reading that in his obituary.” Andrea sat taller, her hands on top of her blue jeans. She had on a yellow shirt almost the same color as her daughter’s.

  “I know you said you hired someone to find out your background, but what a coincidence that you live so close since we both got our start in Texas.” Charlotte glanced at Bella, who’d pulled a magazine off of Charlotte’s coffee table and given up her hold on the purse. Bella fumbled as she tried to turn the pages, but at least she was quiet.

  Andrea sighed. “I was raised in Houston, but I got curious about my biological family, so I started digging around online. But uh . . . I mean . . . uh, I eventually had to hire someone to dig around. Ethan was the first person the guy found, and unfortunately, it was his obituary that popped up when the investigator Googled his name. From there, it wasn’t hard to find you and Janell, since you were both listed in the obit. Anyway, I ended up meeting a guy online—Blake—and we sort of hit it off. He lived in Hershey, so I decided to make the trip.”

  Charlotte glanced at Bella, who was still content, and looked back at Andrea. “Do you know about our father?”

  “Yep. It can be hard to find people online, unless they’re dead. Obituaries seem to show up at the top of online searches.”

  Charlotte heard no sound of remorse in her sister’s voice, but she wanted to smooth the way. “I really was going to look for you. I was just dealing with everything, too, and Janell was a bit of a handful.”

  “Did it cost money to keep her in that psychiatric place?” Andrea leaned back against the couch and crossed one leg over the other.

  “Some of it was paid for by the state, but a friend took care of the rest.” Charlotte recalled her reaction when she’d found out that Amos was paying for part of Janell’s care. Truly my father on earth.

  “What kind of friend would help Janell?” Andrea grunted a little and glanced at Bella. “Thank God she stopped crying. I was about to lose it.”

  “An Amish friend helped out.” Charlotte finally eased her way into a rocking chair near Bella.

  “Are you going to turn Amish? From what I could see from the car, it was almost all Amish people at Janell’s funeral.”

  Charlotte tapped a finger to her lips for a few seconds. “Um, I don’t know.” She thought about Daniel, feeling like they, too, might be on borrowed time. She’d committed to Ryan, her boyfriend before Daniel, but that hadn’t gone well. But being with Ryan didn’t require the type of commitment that being with Daniel would. Charlotte would have to be baptized, and committing herself to God was an even larger promise. She was a Christian, loved the Lord, and tried daily to be the best person she could. But in her mind, baptism represented the ultimate commitment, with plenty of room for failure.

  “Is Blake your husband?” Charlotte doubted Blake was Bella’s father since Andrea made it sound like she hadn’t been in Hershey all that long.

  Andrea shook her head. “He’s been pretty good to Bella and me, but overall, I don’t think it’s going to work out.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry. He seemed nice.”

  Andrea rolled her eyes. “He can be, some of the time. But don’t let his good looks and polite demeanor fool you. He can be a real jerk.”

  “Did you go to college?” Charlotte had a hundred questions. “And was it foster parents who adopted you? You said they were great; I’m relieved to hear that.”

  Andrea stared past Charlotte, her eyes glassy, her thoughts appearing to stray.

  Andrea had hoped to avoid all of this small talk. “Yes, my foster parents adopted me. They were great. And yes, I went to college.” Lying is exhausting.

  “Wow. That’s great.” Charlotte smiled. “Out of the three of us, I’m glad one of us had a good experience. But I had friends in school who had awesome foster parents, so I’m glad you did too.”

  Andrea shifted her weight, not wanting Charlotte to start asking a bunch of questions that would require even more lies. What did you major in? What was your life like growing up? She glanced at the clock on Charlotte’s mantel. Was Blake awake by now? He’d come in after three in the morning. She glanced out the window at Blake’s banged-up Toyota. He was going to be really mad when he woke up and saw that she’d borrowed it.

  “Bella must like you because, I swear, I think she’s been crying for days.”

  Charlotte glan
ced at Bella, then back at Andrea. “She seems content right now. I don’t know a lot about young children.”

  “But you like kids, right?”

  “Yes, I do. I just haven’t been around babies a whole lot.”

  Andrea eyed the diaper bag. She wasn’t even sure she had enough diapers to get through the rest of the day. Maybe Charlotte would want to go shopping, maybe even pick up a few things for her niece.

  “Hey, I think I’m almost out of diapers. Would you feel like going to the store with me?” Andrea had seen what Charlotte drove—a big red truck that was definitely older than Blake’s car, but Andrea suspected that Charlotte probably had more gas in her ride than was in Blake’s car. Probably more money in her wallet also.

  “Sure. Yeah. We can do that.”

  Four hours later Charlotte opened the front door carrying three bags, while Andrea followed her in with Bella asleep in her arms.

  “Can I just lay her on your bed? I’ll prop some pillows around her.” Andrea spoke in a whisper, and Charlotte nodded.

  After Andrea was out of sight and Charlotte had set the bags on the kitchen counter, she looked at her checkbook. Something was still amiss, and she hadn’t been able to figure out where she’d miscalculated. But she was hoping she hadn’t overdrawn her account with the purchases she’d made today. Andrea had filled a basket with diapers, baby wipes, a couple of small toys, and snacks for Bella. She’d also asked the cashier for a carton of cigarettes as they were checking out. It wasn’t until then that Andrea realized she’d forgotten her wallet.

  Charlotte was skeptical, but she wasn’t going to deny Bella anything she needed, and she didn’t want to get on Andrea’s bad side by saying she wouldn’t pay for the cigarettes. Although she hadn’t known how expensive the habit was.

  Charlotte glanced at her wall calendar. She’d missed Sisters’ Day today. She tried to attend the monthly gathering of Amish women in the community, but she had opted out this time since it was at Edna’s house. She enjoyed the activities: canning fruits and vegetables, working on a quilt or other craft, and sometimes taking food and visiting shut-ins. It was bad enough having to be around Edna every other week at church and the occasional social gathering. She wasn’t going to spend time in the woman’s home if she didn’t have to.