Gideon stood before his dresser mirror and combed his damp hair. He was glad he’d asked Hannah out a night early. It had been a long, busy week at their shops and they’d had the extra work and concern over John’s arrival.
He studied his appearance in the mirror. His best shirt had mysteriously disappeared from his closet again, so he’d been forced to wear his second-best. He suspected he’d find it on Eli if he went looking, but he didn’t have time for that now.
Maybe he needed to start hiding it.
He grabbed his wallet, checked its contents to make schur he had enough cash for tonight, and started downstairs. He wasn’t worried Eli had borrowed any money. His bruder borrowed his shirts but he never borrowed anything else. Eli just didn’t like having to deal with chores like washing and ironing and cooking. With their mudder away he was forced to do his own cooking and laundry.
It was no wonder Eli had welcomed all the baked goods the maedels in the community dropped by. He’d have them do his laundry too if it wasn’t considered improper.
Eli was settling his straw hat on his head when Gideon walked into the kitchen. He glanced back and had the grace to look guilty.
“I should make you take off my shirt.”
“But the one you’re wearing brings out your blue eyes so nicely,” Eli told him with a big grin. “I’m out of here. Have a gut time with Hannah.”
“I will.” Gideon glanced at the clock and saw he had ten minutes to spare. He slapped his hat on his head and headed out the front door to wait for Hannah.
The crocuses and daffodils his mudder had planted years ago had burst into bloom. He wondered if Hannah would like some. Then he told himself every woman liked flowers. He picked a bunch and remembered the lecture he’d gotten from his mudder when he picked roses from her favorite rose bush to give to Hannah on her sixteenth birthday. Well, crocuses and daffodils weren’t his mudder’s precious roses, and since she was away she wouldn’t miss them.
Still he found himself glancing guiltily over his shoulder as he picked the blooms.
Hannah drove up a few minutes later, and she looked delighted with the flowers when he gave them to her.
“Feeling brave, are you?” she asked, obviously remembering the roses incident.
“I figure Mamm won’t be back for a while and miss them,” he admitted with a grin.
“I love spring flowers. We don’t have a long spring season here, so I enjoy them while we have them.”
She put the flowers on the seat between them. When he saw her glance at them from time to time as she drove, the reins held easily in her hands, he told himself he needed to give flowers to her more often.
“You look pretty,” he told her then grimaced. He didn’t have the charm of Eli.
She blushed. “Why, danki. Violet’s my favorite color.” She smiled at him. “You probably noticed I wear it a lot.”
“You look pretty in whatever you wear.”
“You’re being awfully sweet tonight.”
He felt heat rise under his collar. “Well, I’m no Eli.”
“That’s gut.” She bit her lip. “I’m sorry. That wasn’t nice. But I’m not happy with Eli at the moment.”
“I know. Neither of us are. You know he’s out with Emma and John tonight.”
“I do. She told me.” She pulled over to the right of the road so a car could pass them. “I almost suggested you and I go to the same restaurant to see how it goes. But that would be nosy.”
“It would.” He chuckled. “But I suddenly feel a craving for pizza coming on.”
She shook her head. “We can’t do that. They would know we’re spying on them. And goodness knows they’re old enough to solve their own problems.”
“One of them is. Emma, I mean.” He sighed. “I’m just five minutes older but sometimes I feel five years older than Eli.”
“I know. You’ve always been the more mature of the two of you.”
“He got more of the charm.”
“I’m surprised you’d say that. I think you’ve been pretty charming. Especially tonight.”
“I should steal my mudder’s flowers more often,” he joked. He reached for her hand. “We deserve a night away from Eli and Emma and their problems. Just the two of us. I’ve been wanting to take you out for supper in a nice place for a long time.”
“I don’t need fancy. It’s nice just to spend time together.”
Was there ever a doubt this was the woman for him? he wondered.
The fields along the road were beginning to show green. It wouldn’t be long before passersby could see rows of corn and wheat and many types of vegetables.
Hannah pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant he’d directed her to, and he had to let go of her hand for a few moments until they were out of the buggy and strolling up the walk. The restaurant was busy tonight. He saw a lot of Englisch couples, but he also spotted several Amish couples they knew and said hello to them on the way to their table.
The hostess handed them their menus and wished them a good evening.
Fine linen covered the table and crystal glasses glittered in the candlelight. Music played softly in the background, something classical.
“Gideon, the prices,” Hannah whispered in horror as she glanced inside the leather-bound menu. “Let me split the check with you.”
“We deserve a treat,” he said firmly. “And nee, you will not split the check with me.”
He found himself enjoying the way she looked in candlelight, her eyes glowing, her posture so relaxed and graceful.
They ordered and then talked about their week.
“Oh, I know we said we weren’t going to talk about Eli and Emma, but I wanted to tell you I hired her part-time.”
Gideon stopped, his fork halfway to his mouth. “You did? So she’s staying?”
“At least for the time being.” She sampled her chicken Oscar and it melted in her mouth. “Katie Ann is starting her own bakery, and this gives Emma some money for the motel. And it isn’t charity. She’s very gut with the customers. She worked in a quilt shop in Ohio while she lived there.”
He frowned. “When I told her I wanted to help she said she didn’t need anything. Why didn’t I think about the cost of her staying in town?”
“It’s allrecht. It worked out for everyone. And I have to say I love having John around.”
