Dawdie walked with a more confident stride as they headed across the grass, and his hat was set at a slightly jaunty angle. The house was within sight, and Arden noticed a smudge of smoke coming out a window. His heart skipped a beat, but then the door opened and a puff of smoke came out and melted way into the air. As it cleared, Sarai appeared with a kitchen towel and flapped it back and forth. She froze when she spotted them, and Arden smiled ruefully and waved.
“Hello!” Sarai called. She started flapping the towel again.
“A kitchen mishap,” Dawdie said. “Let’s walk a little slower, Arden.”
“Are you sure?” he asked.
“Yah, I’m sure. Let the smoke clear,” he said. “And then we will very politely eat whatever is placed in front of us.”
“I know how to be polite,” Arden said with a laugh.
“Good.” Dawdie shot him a sidelong look. “Then we should have no problems.”
He’d been in Ohio, not in a hole somewhere, but he could appreciate his grandfather’s desire to protect the women’s feelings. They slowed their pace, and Sarai flapped her towel a little bit more, then headed back into the house.
When they arrived, the house still smelled of burned cooking, and Ellen let them in with a bright smile. A lingering film of smoke filled the mudroom.
“You men have been working so hard today,” she said. “We can’t thank you enough for all your help.”
“We’re happy to do it, Ellen,” Dawdie Moe said with a smile.
“Very happy,” Arden said.
He let the older people move into the kitchen first, and when he stepped out of the mudroom, he spotted Sarai standing by the stove, her cheeks red.
“I’m sorry to have burned half the dinner,” Sarai said. “We wanted to serve corn bread with the chili, but—” She gestured vaguely to the skillet behind her. It was nicely browned on top, but it was smoking from the bottom of the pan, from what Arden could make out.
“It looks fine to me,” Moe said.
“Oh, Moe,” Sarai chuckled. “You’d be wrong, just this once.”
“It’s just a little browned,” Moe said. “I’ll take a piece to go with my chili, if you don’t mind.” His grandfather poked him in the ribs with an elbow.
“So will I,” Arden said quickly.
“You will?” Sarai turned her attention to Arden then, and she gave him a wry smile. “You don’t have to do this, Arden.”
“I think I do,” he said, eyeing his grandfather. “Besides, when my mamm is working some evenings at the farmers’ market, I’m the one who makes dinner. And I can assure you, your cooking is a step up from my own.”
Sarai took a knife and began to cut the corn bread in the skillet. It would be badly burned on the bottom, but he’d committed to eating it now. His grandfather knew a thing or two about pleasing women, it would seem. Maybe he could take a few tips from the old man, as well. Although, he had a feeling that if he’d been the one to suggest that the meal was perfectly edible as it was, Sarai wouldn’t have taken it the same way.
“Come sit down,” Ellen said, gesturing to the table, already set with plates and cutlery.
Arden took a chair next to his grandfather, and Ellen seated herself across the table from Moe. When Sarai joined them, they all bowed their heads for a moment of silent grace, and then when Moe cleared his throat, the prayer was over.
“Sarai, you make a very good corn bread,” Moe said, accepting a scorched piece from her.
“I’m not sure I deserve the compliment this time, Moe,” she said.
“A little browning doesn’t change facts, my dear girl,” Moe replied. Then he accepted a bowl of chili from Ellen. “And, Ellen, I don’t think I’ve ever tasted better chili than yours.”
Dawdie Moe was quite the sweet-talker. Maybe Arden could see why Sarai thought Moe and Ellen would be such a good match, if his grandfather acted like this...
“Moe, you are a very good man,” Sarai said earnestly. “I mean it. And I know that my family thinks very well of you.”
“Well...” Moe’s cheeks pinkened. “Danke.”
“I mean it, Moe,” she said. “I really do wish you’d think about having a wife again, because you have so much to offer a home. You really do.”
Ellen reached over under the table, and Arden couldn’t see what she did, but Sarai gave a little jump.
“Moe, have you ever seen such weather?” Ellen asked sweetly, cutting her granddaughter a flat look, and Arden smothered a smile. It seemed that Ellen wasn’t blind to what Sarai was up to, and that was good to see.
The older people settled into a conversation about windstorms they’d seen over the years, and Arden looked across the table at Sarai.
“You aren’t very subtle,” he said quietly.
Sarai looked toward the older people and lowered her voice. “I can’t be. I don’t have much time, do I?”
“Are you telling me you had a long game for this, and it was more discreet?” Arden teased softly. He looked up to make sure the older folks couldn’t hear them, and they were engrossed in their own conversation.
“Yes, I did. It would have taken six months, I believe, and at the end of it, I would have shown these two what they needed to see.” She kept her voice low, too, but she wasn’t joking, though. So there was a long game here... He shook his head.
“Sarai, I told you what we can afford as a family,” he whispered, pulling his chair over to the end of the long table and farther from the old people.
“But if—” She turned her face away a little bit and scooched her chair around to the very end of the table, too, pulling her plate after her. She lowered her voice even further. “But if Moe were to marry my grandmother, he’d be part of our family, too. And my family could pitch in.”
Right. Where his couldn’t.
