Sol didn’t respond to that, and there was a lull between them. “By the way,” he said, his hazel eyes squinting in the sunlight, “it was fun double-dating with you and Menno that time we all went out the end of May.”

“It was,” Ellie replied, wishing Menno had been more talkative that evening, the last time she’d seen him before he left town.

Sol took another swig. “Maybe once Menno returns from the Big Valley, he’ll want to do it again.”

Ellie didn’t know enough to comment since she’d received only two postcards from Menno. She’d replied with a short letter and was looking forward to his return.

“Ya might also be interested to hear that Jonah has Menno on the alternate list for part-time peach pickers,” Sol said, then chuckled. “Say that fast five times.”

“Menno must be glad.”

“I would guess so.”

Ellie appreciated that Sol had told her this about his cousin. “Well, I should deliver the rest of these,” she said, glancing at the thermoses still lying in the wagon.

“Okay. See ya, Ellie.”

She smiled at how friendly Sol was and wondered if he’d asked Cousin Ruthann out again after that double-date. But then again, if he had, Ruthann wouldn’t have been able to hide her excitement.

While redding up her room later that morning, Ellie opened the hope chest that had belonged to her mother as a teen. The lid was as solid as the rest of the oak chest handcrafted by Mamm’s eldest brother, Jesse.

Ellie reorganized the contents, then placed inside the new set of pillowcases she’d embroidered recently. As far as linens and blankets and such, she now had practically everything she would need to set up housekeeping as a newlywed. The only thing missing was an honest-to-goodness steady beau. Might Menno be that person? He was very nice and as polite as he was strong—she’d heard he could toss a bale of hay like it was a feather. But she didn’t know him all that well yet, since they’d had only that one double-date before he left for the Big Valley. All the same, she would be patient. If Menno even considers me a potential sweetheart . . .

She lowered the lid on the chest and turned to look out one of the windows at the orchard below, still one of the main reasons she liked having her room up here. She could see her mother walking across the side yard to the fruit store. Mamm was already betrothed to Dat at my age, she thought, wondering what God had planned for her own future.