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

Chapter 20

A da strapped her headlight over her bandanna, donned her work gloves, and trudged out to the potato field using her hoe and her shovel as walking sticks. It was early, too early to be out of bed, but she wanted to get a head start on the weeding before the sun got too high and the temperature went above eighty.

Ada and Dat had never planted potatoes on their farm before, and Ada was trying to decide if it was worth the trouble, especially since she planned on giving all the potato money to Enos after the harvest.

She wasn’t altogether sure he’d accept it. He’d refused Zeb’s ten thousand dollars last week. Why would he take what he’d told Ada was hers?

Enos couldn’t tell her he loved her, but he was making a complete and adorable pest of himself, and Ada had no one to blame but herself. “Fighting for Ada” apparently meant helping Dat oil the buggy, fixing the chicken coop door, and milking the goats before Ada could get out there to do it in the morning. Enos had left a full pail of milk in the barn every morning for a week, and Ada was starting to feel like a slacker. He was also building something big and important looking against the west side of his house. Maybe an addition, but Ada couldn’t begin to guess where he’d gotten the money for such a project.

She was still too irritated and uncertain to talk to him, though he tried every day to engage her in conversation. He had finally successfully cornered her at gmay and talked to her for a full seven minutes before he was drafted to help load the benches into the church wagon. He was awkward and unsure, but Ada was hopeful that he was fighting for her in his own clumsy way. Or maybe he did truly just want to be friends. She certainly wouldn’t get her hopes up. Getting her heart broken once was quite enough for a lifetime.

Ada got to the edge of the potato field and stopped short. Enos’s one-man tent sat in the middle of the field where Ada’s bigger tent used to be. What did he think he was doing? Was he trying to camp himself to death? Would that man never listen to reason and common sense? Right next to his tent was a three-foot pile of dead weeds. She scanned the potato field with her headlamp. The whole thing had been weeded! Yesterday, the weeds were taking over the field. This morning, they were gone. When had Enos found time to do that? If he’d stayed up all night, she would give him a scolding he’d never forget.

Ada marched right up to Enos’s tent and slapped the top. That man was as stubborn as a mule, and if he wouldn’t look out for his own well-being, Ada would have to. “Enos Hoover, get out here.”

He stirred, and she held her breath as he crawled out of his tent fully clothed with suspenders, hat, and boots in place. Was that man ever unprepared? “Ada, it’s not even five o’clock. Have you no compassion? I only crawled in bed at three this morning.”

“Three? You were up until three?”

He nodded. “I had to finish the weeding. I knew you’d be out here early.”

“What are you doing? I moved my tent weeks ago, and you need your sleep.”

He yawned and stood up, squinting into her headlamp. “If you’re so worried about me getting enough sleep, you shouldn’t have woken me up.”

“I wouldn’t have had to wake you if you hadn’t been sleeping in the middle of my potato field. You said you’d never set foot on my property again.”

He didn’t seem inclined to back down to her. “I said that, but this isn’t your property, and I’m not going to let you get away with stealing it. I have to fight for what’s mine.”

Ada couldn’t keep a smile from twitching at the corners of her mouth. “You think you can play this game better than I can? I invented it.”

He betrayed himself with a soft chuckle. “Is it working?”

“ Nae , now take this tent down, go home, and get some sleep. The sun won’t be up for another hour.”

“You’re my sun, Ada. I don’t need the other kind.”

Ada felt herself blush. Gute thing it was dark and he couldn’t properly see her face because of her headlamp. “Those are very pretty words for a man who’s trespassing on my property.”

“If this is what it takes to win you back, I’ll camp for the rest of my life.”

“You’ll die of exhaustion.”

He folded his arms. “It’s the principle of the thing. A man has to fight for the woman he loves.”

Ada’s heart skipped, and she felt very foolish indeed. Enos couldn’t come right out and say it, but she’d known all along that Enos loved her as much as she loved him. She’d simply been waiting for him to work up the courage to do something about it. Camping out on her property, losing hours of sleep, helping around her farm, were all doing something about it. Weeding her potatoes was doing something about it. Not giving up on her was definitely doing something about it.

She buried her shovel into the dirt. “Maybe I’ll go back to sleep, then. I was planning on weeding, but the job’s been done. You seem determined to work yourself to death.”

“More proof I’m fighting for you.”

Ada laughed. “Okay, okay. I’m getting the message.” Her heart wanted to sing.

Enos bent over and picked up two camp chairs lying by the side of his tent. “Will you join me for breakfast?”

“What are you planning to make?”

“I’ve got marshmallows, bananas, and chocolate chips.”

