Just Plain Sadie (16 page)

“Yeah,” Ezra said. “We need to do this again. Next week?”

“Next week?” Her heart thumped.

“Wednesday is Valentine's Day.”

“Oh that's right.” She had forgotten. “I guess it's dumb to ask if any of our friends are having a party.”

“Not if you want to take the chance and see if they'll be accepting.”

“Do you think anyone will eventually understand and let this go?” As soon as she said the words, she wished she could call them back. It sounded a little too much like forever, and they had only been on their first real date.

“We can do whatever you want to do,” Ezra said. “If you want to go to the party, then we will go to the party. Or we can go eat.”

“Tex-Mex?”

“You want to drive to Pryor and eat Tex-Mex when you have Ricardo's on the next street over and two blocks down from you?”

“If
Mamm
were to see us eating there, I don't think she would understand.”

“Because she doesn't like Mexican food?”

“Because she thinks that we need to be eating in the restaurant and not the competition.”

“You consider Ricardo's her competition?”

“
Mamm
considers everyone competition.”

Ezra chuckled again. “So what do you say?” he asked. “Are we still on for Wednesday?”

Valentine's Day with a man at her side? It didn't get any better than that. “I would love that.”

She saw the flash of Ezra's smile even in the darkness of the truck's cab. “Then it's a date.”

* * *

“Where to?” He had picked her up from the library to help disguise their date, and he didn't blame her. After all the trouble both of them had gotten from friends and family, it was better this way. They wanted to spend time together and they wanted to get to know each other better, and sometimes a couple had to do what a couple had to do.

“Everybody should be gone from the restaurant now.”

“You want me to take you home?”

“Would you mind? You can drop me off at the driveway. You don't have to come down the driveway or to the house or . . .” She was rambling, a sure sign that she was uncomfortable.

“I don't mind taking you home, and I don't mind driving down your driveway. It's not that long.” Maybe a hundred yards. So what had her so upset?

“I don't want to run into any family drama tonight.”

“Agreed.”

“So drop me off at the entrance of the driveway, and I'll walk the rest of the way. No one needs to know that you and I were even together tonight.”

Part of him hated that sentence. He didn't want to sneak around. He wanted to show Sadie to everybody. But keeping everything as low-key as possible was the way to go. The fewer people who knew they were going out, the fewer people there were to send them looks of consternation whenever they walked past.

“Okay, then.” He didn't want to, but he would. “I'll leave you at the end of the driveway, as long as you acknowledge that I wouldn't have done this for any other reason.”

Sadie nodded.

All too soon he slowed the truck to a stop on the road in front of her house. He didn't want the night to end. It had been so much fun eating and talking and enjoying each other's company. It was almost like a regular Plain date, only with great food and ice cream.

“So . . .” Sadie said from the seat beside him. She had unbuckled her seat belt and turned slightly so that she was facing him more than she was the front of the truck. “I guess this is where we say good night.”

Good night. This was the part of the date where he would lean over and give her a good night kiss. But he couldn't. He shouldn't have kissed her the other day. Things were moving way too fast between them, and he needed to put a slow block on it as soon as possible.

“Yes. Well, good night.” He hated the flash of hurt he saw in her eyes. And the next thing he knew she was frantically reaching for the door handle to get out.

“Sadie, no, don't.” He grabbed her arm just as she was about to tumble from the cab. “Don't.”

“I don't understand.” She sounded close to tears. And he had to admit this whole journey had been nothing but a roller-coaster ride of emotion.

He smoothed a hand across the side of her face. Thankfully there were no tears. “I can't kiss you tonight.”

“You can't? You won't?”

Ezra chuckled. The sound was derisive to his own ears. “Both. We need to take things slower. The other night . . .” He trailed off. “The other night I pushed things too fast, and I don't want to do that with you.”

“What if I said it's not too fast?”

