“He’s wrong, and you’re wrong to even say such a thing!” She sighed and leaned back in her seat. “I don’t know why the two of you still rub up against each other the wrong way. Maybe the next time he starts you could find a way not to respond.”
“You’re blaming me?”
“Nee, of course not. But just don’t let him get to you.”
“I try.”
“I know.” She opened the door and slid out of the truck.
“Rose Anna?”
She turned. “Ya?”
“I—” he stopped. “See you tomorrow?”
“I’ll be at Sam and Mary Elizabeth’s, helping.”
It was easy to see his grimace in the harsh overhead light in the truck cab. “Is my dat going to be there?”
“I don’t know.”
“With my luck he probably will be. He likes telling my bruders how to run their farms.” His words came out as a growl.
She bit back a smile. “Maybe I’ll see you there.”
“Allrecht.”
She climbed the stairs and went into the house, and only then did she hear him leave. But this time it wasn’t with a squeal of tires. She supposed that was some progress.
The next day dawned bright and beautiful. She woke to a warm spring breeze coming in the open window. She could smell the lilacs blooming in the garden and hear birdsong.
She’d gone to bed alternately happy he’d said he cared about her and sad that he was still hurting about his relationship with his dat.
Even though John seemed happier working part of the week for Neil, what he’d said last night troubled her: He still argues with me, still has a problem with me. He thinks I’m a failure since I left. And since I work three part-time jobs and have no future, he’s not far wrong.
It was all so sad. How could either of them think a man who worked as hard as John was a failure?
She rose and dressed for the day. And if she wore a nicer dress than she normally would have for a family workday what of it?
***
John told himself he wouldn’t do this for anyone but Rose Anna.
He loved his bruder Sam and his fraa Mary Elizabeth, but he couldn’t help feeling some dread at the thought of encountering his dat.
When he arrived at Sam and Mary Elizabeth’s farmhouse, he was relieved to see only one buggy parked in the drive.
He put the truck in park and shut off the engine. His stomach growled. He hadn’t taken time for breakfast. There had been the morning chores at the horse farm before coming here. He knew Mary Elizabeth would feed him and feed him so much better than he could himself. Her cinnamon rolls weren’t as legendary as Leah’s, but they were schur gut.
He walked in the back door and his heart sank. There was his dat sitting at the kitchen table drinking coffee. Even the sight of his mudder sitting beside him didn’t cheer him up. He bent and gave her a kiss on the cheek.
Mary Elizabeth turned from the stove. “John! So glad you could come today!” She beamed at him, her smile so like Rose Anna’s. “Have you eaten? I saved you some breakfast.”
“Nee, I haven’t.”
Sam handed him a mug of coffee. “Why don’t you get married so my fraa doesn’t have to feed you?”
“I’m still waiting for her to realize she married the wrong bruder and leave you for me,” he returned, taking a seat at the table as far from his dat as he could.
Their dat muttered something John pretended not to hear.
“Sorry, John, you’re going to have to settle for someone else,” Mary Elizabeth told him as she served him a plate. She smiled at Sam. “I’ll be staying with my mann.”
Was it his imagination that they shared a smile that held some meaning he didn’t understand?
He shrugged and dug into the bacon and dippy eggs. Mary Elizabeth set a basket of fragrant cinnamon rolls in front of him.
When he reached for one, his hand collided with his dat’s. Amos glared at him. “You first,” John said, determined to avoid being drawn into any disagreements with him today. He picked up another roll and bit into it. “This is gut, Mary Elizabeth.”
“Danki.”
The back door opened, and Rose Anna walked in carrying a basket.
John’s heart lifted. The day had suddenly gotten better. When she smiled at him, he was glad he’d come.
She set the basket down on the nearby counter. “Brownies,” she mouthed at him before walking over to hang up her sweater.
“Mamm, Daed, so glad you could come!” Mary Elizabeth cried as they walked in.
