Read Online Winter’s Awakening by Shelley Shepard Gray - Free Book Online Page A

don’t feel like you’re all alone, do you? I mean, you know you can always talk to me, right?”
    She’d used to think that. She used to depend on that. Lately, though, she’d thought that was all in their past. She couldn’t have been happier to hear his words. “I didn’t think I could…but now I will.”
    He squeezed her shoulders before heading toward the stairs.
    “Hey, Charlie?”
    “Yeah?”
    “If Mrs. Casey comes…” her voice drifted off, unsure of how to put her fears into the right words.
    It turned out, she didn’t have to. “If Mrs. Casey comes for a visit, I’ll make sure Mom doesn’t hide you. Mrs. Casey is just going to have to find out the truth about you.”
    “And if she’s shocked?”
    He waved a hand. “If she’s shocked, she’ll get over it.” Smiling crookedly, he caught her eye. “I mean, I did.”
    For the first time in days, Lilly laughed. Maybe things were going to be okay, after all.
     
    Hands sticky with dough, Gretta tried to blow a strand of hair away from her forehead, but the wisp of air didn’t do any good. Her forehead was a bit damp from kneading the large amount of dough by herself. With a sigh, Gretta resigned herself to having hair in her eyes for a few moments longer.
    She had no choice in the matter, anyway. Miriam had taken the day off to help her mother with the cleaning since they were hosting church on Sunday. Kelly, an Englischer who sometimes came in to help with soups and main dishes, had called in sick.
    It was up to Gretta to make all the cinnamon rolls by herself.
    Usually, she enjoyed the time-consuming project very much. However, today she only looked at the rising dough and wished things would happen a little faster. The snow was coming down fast.
    When the front door opened and shut, Mrs. Kent poked her head out from the back room. “Can you help them, Gretta? I’ve got my hands full, sorting bills this morning.”
    Though she wasn’t at her best with customers—Gretta knew she was too shy for that—she did, every now and then, enjoy getting out from behind the wide wooden worktable. A fair portion of their customers were Amish. Visiting with them while she took their orders was a good way to catch up on the community chitchat.
    “I’ll be right out, Mrs. Kent.” After hastily covering the dough with a clean cloth, she washed off the sticky dough from her hands, wiped her brow, and smoothed her hair back in place. Only then was she able to walk through the swinging doors to the twelve-table dining area.
    But when she saw who’d walked in the door, her feet stilled like they were frozen in the skating pond. “Roland?”
    A slow, playful smile lit his face as he took notice of her surprise. “Hi, there, Gretta,” he said as he practically sauntered toward her.
    Her feet still glued to the ground, Gretta felt as if her skin was burning from the tips of her ears to the ends of her toes when he stopped directly in front of her. “Why are you here?”
    His eyes widened. “For coffee, of course.”
    “Oh, yes. Yes, of course.” If she could have run away,she would have, she was so embarrassed. Of course he’d be coming to the restaurant for food or drink! Why else would he have come?
    Feeling mighty flustered, her voice turned sharp. “Go take a table if you would like.”
    But instead of walking to one of the tables she pointed to, he bypassed them all and took one of the six bar stools at the counter. “I’d rather sit here, I think.”
    Once he got settled, she walked behind the counter and picked up a little notepad the waitresses used. “So, you’d like some coffee?”
    “I would.” Lines formed around his eyes as he watched her fumble with the stub of a pencil she’d picked up, too.
    Now she felt even more foolish. He was obviously waiting to see if she needed to write that order down! Well, there was only one thing to do. She slapped the notepad on the counter and tried to act like she catered to customers all the time.