He shook his head. “I've made up my mind. This is how it's going to be.” Unable to stop himself, he ran his thumb across the softness of her lips, then leaned in to kiss her forehead. “Now get on in there before someone decides to come see what's going on out here.”

She swallowed hard, then gave one nod and slid away from him. She was out of the truck and the door was shut before he had time to protest. Not that he could. It had to be this way. As much as he hated it, as much as he wanted to kiss her until neither one of them could breathe, he couldn't. Maybe one day, maybe soon, when they convinced their friends and family that this love building between them was worthy and good. Maybe then they could get married. And when that happened, he was never letting her go.

Sadie knocked lightly on the office door and entered after her mother's summons. The room was as crowded as usual, boxes stacked up and paper records on every available surface, but Lorie's fiancé, Zach Calhoun, had started his own accounting business and was slowly doing his best to work through the tangle of papers in the office.

Mamm
sat back in her seat and gave Sadie an uncomfortable once-over. “Well now, my Sadie, you seem to have something on your mind today.”

Sadie nodded. “I need Wednesday off, please.” She figured professionalism was the way to go. She had a request, and she delivered it. Now with any luck,
Mamm
wouldn't ask her where she was going.

“For what?”

“I just need off, please.”

Mamm
frowned. “I depend on you to work here on Wednesday nights. You already have Thursday night off.”

“I'll switch, then. I'll work Thursday if you let me have Wednesday off.”

“And where are you going again?”

“Just out.” Why did she have to ask that many questions? Maddie Kauffman was one of the most protective mothers in the district, as far as Sadie and her siblings were concerned; why couldn't she have picked tonight to let things drop? After all, Sadie was nearly twenty-three years old. She should be able to go someplace without having to tell her mother every little detail of the outing.

“I'll consider giving you the night off, but I think you need to be honest with me.”

“
Mamm
, I just need the night off. I will work Thursday. And Friday too, if you need me. But I can't work Wednesday.”

Mamm
looked at the calendar on her desk, then back up at Sadie. “That's Valentine's Day.”

“We don't normally get any more traffic from Valentine's Day than we do any other time of the year. It's not like this is a romantic restaurant that people use to celebrate big events.” They served home-cooked meals. The people they would be getting in would be girls wishing they had a Valentine come to drown their sorrows in mashed potatoes and gravy.

“I don't know, Sadie. I think I need you.”

“I think you're being unfair.”

“You do?” Maddie took off her reading glasses, a sure sign that she was serious about whatever she had to say. Then again,
Mamm
was usually serious about everything. “Fair has nothing to do with this. I gave you the schedule you requested. You are part of this family. That's what you work and that's what you will continue to work.”

Sadie growled in frustration. “Fine. Forget it.”

She left her
Mamm
's office, fuming with her mother's stubborn streak. Sadie shouldn't have to detail her every move to her mother. She was old enough to make her own decisions and old enough to go out when she wanted to without having to have a hundred questions thrown at her. Was that too much to ask?

She hit the waitress station as Melanie came through the door. Her sister was all bright smiles, but that was typical. Being a newlywed, Melanie was always smiling. Of course, if she had so recently gotten married, Sadie would be smiling too, so she couldn't begrudge her sister that.

“Hey, sister. You look angry.”

“I'm just frustrated.” Sadie shook her head. “I have a dinner date Wednesday night, and
Mamm
won't let me have off.”

“I can work for you.”

“You will? I mean, it's Valentine's Day. Don't you and Noah have plans?”

“We're waiting till Friday to celebrate. I don't mind coming in and helping out.”

“That would be fantastic, Melanie. You'll never know how much that means to me.”

Melanie shrugged. “What are sisters for?”

* * *

Wednesday couldn't come quick enough as far as Sadie was concerned. She didn't tell
Mamm
that Melanie was going to work for her. She was still angry about the whole situation. She was a grown adult, and she should be able to ask for a night off without having to endure an interrogation. She was fairly certain murder suspects didn't get as many questions asked of them as her mother had asked her about Valentine's Day night.

