by Amy Lillard
“Shaving, Ezra? At this time of day?” She moved her small electric wheelchair around so she could face him as he scraped the whiskers from his chin.
“I am, uh, going out.” Okay, so he should have told her long before now that he had dinner plans, but he didn’t know how she would take it.
“On a workday?”
Ezra bit back a sigh. “Mom, every day is a workday.” That was part of a rancher’s life. “I’m not planning on staying out long.” Just long enough to have dinner and see Sadie once again.
He really couldn’t say why, but she pulled him in like a magnet, like a moth, like a hundred other things that couldn’t resist something more powerful than them. And there was no fighting it. Not that he wanted to.
He had worked hard in the years since his father left. He had done everything he could for his mother and her advancing illness. He had been both provider and friend to her, when everyone else had turned away.
True, the Mennonites did not traditionally shun. But after his father decided he could take no more, he had walked out without looking back. It didn’t take long before the good people of Taylor Creek started to wonder what his mother had done to make him leave. No one said anything outright, but he’d heard whispers when no one thought he was around, when no one thought he would hear. That was the problem with small towns and even smaller Mennonite communities. Word spread like wildfire through dry timber. Of course, it didn’t help that his mother’s disposition had turned sour and she stopped going out herself. These days she didn’t even make it to church.
“So where are you heading off to tonight?” Her voice held an edge that he knew all too well. When he told her what he was doing, she was going to explode.
“I’m going over to Wells Landing.”
His mother crossed her arms, a sure sign that a storm was brewing. “And what are you going to do there?”
Ezra wiped the last remains of the shaving cream from his face, inspected the job in the mirror, then smacked on some aftershave for good measure. “I’m going to have supper with Sadie Kauffman and her family. At the restaurant.”
“The Amish girl?”
Ezra turned, for the first time facing his mother. “Mom, she invited me to come eat at the restaurant and try out the bison meat recipes that her sister has been experimenting with. That’s all.” Okay, so that was a flat-out lie, but what was he supposed to do?
“And you didn’t think to take me?”
“Would you have come along if I had asked?”
His mother frowned. “Well now, we’ll never know, will we? Since you didn’t ask.”
Another sigh swallowed back and Ezra replied, “Would you like to go with me tonight and have dinner at the Kauffman Family Restaurant?”
“No.” Before he could respond, she turned her chair around and headed back down the hallway.
Ezra tried not to be frustrated with his mother’s attitude and bitterness. As far as he could tell, she needed to turn to God and trust Him more, but she didn’t seem to be able. And frankly that broke his heart.
Simply by chance, he had found someone he wanted to spend time with. And he was going to spend time with Sadie Kauffman whether his mother understood that or not.
* * *
His mother’s consternation followed Ezra out the door as he left half an hour later. She was sitting at the table eating—if pushing her food around on her plate could be called eating—when he palmed the truck keys and said his good-bye.
She didn’t even utter a grunt in response, and he hated himself all the more for continuing on his way. He opened the truck door, got inside, then leaned his forehead against the steering wheel. Why did everything have to be so hard where she was concerned? He hated the fact that he hated how she treated him. Where had all the forgiveness gone that she had been taught her entire life?
He sat back and started the engine, knowing there were no answers to those questions. He backed out of the drive and headed down the road, each mile bringing more relief from his mother’s attitude.
He was not going to feel guilty tonight. A friend had invited him to dinner. A friend who could potentially be more than a friend. But he was meeting more than just Sadie. He was going to eat dinner with Cora Ann and Daniel and maybe even Melanie and her husband Noah, if he understood Sadie right during the invitation. She’d said they were eating together as a family. And he was looking forward to it. Trying the food that Cora Ann had made, eating the bison meat that he had produced.
He really didn’t eat a lot of his own product, simply because his mother didn’t like the taste of the bison meat. She thought he was wasting his time by raising the big creatures and thought he should focus more on being a dairy farmer. But he had wanted more when he had taken over the farm. He wanted to do something different, something that stood out among the crowd. Something that no one else in Taylor Creek or in Wells Landing had done. That was how Hein’s Exotic Animal Ranch came into being. And he was expanding all the time. It was challenging and fun and he loved it, whether his mother understood it or not. Still, it would be nice to enjoy the fruits of his labor for once. And the fact that he didn’t have to cook the meal? Even better.
By the time he pulled his truck to a stop in front of the restaurant, the tension had left his shoulders. Mostly, anyway.
He looked in the rearview mirror to make sure his hair was in place, grimaced at his reflection, made sure his teeth were clean, then got out of the truck. He was being ridiculous, he knew. But he wanted everything tonight to be great. Maybe because he knew that the people around them didn’t understand their relationship. Didn’t understand what drew them together, an Amish woman and a Mennonite man. But how could anybody explain the laws of love? Well, he backtracked, this wasn’t love. But this was where things like that started. Strangely enough, he liked the idea. Never before had he thought about having a family of his own. But as the thought settled around him, he realized that having a wife would bring so much joy into his life as well as ease the chores that he had both around the house and on the ranch. The only problem was his mother.