“Doesn’t sound very nutritious.”

Enos set up the camp chairs, then pulled some firewood from a small pile next to his tent. “Bananas have potassium in them.”

“We could all use more potassium. Do you have kaffee ?”

He nodded. “French roast. Only the best for you, Ada.”

Ada snorted. “You don’t have to work so hard to butter me up. Plain kaffee from the Bent and Dent is gute enough for me.”

He set to making the fire, a pleasantly amused look on his face. He was definitely testing the limits of her patience. “Nothing is gute enough for you.”

She laughed out loud. “How long have you been practicing that line?”

He seemed on the verge of laughter himself. “Only the best for you, Ada.” He ducked into his tent and came out with four bananas, a bag of marshmallows, and a storage container of chocolate.

“You’re well prepared,” she said wryly.

“I had to be ready for anything, and I was hopeful you’d come this way to weed the potatoes.”

“And you weeded for me.”

“Only the best for you, Ada.”

“You can stop saying that. You’ve made your point.”

He grinned like a mischievous boy. “I don’t think I have.”

She studied Enos’s face. “You seem awfully cheerful this morning.” Why was he so chipper? Just a week ago she’d told him she didn’t even want to be friends, and he’d told her he didn’t know how to fight for her.

He piled the wood and struck a match. “I should be. It’s a very special day.”

Ada couldn’t keep her pulse from racing. “Why?” she managed to squeeze out.

“Could you turn that headlamp off? I want to see your face better, and I’m going to go blind.”

She flipped the light off and pulled the strap off her head. It was still pretty dark. Surely he wouldn’t be able to see how red her face was. “Why is it a special day, Enos?”

He held up his hand before throwing a couple of sticks into the fire. “Not yet. Everything has to be ready.” He motioned for her to sit, then pulled his camp chair to face hers. He handed Ada a banana, and they cut the thick skin with plastic knives. After filling their bananas with chocolate and marshmallows, they wrapped them in tinfoil and set them at the edge of the fire on the hot coals.

Enos reached out and took both of Ada’s hands in his. He looked confident enough, but his hands were trembling. She held her breath. He was nervous. She resisted the urge to pull him into her arms and comfort him. “Ada, I thought I had to sacrifice everything to be worthy of Gotte’s love, but I don’t think Gotte would ask me to give up my love for you just to prove my love for Him. He is love. Gotte created me, and He has plans for me. He wants me to have hope and a bright future, not to live my life in despair and misery. I’m finished sacrificing my own happiness for other people, especially when I don’t think Gotte would ever require that of me.”

Ada wanted to kiss him so bad, her fingers tingled at his touch. He was looking at her with such love, she knew what he was going to say before he said it. Her heart beat an uneven rhythm in anticipation.

“You said something the other day that struck me like a brick to the head.”

“Did it hurt?”

He pursed his lips. “You said there weren’t only two choices. You said I didn’t have the courage to find another way. And you were right.”

“Of course I was right.”

“Ada, please don’t talk.”

Laughter burst from her lips. “ Ach , but you’re bossy.”

“I’m trying to say something, and I need you to let me say it.”

Ada closed her mouth and shook her head, but she couldn’t keep from smiling at the earnest, lovesick look on Enos’s face.

“The night after your quilting bee with Mamm, I sat her down and told her everything. I told her that I want to marry you.”

It was all Ada could do to keep from shouting for joy.

“I assured my mamm I would never leave her, but that Gotte has plans for my life, and you are the biggest part of those plans.”

“What did she say?”

Enos shrugged. “She wasn’t happy. She’s afraid you’ll turn out to be just like Lilith and Ardy. I told her that wasn’t possible. You speak your mind and don’t put up with bad behavior, but you are also the most thoughtful, considerate person I know. I told her that it will be much more pleasant if she’s nice, but that even if she makes herself unbearable, there is still a place for her with us.”

“There will always be a place for her.” They hadn’t even married yet, and they were already making plans to accommodate Tabitha. It was a gute thing. Ada could handle Tabitha, and Tabitha was learning to curb her temper and her criticism. Ada had already seen some encouraging changes.

“She got offended at the word unbearable ,” Enos said, “but then she reluctantly admitted that she could be difficult. I was so surprised, I almost choked on my own tongue. She told me I am her favorite son. Not that I believe it for a second, but it must have been very hard for her to say the words. She’s come very far from our first day in Colorado.” He cleared his throat. “She said you’re not a gute cook, and she doesn’t think your quilt stitches are small enough.”

