The Path to Piney Meadows Read online

  Of course, she’d heard all the talk from all the ladies, each wondering when he would begin accepting invitations and whose he would accept first.

  Anna could tell the second he accepted. Joanna broke out into a wide smile, then covered her mouth with her hands, while all the young ladies near her visibly sagged. Yet, instead of looking at Joanna, Chad turned to her, smiled, and waved.

  She couldn’t believe he would do such a thing in front of the young lady to whose home he had accepted an invitation.

  Unless . . . he really didn’t know the reason for the invitation.

  Chad held his breath, gritted his teeth, and banged on Anna’s front door. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the curtain move, followed by the sounds of female murmurings through the glass.

  The door opened. Anna was standing in front, and behind her were Sarah and their mother.

  He forced his best imitation of a smile, even though smiling was the last thing he felt like doing.

  Looking over Anna’s shoulder, he made eye contact first with Susan. “Excuse me, would you mind if I talked to Anna? Alone?”

  Sarah and Susan quickly shuffled backward, while Anna stiffened. Obviously, his anger was as visible as he thought it was, but he didn’t care.

  Sweeping one hand through the air, he motioned toward the door as he backed up a step, trying to indicate his need for privacy, or at least as much privacy as was possible in their front yard. But he wasn’t going to say what he had to say in front of her mother.

  “What just happened?” he snapped, using every bit of strength within him not to shout. “At church, it was bad enough being surrounded by all those women I barely know, but after I got to Joanna and her parents’ home, with the way they treated me and the questions they asked, it dawned on me what changed. It just became open season for bachelor hunting, and it appears I’m the number-one catch. This isn’t what I signed up for. Your name came up in the conversation, so I’m asking you—what did you say about me?”

  Her eyes widened. “I did not say much. I just asked for the ladies to pray for you because you seemed sad because you were alone.”

  Squeezing his eyes shut, Chad dragged one hand down his face. Every day that went by, he ached to tell her everything, to lay his burdens before her. But he couldn’t. He’d talked again to the detective, then done some searching into the legalities of his rights to the baby. As it turned out, in this state, a mother was not legally obligated to put the name of the father on the baby’s birth certificate. If that were a requirement he could trace the baby, but considering the circumstances, it was extremely unlikely. Friends had advised him to let it drop, since Brittany obviously didn’t want him to find her.

  But he couldn’t do it. And such being the case, there was nothing he could do until the PI either found Brittany or didn’t, which left Chad in limbo. His last option was to count off the nine months on his fingers, then do a search to see if he was listed as the father, which seemed unlikely based on Brittany’s disappearing act. If he was not listed on the birth certificate, he would be totally off the hook.

  The bottom line was that he didn’t want to be off the hook. He wanted to be a real father to his son or daughter.

  So until the baby was born, all he could do was wait and hope he got lucky or that Brittany changed her mind.

  He cleared his throat and opened his eyes, making direct eye contact with Anna as he spoke. “I know you meant well, but please don’t worry about me. I’m alone because I’ve chosen to be alone.”

  Her eyes widened even more, causing his heart to skip a beat. Really, he hadn’t chosen to be alone, at least not intentionally. But now he needed to do the right and honorable thing, and he had no choice until he exhausted all options.

  All he wanted was to find the one woman God would put in his path, but that woman hadn’t been Brittany. He’d ignored what he’d thought at the time were small things, including feeling God nudging him away from Brittany. Then he’d let Brittany pull him away from God until he was at a place where he didn’t know if God would take him back. He was in a place he couldn’t escape, and he wouldn’t know which way his life would go until August, at which time he’d have to make more big changes. Now, another complication had been added.

  Anna.

  She hadn’t meant any harm by asking the ladies’ group to pray for him—the opposite. She’d done what she’d thought in her heart was best for him. He also appreciated it, because he’d messed up so much that he couldn’t blame God for not listening to his prayers, but Anna lived a pure and honest life, and God did hear her prayers. She had all the ladies praying for the perfect woman for him, although he had a sinking feeling every one of them in the small group Sunday morning would be praying it was her.

  As nice as they were, he didn’t want Joanna or Rachel or any of the other single ladies to be that answer, but he couldn’t pray for what he wanted.

  He’d prayed for Brittany to love him the same way he’d loved her, or at least how he thought he’d loved her. That hadn’t happened.

  He’d prayed, whether married or not, he would be there to share Brittany’s pregnancy. It hadn’t happened.

  He’d prayed for his ex-boss, Gary, to treat him with the respect befitting his position. It hadn’t happened.

  He continued to pray that he could one day be a part of his baby’s life. It didn’t look like it was going to happen.

  He was too afraid to pray that Anna would turn out to be the woman God had chosen for him.

  If he did pray for that, he would get the same answer he’d gotten every other time he’d prayed for something he wanted.