He pushed himself into the restaurant, the bell on the door jingling as he came through.
Cora Ann came bustling up. “Can I help you—” She stopped. “Ezra! Come on, let’s eat.” She grabbed his arm and dragged him into the restaurant, back to a table that was a little larger than the others. Daniel was already seated there coloring a picture. Ezra had seen him do that many times before, and he figured that coloring was Daniel’s go-to activity when nothing else was going on around him.
“Hey there, Daniel.”
“Hey.” Daniel did not look up from his artwork. In fact, he dipped his head even farther, his nose almost touching the paper on the table.
Ezra smiled to himself. When Daniel colored he went to his own world. There were times when Ezra wished he could do the same.
“You’re here.” Sadie’s words were nothing more than a gush of air in the wind.
He turned to face her, a smile on his lips. “I’m here.”
She stood for a moment just looking at him, and he took a minute to look back. There really was something about Sadie Kauffman. She wasn’t a beauty like he had seen, those girls that drew people to them like flies. That didn’t mean her face was hard to look at. It was small with a petite nose and big hazel eyes. A few freckles danced across her nose, and her mouth was bracketed with small dimples. But there was something more about her, something that shone from within her that no one else around had. He didn’t know what it was, but he wanted to. He wanted to know what made her so special, what drew him to her.
“You look really nice tonight.”
She frowned and looked down at her dress. She was still wearing black, all black from shoulders to toe. Only her prayer kapp was white. And he couldn’t wait to see her in something other than that dark color. Maybe a green that would bring out the blue in her eyes. Or maybe it would bring up the little flecks of brown. “I do?”
&nbs
p; “Yeah.” Ezra nodded. “You do.”
The blush that rose into her cheeks put a smile on his lips. Had no one ever told her that she looked nice? Or that she was pretty? What was wrong with the men of Wells Landing?
“Are you ready to eat?” Sadie seemed to have intentionally changed the topic of conversation, and he let her.
“Yeah, I am.”
“Ezra!” Cora Ann rushed up and grabbed his hand, jumping up and down a little as she squeezed his fingers. “I’m so glad you’re here! I’m so glad you’re here!”
Ezra gently extracted his fingers from her grasp, then nodded toward her. “I was promised a meal, you know. Something special.”
Cora Ann smiled. “You are going to love this.”
“I hope so. I’m hungry.”
“Did you have problems on the ranch today?” Cora Ann led him to the table and pointed to the seat next to Daniel. “Sit right here, and I’ll go get your food.”
“What about—” He broke off as Cora Ann hustled from view. He turned back to Sadie. “Is everyone else eating too?”
“Of course.” She turned to walk away, then stopped and turned back. “I should help get the food. Would you wait here with Daniel, please?”
“Of course.”
A few minutes later Cora Ann and Sadie bustled out of the kitchen carrying platters of food.
“These are stuffed bell peppers,” Cora Ann explained. “But instead of using green peppers you use red ones, and instead of using ground beef you use—”
“Bison meat,” he supplied.
Cora Ann set his plate in front of him. “Then there’s au gratin potatoes with scallops and scallions. Those are both different things.”
He was glad she told him that because he had no idea what either one of them were.
“And here’s a squash casserole and a small salad. That’s today’s special for New Food Tuesday.”
He looked at the plate of gourmet food, and his stomach growled. He might not be familiar with all of the ingredients, but it smelled delicious. He unwrapped his silverware and placed his napkin in his lap. “It looks great.” He glanced around at the girls, who stood above him, staring, watching as he went to take his first bite. “Aren’t you going to eat with me?”
Cora Ann jumped. “Oh!” She pulled out a chair and slid into it, then propped her elbow onto the table and her chin in her hand.
That wasn’t exactly eating.
Sadie took a seat across from him, but at least she grabbed the plate as if she were truly about to eat as well.
“I’ve never eaten a stuffed pepper before. And I’m not really sure how,” Ezra confessed.
“Well,” Cora Ann said, “some people do it differently than others. But I like to eat all the filling out, then eat the bell pepper at the end, using my bread.”
He wasn’t sure about eating nothing but pepper and bread.
“Don’t listen to her,” Sadie said. “This is how you do it.” She took a knife and cut the pepper down the middle, then proceeded to chop it into pieces, each one with part of the filling stacked on top. “Then you fork up a bite like this and eat it.”
He watched as she put the bite in her mouth, then looked back down at her plate. It was better by far than watching her chew and staring like an idiot. “You want to trade plates now?”
She laughed. “Don’t trust your knife skills?”
“Exactly.” She’d cut the pepper like she had been doing it for years. He had the feeling that instead of little bite-size morsels of pepper and bison meat filling he would end up with something resembling a mutilated casserole.
“My pleasure.” Sadie handed him the plate as he handed his over to her.
Cora Ann looked from each of them to the other. “Is it good?”
“You haven’t tried it yet?” Ezra asked.
“Oh yeah.” Cora Ann nodded so fiercely her prayer kapp strings danced and bobbed. “But I like everything. I want to know what you guys think.”
“Well,” Sadie started, swallowing the bite as she surveyed the food on her plate. “It’s good, but it needs something.”
