by Amy Lillard
He handed the phone back to his brother, unable to find any words to express how he felt. Betrayed, jealous, sad, angry, the list went on and on.
Joshua stood, stretching once again and pocketing his phone. “I really didn’t want to be the bearer of bad news, but I thought you should know.”
“We’re not a couple, you know.” He wasn’t sure if word had gotten back to his brother. And if nothing else, those words served as a reminder to him.
“I’d wondered if those rumors were true.” Joshua nodded.
“I’m leaving this summer.” Chris wasn’t sure what possessed him to make such a confession; maybe it was a pride issue. Sadie wanted nothing to do with him. She said she wouldn’t wait. But that didn’t mean their feelings for each other had died in that instant.
“I was wondering how long it was going to take you. Is that what happened between you and Sadie?”
“Jah,” Chris said. “I told her I loved her and asked her to wait for me. But she doesn’t think I’m coming back.”
Joshua chuckled, but the sound lacked humor. “You told her that you loved her, you want her to wait, and then you told her you are headed off to who knows where.”
“Europe,” Chris admitted.
Joshua sat back in his seat. His eyes wide. “That’s some trip.”
“Jah. It is. But I’ve waited my whole life.” And Sadie had waited her whole life too, a little voice inside him whispered, but what was a couple to do when their dreams just didn’t mesh? “No one else knows. Just you and Sadie.”
He nodded. “I won’t say anything.”
“I appreciate that.”
“I guess I better get back home,” Joshua said. He loped down the stairs, then stopped and turned back around to face Chris. “You really are coming back?”
He nodded quietly, but felt a pang of guilt in his chest. He had been thinking more and more about Greece and Turkey and all the other little countries over there. How exciting would it be to explore the whole continent?
Maybe this was best. He couldn’t imagine staying away from Wells Landing forever, nor could he imagine not seeing everything that Europe and the Mediterranean had to offer when he had the opportunity.
Now if he could figure out how to tell his parents and find a way to get over Sadie Kauffman.
* * *
Sadie felt as if she were walking in a dream, like her feet weren’t even touching the ground, as Ezra led her back to his pickup truck. They’d had a wonderful dinner sitting and talking.
They had made the rule that they couldn’t talk about their families or the problems that they faced. They could only talk about happy things, and she was glad they had decided that. It was so refreshing to not worry about what her mother thought or his mother thought, or any of the other people around them who didn’t want them to be together at all. It was only about her and Ezra, and it could not have been more special.
Ezra opened the truck door for her, then went around to his side of the vehicle. He slid behind the steering wheel and they were off again. “Where to now?”
Sadie smiled. There was so much she wanted to do that being in Pryor just made it harder. Because there was so much to do.
“Well,” she started. “If it was a little warmer outside I’d say miniature golf.”
Ezra chuckled.
“How about a movie?”
He shook his head. “How about an ice cream instead.”
“Braum’s?”
“Is there any place else?”
“Not as far as I’m concerned.” Sadie smiled.
Five minutes later Ezra pulled his truck into the parking lot at Braum’s Ice Cream and Dairy Store. It was locally owned and arguably the best ice cream in Oklahoma.
They went inside and over to the ice cream counter, looking through the glass shield at the available flavors.
“What’ll you have?” Ezra asked, as the girl approached.
“That banana split sure looks good.”
“After the big meal we just ate, you think you can eat a banana split?” Ezra asked.
The girl behind the counter smiled and patiently waited.
“How about we share one?” Sadie suggested. Ezra was right. She could be completely empty and not be able to eat the entire banana split. Sharing one was the perfect solution.
“Banana split?” the Braum’s worker asked, looking from her to Ezra.
Sadie nodded, and they moved down the line to wait for their ice cream to be made.
“I call the chocolate side,” Ezra said.
“You can’t call it yet,” Sadie said. “We’re sharing, remember?”
“This is chocolate we’re talking about,” he said. “You can have the pineapple part.”
“I don’t like the pineapple part.”
“No one likes the pineapple part,” Ezra said.
“And I want my share of the chocolate part,” Sadie said. “And the strawberry part.”
The young girl behind the counter stopped scooping ice cream and looked at them both. “So no pineapple. How about I add chocolate ice cream with marshmallow sauce?”
“Can you add chocolate ice cream with chocolate sauce?” Sadie asked.
“Of course,” the girl said. She moved down to get the chocolate ice cream.
Sadie looked at Ezra. “That’s my part.”
They ended up sharing all the parts, like she had known they would. But it was fun playing with him, pretending to bicker back and forth about who got the chocolate. All in all the whole evening was the perfect date.
“Coming to Pryor was a really good idea,” Sadie said as they approached the sign that said they were back in Wells Landing. It wasn’t like she could do that all the time, especially not if she was dating someone who was Amish too. They didn’t have cars to take them all the way to Pryor, and each trip would require a driver, which she didn’t think would be quite as much fun as sitting next to Ezra, putting along in his pickup truck.
