by Amy Lillard
Her eyes lit up. “And James Riehl? He’s like us. Me and Buddy. Oh, and her brother, Daniel. He’s little, but I think he would like that too.” Jenna had just named most of the special-needs citizens of their church district. And there had to be others, Englisch kids and teens, who would like to learn to paint.
“He probably would.”
“So you’ll talk to her for us?” Jenna asked.
He had no idea how to get in touch with Lorie. She lived in Tulsa and only came to Wells Landing to see her family, but he found himself nodding. See, with a smile like Jenna’s, how could he refuse?
* * *
“That man is definitely trying to court you.” Charlotte grinned. Then her expression fell, and she sat down in one of the kitchen chairs. “If the two of you get married . . .”
“They won’t get married for a while.”
Nadine jumped and turned at the sound of Jenna’s voice.
“I thought you had left,” Charlotte said.
“I forgot something.” But instead of retrieving it, she sat down next to her mamm. “And if they do start courting, they’ll keep it a secret since it’s not a first marriage.” She paused and thoughtfully tapped a finger against her chin. “Of course, this is Amos’s first marriage, jah? Is it different for men?”
“No one’s getting married.” Nadine stood and started gathering up the cups and saucers they had used for their snack. A very fateful snack if you asked her.
Jenna shook her head. “Like you would tell us.”
Nadine sighed and did her best to tamp down her frustration. That was just Jenna. “I would most definitely tell the two of you.”
“Mm-hmm.” Jenna smiled, and as frustrated as Nadine was, she couldn’t find fault with her granddaughter.
“How about this?” Nadine started. “If there is a wedding, you will be the first to know.”
Jenna’s gleeful expression crumpled into disappointment. “Jah. I guess so.”
“Would it be so bad?” Charlotte asked.
“What?” Nadine wasn’t sure she understood the question, and yet her heart gave a hard pound.
“Marrying Amos.”
Would it be? Nadine had never planned to get married again, and she hadn’t let herself think about the concept as a whole, much less allow her thoughts to examine marriage to any one man. “I just met him a couple of weeks ago.”
“I know that,” Charlotte said. “But theoretically.”
Nadine shook her head, not to say no but more in a what are you thinking? sort of way. “Theoretically I’ve never considered it and probably never will.”
But as she dried her hands and made her way back into the living room, it was all she could think about. Would they live at this house or in his trailer? It wasn’t what she had envisioned as an adequate place to live, but it was cleaner than she had imagined and he seemed to be working on it. Why, he’d just put a porch on it last week.
How long would they wait before they got married? Not long, surely. They were already in their sixties. How long could they wait?
And that was another thing. He was younger than her. Only by a couple of years. Three to be exact. That shouldn’t make a difference, but something about it made her feel strange.
What was she thinking?
She was not marrying Amos Fisher. And there were a hundred reasons why, starting but not ending with he hadn’t asked her to marry him! And he probably never would. Right now, she was a challenge to him.
Charlotte and Jenna came into the room on the way to the front door. They were chatting about the wedding dresses and when they would need to start sewing them, but basically their words were like the buzzing of bees. Her ears had stopped working, and all she could think about was the fact that she had made herself a challenge. And once Amos had been presented with the challenge, he hadn’t been able to concentrate on anything other than the hunt.
The idea was so simple she couldn’t believe she hadn’t thought about it before.
All she had to do was pretend to like him. Well, she did like him. She would need to pretend that she more than liked him. That maybe she was interested in a relationship with him. And then he would lose interest because the thrill of the chase would be removed.
She wished she had thought of this last week. But she had it now. And she was putting it in place as soon as possible.
* * *
As soon as church let out on Sunday, all the talk was about the painting class. Everywhere Nadine went that was all anyone could talk about. Well, anyone of age. Nadine saw the chatter as the perfect way to put her plan into motion. After the incident with the plush elephant, the rest of the week had passed without her seeing Amos again. It had been a little unnerving. Every day, she had waited expectantly for him to come out to the house. Each time she’d heard the sound of an engine, she’d tensed, thinking it might be him. It never had been. That hadn’t stopped her from being nervous and uptight thinking that he would show up at any minute.
It had been something of a relief to have Sunday come. She knew that he would be there and she would be able to start her new plan.
“Nadine,” Verna Yutzy called to her and motioned her over. A group of women had clustered together under one of the trees there on the Byler farm. “What do you think about this meeting tomorrow night?”
“The painting class?” Nadine asked. Perfect. She didn’t even have to bring it up. Well, it would have been perfect if Amos was close enough to hear. “I think it’s a great idea.” Lord, forgive me the lie. It’s for a noble cause.
Well, maybe not noble, but the prayer was already said.
Amen.
It sounded like fun, but she wasn’t sure it was great. It seemed almost a little too liberal for a community such as Wells Landing.
“I don’t know what Cephas is thinking,” Maddie Kauffman put in. “This is a step too far.” She shot Nadine a disapproving look. Or maybe that was her regular expression. It was hard to tell with Maddie.
“It’s just a bit of paint,” Susan Byler put in. Of all of them, Susan was perhaps the oldest in their group. As far as Nadine knew, she could also be the most conservative of them as well. If all the stories floating around were true, Susan was a bishop’s daughter. The bishop before Cephas.
“That’s what people say, and then the next thing you know everyone is driving around on tractors.” Maddie frowned.
Nadine wasn’t sure what one thing had to do with the other.
Susan sighed. “I’m not going to defend my father’s decision. Which wasn’t entirely his decision. He allowed the district to have a say. Those who didn’t want to use tractors weren’t required to.”
