“And we can’t do much until we have supplies,” Arden cut in. “Why don’t me and Sarai go to town and pick up those supplies, and you can make sure Ellen gets some food and off her feet for a little bit until we get back.” Arden looked between them. “Does that sound good?”
“Yah, that works for me,” Sarai agreed quickly. “Moe, is that okay for you?”
“Yah.” Moe nodded. “You can count on me. I’ll make sure she takes care of herself properly. Arden, I have tabs at the ranch supply store and the hardware store. You can just add anything you need to the tab.”
“I’ll go hitch up,” Arden said.
“And I’ll go get my purse, too,” Sarai said.
Arden was right about one thing: if they were going to keep the old people from overworking themselves, they’d have to get to the heavy lifting first.
As Arden strode away, Sarai turned back to Moe.
“You’re a good man, Moe,” she said. “You have a wonderful instinct for taking care of women. I wonder if you haven’t considered getting married again?”
“At my age?” he said with a short laugh.
Sarai shrugged. “You don’t seem so old to me.”
“Don’t I?” Moe looked at her from the corner of his eye.
“Not at all.” She cast him a brilliant smile. “Look at you coming to our rescue this way. I don’t think you’re old at all, Moe.”
The old man’s cheeks colored a little bit.
“I’d better get my things now,” she said.
And Sarai walked briskly toward the house, leaving Moe with that little thought to chew over. He might need a nudge, but a few well-planted seeds just might get him to realize exactly what he had with Mammi Ellen and what he still had to give to a woman in a home.
Arden had finished hitching up the horse to the buggy when Sarai walked across the freshly mowed lawn to Moe’s driveway. Arden would make sure the lawn was cut again before he left, and he’d get the gardening all done for his dawdie, as well. And he was hoping he’d be arranging a moving truck to transport his grandfather’s personal items to Ohio, too. He was prepared to get busy—if his grandfather would let him. And if Sarai would help, too, they’d be able to get everything done.
If she’d help. She’d said she would, but he knew how little she wanted his grandfather to move.
Sarai stopped at the side of the buggy while he tightened the last strap, slipping two fingers under the leather to make sure it wasn’t too tight.
“Do you remember your way around here?” Sarai asked.
“Of course I do.” He shook his head. “I haven’t been gone that long.”
“Four years.”
He mentally tallied it up. She was right. Four years.
“Well, I haven’t forgotten yet. I did my growing up here.” He’d done more growing up in the last two years than he’d done since his Rumspringa, though. But he wasn’t going to admit to that. It was embarrassing. He nodded to the buggy.
“Are our grandparents taking it easy over there?” he asked.
“I think they are. They can talk for hours. We’ve just insisted upon it. They’ll enjoy themselves.”
Sarai pulled herself up and settled into the seat, and he joined her and untied the reins. There was a time when he was young and rash when he’d wanted a chance to drive with her in his buggy...but the likes of Sarai Peachy didn’t go driving with boys like him. Not in that way, at least. Not back then. Probably not now, either.
He flicked the reins, and the horse started forward, wheels crunching over the gravel. A pair of bluebirds swept down in front of the buggy and landed on a tree branch overhead.
“My grandfather mentioned you in letters,” he said.
“He did?”
“Yah. He said he was surprised you weren’t married yet.”
“There is a lot of pressure put on women to get married,” she said. “An unfair amount of pressure.”
“I don’t think he meant any insult,” Arden said. “He just meant that he thought you’d have lots of options.”
“There have been a few,” she said. “But I’m being careful.”
“Why so careful?”
“It’s very ironic that you’d ask me that,” she countered.
“Ironic? How?” He darted her a cautious look.
“A man like you,” she said. “You swept through our community, breaking hearts left and right, and then left town. You might not think about those women again, but you damaged their reputations. They looked silly for having fallen for your charms.”
Arden blinked. “I...uh...” He wasn’t sure what to say to that. “I’m sorry. But you never fell for my charms.”
“No, I didn’t,” she replied. “But that was only because I was watching Lizzie and some of my other friends be made fools of by you. And I could see what you were up to.”
“So you’re too smart for that,” he said. “Why should I hold you back?”