But they had been right. Pryor was far enough away that their families didn’t haunt them there, and their differences weren’t so obvious to the average onlooker.
“Yeah,” Ezra said. “We need to do this again. Next week?”
“Next week?” Her heart thumped.
“Wednesday is Valentine’s Day.”
“Oh that’s right.” She had forgotten. “I guess it’s dumb to ask if any of our friends are having a party.”
“Not if you want to take the chance and see if they’ll be accepting.”
“Do you think anyone will eventually understand and let this go?” As soon as she said the words, she wished she could call them back. It sounded a little too much like forever, and they had only been on their first real date.
“We can do whatever you want to do,” Ezra said. “If you want to go to the party, then we will go to the party. Or we can go eat.”
“Tex-Mex?”
“You want to drive to Pryor and eat Tex-Mex when you have Ricardo’s on the next street over and two blocks down from you?”
“If Mamm were to see us eating there, I don’t think she would understand.”
“Because she doesn’t like Mexican food?”
“Because she thinks that we need to be eating in the restaurant and not the competition.”
“You consider Ricardo’s her competition?”
“Mamm considers everyone competition.”
Ezra chuckled again. “So what do you say?” he asked. “Are we still on for Wednesday?”
Valentine’s Day with a man at her side? It didn’t get any better than that. “I would love that.”
She saw the flash of Ezra’s smile even in the darkness of the truck’s cab. “Then it’s a date.”
* * *
“Where to?” He had picked her up from the library to help disguise their date, and he didn’t blame her. After all the trouble both of them had gotten from friends and family, it was better this way. They wanted to spend time together and they wanted to get to know each
other better, and sometimes a couple had to do what a couple had to do.
“Everybody should be gone from the restaurant now.”
“You want me to take you home?”
“Would you mind? You can drop me off at the driveway. You don’t have to come down the driveway or to the house or . . .” She was rambling, a sure sign that she was uncomfortable.
“I don’t mind taking you home, and I don’t mind driving down your driveway. It’s not that long.” Maybe a hundred yards. So what had her so upset?
“I don’t want to run into any family drama tonight.”
“Agreed.”
“So drop me off at the entrance of the driveway, and I’ll walk the rest of the way. No one needs to know that you and I were even together tonight.”
Part of him hated that sentence. He didn’t want to sneak around. He wanted to show Sadie to everybody. But keeping everything as low-key as possible was the way to go. The fewer people who knew they were going out, the fewer people there were to send them looks of consternation whenever they walked past.
“Okay, then.” He didn’t want to, but he would. “I’ll leave you at the end of the driveway, as long as you acknowledge that I wouldn’t have done this for any other reason.”
Sadie nodded.
All too soon he slowed the truck to a stop on the road in front of her house. He didn’t want the night to end. It had been so much fun eating and talking and enjoying each other’s company. It was almost like a regular Plain date, only with great food and ice cream.
“So . . .” Sadie said from the seat beside him. She had unbuckled her seat belt and turned slightly so that she was facing him more than she was the front of the truck. “I guess this is where we say good night.”
Good night. This was the part of the date where he would lean over and give her a good night kiss. But he couldn’t. He shouldn’t have kissed her the other day. Things were moving way too fast between them, and he needed to put a slow block on it as soon as possible.
“Yes. Well, good night.” He hated the flash of hurt he saw in her eyes. And the next thing he knew she was frantically reaching for the door handle to get out.
“Sadie, no, don’t.” He grabbed her arm just as she was about to tumble from the cab. “Don’t.”
“I don’t understand.” She sounded close to tears. And he had to admit this whole journey had been nothing but a roller-coaster ride of emotion.
He smoothed a hand across the side of her face. Thankfully there were no tears. “I can’t kiss you tonight.”
“You can’t? You won’t?”
Ezra chuckled. The sound was derisive to his own ears. “Both. We need to take things slower. The other night . . .” He trailed off. “The other night I pushed things too fast, and I don’t want to do that with you.”
“What if I said it’s not too fast?”
He shook his head. “I’ve made up my mind. This is how it’s going to be.” Unable to stop himself, he ran his thumb across the softness of her lips, then leaned in to kiss her forehead. “Now get on in there before someone decides to come see what’s going on out here.”
She swallowed hard, then gave one nod and slid away from him. She was out of the truck and the door was shut before he had time to protest. Not that he could. It had to be this way. As much as he hated it, as much as he wanted to kiss her until neither one of them could breathe, he couldn’t. Maybe one day, maybe soon, when they convinced their friends and family that this love building between them was worthy and good. Maybe then they could get married. And when that happened, he was never letting her go.
Chapter Fifteen
Sadie knocked lightly on the office door and entered after her mother’s summons. The room was as crowded as usual, boxes stacked up and paper records on every available surface, but Lorie’s fiancé, Zach Calhoun, had started his own accounting business and was slowly doing his best to work through the tangle of papers in the office.
Mamm sat back in her seat and gave Sadie an uncomfortable once-over. “Well now, my Sadie, you seem to have something on your mind today.”
