Forever. Karen Hopkins Ann

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СКАЧАТЬ rose, and I blurted, “What’s he doing?”

      “Nothing yet—the meeting will give us a better idea of how far he’s willing to take the matter, but you don’t need to worry your pretty head about it.”

      He stopped talking and brought his mouth against mine. The feel of his lips distracted me, but not completely.

      I broke away from the kiss and said, “Have you talked to Constance?”

      “No, she wasn’t at church service this morning. I haven’t seen her since our fathers spoke.”

      The way he said the words, like he was feeling bad for her, made me suddenly jealous. After all, he had asked the girl to marry him. He must have really liked her to do such a thing—and he must have kissed her. I closed my eyes quickly, trying to erase the image that made me suddenly feel sick again.

      Swallowing carefully, I said, “Let’s just forget about her for now. There’s something more important we need to talk about.”

      Before I could continue, Noah hugged me tightly, pressing his face against my chest. His voice was muffled when he said, “Yes, we certainly do.”

      He pulled back, and with moonlight shining through the doorway, I could see his face better. His mouth was smiling and his eyes were content.

      Gathering my courage, I opened my mouth to speak, but he placed his finger on my lips and shushed me.

      “I’ve got it all figured out. My folks support us getting back together. They’re going to give us a couple of acres on the far side of their property that we can build a small house on. The adjacent land is owned by Marcus Bontrager, and he’s willing to sell about twenty acres, so we’ll have that option as time goes on.”

      “But, Noah...”

      “Hush now, and listen. Now that you’re back in Meadowview, we can arrange meetings like this. It won’t be so bad if my parents are in agreement. Your father is gone most of the time, anyway. But, Rose, there’s one little hitch to the plan that I’m going to need your help with.”

      “What do you want me to do?”

      “Wait. That’s all, wait. We need some more time to make this happen. Father and Mother think we need a while to announce our engagement. If we do it straightaway, it will enrage Elijah all the more. I understand their worry. It would be unfair to Constance for us to be formally together so quickly.”

      Without breathing, I asked, “For how long?”

      “Until after your birthday—what’s that, about six months away? It will give Father enough time to iron things out with the Schwartzes, and maybe Constance will have a new beau by then. I’ll continue to work and save money to start our life together. Your father will be thrilled that you’ll be finishing up your last year of schooling, and he won’t have any reason to think that you’re going to become Amish when you’re legally an adult and marry me. It will work out perfectly this way.”

      The intensity and speed of his words beat into my head as I repeated them over again in the silence. Wait six months—it was impossible. Anger rose in me.

      “So you’re okay with us being apart for that long, having to put our lives on hold once again to accommodate everyone else—and now Constance?”

      “Don’t go getting jealous. What I’ve done to her is terrible, and I can’t just go on without taking her feelings into consideration. It would be wrong to do so. Besides, I just listed off all the reasons it’s in our best interest to wait. For once we need to follow the course of patience and faith, Rose. We’ve made such a mess of things in the past. Let’s do this the right way and begin our life together in the best light.”

      My heart was breaking. Now, even Noah was keeping us apart.

      When I didn’t speak, Noah’s voice came out quiet, his words apprehensive. “Unless, there’s some other reason to hurry things along? Is that the case, sweetheart?”

      I heard Summer’s voice in my head, and then I thought about Noah’s desire to protect Constance and her feelings. The fact that the community seemed more important to him than me woke me from the deep sleep I’d been living in for the past week.

      Noah didn’t want to hear the truth. He wouldn’t be happy to know that his well-laid plans were about to go up in smoke. For the first time I had an excuse to lie.

      “No reason at all.”

      As Noah tilted my chin and began covering my face with featherlight kisses, I sighed and let him love me.

      At that moment, I felt no guilt, and I wondered if that was even worse than the lying part.

      7

      Sarah

      As I untied Juniper, I felt the tingle of being watched and turned to look around the dark interior of the barn. When Micah stepped out from behind the wooden post, I wasn’t surprised. His brazen behavior was getting worse, and secretly I loved it.

      He smiled and said, “Do you need any help hitching up your horse?”

      Unable to keep my foot still, I pushed at the shavings on the ground with the toe of my black shoe. “Thank you very much, but I’m fine.” I placed my attention back on Juniper’s head.

      “I knew you’d refuse me.”

      Catching the slightly raised pitch of his voice, I glanced back and met his green-eyed stare.

      Lowering my voice, I said, “You really must stop this.”

      “Why?”

      “We’ve already gone over it. It’s better if we don’t talk anymore, because of the situation brewing between our families.”

      “You didn’t pay any attention to Edwin during volleyball. What does that mean, then?”

      I sighed. Micah was so different from Edwin. If I didn’t make eyes with Edwin or start up a quick exchange of words, he was too shy to approach me. I had to do all the work or nothing would ever get done with the boy. Micah was the opposite. He was forward to the point of rattling my nerves.

      “Again, it’s none of your business what happens between me and him. I wish you’d just leave it be.”

      “I caught you looking at me several times during the service.”

      My face reddened with the heat that suddenly flamed my cheeks.

      “I only turned your way because you were so rudely staring at me. I’m surprised the entire community didn’t notice.”

      “It wouldn’t be so bad if they did.”

      “You’re being silly. Please excuse me while I take the horse to the buggy.”

      Shocking me, Micah blocked the back of the stall. If I continued to nudge Juniper in that direction, he’d get trampled.

      “Why isn’t Noah assisting you? Where is he, anyway?”

      I СКАЧАТЬ