Something Old - Dianne L. Christner [135]
When they reached the last row, Jessie stood beside the Brooks, holding Addison’s hand. When Jessie gave Jake a hug. Katy didn’t resent it one bit. In fact she took pleasure in seeing the rare occasion of Jake’s blush.
“I didn’t initiate that,” he whispered, his voice thick with his Dutch accent, as they moved toward the table that had been set up for the wedding party.
“We’ll discuss it later,” Katy replied, feigning displeasure.
He glanced at her to see how much trouble he was in, and she affectionately squeezed his hand.
When it came time to cut the wedding cake, Katy and Jake took their places to do the traditional first bites. Their arms interlocked, Katy stared at the piece of cake that hovered in front of her face. He pushed it closer, and she closed her lips, teasing him. He had already licked his bite greedily clean. His mouth quirked in a grin, then his lips grew serious, and he gave her a most sincere gaze, one she’d come to love of late.
“I’ll never force you to do anything, Katy. I’m not that kind of guy.” Forgetting about their enraptured audience for a few seconds, she touched his cheek, inadvertently getting frosting in his black hair. She opened her mouth and accepted the creamy confection. Maybe the S word woouldn’t be so bad after all. “You’re getting more tolerable all the time.”
“And you haven’t seen anything yet.”
When they stepped away from the table, Katy pointed toward his sparkling truck. “Did you see what David did?” When she had enlisted David to wash it, she forgot how easy that would make it for him to tie a string of cans from its hitch.
Jake gave her a sideways frown. “I saw. He’s after Erin, you know. I mean to have a frank talk with him when we get back from our honeymoon.”
“But he’s such a nice guy,” Katy couldn’t resist saying, thinking of her mother. Just before the wedding, her mom had predicted again, I know marriage will make you happy. And although she hadn’t added that Jake was such a nice boy, Katy knew that Jake had won her mother over the day he took her little brothers fishing so that Mrs. Yoder could run some wedding errands.
With fondness, she also remembered how her dad had called her dumpling when he walked her down the aisle. Although he’d given his blessing on the marriage weeks earlier, he’d also given Jake a private talk, a rather stern one if evidenced by the pale expression Jake had worn afterward.
She blinked out of her reverie. “I need to talk to Mrs. Landis before the cake table is inaccessible.”
“All right. I’m going to go see what damage David did to my truck.”
Katy praised Mrs. Landis for her work on the triple-layer cake. “I’m so glad you took care of finding servers for me.”
“Oh, it’s nothing. I enjoy doing this,” Mrs. Landis replied. The woman seemed happier than Katy had seen her in months.
A few minutes later, Jake returned and drew her off to the side.
“Everything all right?” she asked.
“Elizabeth went into labor. David went with their family to the hospital.”
“How exciting!”
Jake glanced around the milling crowd. “How much longer do we need to stay here?”
Everyone was having fun, but now that the cake had been served, the party would soon wind down, and they wished to make their exit before that happened. “Why—” She cut her comment short when Minnie marched up to them.
The older woman stopped, toe to toe with Katy, her eyes squinting at Katy’s covering, staring far longer than normal or polite. Katy began to feel uneasy. She’d seen that look in Minnie’s eyes before. And when Minnie stretched forth her arm, Katy squeezed Jake’s hand, hoping he saw what was happening, too. Minnie was going to make a move for her covering again!
But the old woman was too quick for Katy or Jake, and her hand flashed out and up, nabbing one of the satin ribbons. She wound it around her age-worn fingers, cracked from hours of quilting. Katy froze, waiting for her to yank it off her head. This