Ada raised an eyebrow. “I know. She chastised my stitches, but hers are bigger. And for sure and certain if she tasted my au gratin potatoes, she wouldn’t be so sure of herself. Or my bread pudding. Does she like bread pudding?”

“I love bread pudding.”

“But what about your mamm ?”

“If you made it, I don’t think she’d admit to liking it.”

For some reason, the thought of Tabitha pretending not to like Ada’s cooking made her smile. “I look forward to the challenge of making something she can’t find fault with, but I won’t to let her disapproval hurt my feelings. For her, criticism is just a bad habit.”

Enos picked up a stick and poked at the fire. “Ada, I don’t mean to be rude, but will you please be quiet so I can get all the way through my story?”

“I was just saying . . .”

“ Ach , vell , hold all your comments until the end.” He took her hand and kissed each one of her knuckles. Ada flew to the moon. “Despite all her protests, Mamm didn’t seem all that upset about the thought of having you for a daughter-in-law.” He squeezed her hand. “Here’s the part that knocked the wind out of me. She told me Dat carefully put away money in a separate bank account for her. She has almost sixty thousand dollars in the bank.”

“What?” Ada said, before clapping her hand over her mouth. No interrupting.

“I’m building her a little apartment attached to our house so she can have her own private space and keep you and me out of her hair. She told me to pay down my debts with any money left over after the addition.”

“That is . . . that is shocking news.”

“I don’t know that my mamm will ever be considered kind or beloved, but she’s softened so much, I hardly recognize her.”

Ada smiled to herself. It took Cathy Larsen, a little sneaking around, and Gotte’s grace to accomplish such a miracle. “Maybe she’s finally seeing you the way Gotte sees you.”

“Maybe I’m finally seeing myself the way Gotte sees me.” The resolve on his face faltered momentarily, and he took a deep breath. “Ada, I have never told anyone I loved them before because I was afraid. I adored my bruderen , but I knew they’d laugh at me if I said anything so sentimental. I didn’t dare say the words to my mater . She would have thrown them on the floor and stomped on them. I was afraid Dat would ignore me or act like it wasn’t important to him. I didn’t have the courage to risk my heart because there was no one worth risking it for, not my parents, not my bruderen , not Gloria Lapp in the third grade.” His lips curled upward. “She liked to chase me around the playground. With one missing foot, I was the only boy she could catch.” Still holding onto her hand, he slid off his chair and knelt at Ada’s feet. Ada almost fainted. “But I know I’m safe with you. You told me you love me, even after I yelled at you for sleeping in the tent all those weeks. Even after I tried to steal six acres. Even after I chastised you for how you treated Beth. Even after I told you to go away and leave me alone.”

“ Ach , du lieva ,” Ada said breathlessly. “I’m an exceptionally forgiving person.”

He laughed, but his hand still trembled in hers. He wasn’t comfortable or confident. “I have behaved very badly, yet you still love me. At least I hope you do.”

“You’re a dummkoff , Enos Hoover. Of course I do.”

In one swift motion, he stood up, pulled her to her feet, and snaked his arms around her waist. “I say this with my whole heart, Ada. I love you. I love you more than I have ever loved anyone or anything. Do you believe me?”

“You’re a dummkoff , Enos Hoover. Of course I do.”

His smile was as wide as the sky. “Then will you marry me?” He didn’t wait for an answer. Pulling her close, he brought his lips down on hers and kissed her so gently and urgently that Ada forgot her own name. She got on her tippy toes, wrapped her arms around his neck, and kissed him back, even though she was still mad at him for taking so long to finally ask.

He pulled away slightly. “I was so eager to kiss you that I didn’t even wait for an answer.” Doubt lined his brow. “Please say yes.”

“I’m sorry to repeat myself, but you are a dummkoff , Enos Hoover. Of course I’ll marry you.”

He laughed. “I’m going to take care of you, Ada. You’ll never have to climb the irrigation system again. You’ll never again have to sleep with the rattlesnakes or face down an angry tractor driver.”

“That was sort of fun. It got my heart pumping.” She gave him a swift kiss. “Let’s take care of each other. You keep me safe. I’ll keep you on your toes.”

He grunted. “Yes, indeed. But no more of your camping out. It’s too hard for me to sleep when I’m on high alert.”

Ada giggled. “High alert? What does that mean?”

“Cathy says it means I’m stressed out. I’ve been stressed out ever since I met you.”

“Only because you’re so fascinated with me.”

He tightened his arms around her. “Very fascinated and very much in love. I’ll never want for another thing in my whole life.”

He kissed her again and again, and Ada kissed him back with her whole heart. The banana boats burned to a crisp.