Levi chuckled, the unsaid You might as well give in now still hanging around them. “Jah. Okay, then. I would be honored.”
“But you may have to help with these peanut butter balls if you want some supper. These girls have been in here since breakfast.”
* * *
The last thing Tillie had expected was to be making candy with her niece while Levi Yoder sat and watched. So far he had sampled their date balls, their peanut butter balls, their coconut bonbons, and their fondant. “And why are you making all these?” Levi asked.
Beside her, Tillie saw Libby go red in the face. “Libby wanted to make some candy to give her friends for Christmas.” Tillie took the tray of peanut butter balls and set them in front of Levi. Then she handed him a jar of red and white dyed sugar. “Here,” she said. “Sprinkle these with this sugar before they dry.” Levi did as she instructed, and somehow his compliance made Tillie smile a little inside. Here he was delivering babies and sprinkling candy. She figured he never thought he’d be doing that this year.
“Done,” he said, obvious pride in his voice.
Tillie took that tray from in front of him, and Libby slid another into its place. “Next batch,” the young girl said with a smile. These were white chocolate, and Tillie handed him the bottle of green and red sprinkles. “And this.”
Levi’s forehead wrinkled into almost a frown, but he took the bottle from her anyway. “How do you know which ones to add to what?” he asked.
Tillie turned with a smile and tapped the side of her head with her forefinger. “Creative genius,” she quipped.
Levi chuckled, and once again she was surprised at how much she enjoyed the sound.
From the baby carrier, Emmy started to fuss. She stretched her arms out as if gearing up for her cry, then she let out a wail that belied her tiny self.
“Uh-oh,” Libby said. “Someone’s hungry.”
Tillie dried her hands on the bottom of her apron and went to scoop the baby into her arms. They had gotten on a pretty good schedule the last couple of days. Emmy would sleep three or so hours at a time, then demand to be fed. It was working so far. Though Tillie knew that once she left, it would be harder to go to work each day on such little sleep. As it was now, she could rest in the afternoons while the baby napped and get up just in time for supper. Well, to feed the baby first, then eat her supper.
“Mamm!” she called. Her mother didn’t answer.
“I saw her go outside,” Libby said, her hands covered with white as she rolled the date balls in the powdered sugar.
“Can you stir that?” Tillie asked Levi.
He jumped as if she’d poked him with a cattle prod. “What? You want me to stir it?”
“Jah, I think you can handle that.” She smiled at him as encouragingly as possible, but she didn’t have any time to waste. Emmy was in full-scale fit over not being fed.
“I will just be a few minutes,” she said. “Just stir until I get back.”
She made her way into the small bedroom that she shared with the baby and quickly undid her dress to feed her. She made it just in time. The baby’s cries made her milk go down, and she had started to leak a bit. How embarrassing to do such a thing in front of Levi. Then again, he had delivered the baby. But it was as if things had changed now. She still felt a deep connection with him. Yet on a different level. She couldn’t quite explain it, but she knew it was there all the same. And now he was staying for dinner. The thought shouldn’t have thrilled her, but it did.
She bent down and kissed the top of Emmy’s little head. She couldn’t believe that the baby was here. Tomorrow, they were taking her into the doctor’s office to have her checked out and get a birth certificate. But Tillie didn’t need a doctor to know that her baby was just fine. And she felt she owed thanks for that to Levi Yoder. He still claimed that he did nothing but be there for her, but he would never know how much that meant to her.
She switched Emmy’s side. The thing she dreaded most was calling Melvin. She had the number to the garage where he worked written on a piece of paper, and for the last day and a half she had pretended she couldn’t find it. The truth was she hadn’t looked very hard. She wanted to tell him, she needed to tell him, but she dreaded it all the same.
“Tillie!” Libby screeched. She must’ve been somewhere in the hallway, as close as her voice sounded. “Come quick! Levi set the candy on fire!”
Chapter Twenty
“Other than church, I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many people in one house before,” Levi said to Tillie with a small laugh.
Growing up, it had just been him and Mims and their brother, Daniel. Until Daniel was killed. But three children, no grandchildren, and only one grandparent in the dawdihaus made for much quieter family dinners. They would have the occasional cousin come over, but this was nothing like he had ever seen.
“It is something,” Tillie returned.
He sat across from her during the meal, and as strange as it seemed, he could hardly remember what they ate. Some of her family members ate at the kitchen table, and the children had a table of their own, so he was thankful to be at the quieter, adult table. And it gave him time to watch Tillie among her sisters.
One thing was obvious. They loved each other immensely. And Leah was almost as bossy as Mims. Almost, but not quite.
“Mind if I sit?” He nodded toward the end of the couch next to her.
She held Emmy in her arms,