  The only thing going well in his life was his new job, if he didn’t consider how he didn’t fit in with his employees (he heard through the grapevine he’d made one of the women cry when he thought he was being nice by helping with the dishes). Or that he still stuck out like a lone city mouse in the midst of a field of country mice.

  Anna cleared her throat. “What is wrong? Why are you not speaking?”

  Rather than reply immediately, he reached forward and grasped her hands. At the feel of her soft skin, his voice lodged in his throat. In all this time, he’d never touched her, at least not intentionally.

  More than just touching her hands, he wanted to step closer, to cup her cheeks in his palms, tilt her face up to his, and kiss her. Not just a simple peck, but to kiss her properly, right, and good and tell her he was falling in love with her.

  Instead, he felt his fingers starting to tremble. He dropped her hands and backed up. “It’s not important anymore. I guess I really don’t have anything to say. I just wanted to see you.”

  Her brows knotted. “You have already seen me today, at church. You came with me and my family.”

  But he hadn’t gone home with them. He’d gone with a woman he had no interest in.

  What he wanted was for Anna to come home with him. Forever.

  “Chad? You are looking strange, again. Are you ill? Would you like to sit down?”

  He shook his head. “No. I think I’d just better go home. I’ll see you at the usual time before work tomorrow.”

  16

  Anna sat on the bed in her bedroom, pressed the switch, and waited for Chad’s laptop to boot up. He’d signed her up for some Internet courses and helped her download the resources, then he’d put everything onto his laptop so she could take it home to study and do her homework. She couldn’t type proficiently while sitting on the bed with the computer, but she certainly could read, as long as she kept the laptop on top of a book so the blanket did not insulate it and make it overheat. He’d also shown her how to adjust some of the options to get more life out of the battery.

  He wasn’t very handy with tools and every time he tried to build something he hurt himself, but he was very good at computers.

  The screen came up to enter his password, so she typed it in and watched as everything continued to load without the noises like the computers at the office.

&n
bsp; She’d been very careful to turn off the sounds. Her mama had found out that she had borrowed Chad’s laptop to help her with some courses, but they both agreed that her papa should not know that she had a computer in their home.

  Part of her felt bad doing this, but she’d experienced a tremendous relief that her mama knew she was taking the courses and approved. At least her mama understood that in order to remain a viable business they had to keep up with modern technology. Of course, Chad had laughed when she’d told him. He’d said everything they used was at least ten years out of date, with the exception of his new accounting program. It wasn’t even the latest version, due to the age of their computers. She’d noticed that Chad’s laptop did run differently, and much quicker, than her computer at the office, which she found amazing for something so small.

  While she waited for the icon to come onto the screen to open the program she needed to do her assignment, Anna stood and walked to the window.

  From her bedroom, she had a perfect view of the portion of Chad’s backyard that contained his chicken coop, or rather, the chicken hotel. Inside the fenced area, his two chickens strutted proudly. Since it was now June, she’d told him to leave the chickens in the coop permanently, except when he had to hose it out. Tonight was to be the first night he was going to leave them in the coop. It also meant he would no longer need to go home at lunchtime to take the chickens out of their box in the kitchen and put them outside.

  She couldn’t help smiling. He’d been so convinced it was still too cool in the mornings, but it wasn’t, really. With the chickens spending the night in their warm nests, they would be fine in the cool of the morning.

  Because of the quiet of the evening, she heard the hum of Chad’s car as he came home from his shopping trip. Usually he took her mama with him when he went grocery shopping because it was easier to carry all the groceries home in his car, rather than making two or three trips with their wagon. Mutta had often said to Pape that they should get a car because the groceries seemed to be getting heavier over the years, but he would not hear of such a thing. So now, with her papa’s permission, Chad always took her mama to the grocery store in his car when he went, even if she only needed a few items, like tonight.

  Personally, she thought her mama had fun being in the car, but tonight she really hadn’t needed anything.

  At the sound of the door, Sarah scurried to the kitchen to help mama, so Anna stayed in her bedroom with Chad’s computer.

  She was almost ready to return to her desk to read her new lesson when Chad’s back door squeaked open.

  Remaining at the window, she watched him. It was at this time he’d always taken his chickens into the house. Of course, today he would be leaving them outside, as per her instructions.

  Knowing Chad, and the way he liked to talk to the chickens, he had come to wish them goodnight. She couldn’t believe the conversations he had with them, and sometimes, they seemed to answer back.

  Tonight, just like every previous night, as he approached the coop, the chickens scurried to the gate. Also just like all the previous nights, when he opened the door to the coop he squatted down, petted them, and called them both by name. In response, they both clucked back to him, and if it wasn’t her imagination, both sounded happy to see him, which was absurd.

  To her complete shock, he backed up, and the chickens exited their enclosure. He closed the door and latched it, then walked toward the house, with the two chickens following right behind him. He looked over his shoulder and smiled at them, as if they were pet dogs. “Race you inside!” he called out and broke into a slow jog.

