The Amish Quiltmaker’s Unattached Neighbor (The Amish Quiltmaker #6)

Chapter 13

E nos Hoover was the most insensitive, proud, horrible man in the whole world, and she wasn’t letting him get away without giving him a piece of her mind. Ada jumped from her chair, threw open the door, and ran down the back porch steps hot on Enos’s heels. “Enos Hoover, how dare you!”

He turned around, shock completely overtaking his features. “How dare I what?”

She was so mad, she poked him hard in the chest with her index finger. “How dare you!”

He wrapped his hand around her wrist. “What are you doing?”

Pepper jumped to his feet and barked at Enos and then Ada and then both of them together. The goats ran around and around bleating and carrying on as if a coyote had gotten into the yard.

Ada yanked her wrist from Enos’s grasp and almost fell backward. “How dare you pay me ten dollars a day to feed your horse.”

He looked at her as if she was a crazy woman. “That’s all I can afford, Ada, and I can’t even really afford that.”

She wanted to pull her hair out. She opted instead to try to fell him with her dirtiest look. “I’m your closest neighbor. I’m supposed to be your friend. You don’t pay a friend to help you out. She does it because she likes you and wants to support you in your time of need. Do you have such a low opinion of me that you don’t think I’d take care of Goshen unless you paid me?”

“I hate asking people for favors. I hate not pulling my weight.”

“Not pulling your weight? Enos, you pull ten times your weight plus four horses. I am your friend. There’s not much I can do, but when I can do it, I would appreciate it if you’d let me help. Has our friendship meant nothing to you? Am I no better than an employee? I’m so mad I could spit in your eye.”

“That doesn’t seem very friendly.”

“Oh, be quiet. You don’t know anything about anything.”

He dared to come close enough to wrap his hands around her upper arms. “If you’d stop throwing a fit, I’d be able to answer your twenty questions.”

“A fit? A fit ?” Ada nearly kicked over the goats’ water bucket before she realized that she was indeed throwing a fit. She stepped back and brushed an errant lock of hair from her face. She was better than this. She was a rational, no-nonsense, mature woman, and violence was not the answer, even if she wanted to kill Enos with her bare hands. He was too close. She shoved him away from her. “Ten dollars a day is probably the biggest insult I’ve ever heard. You, Enos Hoover, are the absolute worst.”

“The absolute worst what?”

She growled. “ Ach , it’s an expression Clay uses.”

“Ada, our friendship means everything to me, and I don’t want to take advantage of it.” He kneaded his forehead with the tips of his fingers. “You’re right. I don’t know what I was thinking.”

“You were thinking that you are an island and that nobody cares about you.”

He nodded. “I’m sorry I offended you, Ada.”

“You didn’t offend me. I don’t get offended.”

“You could have fooled me.”

She gave him the stink eye. “I’m not offended. I’m frustrated that you think you don’t have a friend in the world.”

Enos knelt down and gave Pepper a good pat. Pepper immediately stopped barking and leaned into Enos’s hand. “No one except my dat has ever done anything for me without expecting something in return. It’s easy to forget that not everyone is like my bruderen and my mamm .”

Thank Derr Herr for that. Ada opened her mouth and let the words escape before she thought too hard about them. “Do you really have to go get your mamm ?”

He narrowed his eyes. “Why wouldn’t I?”

“Your mater and bruderen have despitefully used you over and over again. Your mater is so cruel, I can’t stand the sound of her voice. Your bruderen have misused and mistreated you and have never cared about anything but themselves.”

“That’s why I need to take care of my mater . My bruderen don’t care. She’s a hard woman, but she deserves to be treated with respect and kindness, no matter how she treats me.”

“But your bruderen need to learn that lesson too.”

“Zeb doesn’t have the patience,” he said, “and John can’t spare the time. Mamm doesn’t realize it, but they will only disappoint her.”

Ada laid a hand on Enos’s arm. “Then let them disappoint her. You can’t protect her from reality, especially when she is so mean to you. Your mater is determined to be miserable in Colorado. In Pennsylvania at least she thinks she’ll be happy.”

He swiped his hand across his mouth. “At least until my bruderen show their true colors. Her heart will break in two.”

“And what about your heart? Your mater has already shattered it. Doesn’t your happiness mean anything? Your mater will never be happy in Colorado, and you will never be happy if she is here. She’s not going to be happy in Pennsylvania, but it would be gute for her to find that out on her own. Quit letting her hurt you. It’s time to hand that burden to your bruderen and live your own life.”

“Lilith and Ardy won’t stand for it, and that’s what it comes down to.”

“I don’t know, maybe I would feel the same way if I were in their shoes, but they’re passing their problem on to you and making you feel guilty about it.”

He flinched as if she’d spit in his face. What had she done to elicit that sort of reaction? “Like you said, I don’t know anything about anything, but I do know that Gotte commands us to honor our parents. I know what I have to do.”

“She doesn’t honor you, Enos, and you can’t save her from herself. She will never see you as the gute son, even though you are the only son who is even trying. It’s time to pick up the pieces of your life and let your mamm be responsible for hers.”

He seemed to hear her words with increasing resentment. “What do you know about me and my family? You don’t understand, and you never will.” The bitterness in his voice made her step back. “You camp out on my farm for weeks, and you think you have the right to tell me how to live my life?”

Ada backed away from her righteous indignation. Enos wasn’t listening. “I’m sorry if you think I’m trying to tell you how to live your life. I was just making an observation.”

Enos wasn’t one to lose his temper, but his cold, formal stare and stiff posture were almost worse, as if Ada and her opinions weren’t worth his time, as if he was the superior person in every way, and she was an annoying gnat in his ear. “An observation?” he said coolly. “Let me make an observation. My mamm criticizes everything I do. That is true enough, but you treat Beth the same way. Nothing she does is right. She can’t get a kind word from you no matter how many cheese logs she rolls or potato seeds she plants. Her toilets are never gute enough, and the kitchen is always too dirty for your critical eye.”

He couldn’t have surprised her more if he’d lashed her across the face. Was that truly what he thought of her? “I don’t . . . that’s not true. I love Beth.”

“But you’re always waiting for her to do something wrong. She makes cheese in secret because she knows you don’t think she’s capable. I know how that feels, Ada, and it’s exhausting.”

If it had been his plan to put her on the defensive, he’d succeeded. “Are you saying I’m just like your mamm ? Ach , how you must hate me.”

He looked down at his feet. “I don’t hate my mamm .”

Everything he didn’t say knocked the wind out of her.

She stood there looking at him. He stood there looking at her, breathing heavily as if he’d just run five miles. Ada couldn’t have said a word if her life depended on it.

He balled his hands into fists, his tension pulling tight across his shoulders. “Don’t trouble yourself about my horse. I’ll find someone else to feed him while I’m away.” And with that goodbye, he was gone. Out the gate and out of her life.