He rolled his eyes, but he nodded. “The pieces are over here.”
“I assume you place them in the drawer in a certain way?”
“Of course. The chess pieces are stored in the same order as they are positioned on the chessboard. And then the checkers are placed in the appropriate slot with all the dark pieces together and then the light ones.”
“That sounds easy enough.”
He watched as her nimble fingers carefully placed the pieces in the proper slots. Then she met his gaze again. “What’s next?”
He pointed her to the shelf below the fabric. “I put a double layer of that Bubble Wrap in the drawer to keep the pieces in place during shipping.”
As she complied, he anticipated her next question. “Once that’s taken care of, you slide the drawer in place below the board. And that’s it—we’re done and it’s ready for shipping.”
Phoebe slid the drawer in place with a triumphant push and grinned. “That was quite satisfying.” She gave him a raised-brow look. “Handing over that piece of your work wasn’t so bad, was it?”
“Nee, not bad at all.” Actually, he’d quite enjoyed watching her work, seeing those little spurts of satisfaction light up her face when she successfully managed a task.
“Have you decided what other parts of your work you can hand off?”
“I’m still trying to work it all out, but since Mark is a furniture maker’s apprentice that means he already knows how to use most of this equipment. He can cut the wood I need to build the board and storage drawer. Maybe Kish can learn how to polish the finished pieces. And Jesse can work on the packaging.”
“What about Daniel and Levi? They offered to help as well.”
He shrugged. “Neither of them gets home until suppertime.”
But she wasn’t ready to give up. “They’re usually home on Saturdays. I know there are only two Saturdays left before Christmas but I’m sure they’d be willing to put in some time to help for those two days. In fact, I imagine they would be quite gut at creating those inserts that go into the drawer.” She cocked her head to one side. “I’d guess you already have a template drawn up for that.”
He rubbed the back of his neck. “Jah, I do. It goes quicker if I don’t have to measure each time.”
She nodded and then straightened. “Since you don’t have any other drawers for me to work with right now I’ll head back to the house.” She grinned. “I don’t want your brieder to get home and not have any warm cookies.”
Then, as she moved to the door: “Besides, I know you must be eager to create those lists and instructions you were talking about earlier.” And with that she was gone.
Seth just stood there for a few minutes after she’d made her exit, a smile lingering on his face. Phoebe was such a ball of contradictions. Just when he thought he had her figured out, she did something to surprise him.
She’d definitely surprised him yesterday when she’d confessed her inability to read. He hadn’t really known how to react at the time. Still didn’t, if push came to shove.
But he wanted to support her. And he knew he could do that by being her safety net, making sure her lack of reading ability didn’t hamper her in any of her tasks here. The tricky part would be to do it without being too obvious about it.
But he felt he was up to the challenge.
As Phoebe worked on mixing her cookie dough she thought about how natural it had felt to work with Seth. Sure, he’d been hesitant to let her cut the fabric and she was aware enough to realize it had a lot to do with him having found out about her shortcomings yesterday, but as they’d worked he’d relaxed. By the end of their session he seemed to have forgotten he felt the need to hover.
Perhaps he was coming to see that she was the same person she’d been two days ago with the same capabilities.
Before supper, Phoebe managed to corner the four middle brieder and let them know the plan for Jesse’s birthday. Her ideas were met with varying levels of enthusiasm but in the end they all agreed to do their part.
Then at supper she attempted to bring up the subject again, trying to put a more positive tone on it than the one she’d encountered the day before. “Jesse, since Sunday is your birthday, I thought I’d let you decide the menu. Do you have a favorite meal or dish you’d like to have served? Besides the strawberry rhubarb cake, I mean.” Seth had made a quick trip to town this morning so the rhubarb was already in the refrigerator.
The boy shrugged. “I’m not particular.”
But she wasn’t going to let him get away with that. “Come now, you can’t tell me there isn’t some dish you really like above the others.”
He looked up and met her gaze. “Well, I do like fried chicken.”
“Wunderbaar. And what do you like with your fried chicken?”
This time he didn’t hesitate. “Cheesy mashed potatoes and stuffed eggs.”
“Gut choices. Anything else?”
He hesitated a moment. “Well, I really like the way Aenti Hilda cooks collard greens but none of my brieder like it cooked that way so maybe some baked beans instead.”
Phoebe ignored the groans coming from several voices around the table. “But it’s not their birthday, it’s yours. Edna, perhaps you can get the recipe from your shveshtah.”
Edna raised a brow. “It’s actually a recipe of my mamm’s so I already know it.”
Phoebe nodded. “Then that’s settled.” She changed the subject. “I notice you’ve received some birthday cards recently. Would you like me to set up a string so we can hang them in the kitchen or living room?”
He frowned. “We don’t usually do that.”
“Oh, but you should. It’s what my mamm does with all the cards we receive. It looks quite festive—it makes me smile when I see it, especially since some of them are mine.” She stabbed some green beans with her fork. “And it would also make me smile to see some of that same kind of decoration here.”
That did the trick. He nodded. “All right, I’ll get them for you right after supper.”
She watched him sit up a bit straighter and attack his food with more energy.
