Like a Bee to Honey Read Free

frosty morning when it came to courting Rose. Perhaps Luke was trying to speed things up.
    Josiah didn’t know whether to be offended or grateful that Luke had stuck his nose into Josiah’s business. He’d have a few wounds, that was certain, but Rose had said more to him in that one conversation than she had in almost four years combined. He wanted to give Luke a big hug. And then punch him.
    He wiped a grin off his face. With friends like Luke, who needed a meddling mammi ?
    Rose gasped. “You’re bleeding.”
    Oy , anyhow. He should have left his hand behind his back so Rose wouldn’t be upset. He studied the smear of blood on his forearm. Ach. He probably had a gute -sized spot of blood on the back of his shirt from trying to hide his injured arm.
    â€œIt’s nothing,” he said, giving Rose the most reassuring smile he could muster. “Doesn’t even hurt.”
    Poppy glanced sideways at Rose. “Josiah, you should put some ointment on that. It looks like it really hurts, and I’d hate to see you get an infection.” Josiah had never seen such consideration from Poppy before. She was more likely to tell him to go rub some dirt in it.
    â€œ Jah . It looks very bad,” Rose said, her eyes alight with sympathy. Rose wrapped her fingers around Poppy’s wrist. “Will you go help him wash it out? I would feel terrible if it got infected.”
    Poppy waved her substantial cast in the air. “I’ve only got one good hand.”
    â€œIt’s not that bad,” Josiah said. “I’ll rinse it in the hose when I get home.” He’d have to be tricky and leave without turning his back on them. Rose would probably faint if she saw the blood on the back of his shirt.
    Rose’s lips drooped. “I’m sure it hurts something wonderful. You need special ointment.” She looked at Lily. “Can you take Josiah into the house and bandage it up?”
    Lily was already strolling the other way, smiling like Billy Idol with a mouth full of mouse. “I’ve got to get back to the bees.”
    Rose glanced at Josiah and nibbled on her bottom lip as the tiny lines around her eyes crinkled with worry. “It was Leonard Nimoy’s fault. We should see that Josiah is taken care of.”
    Poppy waved the bag of catnip in Farrah Fawcett’s direction. “I’ll take care of the cat problem.” She scooped some catnip from the little bag, crumbled it in her hand like dry bread, and let it fall to the ground as she walked away. All three cats followed her. Billy Idol meowed and carried on as if she were dragging him by the tail.
    Josiah frowned to himself. Didn’t Rose’s schwesters see how unsettled she was? Couldn’t one of them sacrifice two minutes of her time to take him into the house and slap a Band-Aid on his arm? Rose would feel better if he had a Band-Aid.
    Rose fingered a strand of hair at the nape of her neck. He did his best not to be distracted by the graceful curve of her fingers or her hair the color of white clover honey.
    Josiah took a handkerchief out of his pocket and swiped it across the scratch. He grimaced. The attempt to wipe it away smeared the blood across his arm and made it look ten times worse. “I’ll go straight home and wash this out with soap. It’s not deep.”
    Rose eyed him as if he might bite her. How was he ever going to convince her to love him when he saw nothing but uncertainty in her eyes? He swallowed the lump of despair in his throat and took two steps backward. “It was wonderful- gute to see you, Rose. Denki for saving me from the cats.”
    â€œWill you be able to work the fields today?”
    He nodded. “I’ll be sure to wrap it up.”
    The troubled, vulnerable look on Rose’s face made him ache to gather her in his arms and reassure her that she could be certain of him, that things weren’t as bad as she seemed to think they