The Christmas Quilt: Quilts of Love Series Read Online Free PDF Page B

was no easy task. “You gave us a quite a scare.”
    Jesse said nothing, but he did chew the aspirin Samuel slipped into his mouth. Mattie popped up at Jesse’s name.
    “Is he alive?”
    “He is, Mattie. It would seem that Gotte heard your prayers.”
    Pressing the top of her head to the top of her husband’s, she began weeping in earnest.
    Annie raised her eyes from Jesse, from monitoring him, to glance at Samuel. They shared one of those priceless moments, a heartbeat of life she understood was precious. It would stand out in her memory even when she was old and the curls beneath her prayer kapp were gray. It reminded her of the time they had helped to birth Faith and Aaron’s baby—the first miracle they had witnessed together. Surely, this was another.
    At that moment, the ambulance hurried down the lane, lights flashing and siren blaring.
    “You update them.” Samuel nodded. “I’ll stay here.”
    She ducked out of the buggy and met the paramedics as they were pulling their equipment from the rig. Two young men in their twenties, they didn’t seem surprised to be treating a heart attack victim in a buggy or being updated by an Amish nurse. Annie imagined they had seen it all.
    Within fifteen minutes they had Jesse stabilized and Mattie in the back of the ambulance beside him, holding his hand. An intravenous drip had already improved his color.
    “What about our horse and buggy?” Mattie said, as the paramedics prepared to close the doors to the ambulance.
    “We’ll take care of both,” Samuel assured her. “And we’ll send word to your place for someone to tend to the other animals. You stay with Jesse. They’ll most likely need to do surgery.”
    As a look of anxiousness washed over Mattie’s face, Samuel stuck his head farther inside. “Keep praying and so will we. I imagine the bishop will arrive at the hospital before the surgery. You’re not alone in this, Mattie.”
    He helped shut the door on the back of the ambulance, and then it pulled away and left behind a river of silence.
    They stood there, a few feet apart, watching it go.
    Samuel turned and studied her until Annie grew self-conscious—suddenly aware of the dirt on her apron, the way her curls had escaped her kapp , and how sweaty she had become, even in the cold.
    Finally, he closed the gap between them and laced her fingers in his, before leading her up the porch steps.
    “You did very well, Nurse Annie.”
    The blush started slowly, until it crept all the way up her neck and along her cheekbones. When had Samuel last teased her by calling her Nurse Annie ?
    “Thank you, Doctor.”
    “You were quite professional during that crisis.”
    “As were you.”
    “For a moment there I thought we were going to have two heart attacks on our hands—both Jesse and Mattie.” He led her inside and insisted she sit at the table as he poured them both a glass of water.
    “Can you imagine it though, Samuel?”
    He didn’t answer, only waited and watched her.
    She pushed on. “It was as if her heart was breaking as his was stopping. It was as if they were one.”
    Annie sipped the water. “I suppose such a long marriage creates a strong bond. Ya ?”
    Samuel finished his water and set the glass in the sink. Instead of sitting beside her, he squatted in front of her chair, pulled her hand forward, and kissed her palm. “I think each year that passes, two hearts become more entwined, like two vines growing side by side. Eventually it must become difficult to know where the beat of one stops and the beat of the other begins.”
    Tears blurring her eyes, Annie nodded.
    Samuel reached forward and kissed her on the forehead.
    “Now I have three buggies to see to,” he said, standing and grinning. “If I’m not mistaken I saw some quilting items in your bag.”
    “For Leah’s bopplin .”
    “I’ll fetch it for you. Unless you’d rather nap?”
    “ Nein. I think I’d like to sew. I prepared dinner before we left. I’ll place it in