  The two chickens stretched out their necks, extended their wings, and ran frantically behind him—as though they really feared he would leave them—all the way into the open back door.

  The door closed, and all was silent.

  She didn’t know why he had taken the chickens into the house, so she waited for him to come back outside.

  He didn’t.

  Anna sighed. She thought she’d been very clear in telling him to leave them outside all night. She couldn’t believe that he’d misunderstood.

  Tomorrow she would be sure to repeat her instructions. But for now, she needed to complete her homework.

  Yet, as hard as she tried, even knowing she had a time limit to e-mail back her replies to the questions, she couldn’t concentrate.

  Chad had taken his chickens into the house. In June.

  There was only one way to get back all her concentration and turn it to her homework—she needed to solve the problem that distracted her.

  She closed the laptop and moved it to the side of her dresser where her papa wouldn’t see it if he walked past her bedroom and looked inside the door. She really wanted to cover it, but after all Chad’s warnings about not letting it overheat, she didn’t want to do so unless she turned it off.

  Once assured it was out of sight from someone walking past her door, she hurried outside and knocked on Chad’s door.

  He answered with a book tucked under one arm and a chicken tucked under the other.

  Anna extended one hand toward the chicken whom she was pretty sure was Waddles.

  She paused at her own thoughts, exasperated with herself for being able to tell them apart and for thinking of the chicken by name.

  “Waut dast dü? What are you doing?” she asked, waving one hand in the air toward Waddles. “I have told you to put them outside. That is why you have built them such a lavish chicken coop. To put them outside. Yet here you are, bringing them into the house with you again.”

  He grinned, and his eyes twinkled.

  Something in Anna’s chest felt strange. She gulped, then looked at the chicken instead of him.

  “I was going to finish my book, and it’s become a habit to have them sitting in my lap at night. It felt wrong sitting down to read without them. I brought them back in so I can finish my book. Besides, they like it. Want to come in?” He grinned wider. “I just put the kettle on to make a pot of tea.”

  She backed up a step. Even though they spent much time without anyone else present when they were at the office, this was different. This was his home, and she would not go into his home unescorted. She certainly could not sit and drink tea with him in his living room, like she would with one of her friends.

  “I cannot come into your house. Besides, I was going to start my homework, but I became distracted watching you take your chickens into the house.”

  His smile dropped. “You saw us?”

  “Ja. My bedroom window is in the back of the house. From the kitchen, I can see your whole yard, but from my bedroom, I can only see the corner with the chicken coop.”

  His cheeks darkened. “Oh.”

  “It is best to put the chickens into the coop overnight by now.”

  “Well . . . maybe tomorrow . . .” As he spoke, he hugged Waddles a little closer. Waddles cooed and settled into his arm even more.

  Anna sighed. “It is warm enough now to put them out. They are protected, and they will be comfortable in the hay.” Yet, even as she spoke, she knew she was fighting a losing battle. From the way he was hugging the one chicken—plus the other had now appeared and was leaning against his ankle—she could see he had no intention of putting them outside for the night. However, within a few weeks the heat of the summer would be upon them, and soon they would definitely be outside all night. If he didn’t feel the chickens were safe from predators, she could almost see him taking a sleeping bag and staying in the chicken hotel with them. It was certainly cozy enough.

  She turned around. “I must get back to my homework. I will see you tomorrow morning at the usual time.”

  Chad watched her walk across the grass and then disappear back into her own house just as the kettle whistled.

  Since he could no longer see her, he backed up and closed the door, but he was in no hurry to get back to the kitchen. He’d really wanted her to stay.

  He lowered Waddles to the floor, then walked into the
kitchen and started making his tea.

  He couldn’t believe it. Here he was, making himself a pot of tea for the evening. Not popping open a beer. Nor did he have the television blasting with the latest ball game or newest episode of NCIS. He’d had Matt ship the television, but with no cable, he hadn’t bothered to hook it up. Nicely packed, it was in the basement, covered by some spare sheets.

  Instead, he was making tea for himself. Then he was going to settle into a soft chair and read a book with his chickens.

  His friends wouldn’t have believed it. Six months ago, he wouldn’t have believed it, yet here he was, and the whole routine felt natural and comfortable—except he did wonder about the latest squabble between Leroy Jethro Gibbs and Tony DiNozzo.

  After dropping the teabag into the teapot, he stared blankly at it without putting on the lid.

  More than anything, he couldn’t believe how disappointed he felt that Anna had turned down his invitation. Not that she’d ever come into the house before, but this time, she’d seemed adamant. The words had no sooner left his mouth inviting her in when she’d stepped backward and done a quick retreat.

  If that didn’t give him a hint, then he was a slow learner.

  Yet, she didn’t dislike him. In fact, he thought she did like him, quite a bit. However, she was truly a product of her culture, and despite the fact that she wanted to leave it for greener grass, she was still faithful to her values and the ways she had been raised.