A Wedding at the Orange Blossom Inn(54)
Actually, he wanted to eventually mean as much to her as she already meant to him.
That was something to truly aspire to.
JAY HAD JUST MADE a pitcher of fresh-squeezed lemonade when the kitchen door opened and William came in with Lena, Mandy, and Annie right behind. Emma brought up the rear, looking a bit like she was herding sheep.
After greeting them all, he couldn’t resist teasing Emma. “What, no matching dresses today?”
“Mamm changed,” Mandy said, her mouth in a tiny pout. “She said she needed a fresh dress. I don’t know why.”
It took everything Jay had not to smile when Emma flushed. “I gardened today,” she said. “It’s always a very warm job.”
“I had to change, too. I was out selling produce.”
William looked around and frowned. “Where are Mark and Ben?”
“They are finishing up business this afternoon at the stand. They’ll be here within the hour.”
“Oh.”
Jay noticed the three girls were staring at him like they were just waiting to be visited with. Pulling up a kitchen chair, he sat down on it so he wouldn’t be towering over them. Gentling his voice, he asked, “What did you three do today?”
Annie walked right up and showed him her finger. “I got a Band-Aid.”
He held her little palm in his and examined her finger closely. “My goodness! What happened?”
“I don’t remember.”
Jay couldn’t help it, he burst out laughing. “You don’t?”
“Annie likes bandages, I’m afraid,” Emma said. “To her, it’s a cure for most anything.”
Jay was about to nod when Annie surprised him and crawled onto his lap. Immediately, a feeling of warm protectiveness settled deep inside him. William had recently informed Jay that he was too old to be cuddled. Jay supposed it was true. But as Annie rested her head against his chest, Jay felt a warm surge of affection flow through him. Having Annie be so trusting of him made him want to shield her from the rest of the world and make her happy all the time. He wrapped an arm around her so she wouldn’t fall.
Annie turned her head and gazed up at him, her blue eyes seeming to take in every line and wrinkle on his face.
“You okay?” he asked.
She nodded, then said, “Your beard is short.”
Her statement was so blunt—and so out of the blue—he couldn’t help but chuckle.
“Annie!” Emma cried. “You mustn’t be rude.”
“It’s not rude if it’s true,” Jay replied as both Mandy and Lena stepped closer. “I trimmed most of it six months ago. I, uh, needed that symbolism, I think,” he said quietly as he met Emma’s eye. Men grew beards after they married. Most never trimmed them. But in the days after Evelyn’s death, he’d felt it was a symbol of something he’d lost. In a moment of weakness he’d trimmed it close. Now, in the Florida heat, he’d elected to keep it short. It was too hot otherwise.
“I understand,” Emma murmured.
“Do you like peanut butter?” Mandy asked.
He blinked. “Yes?”
“Oh.” She frowned as Annie crawled off his lap.
Confused, Jay looked at Emma. “Did I say the wrong thing?”
“Not at all.” Emma shook her head. “Mandy is allergic to peanuts and peanut butter so she doesn’t like to be around it.”
“I’ll make sure I don’t keep any around.”
“That’s not necessary,” Emma said.
“How about I’ll make sure none of us eat it when you are around?” he said to Mandy.
Emma smiled. “Danke.”
“Daed, can we go out and wait for Mark and Ben?” William asked, obviously bored with the concerns of little girls.
“As long as you stay near the front porch,” he said just as the kids ran out.
And then he and Emma were alone.
Suddenly, he was tongue-tied. Should he say anything about how he’d heard from Ben and Tricia that she was going courting? He ached to have it out in the open so they could both laugh at the idea of such a thing . . . and so she wouldn’t discover somehow that he’d known her intentions but never let on.
But for the life of him, he couldn’t think of a way to tell her without embarrassing her. Getting to his feet, he said, “I squeezed some lemons and made lemonade. Would you care for some?”
“Please,” she said. “I guess you had to learn to make all kinds of things after Evelyn passed on to heaven.”
“I did. But she was ill for a long time before that, too.” He pulled out the ice tray from his freezer and put several cubes in each glass. “Growing boys need to eat.”