Sadie nodded. “I need Wednesday off, please.” She figured professionalism was the way to go. She had a request, and she delivered it. Now with any luck, Mamm wouldn’t ask her where she was going.
“For what?”
“I just need off, please.”
Mamm frowned. “I depend on you to work here on Wednesday nights. You already have Thursday night off.”
“I’ll switch, then. I’ll work Thursday if you let me have Wednesday off.”
“And where are you going again?”
“Just out.” Why did she have to ask that many questions? Maddie Kauffman was one of the most protective mothers in the district, as far as Sadie and her siblings were concerned; why couldn’t she have picked tonight to let things drop? After all, Sadie was nearly twenty-three years old. She should be able to go someplace without having to tell her mother every little detail of the outing.
“I’ll consider giving you the night off, but I think you need to be honest with me.”
“Mamm, I just need the night off. I will work Thursday. And Friday too, if you need me. But I can’t work Wednesday.”
Mamm looked at the calendar on her desk, then back up at Sadie. “That’s Valentine’s Day.”
“We don’t normally get any more traffic from Valentine’s Day than we do any other time of the year. It’s not like this is a romantic restaurant that people use to celebrate big events.” They served home-cooked meals. The people they would be getting in would be girls wishing they had a Valentine come to drown their sorrows in mashed potatoes and gravy.
“I don’t know, Sadie. I think I need you.”
“I think you’re being unfair.”
“You do?” Maddie took off her reading glasses, a sure sign that she was serious about whatever she had to say. Then again, Mamm was usually serious about everything. “Fair has nothing to do with this. I gave you the schedule you requested. You are part of this family. That’s what you work and that’s what you will continue to work.”
Sadie growled in frustration. “Fine. Forget it.”
She left her Mamm’s office, fuming with her mother’s stubborn streak. Sadie shouldn’t have to detail her every move to her mother. She was old enough to make her own decisions and old enough to go out when she wanted to without having to have a hundred questions thrown at her. Was that too much to ask?
She hit the waitress station as Melanie came through the door. Her sister was all bright smiles, but that was typical. Being a newlywed, Melanie was always smiling. Of course, if she had so recently gotten married, Sadie would be smiling too, so she couldn’t begrudge her sister that.
“Hey, sister. You look angry.”
“I’m just frustrated.” Sadie shook her head. “I have a dinner date Wednesday night, and Mamm won’t let me have off.”
“I can work for you.”
“You will? I mean, it’s Valentine’s Day. Don’t you and Noah have plans?”
“We’re waiting till Friday to celebrate. I don’t mind coming in and helping out.”
“That would be fantastic, Melanie. You’ll never know how much that means to me.”
Melanie shrugged. “What are sisters for?”
* * *
Wednesday couldn’t come quick enough as far as Sadie was concerned. She didn’t tell Mamm that Melanie was going to work for her. She was still angry about the whole situation. She was a grown adult, and she should be able to ask for a night off without having to endure an interrogation. She was fairly certain murder suspects didn’t get as many questions asked of them as her mother had asked her about Valentine’s Day night.
Of course, it didn’t help that she didn’t want to answer those questions. If she told Mamm she was planning to go out with Ezra Hein, Mamm would probably lock Sadie in her room to keep her home.
Sadie smoothed her hands down her dress. It was her favorite, a pretty blue color somewhere between r
oyal and the midnight sky. It was not her mourning attire, but she was tired of it and she was going on a date. Besides, her father wouldn’t care. It was only a couple more months before their mourning officially ended, and just because she was wearing a blue dress didn’t mean she didn’t miss her father. She would miss him till the day she died too. But for now she wanted to look good for Ezra, and looking good meant not wearing that ugly black dress.
She smoothed her hair down one more time, checked her teeth once again to make sure they were sparkling white and clean, then let herself out of the bathroom. Everyone else was at work. They wouldn’t miss her for another hour or two. By then she would be long gone to Pryor with Ezra Hein at her side.
Thankfully she had the house to herself so he wouldn’t have to worry about picking her up someplace odd. It made her feel a little better to know that he was coming to her house like a real date, like people who had parents that approved of the person they were dating and didn’t get hung up on things that weren’t important like whether or not he was a Mennonite.
Everyone acted like she was going to automatically marry him. If she did, they would work through it all. He was Mennonite. It wasn’t like he was Englisch. He could easily become Amish, and they would live together happily, side by side.
She scooped up her purse from the back of the kitchen chair, grabbed her coat, and headed out for the door.
Standing on the porch, she slipped her arms into the black wool and hoped that Ezra would get there soon. She was so excited to have such a date. Normally, she would’ve gone over to somebody’s house and played games and exchanged Valentines, eaten heart-shaped cookies, and in general had a good time. But Ezra’s plan was better. Dinner in Pryor and something fun afterward. After all, how fun would it be to go to a party where nobody wanted them there? Since his friends didn’t want anything to do with her and her friends didn’t want anything to do with him, they would spend the evening by themselves. Come to think of it, she liked it that way.