A Beau for Katie by Emma Miller

buddies would be talking for a long time about the ringer that Katie had made.
    â€œIt was nice,” Katie said. “Sara had a bunch of company. Rebecca and her husband came by with their family, and brought home-made peach ice cream. And there were...other people.”
    Freeman smiled. “Sounds as if I missed something good.”
    â€œYou did. Sara and Ellie made lemon pound cake on Saturday, and it was nice to have the peach ice cream to serve with the cake to guests.”
    The cake and ice cream sounded like something he would have enjoyed. Why hadn’t she thought to bring him a slice of cake? He was especially fond of lemon pound cake, so much so that he could almost taste it. “Must be pretty lively living at Sara’s,” Freeman observed. “Always somebody coming by.”
    â€œI like it. It’s not home, of course, but Sara makes me feel as if it is.”
    â€œYou said other people . Who else came to visit?” he asked.
    She hesitated. “There was LeRoy, a cousin of someone. Guengerich, I think Sara said his last name was. Up visiting relatives from western Virginia. She said that he wanted to meet me.”
    â€œOne of Sara’s clients?” Freeman frowned. He didn’t know any Geungerichs from Virginia, but he could picture the man in his imagination—tall, rangy, hat brim a little too wide, and beady eyes too close together. Freeman seemed to recall that someone had told him that those members of ultra-conservative churches in the mountains wore only a single suspender on their trousers. Two suspenders were deemed too fancy. He wondered if this LeRoy fit the image. “Is he in the market for a wife?”
    Katie glanced up at him and shrugged. She had stopped weeding. “Doesn’t matter if he is or isn’t. We didn’t hit it off. He asked me to go for a walk with him, but we didn’t have much to talk about. Mostly he went on about the mildew in his garden. I don’t think I responded the way he wanted me to. He lost interest pretty quickly after I told him he should make a spray from baking soda and dish soap and treat it with that.”
    â€œWhat makes you think he wasn’t interested in you?” Freeman straightened up, liking the tale better now that it was clear that this Virginia stranger hadn’t taken Katie’s fancy.
    â€œBecause when he left Sara’s after the ice cream and cake, he went home to take supper with Jane Stutzman.”
    â€œJane? I know her. Pretty girl.”
    â€œ Ya , she is. I’m sure LeRoy thought so.”
    â€œBut if he wasn’t to your liking, what difference does it make who he had supper with?”
    She stood up and brushed the dirt off her skirt. “It doesn’t. I’m not really seeking a match, anyway. I’m already spoken for—sort of. I’m seriously considering the suit of an old neighbor of mine. Uriah. And he’s already said that he is willing to marry me.”
    â€œOld, huh?” Freeman frowned. “How old? Old enough to be your father? Your grandfather?”
    Katie laughed. “ Ne . Nothing like that. Uriah’s my age. I just meant that we grew up next door to each other. Did you think I was planning on marrying a graybeard?”
    He considered. “It happens. Lots of girls marry older men, especially girls who have a hard time in the marriage market.”
    Her eyebrows went up and he could tell her dander was ruffled. “You think I’m having a hard time ?”
    He shrugged. “No offense, but Sara, well, we all know that she specializes in hard-to-place cases.”
    â€œAnd?”
    Freeman couldn’t tell by the expression on Katie’s face now whether she was annoyed or intrigued by the way this conversation was going. “You are living with the matchmaker.”
    â€œSo you think that means I’m one of Sara’s hard-to-place matches?”
    â€œI didn’t say that.” He