The Wonder of Your Love - By Beth Wiseman Page 0,22
still covered everything at nine o’clock this morning. She’d tried to stay busy for the past four hours, since she’d gotten up to nurse Jonas. After feeding her little one, he’d drifted back to sleep, and Katie Ann had busied herself cleaning and washing clothes. Anything to keep her mind off Lucy’s impending visit.
She didn’t know the woman well at all. She had worked at a café back in Lancaster County, and they’d only spoken a handful of times before Katie Ann caught Ivan kissing her one day. After that, her husband had promised her that he’d stopped seeing Lucy, that there’d never been more than a shared kiss and a few phone calls. Katie Ann knew now that Ivan had lied to her, and she couldn’t help but wonder if there were other untruths built around his relationship with Lucy. Maybe he had tried to end it with Lucy, but Katie Ann could still remember the way she begged Ivan not to leave their marriage. She and Ivan had relocated to Colorado for a new beginning, but Ivan’s heart had remained in Lancaster County. And even though Katie Ann had adjusted nicely to her life in Colorado, Lancaster County was where her own roots were. She wondered if she would ever move back there.
As she clipped a towel to a hanger, she recalled Ivan’s funeral a few months ago. Lucy had been racked with grief, and Katie Ann almost felt sorry for the woman. Almost. But there was always enough bitterness in Katie Ann’s heart to drown out any sympathy for Lucy. Perhaps she shouldn’t have even agreed to this meeting. An urgent matter?
She thought about what Martha said. Could Lucy be coming to ask for money? When she heard a car pulling in, she left the rest of the wet clothes in the laundry basket. Her stomach clenched tight as she smoothed the wrinkles from her black apron and moved through the house. Her heart felt like it would beat out of her chest as she stood on the other side of the closed door, waiting for Lucy to knock. She listened to her heels click up the porch steps, then a soft tap against the door.
Katie Ann opened the front door, took one look at Lucy, and almost gasped. A knot formed in her throat, and she couldn’t speak.
“Hello, Katie Ann.” Lucy tried to pull her long beige coat tighter around her, but it didn’t hide her enlarged belly.
Katie Ann managed to open the door and motion for Lucy to enter.
“Come in,” she finally said after Lucy was already inside the living room and Katie Ann was shutting the door. She could hear the tremble in her voice, and she wondered if Lucy was half as nervous as she was.
“I guess you must have noticed . . .” Lucy’s voice trailed off as she placed both hands on her stomach. “I’m six months pregnant.”
“Ivan’s?” Katie Ann asked.
Lucy looked down at her brown boots. “Yes.”
Katie Ann moved as if she were a character in someone else’s nightmare, unable to believe that this adulteress was in her home. Any earlier thoughts of polite small talk or an offer of coffee slipped from her mind. Still standing, she asked, “What do you want, Lucy?”
Lucy’s bottom lip trembled as she avoided eye contact with Katie Ann. “First of all, I want to say how very sorry I am. For everything.”
She looked up at Katie Ann as a tear rolled down her cheek, and Katie Ann stared at her, knowing she didn’t have one ounce of forgiveness for the woman, despite what she’d said, thought, or prayed about in the past. And she had no plans to make this visit easy on her.
“What do you want?” she asked again.
Katie Ann was surprised at how plain Lucy looked. She didn’t have on the heavy makeup she’d seen her wear before, and her clothes were conservative, not as if she’d selected them that morning with the intention of seducing someone’s husband. Perhaps being pregnant had humbled the woman.
Still standing, Lucy reached into her oversized brown purse and pulled out a wooden box. “I found this after Ivan died.” She held out a small cedar container for Katie Ann to see.
Katie Ann recognized the box right away. It was half the size of a shoe box, and Ivan’s father had made it for him when he was a boy. He’d always kept it on their dresser.
“What about it?” Katie Ann couldn’t imagine why Ivan’s old