If this was the best Mary had dared hope for, why did she feel nothing but dread? Why did Evelyn’s letter make her want to sprint into the house and gather ElJay into her protective embrace?
She knew why without having to ask. Bitsy was right. Mary already had her answer. Where but here with Andrew would she have the freedom to live her life with joy? Where but in this community of lovable, flawed, wunderbarr people could she practice and perfect love in herself?
She had the freedom to choose, and she chose a life with Andrew.
Her heart hummed like a beehive at the height of spring. She chose ElJay and Andrew and the Amish and a life full of love.
“She’s over here. Pancake.” Mary snapped her head around. Benji Petersheim trudged through the orchard with a pair of binoculars around his neck and a walkie-talkie in his hand. He pressed a button on the side of the walkie-talkie. “Come to the apple orchard. You’ll see us. Pancake.” His grin was as wide as the sky. “They’re coming. We brought you a treat. Mamm thought it would soften you up.”
Mary thought she might burst. Wherever Benji went, Andrew wasn’t far behind. “Why do you say pancake?”
“You have to say a code word to tell the person on the other side that you’re done talking. Alfie says over. I say pancake. It’s more delicious.” Benji squinted into Mary’s face, even though they were in the shade of the apple trees. “Are you going to marry Andrew? We all want you to marry Andrew.”
Her heart was like a freight train now. “I’d like that very much.”
“Alfie keeps asking if you’re going to get married, and Andrew keeps telling him to be quiet. It saves time when somebody already has a buplie, that’s what Alfie says. Alfie wants you to marry Andrew because he hates the cellar. I want you to marry Andrew because you’re my favorite girl ever, besides my mamm.”
“That’s so sweet,” Mary said, her voice cracking like a green log in the stove. If she said any more, she was going to cry.
Alfie ran through the trees carrying a walkie-talkie and a plastic bag full of tan balls. “Mary, we was looking all over for you. We made you a treat. Mamm said they would soften you up.” Alfie opened the bag. “We didn’t eat one cuz Mamm said we had to save them for you.”
“Can I have one?” Benji said.
“Benji,” Alfie hissed. “They’re for Mary.”
Mary thought her lips would fly off her face she was smiling so hard. “What are they?”
Alfie pulled a soft ball out of the bag and handed it to Mary. “Peanut-butter-and-honey power balls.”
Benji nodded. “Since we didn’t get to make them that one day you were having your baby.”
“And that’s not all,” said Alfie. “We and Mamm made power balls and Andrew made a crib, but you can’t take it in the house yet because the varnish isn’t dry and it stinks.”
“Andrew made me a crib?”
“Well, he made ElJay a crib, but it was really for you.”
A thrill of pleasure ran down Mary’s spine. She didn’t know what to say, so she took a bite of a peanut-butter-and-honey power ball. “Mmm. Wonderful gute. Try one.”
Benji reached for the bag, but Alfie pulled it away. “I told you, Benji. They’re for Mary.”
“I want to share them,” Mary said. “Take as many as you want. You deserve it.”
Benji pulled four power balls from the bag and stuffed one into his mouth. “They’re gute, Alfie.”
“Okay,” Alfie said, as if surrendering to the inevitable.
She’d been expecting him, but Mary thought she might faint when she caught a glimpse of Andrew strolling toward her through the apple orchard. He was so handsome and so good and strong that she wondered why she had ever questioned where she should be.
How could she have kept him waiting, wondering all this time? How could she bear the pain of one more second apart? The tenderness of a thousand heartaches and the longing of a thousand dreams washed over her. She burst into tears at the sight of him and ran into his arms as if she had always belonged there. Being the intelligent man that he was, he didn’t ask questions, just wrapped his arms around her and let her weep.
They stood like that for several seconds before Andrew wiped a tear from her cheek. “I love you, Mary,” he said, and she could feel the wild rhythm of his heartbeat beneath his shirt. “No matter what you have to tell me at this moment, I love you.”
“Are you okay, Mary?” Benji said.
She sobbed into Andrew’s shirt. “Josh never made me cookies.”
“Didn’t he have any recipes?” Benji asked.
“Mary,” Andrew said, a tenderness in his voice that only made her want to hold on tighter. “I know I said I’d stay away, but I couldn’t bear to be away from you.”
“Mamm told him to come,” Alfie said.
Andrew palmed Alfie’s forehead and playfully shoved him backward. “We’re not talking about Mamm right now.”
