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carried herself like a queen.
    No, that wasn’t exactly right either. Queens tended to be divas. Zach had dated enough of them to know that this woman was no diva.
    More like an angel.
    She seemed familiar to him, but he couldn’t place where he’d seen her before. Probably in his dreams.
    Her wavy yellow hair fell just below her chin and framed her face like a halo. Her eyes were the color of the ocean at sunrise. And those lips. Zach’s mouth twitched just imagining what it would be like to kiss her.
    Yep. An angel.
    He sincerely hoped angels gave out their phone numbers.
    She wore a puffy white coat with blue jeans tucked into her chocolate brown leather boots. Thin and on the tall side, she wore a Christmas-red knitted scarf around her neck—an almost perfect match to the one Anna Helmuth had given him.
    He would have stood up and flashed his best smile at her—in cases like these he should pull out all his best weapons—but he didn’t want to turn his back on the little girl and risk her running away. It was that aversion to getting mowed down by a bus again.
    He stayed on one knee and turned his face slightly in the angel’s direction. “I think she’s lost, but she won’t tell me her name, and I can’t get her to come inside. I don’t want to frighten her, but it’s pretty cold out here.”
    The angel squatted next to the little girl and laid her hands on the girl’s shoulders. “Vas iss vi nawma?” Zach had no idea what she said, but the little girl quieted down immediately.
    â€œRose Sue,” she said.
    â€œBish du ferlora?” said the angel.
    â€œIch con net my mamm finna,” the girl said.
    No wonder he hadn’t been able to get anywhere. How was he supposed to know the child spoke Amish? The angel spoke Amish too. An angel with an attractive foreign accent.
    Angel pulled a Kleenex from her coat pocket, held it to the girl’s nose, and instructed her to blow. She said it in Amish language, but the meaning was clear enough.
    Angel fingered Zach’s scarf still draped around the little girl’s shoulders. The girl said something else in Amish and pointed to Zach. His heart pounded in his chest as the angel finally turned her crystal blue eyes to him. He fully expected a dazzling smile of gratitude for giving the little girl his scarf. It had been a pretty nice thing to do.
    Instead, the angel did a double take, as if noticing him for the first time. Her eyes narrowed, the air around her stopped shimmering, and a shadow darkened her expression.
    He ignored her suddenly cold demeanor. Her reaction certainly couldn’t be because of him. He’d never met a woman who wasn’t immediately charmed by his good looks and slightly crooked nose. “I wanted to keep her warm,” he said, just in case she needed some encouragement to like him.
    â€œOh,” she said, which considering the color that crept up her face was probably the most coherent thing she could think of.
    What had he done? He’d only said about four words to her. He certainly couldn’t have offended her that quickly, could he? Maybe she didn’t like his nose.
    The angel lowered her eyes and pulled the scarf tighter around the little girl’s shoulders. Standing up, she said something else to the girl in Amish and took her hand.
    He had to drive that shadow from the angel’s face. “I hope I didn’t frighten her. I just wanted to help.”
    Angel seemed to recover slightly from whatever shock she took from seeing him and sprouted a weak smile. “It was good of you to stop. She might have wandered into the road.”
    â€œCan I help you find her mother?”
    Her smile grew in strength, as if she’d decided to overlook whatever deformity he had. “You are very kind, but I don’t think it will be too much trouble locating them. They’re probably just inside at the clinic. A lot of Amish come to