When They Met Again (Letters from Lancaster County #2)

Chapter 1

The moment the ladybug landed on her arm, Joanna Grebel decided she wouldn’t go to her cousin’s wedding after all. She’d been cutting flowers for the bride, but now she couldn’t seem to move. Why had she thought going away for a night was a good idea?

The sound of a vehicle approached, and she turned toward it. A van slowed as it came up the driveway, and the passenger window lowered as Ike Slaybaugh called out, “Joanna! Get your grandparents. We have a long drive ahead of us.” His silver beard blew in the wind.

As the van stopped, the side door swung open and a dark-haired boy—young man, rather—jumped down. It was Adam Slaybaugh, Ike’s grandson. He wore a blue shirt, black pants, and no hat. His wavy hair was too long. He was new to the community, but her friend Mandy already had a crush on him.

Mammi Lu stepped onto the back porch carrying a basket of food. “Joanna, grab your bag.”

Adam started toward the house, asking Mammi Lu if he could help.

“Denki. The bags are in the kitchen.” Mammi nodded toward the door, where Dawdi Marcus struggled to come through the screen door with his bag and Mammi’s.

Joanna brushed the ladybug against the columbine.

Then she added the flowers—dianthus, lupine, and baptisia—to the ones in the bucket and carried it and the clippers out the gate and to the back porch.

Dawdi Marcus hadn’t made it through the door yet, but it wouldn’t do for her to take one of the bags.

Instead Adam hurried past her, brushing his hand against Joanna’s arm as he did.

“Sorry.” He grinned as he sped by.

She rubbed her arm. He took both bags from her grandfather.

Mammi Lu waited at the bottom of the steps as the men continued on to the van. Again, she said, “Grab your bag.”

Joanna loved her grandparents’ place with its garden, red barn, and two-story house with a wraparound back porch. She told her grandmother, “I’m not leaving.”

“Why do you want to stay?”

Joanna shrugged.

“I don’t think you should.”

“Why?” Joanna was nineteen. And more than trustworthy.

“Your father wouldn’t approve.”

“He’s in Maine.”

Mammi’s eyes shone. “Emily is expecting you.”

“She won’t notice if I’m not there.” They hadn’t seen each other for several years.

Mammi’s expression softened. “Joanna.” Her voice was just above a whisper. “I can’t let you stay here alone. Please grab your bag.”

Joanna shifted her gaze toward the van. Ike and Becky Slaybaugh stood beside it. They and Adam and Dawdi all waited in a semicircle, watching her. She turned her attention to Mammi Lu, locking eyes with her. “I can ask Mandy to spend the night.”

Mammi shook her head. “Both stoves are cold, I promise. Dawdi and I each checked. And I know you did too—several times.”

Joanna’s face warmed. Was she that obvious?

“We do our best to make sure our home is safe,” Mammi Lu said, “but then we have to trust the Lord.”

Joanna took a deep breath, exhaled slowly, and then handed the bucket of flowers to her grandmother. “I’ll get my bag.”

She sat in the back of the van, ignoring the chatter and laughter of the others as they left Strasburg Township.

Too anxious to read the book she’d brought, she stared at Becky’s snow-white bun right in front of her.

It was so white—as pure as her bleached Kapp—that it looked as if she used a rinse on her hair, but Joanna knew that couldn’t be true.

When they stopped for a picnic dinner at a park a couple of hours later, Adam sat across from Joanna and said, “So how are you related to Noah?”

“Noah?”

Adam smiled. “The groom.”

“Oh.” Joanna frowned. “I’m not. Emily is my cousin.”

“First?”

“Second.” She paused. “Maybe third. They left Lancaster County a few years ago.”

Joanna wanted to retrieve her Buch from her bag and read, but Adam kept talking. There was something endearing about his chatter, in an annoying sort of way. “I’ve known Noah since we were kids, when I moved to Spartansburg.”

Joanna forced a smile.

Adam asked, “Do you live close to your grandparents?”

Joanna answered, “I live with them.”

He leaned closer. “I’m living with my grandparents too, as of two weeks ago.”

Joanna already knew that. Becky and Ike lived a half mile away. Mammi and Becky had been best friends since they were girls.

Soon they were back on the road, and Joanna fell asleep. Three hours later they arrived in Spartansburg, near both the Ohio and New York borders. The Englisch middle-aged driver, whose name was Nick, dropped Joanna and her grandparents off at a relative’s farm first.

“See you tomorrow,” Adam called out from the van.

Mammi turned toward Joanna as they walked to the front door. “He’s such a nice young man, don’t you think?”

Joanna forced a smile. “He and Mandy are interested in each other.”