“David and Lavina are right behind us.” Linda took Mark’s hand and helped him wave at everyone. Jacob leaned over her shoulder and made silly faces at him.
“She barely said hello to us before she took Mark,” Lavina said dryly as she walked in. “And I’d swear I saw her elbow Daed to get to him first.”
Jacob nodded and feigned a grimace of pain. “She got me in the ribs with her sharp elbow.”
“I’m surprised Lavina didn’t try to sell him to a tourist on the way here,” David said as he entered with Lavina. He yawned. “Mark kept us up last night. Teething again.”
He slumped into a chair. “Just how many teeth does a kind get, anyway?”
“Count yours,” Sam told him as he set coffee before his bruder. “That’s how many.”
“Maybe we should just loan him to you to practice on,” David said, narrowing his eyes at him. “Then you won’t think it’s a joke.”
“Sounds like a gut idea,” Mary Elizabeth said. “What do you think, Sam? We’re going to need the practice.”
She walked over and held out her arms to Mark. He gurgled at her and lunged into them.
John’s fork stopped midway to his mouth. Something was going on. There was a shift in the atmosphere in the kitchen . . . an undercurrent . . . all eyes were on Mary Elizabeth and Sam.
“Mary Elizabeth, what are you saying?” Rose Anna demanded.
She laughed. “Sam and I are going to have a boppli. I’m due in December.”
Amos made a noise that caused John’s attention to shift from Mary Elizabeth’s glowing face to his dat’s. He was crying. Actually crying—this stern man who had been so hard to get along with was actually crying. When he realized John was staring, he sent him a glare and then got to his feet and awkwardly hugged Mary Elizabeth, then Sam.
David and Lavina were next, and Mark had evidently decided he didn’t want to be practice anymore. He reached for his dat, and David took him from Mary Elizabeth.
John waited his turn to offer congratulations. Misty-eyed, Mary Elizabeth accepted his hug. Then John turned to Sam and slapped him on the shoulder, his version of a brotherly hug. “So, another bruder not just married but settling down with a boppli.”
“God is gut,” Sam said fervently. His glance slid to Rose Anna talking to his fraa. “When are you going to wise up, Bruder?”
Once, John would have insisted he was happy being a bachelor, and since his bruders had gone and settled down, he was the last of the Stoltzfus men and had to live it up in his rumschpringe.
Was he getting older or wiser?
Rose Anna broke away from Mary Elizabeth and walked toward him.
Or was it that he was seeing her clearly for the first time?
Amos cleared his throat. “So, what are we going to do today?”
John went off to the fields with the men while Rose Anna followed the women upstairs to convert one of the bedrooms into a nursery.
The crops they’d planted were doing nicely.
Well, not as nicely as they would have if he’d been listened to, according to Amos. He clomped around the fields in his boots, telling Sam he shouldn’t have planted this next to that; he should have done this, not that.
Sam listened and nodded and stayed good-natured. So did David who’d had to listen to the same thing about his own farm.
John opened his mouth to say something, but Sam caught his eye and shook his head. So he subsided and w
atched their dat walk off for a break.
He hadn’t done any actual work except his own form of unwanted supervision, but John did what Sam asked with the crops and about staying silent.
Once Amos was out of hearing range, he turned to Sam. “Why did you signal for me to not say anything?”
“You’re just wasting your breath,” Sam said, taking a break to wipe the sweat from his forehead with his bandanna. “And he means well.”
“He just loves to tell others what to do.”
Sam shrugged. “He does have a lot of experience.”
John snorted.
David walked over. “He wasn’t the best of dats, but it’s not the easiest job in the world, you know.”
“What do you mean?”
“All these nights either Lavina or I have spent walking the floor with Mark, I’ve found myself worrying about what kind of dat I’ll be.”
“We can’t be worse than our dat was,” John told him.
“Schur we could. He isn’t the worst one in the community, and you know it. And it’s not something that only happens in our community.”
