“Can you promise me that?”

  “Ya. I can, actually. It might be awkward at first. You might blush or feel silly around one another, but then that will pass. You and Zeb will always be friends. Gotte put you in this place, here in our little Shipshe, at the same time so that you could support one another. Whether or not that friendship turns into something else...” She pulled Eunice into a hug. “Time will tell.”

  What Sarah said was something that Eunice could believe because she wanted with all of her heart for it to be true.

  * * *

  Zeb thought he’d be nervous. It had been a long time since he’d been alone with a woman. But this was Eunice. After going over his options for afternoon dates with Samuel, he’d called and left a message for Eunice to dress comfortably.

  But when he arrived at the Yoder farm with the tour guests, he couldn’t tell that she’d worn an older dress. Eunice looked nice in whatever she had on. He’d once seen her in a pair of overalls that she’d picked up at a thrift store. They were just out of school then—only fourteen years old. Eunice had been trying to take apart the engine of an old Ford pickup that someone had towed to her place. When he’d stopped by, she’d been covered with grease and determined to make that old Ford run again. She’d been successful too, though soon after she’d decided that her talent was more for small engines.

  She looked every bit as lovely today as she had then.

  The tour went well. The guests laughed at Eunice’s jokes, had plenty of questions for her, and enjoyed Becca’s afternoon snack—which included Sarah’s new blend of granola. Nearly every guest purchased at least one quart jar of it, and many purchased several.

  Once the Englischers had piled back into Martin’s retrofitted school bus, Becca shooed them away.

  “Go, go on your date. Josh and Mary are playing Connect 4. He’ll be fine here.”

  So they’d gone. Zeb felt like a teenager sneaking out after dark. He felt as if he was getting away with something. In fact, what he was doing was claiming a few hours of the day for himself. When was the last time he’d done that?

  He and Eunice chatted about the tourists, the upcoming holiday and the Christmas parade, which was in a couple of days. The parade was always held on the Friday before Thanksgiving. He could tell that it was one of Eunice’s favorite Shipshe celebrations. She described the lights, the food, even the music.

  “It’s grown a little since we were youngies.”

  “I was here last year, you know.”

  “You were here, but you weren’t—” She stopped, apparently at a loss of words.

  “I know what you mean. I probably wouldn’t have noticed if there’d been a giraffe pulling Santa’s sleigh.” All he could really remember of the previous year was an overwhelming sense of darkness. He still felt it, at times, but it no longer seemed to cover every moment of every day. “Josh remembers last year’s parade. I think my parents went with us. He’s been talking about it all week. He especially loves how the houses and businesses on the route turn off their lights.”

  “Makes the candles and flashlights everyone is holding seem like stars in the sky.”

  “Exactly.”

  When he pulled into the parking lot for The Cove, Eunice looked at him in surprise. “We’re going to play volleyball?”

  “Not exactly.”

  Stopping at Shipshe’s community center had been Samuel’s idea. The building was mainly a youth center, but Samuel had assured him that there wasn’t a definitive age limit. The facility itself had been built in 2015. All necessary costs were covered by donations. The area’s three thousand Amish youngies played volleyball, basketball, chess, cornhole and more recently—pickleball.

  Samuel had insisted it would make for a great first date. He’d assured him that pickleball would be simple to learn to play and claimed it would help with their nerves. The Cove had eight pickleball courts, and six of them were open. Eunice and Zeb took the court farthest away from the other players, in case their balls went wild. There were pickleball rules posted on the wall next to the court.

  Eunice studied the rules sheet. “Let’s see. ‘Stay out of the kitchen.’”

  “Where’s the kitchen?” Zeb squinted at the photograph, then peered over at their court.

  “It’s this part.” Eunice tapped the rules sheet, trying not to laugh. “The part near the net. The non-volley zone. You can’t go there.”

  “Oh. Okay.” Zeb was already itching to get on the court. He used to love to play badminton and he’d even played a little tennis. This looked like a combination of the two. “We play to eleven. Have to win by two.”

  “Looks like a tennis court,” Eunice noted.

  “Yeah. Balls and racquets are different though.”

  “Paddles.” Eunice gave him a challenging grin. “Let’s just give it a try. How bad can we be?”

  Turned out they were pretty bad. Zeb kept forgetting and trying to serve as if he were playing tennis, which didn’t work well at all. Twice Eunice hit the ball before it bounced, which caused Zeb to laugh out loud and claim the point. They dove and ran and lunged and laughed. Zeb was surprised when the courts around them started filling up.

  “We’ve been at it an hour,” Eunice said. “That’s more exercise than chasing my nieces and nephews.”

  They gave up their court to a group of four that looked barely old enough to be out of school.

  “Should have watched some others before we tried to play.”

  “Bested by someone ten years younger?” Eunice shook her head in mock wonder. “Who would have thought it possible?”

  “It doesn’t seem like we played for an hour.”

  “Time literally flew by while I was chasing a wiffle ball.”

  “Did you enjoy it?” Zeb asked.

  “I did. You?”

  “Yup. Stopped my brain for a few minutes.”

  “That’s a gut thing?”

