He rang up her purchase and bagged it, but when she reached for it, he drew it back. "I'll carry this heavy package out to your buggy. Just part of the service!"
"Really? You'd do the same for anyone, hmm?"
He grinned. "Ja, of course! Ah, here comes Melba, back from her break already. I'm going to walk out with the Beilers. I'll be right back."
"Take your time!" She winked again.
He stared at her, then turned and followed Lucy and Millie out of the store. "Did she wink at me again?"
"I'm afraid so."
Amos shook his head in mock sorrow. "I can see I'm going to have to have a talk with her about respecting her boss. Sure, she may have changed my diapers when I was a boppli, but that doesn't mean she can just be winking at me left and right!"
Lucy strapped Millie into her car seat and then climbed up into the buggy. Taking the reins in her hands, she looked at Amos. "Are you sure? She seems to think she can."
He handed her the small bag containing the tube of caulk and was about to ask if he could see her again when a man's voice interrupted them. Amos saw Lucy's face at the sound of the voice, and the alarm on it raised his hackles.
He turned and saw a young Amish man and woman standing together next to an old buggy. The woman looked uncomfortable, and she put her hand on her mann's arm, as if urging him away. The man, a burly fellow with a brown beard showing a couple of years' growth, and an unpleasant look in his eye, shook off his wife's hand.
"Aren't you going to answer me, Lucy? Or are you too gut for me now?"
"Come on, Johnny, let's go inside. I need to get those jars and get back home."
"I'll go when I'm ready." The man didn't even look at his wife, who glanced uncertainly between him, Lucy, and Amos before putting her head down and hurrying into the store.
"Is there a problem here?" Amos asked cautiously, keeping himself between the obviously angry man and Lucy's buggy.
"What business is it of yours?"
Raising his eyebrows at the man's surly attitude, Amos crossed his arms over his chest. "I'm Amos Fisher. This is my store. Everything that happens here is my business."
"Well, ain't you fancy? Lucy, you're keeping company with fancy Amish folk now?"
Lucy bit her lip and glanced back to check on Millie, who was busy with her piggy.
"Johnny, you made it perfectly clear last time I saw you that you had nothing else to say to me."
He laughed, an ugly sound, and spat on the parking lot by Amos' feet. "I just wondered how you and the kid are getting on. Is she still alive? Or did you give everything up for nothing?"
At Lucy's gasp, Amos decided he'd had enough. "I don't know who you are, but you need to do your shopping and then leave."
The man eyed Amos speculatively and spat again. "I'm John Zook, Lucy's ex-fiancé."
Lucy sat up straight and glared at the man. "For the record, we were never engaged. In case you've forgotten how it was, we courted for almost a year, but when I told you I'd be raising my schwester, you said you weren't interested in that, and dropped me like a hot brick and married someone else. I have nothing to say to you."
Zook sneered at Lucy and spat again. Amos realized he was chewing tobacco, a habit he considered disgusting.
"It's your fault I married that mouse. You should have given the brat to one of your married kin, not tried to raise it yourself! You had no business ruining my plans! After all the time I invested in you too. You're an ungrateful, selfish woman, Lucy Beiler. And you look haggard. No wonder you're 'en alt maedel'."
Amos stepped forward and took the man's arm, turning him toward his
buggy and marching him over to it.
"That's it. You leave now. We'll find your wife a ride home."
"Hey!" Zook sputtered, "Take your hands off me!"
"Get into the buggy. Now."
The two men faced off, Lucy's pale face watching from inside the buggy, where Amos knew she stayed to protect Millie.
"I'll show you what happens when you push John Zook around." But at that moment, a police siren squawked, two short blats, and a Lancaster County sheriff's cruiser pulled up next to the buggies.
