Katie's Way by Marta Perry

go and see if Rachel needs any help in the kitchen.”
    The two girls darted off. As Katie turned toward the house, Caleb clasped her hand to stop her.
    â€œKatie . . .”
    Whatever he was about to say seemed to vanish from his lips. His fingers warmed against her skin, and that warmth began to spread up her arm. She stared at him for a brief, disorienting moment, seeing his eyes darken, feeling the ground seem to shift under her feet.
    He surely could feel her pulse pounding against his hand. She should . . .
    Caleb dropped her wrist as if he’d touched a hot stove. He took a step back, bumping into the buggy. He shook his head, maybe denying that anything had happened between them.
    â€œI’ll keep an eye on Becky,” he said abruptly. “I hope you’ll do the same for your sister.”
    For an instant Katie felt like bursting into tears, but a flare of anger came to her rescue. “My sister is fine. She doesn’t need anyone to keep an eye on her.”
    The fact that Katie had come for just that purpose was none of Caleb’s business.
    His jaw clenched. “Yesterday—”
    She’d known he’d bring that up sometime. “What happened yesterday was a misunderstanding. It was between me and my sister. No one else.”
    â€œYou mean it’s none of my business,” he said, clearly not agreeing.
    â€œIt’s not.” She gave him back look for look. He could make of that what he wanted.
    Finally he turned away, making a small gesture with his hand that seemed to dismiss her and her sister entirely.
    Clearly he didn’t approve of the way she’d handled Rhoda yesterday. But then, there didn’t seem to be anything about her that didn’t draw that same reaction from him, did there?
    That moment when they had touched was different, a small voice in the back of her mind said. Very different.

    â€œSo some of Becky’s friends are going to get together to go shopping on Saturday, and they invited me.” Rhoda’s tongue had been running faster than her hands as she and Katie got ready to open on Monday. “I can go, can’t I?”
    The efforts Becky had made to introduce Rhoda into Pleasant Valley’s teenage society were obviously working, but that left Katie with one challenge after another.
    â€œThat is ser gut of them, but I’ll need to know a bit more about it. Who is going, and how are you getting there, and—”
    â€œAnd, and, and,” Rhoda interrupted her. “You sound like Mammi. Can’t you trust me?”
    Katie reminded herself that she’d been just as impatient to grow up at sixteen. “Mamm and Daadi left you in my care. I have to do things the way they would. I didn’t say no, just that I must have more information. That’s not too much to ask, ain’t so?”
    â€œIf I find out all that, will you say yes?” Rhoda was nothing if not persistent.
    â€œIf it sounds appropriate,” she said cautiously.
    â€œAch, you’ll see. They are all nice girls, Becky’s friends.” Her good humor restored, Rhoda seized the end of the sheet Katie had put over the quilts on the display bed and began folding. She paused, sheet in her arms. “Should we put a different quilt on top?”
    Katie touched the Tumbling Blocks quilt Caleb’s mother had made. “Let’s leave this one on top a bit longer. There hasn’t been much traffic in the shop since I put it out.”
    And there was the crux of her problem. How long could she keep going if sales didn’t pick up? Of course, Saturday had been the Mud Sale, so people hadn’t been out shopping in town. And she couldn’t expect to have fantastic sales the first week. Things would get better.
    She kept telling herself those same reassuring words. They were beginning to sound a little hollow.
    â€œThomas Esch is awfully nice-looking, don’t you think?” Rhoda asked the question with