mamm, and it was all Lovina could do to hold onto her as she lunged for her mamm.
Elizabeth took her and hugged her. “Were you a good little girl today?”
“She certainly lets you know what she wants,” Lovina told them with a smile.
Anna looked at Katie and babbled, her big blue eyes on the cookies on Katie’s plate, her little hands opening and closing as if she wished she was grabbing it.
“She ate a big lunch. She can’t be hungry,” Lovina said.
“My girl’s always hungry,” Elizabeth said.
“Can she have a bite? There are no nuts in it.”
Elizabeth nodded and accepted the cookie. Anna snatched it from her mother’s hand and happily gobbled it. She grinned at Katie, her mouth smeared with crumbs.
“She’s so sweet,” Katie said.
Anna clapped her hands and cooed.
“I can’t believe she’s eighteen months old already. She’s not a boppli anymore.” Elizabeth looked at Lovina. “Danki for taking her in to have the doctor check her ear today.”
“The doctor said she’s got a mild ear infection and gave me a prescription.”
“I figured that’s what was going on when she kept tugging at her ear yesterday and then kept us up most of the night.”
Katie covered her yawn with her hand. “So neither of us has had enough sleep lately.”
Lovina fixed herself a cup of tea and sat down. “How is Rosie?”
“Doing well. She should be back to work soon.”
“One of my kinner had a concussion once. I remember trying to keep him up all night so he wouldn’t go into a coma.”
Katie shivered in spite of herself. “Doctor said we didn’t have to do that. Rosie might have hit me if I tried to keep her up all night.”
Saul stuck his head in the door. “Last-minute customers.”
Katie rose, waving her hand at Elizabeth. “You stay and take care of Anna.” She grinned at her trying to reach the other cookie on the plate. “She can have the cookie if it’s okay with you.”
She walked back into the store, smiling as she remembered how overjoyed Elizabeth and Saul had been to discover they’d be
parents after the miscarriage that had devastated them the first year of their marriage.
Working with the couple, seeing how they loved and worked as partners, and now as parents, made Katie think about her own life . . . she knew she didn’t want to marry anyone for quite some time. She had a plan in mind to get the Two Peas in a Pod business solidly established, profitable. Many Amish couples had their own business, and it gave them the chance to be at home for their kinner, something so important to them. Two Peas was perfect—both she and Rosie loved gardening and canning, and this they could do when they became wives and mothers.
Katie had a very clear idea of what she wanted in a mann. She knew some maedels sat around and said they were waiting for the man God had set aside for them. Katie had talked quite a bit with God about the kind of man she wanted. She’d been very specific with God about the qualities she wanted in a mann. Daniel had come along not long after, but she wasn’t sure that meant he was the one God meant for her . . . sometimes she wondered if he really understood her.
She could be patient. She and Rosie were building their business. They were happy as they were. Prospering. Seeing sweet little Anna today, though, well, that made her think about husbands and babies. Katie had once heard an Englisch friend say her biological clock was ticking. She’d had to tell Katie what she meant by that. Katie could be as patient about when she had kinner as she was about when she’d meet the mann for her. But little Anna was so adorable.
She shook her head. She was at work and had no time for daydreams . . .
“Excuse me, miss, can you tell me if you have this candle in green?”
“Yes, we do. I’ll be happy to get one for you. Did you see the candle holders in the front of the store? They look lovely together.”
“I missed those.”
Katie led the way back to the hand-carved candle holders and showed them to the customer, then went into the storeroom to get the requested candle. When she returned, the woman had chosen a candle holder as well.
Elizabeth came out to help with the customers while Lovina entertained Anna in the back room, and they breathed a sigh of relief as the last customer walked out the door. Elizabeth locked the door and turned the sign to Closed.
Katie straightened a few shelves on her way to the back room to collect her things. “Do you need any help preparing the deposit?” she asked Saul.
“No, I’m fine,” he said as he totaled up the deposit slip. “I was able to get most of it done when we had that slow spell.”
She grinned. “The one that lasted all of fifteen minutes?”
He nodded as he tucked the slip and the cash into the bank bag and zipped it. “A shopkeeper always loves a busy day.”
“I love them, too. It means I have a job here.”
He chuckled. “True. Ach, there’s your driver already.”
“Oops, gotta run.” She said a quick goodbye to everyone, grabbed her things, and rushed out the front door of the store. The driver had a schedule to keep, and it wouldn’t do to keep him and the other passengers wanting to get home waiting.
Five minutes into the drive she fell sound asleep.
***
Rosie roused when the front door opened.
“Katie?”
“Ya, it’s me.”
She sat up. “Oh my, is it that time already?”
“Have you been asleep all afternoon?” Katie asked as she closed the door.
“Nee. Mary stopped by with a casserole for our supper, so we visited and had tea and cookies. She brought me a book, and I read some of it. I fixed us a salad for our supper tonight to go with the casserole and then I took a nap.”
She glanced at the clock on the wall, yawned, and shook her head. “So I slept for three hours. I hope I can sleep tonight.”
She sat up, stared at the vase of daisies on the coffee table, and found herself smiling. So she hadn’t dreamed them.
“I’ll go heat the casserole.”
“I can do it.”
Rosie shook her head. “You look tired. You haven’t been lying here being lazy all afternoon. Sit down, and I’ll bring you something to drink.”
“That
