After the meal, Sadie headed next door to visit Marianna and help with Sally and Baby Jimmy. It would be nice to have a little fellowship with them while Anna was swimming with her friends.

Jimmy was asleep when Sadie arrived, and Sally and the older boys had gone with Luke to run some errands.

Marianna must need a break . . . like Molly, Sadie thought, not wanting to relive her rather difficult morning with Eva.

Marianna suggested they sit on the back porch, where an occasional breeze might cool them. “Would ya like some cold meadow tea?”

“Love some,” Sadie said. “Let me get it.”

“Nee . . . I’ve been sitting and rocking a fussy baby for an hour or more,” Marianna said, heading inside. “Somethin’s gotten into him.”

Must be the hot weather, Sadie thought, recalling how cantankerous Eva had been, too—grouchy that Molly was leaving her “alone with a stranger.” Even so, Sadie had tried not to let the reaction get to her.

Marianna brought out the tea, ice cubes clinking as she handed a tall glass to Sadie. She seemed pleased to have company and talked about wanting to start getting the house ready to host church in six weeks. “The time ’tween then and now will go fast, and with Jimmy’s colic here lately, I’ll have to pace myself.”

“We’ll all pitch in an’ help; don’t worry.” Sadie mentioned a number of relatives who would be happy to help, too. “And maybe Anna can babysit Jimmy in her spare time,” she suggested. “Remember how he and Sally took to her?”

“They certainly did.” Marianna nodded and glanced toward the house. “I noticed she had more friends stoppin’ by for her again today.”

“Oh jah. Anymore, our Anna’s becomin’ a social butterfly.”

Marianna turned to look at her. “You sound real happy ’bout that.”

Chuckling, Sadie said, “Anna’s making gut connections, which might make it more likely she’ll stay round here, ya know.” All the same, she felt torn. “I doubt Anna’s parents would smile on her spendin’ time with the family of an eligible Old Order widower, though.”

“You must mean Gabe Allgyer.”

Sadie nodded. “I feel responsible for her, considering her upbringing’s so different than ours. And her parents, ’specially her mother, are trusting Glen and me to look after her.”

“Well, she’s of age, so Anna’s ultimately the one responsible for what she does, jah?”

Sadie couldn’t deny that.

“Besides, didn’t ya say she’s been seein’ a Mennonite fella she met at work? And Anna is attending the same type of church as back home in Mifflinburg, too, right? I would guess that fella’s church would be more in keepin’ with what she’s used to.”

Sadie took a drink of her iced tea. “Honestly, she seems more enamored with the horse-riding retreat and all the Amish folk over there.”