“I didn’t call her Topsy-Turvy for nothing,” Faith said wryly, setting out napkins and forks for them. “Are you a mind reader?” she asked a few seconds later as she sat at the breakfast nook and unwrapped her sandwich. “This is my favorite from the City Deli,” she said, grinning and picking up the vegetarian sandwich. “How did you know?”
“I just asked the lady behind the counter if she knew you and what you liked. She did, apparently,” he said, watching her as she took a healthy bite.
“That’s Celia,” Faith said after she’d swallowed. “One of the many advantages of living in a small town. The townsfolk know all your habits and secrets, both bad and good. I’ll bet Celia was very interested in getting you whatever you wanted,” she said with wry amusement before she took another bite. Celia was a kind, attractive woman in her late thirties who had never made a secret about her open admiration for the male of the species. Since Ryan was a prime example of that, she knew for a fact he’d been the target of Celia’s earthy flirtation. Jesse had certainly seemed to be the object of it whenever he came to Holland. Jesse had soaked up Celia’s attentions, Faith recalled.
“I think Celia was more interested in the fact that I wanted to know exactly what you wanted,” Ryan said after he’d swallowed his first bite of his roast beef and Swiss.
Faith gave him a surprised glance. She had to hand it to him. That was the perfect response to silence her vague uneasiness.
As if she had a right to get miffed at the thought of him flirting with another woman, she thought, mentally rolling her eyes at herself. Jesse had really done a number on her, for her to get this paranoid.
She forked her salad slowly, steeling herself for bringing up a potentially dicey topic when she and Ryan were getting along so well together.
“Did you give any more thought about what you said last night...about moving to Michigan, I mean?”
He nodded as he chewed, waiting until he swallowed. He took a swig of ice water. “Yeah, I did. I called my sister, Mari, late last night and had a conversation with her about it.”
Faith set down her fork, shocked. This was not the response she’d expected. She’d thought maybe he’d had time to reconsider his impulsive decision to relocate his home and business—his entire life. “You had a conversation with her about moving to Michigan?”
“Yes, and about the baby.” Her mouth fell open in amazement. “I hope that’s okay. Mari and I are really close. And like you said earlier, it’s really big news. Talking to her helped me get my bearings a little bit. Faith?” he asked, his dark eyebrows pinching together as he looked at her. “Is that okay?”
She blinked. “Yes. Of course. Like I said, I’ll be telling my parents soon. And Jane knows already. Of course you wanted to tell your sister.” She picked up her fork again. “How did Mari take it?”
“She was floored.”
“Naturally,” Faith muttered, suddenly feeling nervous for some reason. Was she worried about what Mari would think of her? Would Ryan’s sister perhaps disapprove of the unusual circumstances?
Ryan gave her a warm glance. “But then she really started to get excited.” He seemed to hesitate for a second, and then took a bite out of his sandwich.
“Ryan, what is it?” Faith asked, sensing he was holding back. He took several seconds to respond.
“It’s just...Mari wants to come to Michigan to visit tomorrow.” He gave her a fleeting glance, and Faith realized he seemed uncomfortable. “She...um...wants to meet you.”
“Oh.”
He set down his sandwich. “You don’t have to, if you don’t want to.”
“I do want to,” Faith said breathlessly. “It’s just...”
“What?”
“It all seems so...serious.”
They just looked at each other for a moment.
“Having a baby is serious, though. Isn’t it?” Ryan finally said slowly.
“Yeah,” Faith admitted. She gave Ryan a helpless sort of glance, and for some reason, the weightiness inherent to their conversation—their entire situation—temporarily lifted. Simultaneously Ryan grinned and Faith burst into hysterical laughter.
“I’m sorry,” Faith said a moment later, wiping a few tears caused by her laughing jag off her cheek with a paper napkin. “This situation is so strange. I hope your sister doesn’t think I’m an...oddity.”
“She’ll think you’re exactly what you are. She’ll think you’re wonderful,” Ryan said simply. Her laughter faded when he touched her hand where it sat on the table, ever so briefly. Nerves all along the skin of her hand and forearm flickered to life.
After her heartbeat went back to normal following that caress, they managed to have a nice lunch together. Ryan’s easy conversation about practical matters settled her unrest about his sudden presence in her life, and her confusion about how she was supposed to feel about it. After they’d eaten and cleaned up, Ryan resumed his furniture-moving project, and Faith hauled sacks filled with garbage out of the room. It fascinated her to watch him work, to observe how methodical and efficient he was in breaking down the bed into easily movable pieces, strapping the bureau drawers closed with duct tape, then maneuvering the large pieces of furniture through the door while he held them vertical on the metal truck.
In what seemed like no time, the furniture was neatly piled at the end of her driveway. Before she knew it, the Salvation Army truck had come to retrieve it, and a project she’d dreaded undertaking was done within a matter of hours.
“You’re a miracle of efficiency,” she told him as they both watched through the window as the two workers from the Salvation Army got into the truck and drove away. She turned and gazed at the nursery-to-be. Now that the room was empty, the possibilities of transforming it into a wonderful place for the baby filled her with excitement. She clapped her hands together eagerly and gave Ryan an irrepressible grin.