A Wedding at the Orange Blossom Inn(25)

Jay couldn’t help it, he started laughing.

To his pleasure, Emma began chuckling, too. “It seems that things have gotten out of hand yet again, jah?”

“Jah. Do you care if William is climbing your tree?”

“That’s what they’re there for. Ain’t so?” she asked as she walked over and grabbed Frankie’s collar. “Come here, you silly hund. Won’t you ever learn that that cat lives to tease you?”

Frankie simply sat down and gazed at Emma with big, sad brown eyes.

“Oh, Frankie.” She gave the dog a quick hug. “What am I going to do with you?” she murmured before walking him over to the girls.

Looking up at the tree, Jay called out to William. “Come on down, son. I’ll get the cat.”

“Nee. I got it, Daed,” William said as he reached for Serena.

Serena meowed her protest, throwing in a hiss and a paw swipe for good measure. Looking alarmed, William jerked back. It seemed the cat thought she was a fierce lion or tiger instead of a plain gray house cat. Then Serena flicked her tail, gave him a superior feline sniff, and at last leapt from her branch to the ground. Seconds later, she was out of sight.

“She scratch you, son?” Jay called.

“Nee, but I lost her.” William moaned.

Jay was just about to go offer him a hand out of the tree, but Emma got there first. “That cat is a wily one, William. She’s confounded a great many people before you, I’m afraid. Can you get down all right?”

“Yep.” Looking almost catlike himself, William swung down and landed on the ground. “That was fun. Daed, can we come again real soon?”

After sharing a smile with Emma, Jay asked, “What do you think about coming over here a couple of afternoons a week to do homework?”

“Really?”

“Jah. Emma said you can stay with her and the girls, then either Ben or I will come get you.”

William looked up at Emma. “That’s okay with you?”

Emma nodded. “It’s more than okay,” she said softly. “I’d like to spend time with you, William.”

When William smiled and his eyes lit with something that looked a whole lot like hope, Jay knew that he’d reached a turning point with his youngest. William might not be done grieving for his mother—that might not happen for a very long time—but it seemed as if he’d at last shed some of the sadness that he’d been wearing like an ill-fitting shirt.

The whole way home on the SCAT, as William told Jay about his day at school, the new friends he was making, and how much he wanted a dog just like Frankie, Jay smiled.

Well, until that very last part. “I don’t think there’s too many dogs like Frankie, son,” he said through a chuckle. “Come to think of it, I think one Frankie in Pinecraft might just be all any of us can handle.”





Chapter 9


Since Tuesday, Beverly had started making sure she was in the kitchen between ten and noon every day. That was the time Eric would phone, if he had time to give her a call.

In earlier conversations he’d explained that he usually took care of business in the mornings. It seemed he had all kinds of paperwork in his line of work. Lately, if he found that he needed a break around midmorning, he would pick up the phone just to check in.

It hadn’t happened every day this week, but instead of feeling frustrated by the uncertainty of his calls, Beverly found herself enjoying the element of surprise. She actually kind of liked waking up in the morning and wondering if she was going to hear from Eric that day. After spending her first three years in Pinecraft making sure that everything was just so with the inn, she found herself enjoying the spontaneity of their relationship like few other things she’d known.

But as much as she looked forward to chatting with him, his phone calls didn’t make or break her days. If he called and they talked for a while, it made her happy. If he didn’t have time to call and she was forced to wait another day or two to hear his voice, she found that suited her, too.

Little by little, she’d stopped spending her late-morning hours preparing rooms and dusting. She did that first thing, or even had Tricia tend to the rooms when people checked out at eleven, as she was doing today. That suited Tricia fine because most of the guests tipped and Beverly allowed her to keep the tip money.

It also ensured that Beverly would have the kitchen to herself if Eric called.

In fact, Eric’s calls were also why she had begun baking in the morning. Beverly had just rolled out the yeast dough for a fresh batch of caramel-pecan cinnamon rolls when the phone rang. After quickly wiping her hands with one of her favorite dishrags—one that was made from an old flour sack—she picked up the phone.