Of course, it didn't help that she didn't want to answer those questions. If she told
Mamm
she was planning to go out with Ezra Hein,
Mamm
would probably lock Sadie in her room to keep her home.

Sadie smoothed her hands down her dress. It was her favorite, a pretty blue color somewhere between royal and the midnight sky. It was not her mourning attire, but she was tired of it and she was going on a date. Besides, her father wouldn't care. It was only a couple more months before their mourning officially ended, and just because she was wearing a blue dress didn't mean she didn't miss her father. She would miss him till the day she died too. But for now she wanted to look good for Ezra, and looking good meant not wearing that ugly black dress.

She smoothed her hair down one more time, checked her teeth once again to make sure they were sparkling white and clean, then let herself out of the bathroom. Everyone else was at work. They wouldn't miss her for another hour or two. By then she would be long gone to Pryor with Ezra Hein at her side.

Thankfully she had the house to herself so he wouldn't have to worry about picking her up someplace odd. It made her feel a little better to know that he was coming to her house like a real date, like people who had parents that approved of the person they were dating and didn't get hung up on things that weren't important like whether or not he was a Mennonite.

Everyone acted like she was going to automatically marry him. If she did, they would work through it all. He was Mennonite. It wasn't like he was
Englisch.
He could easily become Amish, and they would live together happily, side by side.

She scooped up her purse from the back of the kitchen chair, grabbed her coat, and headed out for the door.

Standing on the porch, she slipped her arms into the black wool and hoped that Ezra would get there soon. She was so excited to have such a date. Normally, she would've gone over to somebody's house and played games and exchanged Valentines, eaten heart-shaped cookies, and in general had a good time. But Ezra's plan was better. Dinner in Pryor and something fun afterward. After all, how fun would it be to go to a party where nobody wanted them there? Since his friends didn't want anything to do with her and her friends didn't want anything to do with him, they would spend the evening by themselves. Come to think of it, she liked it that way.

From the road came the rattle of a vehicle and the crunch of gravel. Soon Ezra's blue truck came into view. She tried not to jump up and down with glee; at least she was able to contain herself better than Cora Ann. He pulled up in front of the house and she rushed to the truck, not even allowing him to get it in park before she slid in next to him.

“Hi,” she said. “I'm glad to see you.”

Ezra smiled. “I'm glad to see you too. Happy Valentine's Day.” He took a red envelope off the dash and handed it to her.

“Can I open it now?”

“Uh-uh, wait until we get to the restaurant.” He put his truck in reverse and backed it up so he could head out the driveway nose first.

Sadie pouted. “Why would you give it to me now if you knew you were going to make me wait until I get to the restaurant to open it?”

“I'm mean like that.”

“Well, I'm not going to be mean, and you can't have what I have in my purse for you until we get to the restaurant.”

“You call that being nice to me? That's a teaser if I've ever heard one.”

Sadie laughed. Tonight was going to be such a good night, she could hardly wait until they got to Pryor. Tex-Mex and Ezra by her side, everyone around them in love and celebrating Valentine's Day. How much better could it be?

They chatted all the way to Pryor, about this, that, and the other, nothing in particular. She didn't mention any of her friends, and he never mentioned any of his. She didn't want to talk about her mother, and she knew he didn't want to talk about his. So they kept it light. What they might eat once they got to the restaurant and how long they thought they might have to wait for a table since it was Valentine's Day.

“I take it your mourning is over?”

Sadie shook her head. “No. But I'm so tired of wearing a black dress that I just couldn't take it anymore.”

Ezra frowned. “So you wore it anyway?”

“
Jah
, sure. Why not? It's not likely that I will run into anybody I know in Pryor on Valentine's Day. All my friends are together playing games and stuff.”

Ezra shook his head. “Sadie, you don't know who you might see.”

Posh, she wanted to say. But she bit her tongue and kept the word back.

