“I do,” she agreed. “But I won’t always.”
Who knew what was waiting for Sarai around the corner?
“Is someone courting you?” Arden asked.
“That’s a brazen question.” It was also a question that stung a little bit.
“I was just...” His face colored. “Sorry, I was curious. I thought someone would be... I mean...”
His embarrassment softened her. “No, I don’t have anyone special at the moment, not that it’s your business. But we do have a quality matchmaker here in Redemption, and as my mammi points out, I’ve got some marriageable qualities. So I don’t think it’s being too prideful to expect to find a husband.”
Besides, Sarai had faith that Gott would bring the right man along...hopefully soon, and very possibly in Shipshewana.
“You’ll have no problem at all.” Arden shot her a lopsided smile that made her breath catch. He’d always been a charmer.
Arden had also always irritated her. While the other girls in Redemption swooned at his smiles and got their hearts broken by this too-smooth, too-handsome man, Sarai had seen him for what he was—selfish. He didn’t care about the girls he disappointed. It was a game for him, and she refused to ever fall for the likes of Arden Stoltzfus. And now he’d be calling the shots for his Dawdie Moe. It wasn’t right. He had no sensitivity to hearts and feelings.
“But it’s not going to work to set up our grandparents,” Arden said, turning back. “Dawdie has got to come back with me to Ohio. There’s no way around it.”
No way, indeed. Moe might be elderly, but he was a man who could make his own choices.
“I disagree,” Sarai said simply.
“You...can’t. This is from his family,” Arden said.
“My opinion might not mean a thing when it comes down to it,” she replied with a shrug, “but I disagree with you. You were always a little too focused on yourself, and you never did look too long at the people around you. Your Dawdie Moe and my Mammi Ellen have a special friendship, and their happiness together matters, too. So you go right ahead and do what you have to. I’m determined to see those two married.”
Arden looked at her, waiting to see a sign of joking, but there was none. Maybe he shouldn’t be so surprised. He wasn’t proud of the way he’d behaved when he’d lived here in Redemption, and it stood to reason the community here would have less respect for him after all of that. He’d made mistakes in his adolescence here—more than most people knew about. Or did Sarai guess? There was something knowing in the way she looked at him. He remembered her as the girl he simply couldn’t impress. She’d been beautiful with honey-blond hair and bright blue eyes, and she’d been wise to most of his antics back then, which was just as well.
“Are you serious?” Arden asked, keeping his voice low. “Or are you teasing me?”
She’d always been beautiful enough that she could have strung out the male hearts here in Redemption, but she’d chosen not to. Staring him down now, she still looked stubbornly honest.
“I’m completely serious.” Sarai met his gaze easily, not a hint of humor in her clear eyes.
“You want to set our grandparents up—arrange a marriage,” he said.
“The short answer to that is yes,” she replied.
Arden rubbed his hand over his eyes. “And if I completely disagree with you, that’s going to mean nothing to you, is it?”
“I’m sorry, Arden. You don’t live here. You don’t see them together.”
Of course. Sarai always had been a young woman with her own ideas.
“Look, Sarai, here’s the thing. I have two weeks to get my grandfather packed up and ready to go with me...if I can convince him. I don’t have a lot of family left in town to ask to help me, and I didn’t keep in touch with many friends when I left.” He paused uncertainly. “And since you and your grandmother are such close friends with my grandfather, I was going to ask if you’d help us.”
“Help him leave,” Sarai said.
“Help him go home to his family,” Arden said.
Sarai sighed. “I do understand that you’re trying to take care of him and do the right thing, Arden, but I don’t want to see Moe go.”
Arden nodded. “I know.”
“But I suppose we can help...if, and only if, he says he wants to go with you. Then I’ll be a good neighbor and help.”
“I can’t very well pick him up and carry him away if he isn’t willing to go,” Arden agreed.
“And I do have to warn you, I’ll be doing my best to point out to him what a special connection our grandparents share. I’m not giving up on that.”
He thought about that for a moment, but there really wasn’t a way around it. “Okay. But since we’re both helping out grandparents right now, and since they seem to spend a lot of time together, we might be able to work together.”
“That’s fair,” she said.
He looked at the old people sitting at the table together. Dawdie Moe laughed softly, and Mammi Ellen had a twinkle in her eye. She seemed to feel his scrutiny, because Mammi Ellen glanced up at Arden with an expectant gaze.
“More pie, dear?” she asked.
“No, thanks,” he replied. “It was delicious, though.”
He held his plate and fork balanced in one hand.
“I told you that Ellen makes the best pie in Redemption, didn’t I?” his grandfather asked, turning to look at Arden. “I was not exaggerating facts, was I?”
“Not a bit,” Arden said. “The absolute best.”
His grandfather turned back to Mammi Ellen again and started to tell her a humorous story about selling off extra hay bales. Mammi Ellen laughed and shook her head. Arden had heard that story a hundred times already, and he could only imagine that Mammi had heard it at least once before.