Cora Ann sat back in her chair. “I knew it. I knew I should’ve added some basil.”
Ezra wasn’t sure exactly what basil would do for the meal, but he was enjoying himself nonetheless. He was sitting across from what had to be the prettiest girl in Wells Landing with her sister, who loved to cook, and their little brother, who still hadn’t stopped coloring long enough to eat.
“Is he going to eat anything tonight?”
“He only eats things like peanut butter with apple jelly.”
“It’s a color/texture thing,” Sadie explained. “He only eats tan foods.”
“Tan foods?”
Sadie nodded. “You know, graham crackers, peanut butter, wheat bread, tan-colored things.”
“I see.” He had never heard such a thing.
“Oh,” Cora Ann said, jumping up from her chair so quickly she almost knocked it backward. “I forgot to get the iced tea.” She hustled off before Ezra had a chance to say even one word.
“That girl.” Sadie shook her head. “I wish I knew what I wanted as clearly as she does.”
“You don’t know what you want?”
There came that blush again. And Sadie ducked her head. “You know, from life. All she wants to do is cook, make recipes, and try out new foods. Who knows what she’ll ask for next week. Maybe alligator meat.”
Ezra chuckled. “I’m not raising alligators. No matter how cute she is.”
Sadie laughed. And he loved the sound. “No, but if we don’t watch out she’ll have us going down to Louisiana to buy one.”
“That’s interesting that your mother allows her to pick out foods for the restaurant.”
Sadie nodded again. “It is. But Cora Ann has always loved to cook. And the restaurant is all we do. Plus . . .”
“Plus what?” he asked.
Her eyes flickered ever so briefly to her brother, then she lowered her voice to where she knew he couldn’t hear. “Since Dat died, she has been pretty lenient. You know, my sister even left go live with the Englisch.”
“That’s right. You told me about that.”
“At first Mamm wasn’t very happy about it, but later she came to realize that Lorie had a different path to take in life. And she didn’t hold that against her.”
“And you don’t know what your path is.” He meant for it to sound like a question, but it didn’t. Sadie frowned a bit, but he could see the wrinkles on her smooth brow and the flicker of the corners of her mouth as they turned down, then pulled back into place. “I thought I did. But now I’m not so sure.”
That was a loaded statement if Ezra had ever heard one. But he didn’t have time to ask as Cora Ann bustled back in with two glasses of iced tea.
“Here you go.” She sat one glass in front of him and one in front of Sadie, then returned to her seat and the same position she had been in before.
It was a bit unnerving to have the cook stare at him so intently while he was eating her food, but it really was delicious. And he didn’t think it needed anything at all. But for now, he was eating, taking in everything that Sadie had told him, and he would tell the chef later what a wonderful meal it truly was.
* * *
Sadie could not believe that she was sitting across the table from Ezra, eating bison meat and talking about her sister. Sure, she didn’t have a lot of experience where guys were concerned, but surely she could find a better topic of conversation than her sister leaving to go live with Zach Calhoun in Tulsa. But it was better by far than talking about the rest of the things that happened around her father’s death, like them finding his tattoo, and Lorie painting pictures in the storeroom and not telling anybody. The whole thing had been so hard on them.
Sadie felt that wearing black every day dragged it out even more. She missed her dad terribly, but did she have to wear black to prove it? She did it because that was what she was supposed to do. But if
she could shed the black, put on something pretty and colorful, something that her father would have liked, she might be able to see him smiling down from heaven.
She took another bite of her stuffed pepper and wished it had more flavor. She had long since realized that it wasn’t anything that Cora Ann had done to the recipe, but it was more about being across the table from Ezra and catching sight of those brown eyes every so often. Each time he looked at her, her heart stuttered in her chest. What exactly did that mean?
Maybe she was just nervous. Mamm had made no secret that she didn’t think Sadie should be hanging out with a Mennonite guy. But what was the harm in it, honestly? Sure, they said they were dating, but that didn’t mean a whole lot at this point. They hadn’t been out even one time yet. Not really. She didn’t count the two visits to his ranch. Or meeting him at the market. No, this was really their first date, and they had two people hanging out with them.
What could Mamm find wrong with that? Still, the thought made Sadie a little nervous.
Mamm would read too much into it. Just because Sadie was spending time with Ezra didn’t mean anything more than they were spending time together. They had said they were going to date, but no one else knew that. How could they get to know each other unless they did just that? Who knew, they might not like each other after the second date. Her father had always said never date a man you wouldn’t marry, but would she marry Ezra Hein?
She looked up and caught that brown gaze. Once again her stomach dropped two inches, and she found it hard to swallow the bite that she had been chewing for who knew how long.
She couldn’t say if she would marry him or not. Could she? She barely knew him. And the only way she would get to know him any better was to date him.
It made logical sense in her head, but she had a feeling that if she said those exact words to Mamm, the understanding would be a long time in coming.
They finished their meal, and somehow Sadie managed to get it down without a grimace. Again, it wasn’t because it wasn’t tasty, she simply had an awful time trying to eat with Ezra right across from her.