  “Yes. Apparently, I overthink things.”

  They stopped at the Blue Gate Restaurant for pie and coffee.

  “I don’t come in here very often,” Eunice admitted.

  “Same.”

  “It’s very nice.”

  “It is.”

  “And this pie.” Eunice leaned forward waving a forkful of fresh strawberry at him. “It might be better than Sarah’s, but don’t tell her I said so.”

  He leaned toward her, Eunice gave up the piece of pie, and as she plopped it in his mouth their eyes met. Something inside of Zeb came unbound in that moment. Some emotion that he hadn’t let himself feel, hadn’t let himself even think about, and now he was flooded by it.

  Appreciation? Fondness? Love?

  He couldn’t love Eunice Yoder. They’d been on one date. Of course, he’d known her all his life. And Eunice had been there for him since the day he’d returned to Shipshe. Even when he’d been rude and blamed her for Josh’s accident.

  The question was, did he want her to be more?

  As they walked back to the buggy, it occurred to Zeb that this was like the old days. It felt natural to be with Eunice. She was a gut friend. How was this even a date? He was simply hanging out with someone that he liked. There was no need to make it into something that it wasn’t.

  But then Eunice stopped to pick up a golden leaf that had fallen next to his buggy. She held it up for him to see, a smile lighting up her face. Zeb had carefully planned the date, if that was what this was. He’d taken Samuel’s advice, picked something active and then taken Eunice to a nice place for a snack.

  “Not dinner,” Samuel had said. “Dinner is serious and comes with a lot of pressure. Neither of you need that.”

  What he and Samuel had decided on had been the right thing. The plan had gone beautifully. But what he did next wasn’t in the plan. Eunice stepped closer, the smile still dancing in her eyes, as she held the leaf out for him to examine.

  But he wasn’t looking at the maple leaf.

  He was looking at Eunice and seeing her in a new light. He stepped closer, lowered his head and kissed her softly. When he stepped back, she remained where she was. Had he messed up?

  The smile returned, and she laughed softly.

  “What?”

  “Never figured you for a good kisser.”

  “Oh, is that right?”

  “Just saying.”

  On the ride home, he didn’t have to sneak a peek one time at the topics he’d written on the palm of his hand. They talked about their childhood memories that centered around the upcoming holidays, how he planned to celebrate with Josh, how the Yoder house would be filled with grandkinner.

  “This was nice,” Eunice said, as they walked up Becca’s front porch steps.

  “Care to repeat today’s experiment?”

  “Another game of pickleball?”

  “Actually, I thought maybe you’d enjoy going to the Christmas parade with me and Joshua.”

  She tilted her head and studied him. He thought maybe she was trying to see if he was ready for this. But he was ready. He reached for her hand, squeezed it, and Eunice said softly, “Yes. I’d like that.”

  On the ride home, Josh was too busy telling him about a game he and Mary had made up—it centered around a fort they’d built in the hall, an inside game of tag and snack time.

  “It was like the Olympics, in a way.”

  “What do you know about the Olympics, son?”

  “Well. Not much. But isn’t there a sport where they do several things at once?”

  “Do you mean the pentathlon?” Zeb wondered where in the world Josh would have heard about that. “It’s several separate events, including fencing, swimming and equestrian.”

  “Right. I think Old Tom was watching a YouTube video on his phone about it, while he was waiting for the tour people to come out of Becca’s house one day.”

  “Hmm.”

  “Our game was like that but different. You had to make your way through the tunnel. That was the fort. Then run outside, touch the porch railing, run back inside to the table where you sit and eat your snack without spilling anything. And finally you end up back at the beginning of the tunnel. It was fun, Dat. We should try it at home.”

  Zeb reached over and tussled Josh’s hair. The boy’s laughter was soft, joyful, natural. And why wouldn’t it be? He’d spent an afternoon playing with his friend. He’d enjoyed being a boy and not worrying about adult things.

  Pulling into their lane, their conversation turned to dinner and winter and how much snow it took to build a snowman. Together they unharnessed Beauty from the buggy, groomed her and fed her. When they were walking to the house, Josh asked, “So are you going to ask Eunice out on another date?”

  The question caught Zeb by surprise.

  He’d thought maybe his son had forgotten where he’d gone that afternoon. But Josh was observant, and now he was watching his dat closely.

  “Actually, we are going out again.”

  “Oh. That’s cool. So I’ll go back and play with Mary?”

  “Nope. You and me and Eunice are going to the Christmas parade together.”

  “Seriously?”

  “Seriously.” Zeb slapped Josh’s upheld palm.

  Josh ran inside to share the news with Samuel. At dinner, Zeb told them about the pickleball game, which was even funnier in the retelling.

  “Sounds like I should go with you next time, bruder. The game isn’t that hard. You just need someone who has played it before.”

  “All right. If you can find a date.”

  To which, Samuel laughed and said, “Not a problem.”

  As Zeb wrote in his journal that night, he realized that he was feeling something he hadn’t felt since before Suzanne’s illness. He was feeling joy. Happiness. Hope. The question was whether he dared to believe it might last.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Eunice wasn’t sure what she expected of a second date, never having been on a second date before.

