The Christmas Quilt: Quilts of Love Series by Vannetta Chapman Read Free Book Online

her way around the house.
    Soon she found herself seated beside Adam on the way to Annie’s—beside him but not next to him. He’d placed the casserole bowl on the seat between them. Had he done that on purpose? Less than a year ago he’d always insisted she sit right beside him, tucked up close.
    Not anymore.
    She stared down at her feet—or in the direction of her feet. Her ankles had begun swelling as soon as she’d started making breakfast, which he’d eaten standing at the kitchen counter. Adam had tried to help her put on her shoes, but they’d had no luck. That was when the first tears had started and when he’d first become frustrated with her. Who could blame him? She weighed nearly as much as the heifer in the barn, and she acted like a calf—bawling at the smallest thing.
    “Think anyone will notice I’m wearing shoes with no laces?” she asked. They were halfway to Annie’s. She had wanted to stay home, but he’d insisted that she come to the family luncheon. Maybe, just maybe, he did want to spend the day with her.
    “My family?” Adam snorted. “If there’s food on the table, chances are they won’t notice what’s underneath it.”
    “Unless one of Reba’s animals gets loose.”
    Adam smiled and some of the tension in Leah’s heart loosened. “It’s been a while since that happened. Once she started helping at the veterinary office in town, I believe she stopped placing critters in her apron pockets.”
    Leah stared out over the fields they were passing. The weather had turned colder and it looked to her as if snow might be threatening. She was ready. Snow meant Thanksgiving and then Christmas. Soon after Christmas would be the arrival of their children.
    “I should have made something else to bring. My bowl of pudding hardly seems enough considering all the people who will be there.”
    “You worry too much.” The words came out sharply. “No one expects you to cook at all with the bopplin nearing their due date.”
    Cooking was the one thing she could still do! Leah thought of mentioning that to Adam. She almost brought up the fact that long hours doing nothing but knitting weren’t necessarily a blessing, but she bit the words back. The last thing she wanted was to argue this morning. This was Sunday, and though Adam’s time in the barn had cut short their Bible study, she wanted the rest of the day to go perfectly.
    Some days she found herself so bored she thought she might go crazy. She realized complaining about too little work was narrisch . In the old days—before she was pregnant, she’d go to the barn and help Adam. The last time she’d tried that, he’d shooed her away, telling her she might get hurt out there.
    Leah cleared her throat. “I meant to say I should have prepared something more last night, since I had the time. If I had known you weren’t going to make it in to eat dinner, maybe I could have focused on baking a cake or—”
    “Do not start on me again about last night.”
    “Adam, I wasn’t.”
    “I cannot help it if sometimes things don’t go as planned, Leah. The engines, they don’t always work once I put them back together, and you know we are barely making it with the money from the crops.”
    Leah stared at him, stared at this man it seemed she didn’t even know anymore. Where was her Adam with his easy smile and carefree spirit? The Adam who had taken her for a picnic on the foundation of their home before the walls were even finished. Tears spilled down her cheeks, and though she knew she should let it go, she couldn’t help asking the question that had kept her tossing and turning until the wee hours of the morning.
    The same question they had argued about last night.
    The question he had yet to answer.
    “And is that why you had to leave so late in the evening, Adam? Because of your engines?”
    “Leah, I will not have your suspicions.”
    “I’m asking, not accusing.” Worry, insecurity, and exhaustion caused the words to stick