Jane closed the door.
Alone, again.
She walked over to the fireplace, picked up a poker, and jabbed at the fire. Then she settled back into the couch feeling full of chocolate cake. She closed her eyes and drifted into a deep sleep.
An hour later, Jane woke and saw from the clock above the mantle that it was half past twelve.
It was time for lunch, but she wasn't hungry after those two pieces of chocolate cake and the coffee. It was too cold to go outside and wander around and she couldn't write letters because she only wrote letters to Jessica and Matt and they were right here.
When Sadie arrived at four, driven in Matt’s buggy, Jane couldn’t have been more pleased to see them. Matt must’ve collected Sadie from wherever the ladies were having their get-together. She opened the front door smiling, until she saw their faces.
“Is something wrong?” she asked when they got closer.
“We do have news,” Sadie said.
“You haven’t heard any ‘news’ yourself?” Matt asked.
Jane frowned. “About what?”
Sadie sighed and looked over at Matt. “She doesn’t know.”
“What is it?” Now Jane was worried.
“Let's all go inside and we’ll tell you.”
When they were all seated, Sadie said, “I was at Elsie’s place.”
“That’s where the charity meeting was held?” Jane asked wondering if she’d already been told.
“Jah, that’s right, Lanie’s mudder’s.”
“Okay, go on. What happened?”
“Just as we were about to go, Lanie arrived with Isaac and they had a very odd announcement to make.”
“About what?” Jane looked at Matt hoping he’d tell her. He looked away.
“Isaac …” Sadie's voice trailed off.
“Just tell me.”
“It’s okay, Mamm. I’ll tell her. Isaac and Lanie are getting married.”
Jane sprang to her feet. “It can’t be. She was here this morning. We ate chocolate cake and talked about …. Nothing in particular. Nee. It’s not right. He asked me.”
Sadie stood up. “I’m sorry, Jane. I need to lie down.” Sadie patted her shoulder and then left the room.
“Are you okay?” Matt asked.
Jane didn’t know how to answer. She opened her mouth but no words came out. This was the man she was going to consider marrying when Matt married someone, but now that option was gone. Soon, Matt would marry and there’d be no hope for her. Her mouth turned down at the corners and she couldn’t stop the tears.
He moved toward her and wrapped his arms around her and she sobbed on his shoulder. In between her tears, she managed to say, “I’m sorry. I’m being so selfish. You might’ve been about to choose Lanie and now she’s gone. It’s all Isaac’s fault. If only he hadn’t come.”
He smiled at her and pushed back some golden-red strands of hair that had fallen over her face. “I wasn’t going to choose Lanie.”
She put her head back onto his shoulder and sobbed some more. Jane was too upset about Isaac for Matt to tell her the truth.
He’d promised his mother this coming Christmas was going to be her best ever. The thing she wanted most was for him to marry. He’d let everyone down, most of all Jane. It was his fault that Isaac had come to this community and met Lanie. He wrapped his arms tightly around Jane, feeling her pain. “It’s okay. It’ll all be okay.” All he could do was comfort her. If only she loved him as much as she’d loved Isaac.
“Let’s sit over here.” He guided her back to the couch. “I know this has all been a shock to you Jane, but I need to confess something to you.”
She held her head. “I don’t know if I can take any more surprises.”
“Okay, I won’t tell you.”
“Nee. You have to tell me now that you’ve told me there’s something to tell me.”
He smiled at her. “I know I’m not Isaac, but I need to tell you… Jane, I’ve loved you all my life. When you left you broke my heart.”
She stared at him not able to believe her ears. “Why didn’t you ever say …”
“I figured if you loved me you wouldn’t have left. I thought long and hard about going to see you and telling you how I felt, but I couldn’t bear the thought of a possible rejection. I knew that if you loved me you would’ve stayed.”
“So, what are you saying? I don’t understand. You love me?”
“I do, Jane.”
“What was all this about me helping you choose a fraa?”
“Don’t be angry. It was an elaborate ruse to get you back. I thought if you saw I was serious about marrying someone else, that might spark some jealousy in you. Or you might look at me with different eyes.” He shook his head. “It was a silly idea. I know that now.”
“I don’t know why you didn’t just come out and tell me.”
“Fear. Plain old fear. Would you have rejected me, Jane, all those years ago?”
“Nee. I wouldn’t have. You’re the reason I left.”
“Me?”
“Jah. We grew apart and I saw no hope. The only thing I could do was leave and see if you missed me.” Jane held her head unable to believe what was going on. “What do these five women think?”
“They’ve been in on it the whole way along. Lanie even helped me refine the plan.”
Jane shook her head. She wanted to be angry, but he had done all this because he loved her. “It was a crazy thing to do.” Tears filled her eyes, but this time they were happy tears.
“Love has made me crazy.”
“Love?”
“Jah. I’m in love with you, Jane. Since we were children. I always thought we’d marry, assumed it even. Then we grew apart. I thought you weren’t interested and then you left me.”
“It was you who showed no interest in me. A man should pursue a woman and not the other way around. I was waiting for you.”
“What you say is right, but back then I was too scared, too nervous and I put it off. I’ve lived for the letters you sent every week.”
“Me too. For yours, I mean.”
He smiled and took her hand. “Do you mean, you feel the same?”
“I do,” she said through her tears. “I don’t think I was crying about Isaac. I was crying because of …”
“It doesn’t matter. I never saw you with him. It didn’t mean that I wasn’t jealous. The first time I’ve ever had that emotion in my life.” Then, he reached out his hand and she took hold of it. “Jane, will you marry me?”
She looked right into his eyes. Her heart pumped so hard she felt she was going to burst. This was all she’d ever wanted. Was it really happening, or was she going to wake up and realize it had all been a dream?
“What do you say, Jane?” he asked.