“Of course it isn’t. But I don’t believe you’ll make the same mistakes he did.”
Sam laid his hand on David’s shoulder. “You care about being different. So you will be.”
David sighed. “I hope you’re right.”
“You’re just tired. I appreciate your help, but we’ve done all we can today. Why don’t you see if you can take a nap with your sohn?”
David nodded. “Gut idea, but Lavina and I have decided we’re keeping him up today so he’ll sleep tonight.”
“I’m off to the horse farm,” John said as he checked the cell phone Neil had gotten him. “Neil texted me that he wants to see me.”
“Hope everything’s allrecht.”
“Me, too.” He’d been hoping to do something with Rose Anna—a drive, supper, something—but that would have to wait.
He let Rose Anna know he had to go see Neil. “Maybe I can stop by later if it’s not too late.”
“Schur. Hope nothing’s wrong.”
John found himself worrying on the drive over. When he got to the horse farm, he saw a vehicle he didn’t recognize. It wasn’t the vet’s. He went into the barn first and saw Neil talking with someone whose back was turned to him.
Neil brightened when he saw him. “Here’s John now.”
The man turned, and John saw he was a younger version of Neil with his sandy hair and gray eyes. John walked toward him, his hand outstretched. “Hello, you must be Brad. Neil’s told me a lot about you.”
“He’s told me a lot about you, too,” Brad said. But he wasn’t smiling, and his eyes were cool and assessing.
“Brad’s here for a quick visit,” Neil told him. “I talked him into taking a look at the new foal.”
“And now that we’ve seen her, maybe we can go back to the house.”
Neil clapped him on his shoulder. “Now don’t be in such a hurry.”
Willow chose that moment to lean over her stall to greet John with a whinny.
Brad jumped a foot.
“Did you make her do that?” he demanded in an accusing tone.
Surprised, John shook his head and moved closer to stroke her nose. “She’s just friendly.”
Brad moved farther away from the stall. “My dad tells me you’ve been a lot of help to him. You’re not too busy with your own farm?”
“I don’t have one.”
“I told you, John’s older brother inherited the family farm. John does other work. I couldn’t manage without him here.”
John didn’t think he was overly sensitive, but he was picking up the feeling that Brad didn’t like him for some reason.
“Brad and I are going out for dinner. Care to join us?” Neil said as John walked over to start portioning out the horse feed.
Brad didn’t second the invitation.
“Thanks, but I’ve been helping my brother on his farm all day, and I’m dirty.”
“We can wait for you to shower and change.”
Neil stood behind his son, so he didn’t see how coolly Brad was eyeing John. “Thanks. Maybe next time.”
“Sure,” Brad said. “I stop in every so often to keep an eye on Pop.”
“Ha! I have to drag you here. You never have liked horses.”
“You got that right. See you, John.”
“Nice to meet you,” John said politely. And wasn’t surprised when Brad didn’t return the sentiment, choosing to turn his back and walk away with his father.
As soon as the two men left the barn John turned to Willow. “Sure isn’t like his daed, is he, girl?”
Willow shook her head as if in agreement.
John was glad Neil hadn’t picked up on his son’s reaction to him. It was evident at least to him that Neil had wanted them to meet, maybe even like each other.
John shrugged and continued the work of the evening feeding. He didn’t figure it mattered much. He’d been working for a few months now for Neil, and this was the first time he’d seen Brad. Neil had told him his son had taken over his law practice in Philadelphia and was quite busy and successful. He didn’t figure he had to worry about Brad deciding to leave it and take over his job.
Whistling, he fed the horses. He thought later maybe he’d head to Rose Anna’s house. With luck he’d be invited for supper.
He breathed in the warm fresh air through the open truck window. So far today he’d heard that Mary Elizabeth and Sam were expecting a boppli, he hadn’t had a blow-up with his dat, being asked here hadn’t been for any bad news, and it was a beautiful spring evening. It was turning out to be a pretty gut day.