Mammi narrowed her eyes. “Really?”

They arrived at the wedding the next morning early enough to help with the chores and to set up the chairs and tables. Joanna didn’t see Emily until breakfast. Her cousin acted surprised to see her, asking, “You came all the way from Maine?”

“Nee. I’m living with Mammi and Dawdi in Lancaster County.”

Emily’s eyes widened. “Your parents didn’t force you to move?”

Joanna shook her head.

Emily leaned forward. “I miss Lancaster County.”

Joanna could only imagine. Yet that was only part of her reason for staying behind. Her mother wrote each week, saying Joanna’s father wanted her to join them in Maine. Joanna was running out of excuses not to.

Unlike weddings in Lancaster County, decorations were nonexistent for Emily’s wedding.

The only flowers were the ones from Mammi Lu’s garden.

During the wedding dinner, Adam, whose hair had been cut since yesterday, was everywhere.

Teasing the groom. First avoiding a pretty young woman wearing a bright blue dress and then later talking with her.

Both looked sad and the girl wiped at her eyes and walked away.

Later, he was helping move benches while Joanna helped Mammi and Becky wash dishes in the kitchen.

When they finished, Becky said, “We’ll leave in about a half hour.”

A woman approached Becky and said, “Leroy and I are having second thoughts about Adam staying in Lancaster County.”

As Mammi and Joanna walked out the back door, Mammi said, “That’s Adam’s mother, Elizabeth.”

Joanna turned her head. The woman appeared to be in her late thirties.

In the distance, at the door to the shed, Adam and Ike now talked with a middle-aged man. “And that’s Adam’s stepfather, Leroy,” Mammi said.

“What happened to his Dat?”

“He died when Adam was small.”

“Oh.” Joanna’s family had lived across Lancaster County from her maternal grandparents, Mammi Lu and Dawdi Marcus, who resided in Strasburg Township. Joanna had been living with them for three months now, but she was just learning the stories of the people who lived near them.

Adam threw up his hands and Ike put his arm around him, pulling him close.

Joanna hadn’t seen a grandfather touch his grandson in an affectionate way before.

The stepfather’s brows furrowed. Joanna couldn’t stop watching Adam.

There was definitely something attractive about him.

His smile. The curl of his dark hair at his neck.

His bright blue eyes. The way he constantly interacted with others.

Two younger boys ran up to the group and the stepfather put his hands on their shoulders and spoke with them for a moment, but then Nick pulled the van up the driveway, waved, and parked on the other side of the shed.

“Nick’s early,” Mammi Lu said.

“It’s a long way home.” Joanna smelled smoke and turned her head, trying not to panic. A group of Youngie had gathered around a pit and started a fire. She took a deep breath and then exhaled slowly. She was okay. Everything was fine.

Beyond them, Adam gave his stepfather a quick wave and started toward the van.

The man called out, “Tell your Mamm goodbye.”

Adam veered toward the house, toward Joanna. He gave her a smile as he passed. A minute later he passed her again and practically bounced to the van. He seemed more than ready to leave Spartansburg.

Joanna followed. By the time she reached the van, Adam was sitting in the back seat. Her seat. Dawdi was in the front. The grandmothers sat in the first bench seat and Ike sat in the third. Joanna could sit by Ike, whom she didn’t really know, or by Adam.

She continued to the back bench, pulling her Buch from her purse as she did.

It wasn’t until night fell that Adam began to talk.

Ike had fallen asleep. Joanna was sure of it because every once in a while a snore escaped.

Mammi and Becky seemed to be sleeping too.

By the soft murmur of voices from the front, it seemed Dawdi and Nick were deep in conversation, although Joanna couldn’t make out what they were saying.

She’d come to understand over the last two days that Ike and Becky’s remodeling company owned the van and Nick had worked for them full-time for the last ten years.

Joanna put her Buch in her purse when the light waned enough that she couldn’t make out the words.

“What book were you reading?” Adam asked.

“Little Women by Louisa May Alcott.”

“Is it good?”

She nodded. “Very.” She had only a few chapters left, but she’d read it before.

She loved the sense of home in the story and thought of it as she worked in her grandmother’s home and now, again, as she reread Little Women.

That’s what she wanted—a happy home. She’d found it for now with Mammi Lu and Dawdi Marcus.

“Are you allowed to read whatever you want?” Adam grinned. “I mean were you, when you were younger?”

“My parents didn’t pay much attention. A librarian where I grew up recommended a lot of classics,” Joanna said. “And Mammi Lu has quite a few books I can read.”

“My stepdad was strict about what I could read.” Adam turned toward her. “I heard you’re new to Lancaster County too.”