“I say … jah, I will marry you, Matt Yoder.”
He laughed and pulled her to her feet, then he lifted her into his arms and swung her in a circle, as though she was as light as a feather. He placed her down and they looked into each other’s eyes. “I love you, Jane, always have. Now, everything is right with me.”
“That’s something I’ve always wanted to hear because I love you, too, and I always have, too.”
He lowered his head slowly until their lips touched. Then he encircled his arms about her and held her close.
“I can’t wait to start our lives together. I feel we’ve wasted so much time, when we could’ve been married already.”
A giggle spilled out of Jane’s lips. “I know what you mean.”
“Let’s tell my mother.”
“She’ll be so shocked. She’s upset with you for having me here to help you choose a fraa.”
“I know. She’s made that quite clear. She’ll be delighted to know the truth.”
“I can’t believe that all of this was made up. Mind you, I didn’t think it made any sense.”
He laughed. “It made no sense at all. I saw the disapproval on your face and I’m so glad you didn’t turn around and leave on the next Greyhound out of town. That was when I saw there might be some hope for me.”
“I thought about it. None of the women seemed a good match to me. Except maybe Marcy, or possibly Lanie. Now, Lanie’s marrying Isaac.”
“Maybe that’s why we had to wait.”
“What do you mean?”
“What other reason would Isaac have found to come here? If he never came, he never would’ve met Lanie.”
“That’s right. I never thought of that.”
“Everything happens in Gott’s timing and for His purpose.”
“It used to annoy me so much when I heard people say that. I’m the kind of person who doesn’t like to wait. It seemed I was the one who had to wait for things all the time. But now I know that He does answer prayers even if sometimes we have to wait a little longer.”
“There’s no more waiting for us, Jane. Let’s get married as soon as we can. You will move back here, won’t you?”
“I will. I never really wanted to leave.”
“Does that mean … I can’t believe it’s all happening. I made crazy plans trying to jolt you into loving me. Trying to make you jealous, trying to make you think about me as a possible husband.”
“You didn’t need to do any of it.” She took a deep breath. “I’ve always loved you and no one else.”
The corners of his lips turned upward just slightly. “Not Isaac?”
She shook her head. “He’s a neighbor and a friend. I don’t know what he was thinking when I left, but there was certainly nothing between us, ever.”
“Why did you move away from here? Tell me exactly what went through your head?”
“I was twenty-five, Matt. I don’t know how you remember it. I felt there was nothing here for me. My parents were gone. My siblings were gone. You never looked twice at me back then.”
“You might be right. I was focused on building up the produce business.”
“Whatever you were doing, it didn’t involve me.”
“I was stupid. Senseless. Forgive me. I never meant to ignore you. I think I never expected you to leave.”
“You had some girlfriends.”
“Never.”
“I saw you with Molly and Meredith Schultz.”
He grunted. “I forgot about them. Their bruder asked me to show them some attention. I was never interested in either of them. I only had each of them in my buggy the once.” He smiled at her. “You loved me back then, so long ago?”
“I always loved you.”
“I wish I had known that back then. It seems that so much time has gone by, like water rushing under a bridge. We can’t stop the rushing water, but maybe we can jump in the river and see where it takes us.”
“As long as you’re by my side I’m willing to jump with you.” She stared into his dark chocolate-colored eyes.
“You will?” His lips curved upward.
“I will.”
“When?”
“Whenever.”
“As soon as we can?”
Jane nodded. “Definitely.”
He wrapped his arms around her, and she prayed a silent prayer of thanks. Gott had finally answered her prayers. She nestled her head against his warm shoulder and shivered.
“You’re cold.” He held her tighter.
“A little.”
“I never want to let you go. Never want to let you be far from me again.”
That suited Jane.
“The first person we should tell is Mamm.”
“Let her rest awhile.”
“She’ll be delighted. She’s always dropped hints about you.”
Jane giggled. “That’s good. I’ll have to thank her for that.”
Sadie walked out of her bedroom. “What’s all the noise?”
They jumped apart and then smiled at one another. Sadie eyed them suspiciously.
“Mamm, let’s sit down for a minute.”
She stared at Jane and Jane couldn’t keep the smile from her face.
“Okay, we can sit,” Sadie said, hurrying to the couch.
When they were all seated, Matt said, “Jane has agreed to marry me.”
“For real this time?”
“Jah, for real. This is really happening.”
Sadie squealed, jumped up and hurried over to them both and hugged them. “This is the best news I’ve ever heard. I'm as happy as the day your vadder asked me to marry him. You finally came to your senses, Matt. Jane suits you more than any of those other women. I’m so glad you’ve finally seen that for yourself. Oh, my. There’ll be a wedding. Where shall we hold it? Here, or at your haus, Matt? Oh, so many decisions, so much planning.”
“Mamm, why don’t we have a cup of hot tea before we make those plans?”
“Jah, Matt, gut idea. Now, don’t talk about one thing until I get back.”
Jane supressed a laugh at how excited Sadie was.
Matt leaned toward her and whispered, “And you thought she didn’t talk too much.”
“I’ve never seen her like this,” Jane replied.
“I’m the last of her kinner to get married. I’m sure she came to think she’d never see the day.”
“It’s nice to see her so happy. I’d feel pretty bad if she was disappointed.”
Mr. Grover jumped up onto the couch between them and looked at them both. Then he slowly proceeded to Jane, who was the closest, and curled up in her lap.
“You’ve found a friend.”
“Jah. Mr. Grover and I have a special relationship. We understand each other. I’m sure he thinks that room I’m staying in is his.”
“I think it is. It gets the sun in the morning. I often see him lying on the bed in there, stretched out enjoying some rays. I never knew you were a cat lover.”
“Neither did I until I came to know Mr. Grover.”