Alfie protested with a snort and pushed Andrew back. “Well, she did.”
Andrew smoothed his fingers down her face, pain alight in his eyes. “You’ve decided, haven’t you?”
Her heart fell to her toes. Andrew thought she was going to leave him. She had to put him out of his misery immediately. She laced her fingers with his. “Andrew, I know you like your freedom, but would you consider marrying me?”
He opened his mouth but couldn’t seem to form any words. She didn’t wait for him to try. She laid a hand on his chest. He slid his warm hand over hers. “In case you need convincing, I have a lot to offer. I have the most beautiful baby in the world and a very gute recipe for peanut butter chocolate pie.”
“You do have a beautiful buplie,” he said.
Alfie whispered to Benji, loud enough for the whole orchard to hear. “I told you the baby would save time.”
“I also have a cell phone and a whole bag of peanut-butter-and-honey power balls.” She got on her tiptoes to whisper in his ear. “Will you marry me, Andrew? I’m crazy about you.”
In answer, he caught her mouth with his and kissed her like a thirsty man at the edge of the desert. She kissed him back with the same ferocity, drinking him in, wanting more with every breath.
Andrew was a much better kisser than Josh, even though she suspected it was his first kiss—maybe because Andrew loved her with a good and pure heart. But she would never again compare Andrew to Josh or anyone else in her past. The only thing she would take from that place was ElJay. Andrew was her future, and she never wanted to look back.
Neither of them could ignore the giggling coming from their small companions. Alfie made a gagging noise, and Andrew laughed, breaking the connection and pulling away from her slightly, but they still clung to each other as if they’d wake up from a dream if they let go.
“Mamm says no kissing until you’re married,” Benji said.
Andrew smiled at his brother. “Mamm never has to know.”
Benji rolled his eyes. “She always knows.”
Andrew didn’t seem too concerned that his mamm might find out he’d been kissing. He bent his head and kissed Mary again, and it was like an orange smoke bomb with stars and sparkles going off in her head.
She really could let him kiss her all day, but there were small, impressionable children in the area, and she’d rather do her kissing in private. She pulled away from him and gave him her brightest smile. “I’ll take that as a yes to my proposal.”
His laughter was the most beautiful sound she’d ever heard, next to anything that came out of ElJay’s mouth. “A thousand times yes. I should have expected that you’d be the one to ask.”
“Ach, vell, you were trying not to pressure me. I might have been waiting until Ascension Day.”
“How did you make up your mind about me? About us?”
She took his hand. “I saw you coming through the trees and couldn’t resist how handsome you are.”
“I’m not that handsome, and you were very confused three days ago.”
“Evelyn off
ered to pay for me to go to school.”
He furrowed his brow in confusion. “But wouldn’t that have made it easier to leave?”
“Jah, but it also made my choices more clear. Evelyn offered me freedom, but what is freedom without love? Choosing one path means leaving everything on the other path behind. I can’t imagine my life without ElJay, but I realized I couldn’t imagine my life without you either. I love you too much to settle for partial freedom and half the joy.”
He kissed her on the cheek while the twins’ backs were turned. “You always think deep thoughts. I don’t understand half of what you said, but I got the part where you said you love me. I’ll spend the rest of my life making sure you don’t regret your choice.”
“Just spend the rest of your life loving me, and I’ll never want for anything more.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Not even freedom?”
“I chose freedom when I chose you.”
Benji and Alfie stood with their backs against one of the apple trees. They’d managed to polish off half the bag of peanut-butter-and-honey power balls. Hopefully, they hadn’t made themselves sick. “Are you two getting married?” Alfie asked.
Andrew grinned. “We are.”
Alfie and Benji jumped up and down and hugged each other as if Mammi had just cancelled family reading time. Alfie’s eyes were as bright and twinkly as stars on a summer night. “When are you getting married?”
Andrew slid his arm around Mary. “As soon as possible.”
Alfie nodded his wholehearted approval. “August tenth is a gute day for a wedding.”
Mary giggled. “Four days from now?”
“You can wear your pink dress and we can have power balls for dessert.”
“The only other thing we need is fireworks,” Benji said.
They should always let the eight-year-olds plan the weddings. Everything would be so much easier.
Andrew ruffled Alfie’s hair. “But don’t tell Dat and Mamm yet. I want to surprise them.”
Alfie rolled his eyes. “Don’t bother. Mamm already knows. She always knows.”
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