Matthias laughed. “You don’t know how much I’ve missed your teasing.”
“I feel like I’ve been living in a cloud this year, but now I’m ready to be myself again.”
The timer on the counter dinged and Mamm took the breakfast casserole out of the oven. She continued talking as she cut the casserole into servings and brought it to the table.
“David and Elizabeth offered their Dawdi Haus when we moved back here, but Simon said we should invest the money we had left in another house, so I let him buy this one. I’m regretting that decision now.”
She set plates and silverware on the table, then sat down again. After their silent prayer, she went on.
“I want to move to the Dawdi Haus. David lives in our district, so I wouldn’t have to leave my friends. Then you could live here.”
Matthias’s fork stopped halfway to his mouth. “Alone?”
“Not for long. Talking with Franny made me realize that it’s time for you to marry, and no girl would want to share this tiny house and kitchen with her mother-in-law. That isn’t the way to start a marriage.”
“If you’re sure that’s what you want to do, it would be fine with me.” Matthias took another bite of the casserole.
“It isn’t only what I want to do—it’s what I need to do. I’m not so old that I need to be taken care of, but when I do get that old, I don’t want to be living here with my bachelor son. I want to be near one of my daughters.”
Matthias ate the rest of his casserole and took another helping. This house was small, but he could live in it for a few years yet. He could even live here with a wife. But the only girl he had ever met who he would want to marry had her eye on someone else.
“Life is only as short and hard as we make it,” Mamm said. “The moments come and go, but we can take it.”
“Is that from one of your poems?”
“It just came to me.” Mamm’s face brightened. “Did you like it?”
He shook his head. “It was terrible.”
She laughed. “You’re right. It was pretty bad. I’ll have to work on it. But what I was trying to say was that if you have a girl in mind to be your wife, don’t delay. Tell her. Ask her to marry you.”
“What makes you think I’ve found someone to marry?”
Mamm shrugged. “You’re the right age. Most young men have their eye on someone.”
Ada’s lovely face came to mind again.
“There is someone, but I don’t think she likes me. I thought we were friends, but then I said something that she took offense to. She hasn’t really been friendly to me since then.”
“Don’t delay in mending fences. Bad feelings quickly become offenses.”
Matthias grinned as he rose from the table. “That one needs work, too. I need to go. Leroy is closing the workshop early tonight because of Christmas Eve, but I don’t know when I’ll be home. I might take your advice and mend those fences.”
Ada was working in the kitchen long before dawn, just as she was every morning, but she did her tasks automatically. She couldn’t find any pleasure in rolling out the cookie dough or baking the double chocolate brownies. And it was Christmas Eve. She looked out the kitchen window at the dark yard as she washed the bowl from the brownie batter. Ever since she had seen Amos with that girl on Saturday, she had felt drained and angry at herself. How could she have thought she was in love with Amos?
Rose came into the kitchen, trying to suppress a yawn. “How do you get up this early every morning?”
“It’s a habit. What are you doing up? It isn’t time to start the chores yet.”
“I thought I’d help you,” Rose said, pouring herself a cup of Ada’s coffee and sitting at the table. “You’ve been moping around for three days, but it’s Christmas Eve. I want us to have fun in the store today, but we can’t if you’re still pining after that Amos. He proved that he wasn’t worthy of you.”
Ada’s eyes itched, and she blinked fast to hold back the threatening tears. “I’m just not good enough for him. Mamm is right. I’ll always be single, living here at home with the folks.”
Mamm appeared in the doorway, tying her apron.
“I was wrong about that, Ada,” she said. “It was just wishful thinking, as the Englisch say.”
Rose was silent as she sipped her coffee, watching Ada. Mamm poured a cup of coffee for herself, then sat at the table with Rose and laid her pencil and old envelope within reach, ready to start the day’s list.
“You girls will understand someday, when your own children get older. I made the mistake of trying to hold on to the days when you were all little and the house was filled with activity.”
Mamm turned her coffee cup, staring at the steaming liquid.
Ada sat next to her. “But we have all grown up, and now you have grandchildren.”
Mamm nodded. “Essie and I talked the other day, and what I said to her has been pestering me ever since.” She squeezed Ada’s hand. “I think I’ve been holding on to you too tightly, only because you’re the youngest. There is no reason why you shouldn’t have a beau, and eventually a husband and a family of your own. You are a very loving and giving young woman, and I’ve selfishly wanted you to be with me for the rest of my life.”
Ada blinked. She had never thought that Mamm could be wrong about anything.
Rose leaned over the table. “I have an idea. Maybe you should keep going with the Great Cookie Campaign. You should make the jam thumbprint cookies, just like you planned.”
Mamm looked at both of them. “The Great Cookie Campaign?”
Her cheeks growing hot, Ada went to the oven to check on the brownies. “It was just a silly thing.”
“It