“Let's not worry about it,” Sadie said. “We're supposed to be having a good time tonight. I wanted to wear something pretty for you. And that black dress . . . It's not pretty.”

“You wore that for me?” He shot her a grin that for all intents and purposes had a wicked gleam in it.

“I did. This is my favorite dress. And I can tell you one thing. My dad loved color. He wouldn't have wanted us to wear black any longer than necessary.”

“But that's not the rules.”

Sadie held up her hands. “We said we weren't going to do this. We are not to talk about it anymore. Agreed?”

“Agreed.”

Sadie stared at the window as Ezra drove them through town. Pryor wasn't a big city by any stretch of the imagination, but it was so much larger than Wells Landing that it almost made her head swim. Ezra pulled up to the parking lot of the red-tile-roofed building. “This is it.”

He took her elbow and led her into the restaurant. Sadie relished his touch. All her life she had been waiting for that undeniable something that two people in love have, and she found it with Ezra Hein. She'd been about to give up, thinking it was not even real. She was so glad that she'd listened when he came along.

He held the door open for her and escorted her into the building. Then he whispered something to the host, and before she knew it they were placed in front of all the people waiting for tables and were seated in a dark, secluded corner with a red bowl with a white candle flickering between them.

“This is so romantic.”

Ezra smiled. “It's also the best Tex-Mex.”

“It's perfect. What looks good tonight?” she asked.

“I always get the fajitas.”

“That sounds good, but I'm thinking I want the enchiladas.”

“Then you should have the enchiladas.”

The waitress brought over chips, salsa, and glasses of water. They each told her what they wanted, then she left, leaving them time alone once more.

This was what Sadie had been waiting for. Time for her and Ezra. And it was miraculous.

“What's Logan doing tonight?”

Ezra shook his head. “I thought we weren't going to talk about our friends tonight.”

“I thought it would be fine.” That could probably be the most stupid thing she'd ever said. But she was quickly running out of conversation that didn't involve family, friends, religion, or any of the other taboo subjects they had come up with.

“Do we have plans for after dinner?”

“Not really. I figured we would play it by ear and see what you might want to do later. You have any suggestions?”

Sadie smiled. “I do, but we can talk about that later.”

Their food arrived and Ezra tucked in as if he hadn't eaten in a year. It made Sadie smile, seeing him eat and enjoy himself. She knew he worked so hard on the ranch that he needed a diversion as much as she did.

Before long their dinner was done, their waters had been refilled a couple of times, and Sadie was so full she could hardly move. “I'm going to have to watch what I eat on the days that we don't go out or I'm going to get fat.”

Ezra shook his head. “You're not going to get fat.” He grabbed the check and together they walked up front to pay at the cashier.

Sadie slid into the truck and shot him a smile. “Want to hear my idea? Let's go to the movies.”

Ezra frowned. “The movies?”

“
Jah
, what's wrong with that?” Sadie asked.

“A lot of things.” Ezra had been about to start the truck, but instead he left the engine off and turned to face her. “We can't go to the movies. You're Amish, and I'm Mennonite.”

“
Jah,
” Sadie said. “And?”

“And nothing,” Ezra said.

“I don't understand what's wrong. We're sneaking around, going against everybody's rules and the things that they want for our lives, and you think going to the movies is a bad thing?”

“The movies have always been off-limits. You know that.”

“Not always,” Sadie argued. “I know people who went to the movies on their
rumspringa
.”

Ezra sighed. “Neither one of us are running around.”

“Why does that matter when we are already breaking the rules?”

“Someone will find out, Sadie. Someone always does. I don't have a problem sneaking out to see you and not telling people that I'm dating you. But I do have a problem with something like going to the movies.”

“That does not make any sense.”

“You and I both know that the Amish bend rules much more than the Mennonites. I can bend the rules so I can see you, but that doesn't mean I'm going to go as far as to sit in a movie theater and watch a movie. My mother would have a fit.”