  “You’re kidding. Right?” Bethany had stopped by to drop off freshly baked bread and a casserole dish filled with chicken potpie.

  “We’re not starving here. Why does everyone keep bringing food?”

  “Because you have two jobs and you’re dating.”

  “That sounds as if I have a full dance card.”

  “You have a dance card?” Bethany’s eyes twinkled as she took baby Daniel from Eunice and propped him in her lap, then pulled a bottle from her large purse that doubled as a diaper bag.

  “Nope. I don’t. In fact, I’m pretty sure I don’t know how to dance.”

  “Imagine that. So tell me all about your first date.”

  “I told Becca. I guess I figured she’d tell Ada and Ada would tell you.”

  “She did. They both did. But I want to hear it from you.”

  “Gotcha.” So Eunice went through the entire date again. Each time she told the pickleball story, it was funnier than the time before. But the kiss. How was she supposed to describe that?

  “It sounds as if you like him.” Bethany put the baby up on her shoulder and proceeded to rub his back in gentle circles.

  “I do. It’s...it’s all rather sudden and more than a little bit scary.”

  “You’re afraid it will ruin your friendship.”

  “I suppose.”

  “Instead of worrying about what might go wrong, focus on what might go right. Just think of it, sis. If you two do fall in love, then you might marry. And if you marry, you might have a wunderbaar little boy like this.” She turned Daniel to face her.

  Eunice thought he was the most perfect baby boy she’d ever seen.

  “Or a wunderbaar little girl like me.” Lydia popped into the room. She walked over to Eunice, put her arms around her and asked, “Is it true? Are you going to get married and have babies? Because this family has a lot of them already, but I wouldn’t mind more cousins.”

  Eunice shrugged, which was enough of an answer for Lydia.

  Later that night, she sat on the front porch, wrapped in an old quilt and studying the stars. Her dat brought out two mugs of herbal tea and sank into the rocker beside hers. Eunice had always been close to her father, maybe more than the normal young girl since he was her only parent. There had never been difficulty between them. She’d never snuck out in the middle of the night or insisted on dating the wrong kind of guy. They’d agreed on most everything, other than his worries over her being single.

  But since Sarah had married and moved out, Eunice had felt closer to her father than ever before. She appreciated his silence. She loved that he didn’t push a subject or try to coax a person into talking about a thing.

  Which, for Eunice, helped to loosen her tongue.

  She found herself telling him about the date, though she omitted the part about the kiss. “I don’t know why I’m thinking so seriously about this. It’s only one date. It isn’t as if we’re promised to one another.”

  “First dates can be very important. Also, it sounds to me like you’ve made a turn in your journey.”

  “What does that mean?”

  Amos laughed softly. “Life is a journey, ya?”

  “I suppose.”

  “The Good Book says as much.”

  Eunice must have given him a skeptical look, because Amos began ticking off examples on his fingers. “We are told about the journey of Abraham, Moses and the prophets.”

  “True.”

  “And what of Job’s journey? Now there’s a book worth studying.”

  “It’s a bit sad.”

  “And beautiful—sometimes the two go hand in hand. Then we have the life of Christ and the journeys of the disciples.”

  “Okay. Okay. You win. Lots of stuff about journeys there. But how is dating a journey?”

  “Two ways I think. It’s a journey inward.” He tapped his heart.

  That simple gesture reminded Eunice of his heart troubles a few years before. She’d never thought of him as vulnerable before, but weren’t they all? Life was fleeting and precious.

  “When we journey inward we learn about ourselves, what things are important to us, what we appreciate and like about someone else. But dating is also an outward journey, toward another person and also with the other person. It’s a very exciting time, Eunice. I’m glad you’re having this experience.”

  “But I don’t even know how it will turn out.”

  “When we’re the one on the journey, we never do know how it will turn out.” He nodded, sipping his tea. She could just make out the silhouette of him from the beam of the lantern light in the living room.

  He was aging. It hurt her to think about that. She loved her dat very much. But she supposed that aging, too, was a part of each of their journeys.

  “Gotte will guide you.” His voice was soft, confident, warm. “Your family—we’re all here to support you, regardless which way your relationship with Zeb goes. It isn’t about a pressure for things to turn out a certain way. It’s more about discovering what Gotte has in store for your future. And that, Eunice, is a very exciting time.”

  She continued sitting there long after her father went inside. The night was cold, but she was warm wrapped in the old quilt that Sarah had made for her when she’d turned ten. How was it that a blanket could warm your body but a quilt could warm your body and your soul?

  She slept well that night, her dreams filled with fields of ripe corn and laughter as she ran her hands along the stalks.

  * * *

  The sun rose over a crisp November day in northern Indiana. Amos had suggested they not have tours during the Christmas parade. Everyone was excited about the community event and wanted to participate. Eunice rode into Shipshe with Becca and Gideon. Her father was already there, having worked at the market most of the day. When she saw Zeb standing in the market’s parking area, waving as if he was afraid she wouldn’t see him, something in her heart soared.

 

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