***
Rose Anna swiped at the perspiration on her forehead with the back of one hand. It was hot work weeding the kitchen garden. “Where did spring go? It lasted the blink of an eye.”
“That’s Lancaster County for you,” her mudder said looking cool and unruffled like she always did.
Normally Rose Anna enjoyed working in the garden. But she didn’t like being hot. Especially this early in the year. And it was barely eleven in the morning.
“Looks like we’ll have some lettuce for a salad in a few days,” Linda said with satisfaction. “Nothing better than early lettuce.”
“Yes, there is. Spring peas,” Rose Anna told her, gesturing at them.
“Well, I think that’s enough for a morning. I say we take a break and get cooled off.”
They brushed dirt from their hands and skirts and went into the haus. The cool interior felt like a blessing. After washing their hands, they fixed a glass of iced tea and sat at the kitchen table.
“I asked Mary Elizabeth if she needed help in her kitchen garden, but she said she’s not having any morning sickness.”
Linda sipped her tea. “Gut. It plagued Lavina. I know she was so grateful for your help when she was carrying. I was sick so much when I was carrying,” she said with a rueful shake of her head.
“I’m sorry. I’ve seen how much mudders go through watching Lavina since she became a mudder.” Rose Anna took some cookies from the jar and placed them on a plate. She was hungry for a snack after the hard work weeding. And she’d never been able to resist cookies.
“But how could I mind when I had three lovely dochders?” Linda fanned her face with her hand. “It’s like . . . a rainbow. You can’t have the beauty and joy of a rainbow without rain or a thunderstorm. But a rainbow, Rose Anna.”
Her mature face glowed and seemed to become younger, reminding Rose Anna of what she’d seen on the faces of her schweschders.
“Just think, Mamm, it won’t be that long before you have two grosskinner.”
“The months will pass quickly. They always do.”
“It doesn’t feel that way to me.” Her appetite fled. Time was passing, and she was no closer really to her plan to wed John. She set the cookie on her plate.
Linda reached across the table to pat her hand. “That’s because yo
u’ve always been impatient. My most impatient kind.”
Her lips quirked into a rueful grin. “You mean immature.”
“Nee. Everyone grows at their own rate. And some never mature.”
Now Rose Anna couldn’t repress a giggle. “You’re thinking of your Onkel Naiman.”
She grinned. “Aenti Barbie says every day she remembers that ‘a happy heart makes the face cheerful’.”
Rose Anna remembered the rest of the quote from Proverbs. But heartache crushes the spirit. Sometimes she felt it nearly had crushed John’s.
“Anyway, Aenti Barbie schur has the patience of a saint with his antics, doesn’t she? But who can stay angry with such a sweet, cheerful man like him?”
“No one I know.”
“Well, what do you say we get cleaned up and go into town for some shopping? We haven’t done that in ages.”
Rose Anna studied her mudder’s face. “Are you suggesting this to cheer me up?”
“Do you need cheering up?”
She leaned back in her chair and sighed. “Maybe a little. We’ve talked about this before, Mamm. I’m not envious of my schweschders. Truly I’m not. But sometimes I wonder when I’m going to get married.”
“I know, Lieb. I know. It’s so hard waiting on God’s timing sometimes.”
She wondered what her mudder would think if she knew her dochder had said God needed her help. Her schweschders had reacted with shock and laughter when she’d said it months ago. Obviously they hadn’t told their mudder.
Cheered by her understanding, she put her chin in her hand and rested her elbow on the table. “Just where do you have in mind? This trip into town?”
Linda glanced around. “Promise you won’t tell your dat? He’d tease me.”
She nodded.
“Stitches in Time. We need fabric.”
“He always says we have enough.”
They looked at each other and laughed.
“Quilters never have enough fabric.”
“Men never have enough tools.”
Rose Anna thought about it. A trip to town to buy fabric. And maybe John would stop by later. It was turning into a pretty gut day.
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