She attended Sunday services but she hadn't yet been baptized into the church. That wasn't unusual. Sometimes people waited to be sure. Once they'd joined, if they changed their minds it meant they couldn't stay, that they'd be shunned. So such serious decisions merited serious consideration. Marriage, too. Once entered into, they were for life, so most didn't rush to marry in their teens.
Mary Katherine wasn't even dating.
Maybe there was no need to worry that Daniel or some other man would be stepping in there before him to try to date her. And why had he even worried about Daniel? He'd be leaving soon, after he took care of selling the family farm.
Relieved, Jacob resumed eating and even found himself nodding when the waitress returned to ask if anyone wanted dessert. He ordered a slice of pumpkin pie and sat back with a second cup of coffee to listen to Mary Katherine talked animatedly about her weaving.
"How are your parents?" Daniel asked.
Jacob realized that he was talking to him. "They're fine.Daed still helps me with the farm." As the youngest son, he'd been given the opportunity to buy it when his father stopped working on it full-time. They hadn't moved into the dawdi haus behind the main house yet. Jacob didn't see the point of that until he married.
"What about your parents? I guess they're liking it in Florida if they're selling the property?"
"They love it. Mamm was so tired of the snow here."
He set down his fork and wiped his mouth with his napkin."If you'll excuse me, I should check the weather back home."
From his pocket he drew out a cell phone, one Mary Katherine recognized as the latest fancy kind she often saw the Englisch tourists carrying. Flipping it open, he tapped his forefinger on the screen and a dizzying series of images flashed past. Pausing on one, he studied the screen.
"You use that site?" Jacob asked, leaning forward for a closer look. He pulled out his own cell phone and copied Daniel's steps. "I do, too."
"You men with the cell phones," Mary Katherine said. "You don't see us women using them."
"That's because we're the ones in business," Daniel murmured and then his head jerked up when he apparently realized what he'd said. "I mean, we're just usually the ones who have to conduct business and—"
Mary Katherine just raised her eyebrows. Jacob chuckled as he watched Daniel redden.
"It's alright," she told him. "I'm sure you've noticed that even with us Plain folk that there have been some changes.Women have taken care of the business of the home for years so it's only natural that they are in business outside the home sometimes."
She leaned closer to see what the two men were so interested in on the cell phone. "What's that?"
"AgWired.com."
"It's for agriculture?" Mary Katherine asked slowly.
Daniel looked up. "Ya."
"But you're selling your farm here."
"But I farm in Florida."
"I thought people just raised oranges there."
Daniel laughed. "Some people do. We raise celery among other things." He tapped the screen again and a photo of a farm house popped up. "That's the house. And here's one of the fields."
Jacob watched Mary Katherine. She'd seemed interested when Daniel talked about Florida earlier but now, as she gazed at the phone, a stillness came over her face.
"Very nice." She stood. "I have to go. I've been away from the shop longer than I should have been."
She pulled some money from her pocket and put it on the table. "I'll see you both later."
Jacob got to his feet but she was already hurrying toward the door. When Daniel looked at him, his eyebrows raised in a question, Jacob shook his head and shrugged.
The little bell over the door tinkled as Mary Katherine entered the shop. She hurried to hang up her bonnet and coat."I'm sorry I was gone so long."
"You weren't," her grossmudder assured her. "And it's been slow."
"Did you have a good time with Jacob?" Naomi asked, her eyes sparkling with mischief.
Mary Katherine stopped. "How do you know I bumped into Jacob?" She narrowed her eyes. "Or wasn't it an accident that I bumped into him?"
Shrugging, Naomi pushed a needle through the quilt she was working on.
"Naomi?"
She looked up, the picture of innocence. "Yes, Grossmudder?"
"Are you matchmaking?"
Naomi blinked. "No, Grossmudder."
Mary Katherine moved to stand near Naomi. She put her hands on her hips and gave her a stern look. "So our running into each other was a coincidence?"
"No." She knotted the thread and resumed sewing. "He asked what time we ate dinner each day and I told him we ate at the shop but you liked to take a walk about noon each day."
"I see."
Naomi's lips twitched and then she started giggling. "I'm sorry. But I saw the two of you talking last Sunday and you seemed interested in him."
"Mary Katherine's interested in someone?" Anna asked as she walked out of the supply room. "Here, can you help me with these bolts of fabric?"
Taking several of the bolts that were threatening to slip from Anna's grasp, Mary Katherine took them to the cutting table. Anna began unfolding a bolt and pulled a pair of scissors from a drawer.
"I'm not interested in Jacob," Mary Katherine told Naomi. "I was polite. Nothing more."
"You were gone a long time." Naomi glanced up and batted her eyelashes. "That must have been some walk."
Mary Katherine walked over to the window and looked out. "We ran into Daniel—" she stopped and looked at Naomi.
"I haven't talked to Daniel," Naomi said quickly.
Nodding, Mary Katherine glanced out the window again."Daniel and Jacob hadn't eaten so I sat with them and had some tea."
Frowning, she walked over to her loom, sat down, and picked up the stick shuttle. She ran her fingers over the smooth wood and felt peace settling over her as she sat in her favorite place in the world. Reaching out, she stroked the fibers that were the color of the ocean.
"You were with two handsome men?"
"Naomi, enough teasing!" Leah said sternly.
"Yes, Grossmudder."
Mary Katherine felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up.
"Are you allrecht, liebschen?" her grossmudder asked, her blue eyes filled with concern.
"I'm fine." She looked over her design for a moment.
"Did Jacob say something to upset you?"
She shook her head.
"Daniel?"
She shook her head.
"Then—?"
"I'm sure they'll be very happy together," Mary Katherine muttered.
Anna's scissors clattered to the table. "Are you saying that Jacob and Daniel are—um, not liking women?" she stammered and her face went as scarlet as a rotrieb.
Mary Katherine laughed and then she sighed. "Nee. I doubt they think about women much. Farming holds too much of their hearts."
The bell over the door jingled merrily as someone opened it.Mary Katherine glanced over and was surprised to see Daniel and Jacob entering the shop.
Anna greeted Daniel with a smile and after speaking with him a moment, led him to a display of yarns. Mary Elizabeth remembered that he'd said he wanted to get a gift for his mother.
Jacob stood by the front counter and looked over at Mary Katherine with that intense look of his. "He seems very interested in you," Leah murmured.
"It doesn't matter," Mary Katherine said, pulling her gaze from him and returning to her weaving. "I told you. He's in love with farming."
Leah stared at her, perplexed. "There's something wrong with farming? Your father is a farmer."
Then she paused. "Oh, I see the problem," she said slowly.
"Do you?" asked Mary Katherine. She stopped and stared at the multicolored pattern on the loom before her, wishing she could find one for her own life. Lifting her gaze, she looked into her grossmudder's eyes. "Do you?"
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A Time for Peace Page 23