Murder, Handcrafted (Amish Quilt Shop Mystery) by Isabella Alan

think something between Jonah and me could still happen. The idea made me ill. As Jonah had said, we had each chosen our own paths. He was like a brother to me. “I would never—I could never—even if I wasn’t with Mitchell, I would never break up a family! He’s my dear friend—but nothing more.”
    She reached across the table and squeezed my hand. “I know that. I’m sure that in her heart Miriam knows that too, but she can’t bring herself to like you because you were Jonah’s first love.”
    This couldn’t be true.
    She released my hand and was quiet for a moment as if to allow me to absorb this new information.
    I tried to imagine what I would do if Jonah had shown up on my Dallas doorstep when I was fifteen, professing his love. I grimaced. It would not have been a pleasant scene. Maybe the Amish, at least some of the Amish, start thinking about courting and marriage at that age, but I hadn’t. I still had a mountain of stuffed animals in the corner of my bedroom at thetime. Ryan had been my first serious boyfriend, and I’d met him in college years later. We were together seven years before I was ready for marriage, but I was already over thirty at that point. Jonah and I couldn’t have been more different in the trajectories of our lives.
    Rachel squeezed my hand again. “Did I shock you?”
    “Yes,” I said honestly.
    Rachel laughed. “It was a long time ago. Those old feelings Jonah had for you are gone now, I am sure. He still cares for you,
ya
, but not in the same way. I suppose Griffin’s death only reminds him of that time. It must be very painful.”
    I pushed my coffee mug away. “Rachel, I’m worried.”
    “About the murder?”
    “Yes, but I’m more worried about Jonah. He’s the main suspect.” I paused, almost afraid to reveal what I was really thinking. “And I’m worried I’ll lose him as my friend over all of this. If Miriam hates me as much as you say she does, this could be the event for her to convince Jonah to stay away from me forever. I was the one who asked him to help my parents with the kitchen. I put him at the scene of the crime.”
    “You won’t lose Jonah,” Rachel insisted, gripping my hand just a little bit tighter. “You will solve the murder.” She smiled. “You always do, and then life will go back to the way it was.”
    What if this time she was wrong? It was hard to imagine my sibling relationship with Jonah going back to the way it was when I now knew he’d once loved me and had been willing to leave his community for me. I wish I could go back to before I had the knowledge. Iwish we could go back to before Griffin died in my parents’ backyard.
    “Are you all right?” Rachel asked this in her quiet and sweet way, and as she did, it reminded me that Jonah had seen a wild man that morning after finding the body. It hadn’t been Nahum if it was the same person or thing that I’d seen. At least, I didn’t think so. In any case, I thought better of mentioning it to Rachel just then. She had hit me with an emotional bombshell. I couldn’t do the same to her and say something that would bring her father to the forefront of her mind.
    “Sure,” I said, slightly dazed.
    Her large green eyes held understanding. “I guess you will start investigating to find out what happened.”
    “I will when I can get away from the shop.”
    She stood and picked up our plates from the table. “Why can’t you leave the shop? It’s not the middle of the high season. Mattie can take care of the quilt shop for a little while.”
    “Mattie’s not at—” I stopped myself in midsentence. If Rachel thought that Mattie was working at Running Stitch, that could only mean my assistant wasn’t helping Aaron at the factory. Rachel would know if Mattie was at the pie factory.
    Rachel set out plates on the counter. “Mattie’s not what?”
    I was saved from answering by the arrival of three elderly men who were morning regulars in the bakery. The men made a