Free Rebecca's Return by Jerry S. Eicher Page A

again for time alone with Rebecca, but she was already disappearing into the kitchen. Awkwardly he stood there. “Don’t want to be a bother,” he finally managed.
    “No bother in the least,” Mattie assured him. “Rebecca just went to get a chair. I’ll get the popcorn on. Just give me a minute.”
    “You sure?” John asked, expecting no reply.
    Rebecca appeared at the kitchen door with a chair and set it beside the couch. “Best we can do,” she said, smiling at him. “Not enough couches.” She took a seat on the couch beside her mother.
    “So you were worried about Rebecca?” Lester asked, grinning and watching John take his seat.
    “Don’t tease,” Rebecca chided her father.
    “Know how it is.” Lester still had the grin on his face. “It gets better though.”
    John wanted to ask how Lester could be so certain but decided not to. It might sound foolish and lead to other questions. “When did Rebecca get home?” he asked, thinking that angle of conversation safe.
    “She didn’t tell you?”
    “Dad.” Rebecca’s voice had a warning in it.
    Lester ignored her, chuckling. “Just like a woman.”
    “What’s like a woman?” Mattie asked, coming in from the kitchen. “Popcorn’s on.”
    Before Lester could answer, Rebecca asked, “Yeah, what’s like a woman, Dad?”
    Mattie stood looking at Lester, half turned to go back toward the kitchen.
    Lester was waiting. When Mattie didn’t move, he grinned again, a little lopsided this time. “Oh, nothing. They just—you know—forget to mention things sometimes.”
    “Sounds fishy to me,” Mattie said, moving toward the kitchen door.
    “Don’t let him get away with it,” Rebecca said to her mother’s retreating form. “He was insulting us.”
    “He means well,” Mattie said before disappearing.
    Lester’s pleased laugh filled the room. “See? Now that’s knowing your man.”
    “You can be glad she likes you,” Rebecca retorted.
    “I’m a nice person,” he allowed quite confidently, stroking his chest-length beard. “I raised you.”
    “Don’t answer him.” Rebecca held her hand up in John’s direction.
    Lester laughed again. “He was just going to get in a good word, that’s all.”
    “You were going to—right?” Rebecca looked at John, then waited, studying his face.
    John was searching wildly for words. “Ah, sure. Why not? Well, I guess so.”
    “You’ll have to do better than that, son.” Lester’s grin was back in full force.
    “Maybe he just needs practice—like you,” Rebecca told him.
    “No doubt.” Lester leaned back on his recliner again. “Sounds like he’ll be getting some. It’s in the spring—next spring I hear.”
    John felt himself getting red around his collar. “That’s the plan. Yes.”
    “Nice place you have on the ridge there.” Lester nodded. “Real nice.”
    “I was fortunate to catch the buy. It wasn’t even on the market. The folks just knew Dad and asked if he knew of anyone.”
    “Fair price and all?”
    John rocked his head a little. “A bit high, I suppose, but there wasn’t much choice. Not if you want to be on the ridge.”
    “Nice place up there. Good place for a business too.”
    “I was thinking of that,” John allowed, glad that his future father-in-law was following his own thoughts. It was comforting to have his approval.
    “Farming’s gone by the wayside. Pretty much over anymore.”
    “Nothing wrong with it,” John said, not wanting to offend farming and farmers. “Just hard for young people.”
    “What do you have in mind?”
    “Most everything’s covered right now.” John raised his eyebrows. “I thought maybe a cabinet and woodworking shop—specialty stuff. Make some of the things they sell at Miller’s.”
    “Down the road sometime, I suppose?”
    John nodded. “Aden pays pretty well, so I’ll stay for the time being. Maybe till the place is paid off. That way there’s less debt.”
    Lester nodded too.
    “It’s not just dollars and