Something Old - Dianne L. Christner [6]
“A cousin made them for me,” Lil quipped.
Jake? Katy’s protective instincts reared. She cast Lil an apprehensive glance, but she was tossing crumpled wrapping paper across the room, aiming for the trash can. Surely not, Katy dismissed. Inside was a handwritten recipe for Three Bean Salad, a twist from the norm with Lil’s special ingredient. She always tweaked ingredients, especially intrigued by spices and herbs. Recently graduated from culinary school, Lil had been working for a month at her first real job at a small Italian restaurant. This set the course for the girls to consider renting the Miller’s doddy house. Emotion balled up in Katy’s throat.
“I’ll keep adding to the recipes,” Lil promised.
“Perfect,” Megan clapped. “Now open mine.”
She had embroidered pillowcases for them with roses and a Bible verse. Ephesians 4:26 read, “Let not the sun go down upon your wrath.”
Katy smiled. “A good reminder.” If any of us ever got married. She watched them open the gifts she’d made. “They’re lame,” she apologized.
“No they’re not.” Megan jumped off the bed and tied the apron’s strings, sashaying across the pine floor and sliding her hand in between each row of decorative stitching. “Wow. Six pockets.”
Katy wished she’d done something meaningful or clever. Always the practical one. This was the third year they’d exchanged gifts for their hope chests, another reminder of the vow to be each other’s bridesmaids. At the moment, the first part of the vow—the moving in together part—worried her most. She hated to ruin their doddy house dreams. It couldn’t be helped. Katy swallowed. “I need to tell you both something.”
Lil and Megan turned expectant gazes toward her.
“Did you girls pray for a white Christmas?” Anita Weaver interrupted, carrying a tray of hot chocolate into the room. Lil dove into the treat, and the conversation turned to the snowfall and how special it would make Christmas, drawing everyone to the window.
Anxious thoughts disquieted Katy’s mind, but she pushed them aside. Her personal problem was small stuff compared to the miracle of Christmas. She followed the others to the window and made a spur-of-the-moment decision that she wouldn’t ruin the spell of Christmas. The news could wait.
Outside, the flakes swirled like little, white feather dusters, turning everything sparkling white. Lil pressed her forehead against the cold windowpane and knocked her prayer covering askew. “Remember when we used to make snow angels?”
Involuntarily touching her own covering, Katy grinned. “I remember.”
CHAPTER 2
At four o’clock, Katy was late. The Three Bean Salad had agreed to look over the doddy house as soon as possible after Christmas. Squinting from the glare of sun and snow, Katy hurried around the east side of the Millers’ farmhouse and headed toward the little doddy house.
Doddy houses were built for the older Amish folks after their younger family members took over the main house, what the outsiders called guesthouses. She doubted the Beverlys’ son had such a sweet arrangement waiting for them. Katy sighed, and a visible puff of breath dispersed into the cold air. This one, a miniature version of the larger house, was picturesque with a snowy porch railing and a glazed blue roof. In shades of white and gray, the doddy house and its surroundings created a peaceful aura similar to a black-and-white photograph of an older era. It probably wouldn’t remain that way long, once renovations began. If renovations began, Katy corrected herself.
A window with dark green window shades, partly rolled up, revealed activity inside. She stepped onto a little porch and up to a door cracked ajar. Taking another visible breath, this time for fortification, she pushed the door open.
“Hey, Katy.” Lil waved with a joyful bounce.
“Hi, Lil.” Trying to act enthused, Katy nodded at Megan and the newly married couple from