breath. “I’m just thinking that it’s time we either got back together or . . .” she trailed off.
“Or?”
“Or I need to move on and find someone else. I want what you have, Lavina. Oh, I’m not coveting what you have,” she rushed to say. “You know that. I just want to be with a man I love. Make a home, a family.”
“I know. And I understand. Maybe we can find a way for the two of you to have a moment alone to talk.”
Mary Elizabeth grinned at her. “Playing matchmaker?”
Lavina returned her grin. “Just returning the favor, dear schweschder. Just returning the favor.”
“You’re welcome,” Mary Elizabeth said.
She set the tray on the kitchen table. “Why don’t you help me make supper?”
“Schur. What do you need me to do?”
“The men will be hot from working in the field. Let’s find something that will be lighter. Maybe something cold. I already made two pies for dessert. Peach.”
“Sam’s favorite.”
“David’s, too.”
Mary Elizabeth walked over to the refrigerator and perused its contents, perfectly at home in her schweschder’s kitchen.
“We could make a big bowl of potato salad and add cubes of this leftover ham and maybe some cheddar cheese,” she said. “Add some rolls and the pies and that’s a nice meal.”
“You’re right. Get the potatoes and we’ll start boiling them.”
The two of them made fast work of chopping celery, onion, ham, and cheese. Lavina swayed when she turned from washing the potatoes at the sink. Mary Elizabeth grasped her shoulders and pushed her down into a chair.
“Are you allrecht?”
“Fine, fine.” Lavina took a deep breath. “Just moved too quickly.”
“Maybe I should get David.” She didn’t like how pale her schweschder’s face had gotten.
“Nee, it’s nothing. I mean it, I don’t want him to worry.”
“You stay put,” Mary Elizabeth insisted when Lavina started to rise. “If you don’t sit and rest for a few minutes, I’ll call David.”
“Allrecht, allrecht. Get the potatoes and let’s get them peeled.”
They peeled the potatoes and cubed them. Mary Elizabeth put them in a pan filled with water and set it on the stove.
She sat down at the table. “Lavina?”
“Ya?”
“Are you—?”
“Am I what?”
“You know.”
“Nee, I don’t know.” She looked innocently at Mary Elizabeth.
“Having a boppli!” Mary Elizabeth hissed. Honestly, how dense could someone be?
“Sssh,” Lavina said, glancing at the door of the dawdi haus. She frowned and looked thoughtful. “Oh my, do you think . . . ?” she trailed off.
“I don’t know. Do you think?”
A smile bloomed on Lavina’s face. “Oh my,” she breathed. “Maybe.”
They sat there for a long time grinning at each other until they heard the rumble of thunder. Mary Elizabeth jumped up and poked at the potatoes. Done. She drained them and put them in a bowl over another filled with ice to quickly cool them. Once they were cool enough, she added mayonnaise, the chopped vegetables, ham, and cheese. A quick stir and it went into the refrigerator to chill.
She looked out the kitchen window. The men were still working in the fields, casting glances up at the sky as they did. She set the table and made sure they had two pitchers of iced tea waiting in the refrigerator.
She couldn’t wait until supper was finished and she could talk to Sam.
One way or another, she’d know what to do after this evening.
Chapter 2
2
Sam didn’t want to run into Mary Elizabeth again, but there was no avoiding it.
He opened the screen door and sure enough, there she was sitting at the kitchen table talking with Lavina.
She glanced at the clock. “Finished for the day?”
“No. I cut my hand, and David insisted I come in and take care of it.” He strode over to the kitchen sink and turned on the tap.
She got up and came to stand beside him. “That looks deep.”
“It’s not bad.”
Lavina poked in a kitchen cupboard and brought over a first aid kit. “You don’t want to risk infection.” She set it down on the kitchen counter beside the sink. “See that he takes care of it,” she told Mary Elizabeth. “I’m going to go change.”
“No need to fuss,” he told Mary Elizabeth. “I know to be careful. We get minor cuts on the construction job site all the time.”
She snapped open the lid on the kit. “It’s not fussing.”
He soaped the cut, wincing as it stung, then ran water over it until the suds ran down the sink and the cut stopped bleeding. She handed him a paper towel to dry his hand and then squirted a line of antibacterial ointment on the cut and wrapped it with gauze.
“There,” she said, taping the gauze to hold it in place. “But how are you going to keep it clean and dry out in the fields?” she asked, tilting her head to one side to study his hand. “Hmmm.”
Then her expression brightened. She reached into a cupboard and pulled out some plastic gloves. “Here, wear this over it while you’re working.”
He started to object but she was right—no point in cleaning and bandaging the cut and then going out and exposing it to more dirt and manure in the fields.
“Thanks,” he said, avoiding her eyes.
“Wilkumm.” She busied herself putting the gauze and ointment back into the first aid kit and snapped it shut.
The sound seemed loud in the quiet kitchen.
Sam stood there awkwardly. He’d returned home for Christmas and had had to tell her that it was temporary, that he wasn’t back to stay like David.
He’d never forget seeing the hurt he caused. Tears had welled up in her eyes, and she’d rushed from the room. He hadn’t seen her again until David asked for his help with the spring planting today.
And he’d walked into the kitchen and there she sat talking with Lavina. The hurt was still there in her eyes . . . Mary Elizabeth had always been more assertive, more outspoken than her schweschders. So he wasn’t surprised when she’d stayed after Lavina left the room to change, obviously giving them some time alone.
He turned to leave.
“Sam?”
“Ya?” He regarded her warily.
“I want to talk to you.”
He glanced out the window. David and John were still working in the fields, more quickly now. “Now’s not a gut time. We’re trying to finish before it rains.”
A rumble of thunder sounded overhead as if to confirm what he said. Her gaze shifted to the view out the kitchen window. Clouds scudded overhead.
“Allrecht,” she said. “After supper.”
It was a statement not a question. Ordinarily he might not have liked that but he figured he owed her that.
“After