The Wonder of Your Love - By Beth Wiseman Page 0,7
hoping for a smile, but she brought the baby to her shoulder and frowned.
“I have to go now.”
She hurried across the living room before Eli could get her to see the humor in the situation, and a moment later she headed up the stairs and drifted out of sight.
He put his hands on his hips and sighed. He had embarrassed her. He’d just assumed her children were grown, like his, and that maybe she’d be interested in getting to know him better as they both started the second half of their lives. But she was starting the second half of her life with a baby. No way.
Eli had raised all the kinner he was going to. There was no point in getting to know this woman, however attractive she might be.
Too bad.
Katie Ann had intrigued him for sure.
KATIE ANN FINISHED changing Jonas’s diaper on Vera’s bed atop a small blanket she’d brought with her. She picked up her baby and kissed him on the cheek. “Is that better?”
She packed her supplies back into the diaper bag, depositing the wet cloth diaper in a plastic bag. Martha thought she was crazy for not using disposable diapers, but she didn’t mind washing the cottony linens for Jonas. They were softer on his behind and caused less chafing.
She walked to the mirror in Vera’s room and almost gasped. Her eyes were puffy, with dark circles underneath. No wonder the man had thought she was a grandma. She leaned closer to the mirror and took a better look.
She’d gotten even less sleep the night before than usual. Jonas had cried on and off, and although she’d tried everything to make him happy, nothing had worked. She was thankful that he seemed content so far this morning.
So much for Martha thinking that perhaps a romance would develop—not that she would have considered such a thing. Even if she weren’t recently widowed and hadn’t lost all trust in men, Eli was a chatty fellow, not at all her type. And was it really necessary for him to get such a chuckle out of their misunderstanding?
She let out a huff before nuzzling her nose to Jonas’s neck. “We don’t need anyone else, do we?”
AN HOUR INTO the wedding ceremony, most of the congregation was focused on Katie Ann and her little one, who was wailing at the top of his lungs. Even from across the room, Eli could see her bottom lip trembling as she tried to comfort the child, rocking him back and forth. She’d already left the room twice, and both times when she returned, little Jonas was quiet for about a minute before he started up again. An older Englisch woman sitting next to her—dressed rather brightly in a pink and white dress—had tried to comfort the child as well, but ultimately handed him back to his mother, shaking her head.
Katie Ann had circles under her puffy eyes, and he sympathized with her. He remembered when Maureen was that age. She’d cried constantly. At first Eli had assumed it was because the poor child didn’t have her mother and that he was failing miserably, but it turned out to be something entirely different. And there had been an easy fix.
He watched Katie Ann maneuver her way past a row of women, then slip out the back and into the mudroom. Eli tapped his foot as he tried to focus on what the bishop was saying. He glanced at the clock on the wall. It would be at least another hour before Emily and David actually said their wedding vows. And that poor child was still wailing. He shifted his weight, knowing that what he was about to do was irregular for an Amish man. Children were women’s work.
Unless your spouse died and left you six of them to raise.
“Excuse me,” he whispered to his nephew Jacob as he stood up and eased by him. He hoped everyone would think he was heading to the bathroom. His black dress shoes clicked against the wooden floor in the Detweilers’ living room, and he was glad when he rounded the corner and the bishop’s voice faded. His heart sank, though, when he saw Katie Ann sitting on a chair in the far corner of the mudroom crying right along with her child. She looked up at him with teary desperation as he walked toward her, but quickly swiped at her eyes.
“What are you doing back here?” she asked in a loud whisper.