Hannah's Special Friend (Hannah Out West Book 4) by Amelia C. Adams

Author:Amelia C. Adams [Adams, Amelia C.]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Published: 2020-08-27T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

This time, Ruby did the knocking. They still had to wait before the door opened, but at least it did open. Mrs. Miller peered out, her eyebrows lowering when she saw Ruby.

“Why are you banging on my door, Ruby Yates? I know your granny taught you better manners than that.” She sounded unhappy, but her voice was softer than Hannah had imagined it would be.

“I knocked extra loud because I figured you might be gettin’ hard of hearin’, Mrs. Miller,” Ruby said.

“Hard of hearing? Whatever made you think that tomfool thing?”

“Well, you keep ignorin’ Hannah here when she comes for a visit. It’s like you’re tryin’ to avoid her or somethin’.”

Hannah swallowed. She didn’t know Ruby was going to say that, and she was so embarrassed all of a sudden. Mrs. Miller looked embarrassed too.

“You know I don’t like visitors,” she said at last.

“’Course I know that, but when someone’s as nice as Hannah here, it doesn’t hurt anything to be friendly. She made you some cookies.”

Hannah held up the plate and smiled.

“See? Did that all by herself,” Ruby went on.

“Not all by myself. You helped a lot,” Hannah hurried to add.

Ruby gave an exasperated sigh. “All right, yes, I did help. But you did most of the work.”

Hannah held the cookies toward Mrs. Miller. “Please take them.”

The woman looked back and forth between the two girls. Then she took the plate from Hannah and looked like she was about to slam the door, but Ruby held it open.

“My granny was sayin’ just the other day that it’s been too long since your last visit,” she said. “When can I tell her you’re comin’?”

Mrs. Miller shook her head as though she couldn’t believe what was happening. “I’ll come Monday afternoon,” she said at last.

“I’ll tell Granny! She’ll be so happy.” Ruby grinned like that had been easy.

“Monday, then.” And the door slammed.

Hannah stared at the door, the sound of the slam still echoing from the trees.

“You got to meet her,” Ruby said. “That’s a far sight more than I thought you’d be able to do.”

“But it didn’t go well,” Hannah replied. “She didn’t even invite us in, and that’s the very first step in hospitality.”

“Hosp . . . what?”

“Hospitality. Treating people with kindness when they come to your home.”

“And when they leave, you don’t have to be nice anymore?”

Hannah looked at Ruby’s face to see if she was joking. Sure enough, she looked like she was trying not to laugh.

“Never mind. Come on—we’ve been standing here a long time.”

***

Hannah had imagined a whole story in her head where Mrs. Miller would eat the cookies and be so impressed that she’d come running over to their house to tell them thank you. Then they would be the very best neighbors—lending each other books, borrowing sugar, waving at each other when they both happened to be on the road. But not one of those things came true. It was so disappointing.

She went frog hunting with Ruby, which was kind of funny, actually, because Ruby did all the hunting and Hannah just watched.

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