An Evil Heart (Kate Burkholder, #15)(40)

The bad news is, I’m an hour late. I’m frazzled because I’ve been running full bore since five A.M. and there simply aren’t enough hours in the day. My brother and Tomasetti have only met a handful of times. While their interaction wasn’t contentious, it was tense and kept me on edge. Both men have strong personalities, deep-seated convictions, and no qualms about speaking their minds. The notion of them spending an entire hour together without my being there to referee fills me with a low-grade anxiety.

I barely notice the apple orchard as I zip up the lane or the golden spires of pampas grass as I slide to a stop beside an old manure spreader. Tomasetti’s Tahoe is nowhere in sight. I’m not sure if I’m disappointed or relieved that he’s already gone. Then I’m out the door, and I’m jogging to the house when I hear my someone call out my name.

I glance over to see Irene standing at the clothesline, a wicker basket propped on her hip. “You’re looking for the men?”

“Sorry I’m late.” Trying not to look as frayed as I feel, I start toward her. “I got tied up with the investigation.”

She looks at me from beneath her lashes. “I think they got it worked out.”

“I didn’t see any blood when I pulled up, so…” I tack on a smile, but my delivery is off.

Irene laughs anyway. “That man of yours knows what he wants, no?”

“Yes, he does.”

“Jacob is the same. They have that in common.” She motions toward the barn. “You’ve some details to work out, but I think they want to have the ceremony here. Lunch afterward.”

Surprise trills in my chest. I didn’t expect Jacob and Irene to host the wedding. Because I left the Amish. Because Bishop Troyer will not officiate. Because there’s an impossible amount of work to be done and just a few days in which to do it. Until this moment, I didn’t fully realize how much it means to me to have the wedding here.

“Thank you,” I tell her. “There’s a lot of family history here.”

“And more memories to be made, Katie. Don’t forget that.”

I look toward the barn. “I should say hello to Jacob,” I say. “Thank him.”

She looks down at the basket and sighs. “And I need to get back to my laundry.”

I reach out and touch her hand, give it a squeeze. “Danki.”

I start toward the barn, noticing the sliding door is open a few feet.

“Katie?”

I turn at the sound of Irene’s voice.

“If Jacob’s not in the barn, check that old cottonwood tree out by the pond,” she says. “He was talking about taking a saw to that old thing.”

It takes all of two minutes for me to ascertain that my brother isn’t in the barn. I clatter down the steps to the livestock stalls on the underside of the barn, climb over the rail, and start across the pasture. Two Jersey cows eye me as I jump the small creek and start up the hill. It is here that the beauty of the land embraces me and I feel the stress of the day begin to melt. The cool shade of the towering elm. The metallic chip of a cardinal calling for its mate. A hundred memories press into me as I crest the hill. The day I fell off our old draft horse and broke my wrist. Sarah and me picking raspberries for jam. Jacob catching his first sunfish in the pond. Sarah and me making mud pies on the bank and decorating them with morning glories.

I’m midway down the hill when I notice the pickup truck parked next to the pond and I realize Tomasetti has stayed to help Jacob cut down the cottonwood tree. My steps falter when I hear the whine of a chain saw. Irene’s words about making new memories echo in the back of my head.

I crest another rise. The scene ahead stops me in my tracks. The tree is large, probably forty feet tall with a trunk as thick as a barrel. The men’s backs are to me. Feet spread, Tomasetti wields the chain saw I bought him for Father’s Day. Setting the blade against the trunk, he cuts a notch at a forty-five-degree angle, about three feet from the ground. The men are talking. I’m too far away to make out the words over the scream of the saw. Sawdust flies, coating Tomasetti’s work shirt and jeans. He’s wearing safety glasses and gloves, mouth pulled into a grimace, expression set in concentration.

Jacob stands a few feet away, leg cocked. He’s tied a rope around the trunk about three feet above the notch. I’m no stranger to farmwork or do-it-yourself projects, but I feel a smidgen of uneasiness climb up my spine when the sound of splintering wood cracks the air.

Sure enough, the tree leans in the direction of the notch, and then falls away from the pond and, of course, our truck. Branches crash against the ground, bringing a rise of sawdust and dirt.

Tomasetti lowers the chain saw to his side and takes a moment to admire the felled tree. Jacob unsheathes a handsaw and sets to work sawing off the branches. It’s such an unlikely sight that I stop a dozen yards away and stand there, trying to get my head around it, putting it to memory.

I need to walk over to them. Thank my brother. Collect Tomasetti and get back to work. And yet for the span of several seconds, I don’t move. For some silly reason my heart is lodged in my throat and the last thing I want to do is make a fool of myself. Or, God forbid, cry in front of either of them.

Then Tomasetti spots me. His eyes grab mine and hold on. Setting the chain saw in its case, he starts toward me.

A quick check of my emotions, a swipe of my cheeks, and I start toward them. “You slayed the beast.”