Free Huckleberry Harvest by Jennifer Beckstrand Page A

Did you work on things together when you were growing up?”
    Noah’s eyes were trained on the tape while he tried to open the tightly wrapped package, and he acted as if he hadn’t heard her. She bent her head sideways to meet his eye. “Tell me about your dat. Is he as handy as you are?”
    Noah laid his arm across the top of the oven and turned his face from her. He let out a laugh, but there was only bitterness in it. “For a minute, I thought you were being sincere.”
    She furrowed her brow. What had she said to make him suddenly so resentful? “I am sincere.”
    He clenched his jaw and glared at her. “I don’t believe you.”
    “What . . . what did I say?”
    Clutching the tape in his hand until his knuckles turned white, he said, “I’m so stupid. The cookie dough, the wrench, the apology. They’re all just more of Kristina’s tricks. She told you to ask about my dat, didn’t she? Did the two of you think it would be funny to humiliate me? To get back at me for hurting Kristina’s feelings?”
    Mandy wasn’t quite sure what she was being accused of so didn’t know how to defend herself. “I don’t want to get back at you.”
    “Then why are you dragging my dat into this?”
    Even knowing how disagreeable he was, Noah’s reaction nearly knocked Mandy over. They’d been getting along so well. She backed away and leaned against the counter near the sink. “I don’t understand. Is something wrong with your dat?”
    Her question seemed to heighten his agitation. “Why does everybody think something’s wrong?”
    “You don’t have to jump down my throat for asking a simple question.” Why was she trying to reason with him when what she wanted to do was wring his neck?
    And why was he so touchy about his dat?
    She crossed her arms over her chest to push down the hurt that threatened to bubble up. She didn’t really care why Noah had erupted like a volcano at the mention of his fater . As he had told her, it was none of her business.
    Still, she felt the need to defend herself. “Do you really think I would hurt your feelings just to get back at you for what you did to Kristina?”
    “What I did to Kristina?” He spat the words out of his mouth as if they were too sour to taste.
    “Do you really think I’m that petty?”
    Noah studied her face as if he were evaluating her sincerity. Taking a deep breath, he ran a hand across his eyes and seemed to wilt like a flower in the heat. “I’m sorry. It’s wrong of me to talk to you like this.” He turned his back on her, which in the small space wasn’t an easy task. “I don’t need any more help with the oven. I just want to be left alone.”
    She shouldn’t have given him that cookie dough. Noah Mischler was so prickly, he didn’t even deserve a chocolate chip, let alone a whole cookie.
    Mandy picked up her broom, walked to the corner of the room farthest from Noah, and swept as if all the dirt in the world were in that one little space. The floor had never been so clean.
    Even with the swish of the broom, Mandy could have heard a pin drop three rooms away. Noah was so quiet, she wondered if he was breathing. How she wished she were anywhere but here!
    Thank the good Lord for Mammi. She and Dawdi blew into the house like a fresh spring breeze and dispelled the stale air hanging between Noah and Mandy.
    Mammi carried two bulging grocery sacks, her knitting bag, and a wide smile. “Look what I found at the store,” she said, ushering three obviously uneasy boys into the room. “More prospects.”
    All three tiptoed just inside the door and fingered the brims of their straw hats.
    “I invited them for lunch,” Mammi said. She must have been desperate to find Mandy a husband. She had resorted to bringing strays home.
    Grateful for any diversion, even an awkward one, Mandy leaned her broom against the wall and stepped forward to greet her guests, showing ten times more enthusiasm than she felt.
    She shook hands with the first young man,