Tears welled in Delia’s eyes. “Oh, Ezekiel...”
“That would be the worst,” Aaron whispered.
“I’d kick him in the leg, Mamm!” Moses said. “I’d do it! I would!”
It was obviously the worst thing that Moses could think of doing to retaliate and protect his mamm.
“No one needs to kick anyone, Moses,” Delia said. “And we are Christians. We don’t get revenge.”
But her heart filled to overflowing for these dear boys who worried most about her getting hurt.
“Here’s the truth of it,” Delia said, putting a hand over Ezekiel’s for a moment. “Opening your heart up to romance risks pain. I opened my heart to your father, and my heart broke when he died. That was a risk I took, and your daet was worth the pain. It’s true that every romantic hope risks some pain, but I know one thing—” she looked around the table at her boys “—even if my heart gets broken, I have four magnificent boys who will cheer me right back up.”
They looked at her somberly, and she sobered, too.
“I mean that,” she said quietly. “You’ll all grow up and risk a bit of heartbreak yourselves. And when you face hard times, you’ll come home to me and to each other, and we’ll support you. I promise to be cautious, but you can’t wrap me in cotton, boys. Maybe I’ll shed a tear or two, but I’ll survive it.”
Ezekiel’s expression hardened, and Moses shook his head.
“If you cry, Mamm, I’m kicking him in the leg! I told you!” Moses said.
“Hey.” Ezekiel’s tone was firm. “Don’t talk like that, Moses. If Mamm cries, I’ll deal with him, myself. You won’t have to worry about it.”
Moses sighed and sank lower in his chair. Aaron and Thomas stared at the tabletop. And that might be as good as it was going to get tonight.
“I’d better go on over and wash that buggy,” Thomas said quietly.
“Why are you doing it?” Moses demanded. “Let him wash his own buggy!”
“Moses!” Delia said.
“Moses is right,” Aaron said. “You don’t have to help him.”
“Because...he’ll give me new suspenders if I do,” Thomas retorted, and he shoved his chair back with a noisy scrape. “And you’re the one who broke mine, Aaron, so leave me alone! I’ve got to do what I’ve got to do.”
Thomas stomped over to a cupboard and tugged out a bucket and a rag as his brothers watched him in surprise. All this for suspenders? Ezekiel was the next one to stand up, and he headed for the stairs, looking annoyed. Elias had offered exactly what Thomas wouldn’t be able to refuse...
Thomas disappeared out the side door and Delia sighed. She wanted the boys to change their attitude, but she didn’t want their brotherly bond broken, either. She was proud of how well her boys took care of each other, and while she needed them to back off when it came to her romantic possibilities, she didn’t want them to back away from each other.
Hopefully she wasn’t making a monumental mistake.
Monday evening after dinner, the boys got ready for the youth group volleyball night at the Lapp farm. Ezekiel was hogging the bathroom, and Thomas and Aaron kept pounding on the door to be let in to brush their teeth. Moses sat at the kitchen table, his shoes on his feet, ready to leave.
Delia carefully lifted an apple pie out of the oven and put it on a rack on the stovetop. Then she closed the flue.
“Can I have a piece?” Moses asked.
“Not now. It’s piping hot,” she replied. “When you get back tonight.”
“I’ll just blow on it,” Moses replied.
“You’re being brave but unwise.” Delia chuckled. “When you get back is soon enough.” She looked up the stairs. “Ezekiel, let your brothers in!”
She heard the bathroom door unlock and Aaron’s and Thomas’s voices mingled in complaint.
“What’ll you do while we’re gone?” Moses asked.
“Elias is going to come have a piece of pie with me,” she said.
“What?” Moses frowned. “He’s coming over when we’re gone?”
“Yah. We’ve talked about this, son. It’s going to be fine.”
“Well...” Moses looked down. “I think my tummy is starting to hurt. I better stay home.”
“Hogwash,” she replied. “You’ll feel fine by the time you get to youth group.”
“I don’t think I will.” Moses rubbed his hand over his belly. “It’s a sore stomach, Mamm. An awfully sore stomach. A stomach so sore, I wouldn’t even eat pie.”
“It only started when you heard that Elias was coming for pie,” she said, bending down to his level. “That’s not a tummy ache from sickness. That is a tummy ache from worry. And there is nothing to worry over, son. You need to go to youth group.”
The older boys came clomping down the stairs, and Ezekiel disappeared back into the bathroom again.
“Oh, for crying out loud, Ezekiel!” Aaron hollered back up the stairs. “We’ll be late! We’ve got to go!”
“He’s trying to look perfect for Beulah,” Thomas sang out, and even Moses laughed at that.
“He doesn’t want to smell like a barn!” Aaron called out.