She’d be a gut mudder, he thought, studying her. She was a quiet woman—not one to chatter but with a real interest in others. He’d found he could share his interest in carving and making toys with her. After his dat had died two years ago she’d listened to him pour out his grief and not offered the platitudes others had.
“Gideon?”
“Hmm?”
“Are you allrecht?”
He smiled at her. “Of course. Just thinking how lovely you look in the candlelight.”
Her cheeks grew rosy and her eyes warmed. “Danki,” she said and when he reached his hand across the table for hers, she let him take it even though she was shy about such gestures in public. “I’m so glad you asked me out tonight.”
Gideon caught a movement at the corner of his eye and glanced over at the table in the nearby corner and watched a man pull a small velvet box from his suit pocket. He frowned. Maybe now wasn’t a gut time to talk to Hannah about their relationship after all. He wasn’t quite ready to propose and if she saw what was happening at the next table, wouldn’t she think he was about to do so?
This was what he got for taking his time and not bringing up the subject of their relationship earlier in the meal. He sighed. Well, there was nothing else he could do. Maybe he wasn’t supposed to talk to her about anything serious tonight. He’d just have to find another time and hope things worked out then.
* * *
Hannah had resisted the idea of supper at such an expensive restaurant when Gideon told her where they were going on the way there. Now as they lingered over dessert and coffee she wasn’t sorry they’d come here.
Such an evening would be a memory she’d tuck away for the future. It didn’t take linen tablecloths, fancy food, and candlelight to make her happy. But it seemed that when a couple dressed up and spent time in a setting that was designed for intimacy, for quiet talks over an exquisitely prepared meal, and were encouraged to linger and make a meal an event, it couldn’t help being romantic.
Hannah wondered if Gideon noticed that the man sitting with a woman at the table tucked in a private corner nearby had just held out a tiny velvet box to her. The woman was crying and nodding and allowing the man to pluck the ring from the box and slide it on her finger. They kissed and celebrated with glasses of champagne.
This evening would indeed be a special memory for them.
When Hannah looked back at Gideon, she saw that he’d seen the proposal and seemed thoughtful, but he made no comment. She wondered what he was thinking but was afraid to ask. Would he think she was hinting she wanted a proposal?
She took a last sip of coffee and patted her lips with her napkin as Gideon paid the bill. Time to go. She sighed.
“Tired?”
“Nee. Just thinking that I really enjoyed myself.”
“Gut.” They left the restaurant and she chose the long road home.
He shot her a knowing glance. As they rode along, the full moon floated above them, casting light, then shadows, over the strong bones of his face. He was at once the man she’d known for years, then the mysterious one she learned more about each day that she spent with him.
She stopped beside a field. “Do you remember this spot?”
“We stopped here the first night you let me drive you home from a singing,” he said slowly. “Honeysuckle was blooming along the fence and fireflies were dancing over the field.”
“Ya.”
“I wanted to kiss you but it was too soon.”
She turned and smiled at him. “It’s not too soon tonight,” she said, a little surprised at her boldness.
He leaned over and took her face in his hands and looked at her for a long, long moment. And then he kissed her. The kiss was warm and sweet and wunderbaar. She sighed when he released her face and drew back. She wanted more, wanted him to hold her longer, wanted more kisses. But best to avoid temptation. They stared at each other and neither had to say what they were thinking. Eli and Emma wouldn’t be in the position they were in if they hadn’t let passion overtake them.
“No fireflies tonight,” he said into the silence.
“No honeysuckle, either,” she told him, chuckling as the pungent aroma of fertilizer drifted on the wind from the fields.
“I wish I’d had more time to help Eli with the farm. We talked about how he’ll need to hire some help when it comes time for harvest.” He sighed. “I wouldn’t have started my shop three years ago if I’d known that Daed would die and leave Eli and me the farm. Eli is carrying more of the burden than he should.”
“But you love making toys and working at the shop.”
“I do.”
“And Eli loves farming.”
“He does. Always has, more than me.”
“So don’t you think the path the two of you were set on is the right one?”
He glanced at her. “Ya,” he said after a long moment.
“I don’t know that I would have had the courage to start my own shop if you hadn’t encouraged me.”
“Schur you would have. You love quilting and you worked in a shop before you opened yours. You’re a born businesswoman. It was only a matter of time before you did it. I just mentioned when the space came open.”
“You did more than that and you know it.”
He shrugged. “I’d do anything for you.” He reached for her hand. “I love you, Hannah. It’s time I told you that.”
Emotion swamped her. “I thought…I’d hoped you did. I love you, too.”
They kissed again, and Hannah knew she would remember this moment forever.
“We’d better go,” he said at last. “Drive us to your house and I’ll help you unhitch the buggy.”
“There’s no need—”
“Drive us to your house. Allow me to be a gentleman.”
“Then you’ll have to walk home.”
“I know.”
“Perhaps I’ll be courteous and walk you home.”
“Nee,” he told her with some firmness.
She turned back to face the road. “Giddyap!” she called, and Daisy began pulling the buggy again.
He got his way. Well, she let him. She could be just as stubborn as he could, but she didn’t want to argue with him on such a night. So she let him unhitch the buggy and put Daisy up in her stall, and they kissed one last time. She watched him walk down the drive and head up the road to his house.
As she carried the flowers he’d given her up to her bedroom, she knew they had taken a new step in their relationship that night.
She wasn’t schur where it would lead. But it warmed her heart to think about it.