No one had told her the reason why the people in Wells Landing had decided to allow the use of farm tractors, but she supposed it was like Yoder. The soil was just too rocky to farm any other way. Even with Amish determination.
“Anyone who didn’t use a tractor had to leave.”
She didn’t see who’d said that, but the words effectively took away all of Maddie’s arguments. Her family had stayed so they must have not opposed the use of tractors. Again, Nadine wondered if Maddie was just opposed to anything that she could be opposed to.
Maddie crossed her arms. “Well, I’m not going. And I suggest you all do the same.”
Discussion went up all around as to whether or not this person was going to go or that person was going to go. Nadine wanted to state her intentions, but she didn’t care if anyone standing around her knew that she was planning to attend the painting class at the nursing home the following evening. She needed Amos to know.
She sucked in a deep breath. It didn’t matter if she told him now. What mattered was showing up tomorrow night and putting her plan into action.
The debate was still going strong when Nadine sidled away and right into Amos.
“Hi.” He smiled at her.
“Hi,” she said in return. He really was a good man. The thought appeared in her mind before she had time to
block it. One moment, she was greeting him, and the next she was thinking about him as a person. Kind, godly, maybe a little unconventional. But that was what she lo—liked about him. “So,” she started, not knowing how to bring up the painting class the following evening. Did she just ask him if he was going? That seemed far too forward. It might be a new millennium, but they were still Amish. Maybe she should try to ease into it, from the side, so to speak. “The women are all talking about the painting class tomorrow night.”
“Jah?”
“It seems to be a big controversy.”
He shook his head. “Some of these ladies just need something to talk about.”
“Well, painting could lead to pridefulness.”
He swept an arm around the yard. “Name me one person who isn’t prideful of something,” he challenged.
She couldn’t. Everyone was prideful at one time or another.
“It’s what you do with that pride that makes the difference.”
“I never thought about it like that.”
“It’s true. What are you prideful about?”
“Jenna.” Her granddaughter’s name was on her lips before she could even register that she was going to say it. “She’s come through so much, and yet she’s still loving and funny.”
“And your pride for her shows through in your love.”
It was something she never thought about, but it was true all the same. And pride turned to love couldn’t be all bad. It was an intriguing thought. But it wasn’t what she was supposed to be talking about. Remember your plan.
“If I didn’t know better, I might think that you are trying to talk me into going to the seniors’ meeting tomorrow night.” So much for sideways. She wasn’t cut out for deception. Hopefully it wouldn’t take long to make Amos lose interest. She didn’t think she could keep this up for more than a few days.
A strange pang shot through her heart. At the thought of Amos losing interest? Surely that wasn’t what had caused it. She wanted him to lose interest, had devised this entire plan to make that happen. It was what she wanted. One hundred percent.
His face lit up like a child at Christmas. “Are you thinking about coming tomorrow night?”
“I thought it might be a good idea. You know, check everything out, decide for myself.”
“That would be great. I’ve never been to one of those, but it sounds like fun.”
Truth be told, it did. “Worth checking into, I’m sure.”
He nodded, then cleared his throat. “Can I . . . can I give you a ride home this afternoon?”
She hadn’t been expecting that. Nor had she imagined that she would want to say yes. And she did want to. And he wasn’t supposed to want to spend time with her anymore. But she knew that in itself would take time. He wasn’t going to magically stop asking her to go places or quit bringing her gifts. So in a sense, she had to say yes. Even though it would leave Charlotte riding home alone. There was a time when she wouldn’t have thought about that at all, but since Jenna had moved in with Abbie and Titus, Charlotte seemed a little sadder than usual, and Nadine worried about her.
“Charlotte—” she started.
“Is a grown woman,” Amos finished. “She’ll be fine by herself, and we’ll meet her when we all get to the house.”
If she was going to carry through with her plan, then she needed to carry through with it. She nodded. “Okay. Jah. You can give me a ride home.”
The words warmed her from the inside out. But she ignored that feeling and concentrated on the one thing that mattered: making Amos lose interest by feigning her own. Except she wasn’t really sure how much would be pretend and how much would be genuine.
* * *
Amos felt like the luckiest man alive as he hitched up his horse and helped Nadine into his buggy.
He could feel the eyes watching him and he hoped the other bachelors of age took note. He, Amos Fisher, was taking Nadine Burkhart home after church. As far as romance among the Amish went, that was pretty significant. He was having trouble not strutting around like a banty rooster, his chest all puffed up with pride. Instead, he acted like he was doing the same thing he did every Sunday after church. He casually walked around the horse, patted him on the side of the neck, then swung up into the buggy next to her. Each motion felt strange, as if he had never done it before.
“Settled in?” he asked.
She nodded.
He clicked the reins and off they went.
It was hard controlling his smile. He wanted to show his grin from ear to ear for all to see, but he managed to contain it to his face. Still he was happy. She had agreed to ride home with him. After all her resistance, he couldn’t help the burst of pride he felt. Even if it was the potentially dangerous kind. He was prideful and happy and grateful and a bunch of other words that ended in ful. Joyful, prayerful, thankful.
“Are you comfortable?” he asked. Dumb question. Amish buggies weren’t made with comfort in mind. They were designed to get them where they were going in line with the Ordnung. Nothing more, nothing less.
“Jah. Danki.” She smiled at him, but she didn’t look comfortable. So why was she not telling him the truth?
Because it was a dumb question that should have never been asked, and it deserved an untruthful answer.
“If you want, I can swing by your house tomorrow and pick you up for the class,” he said.
“I thought there was a van taking us out there.” She turned in her seat to face him.
“Well, jah. There is. Or we could ride out ourselves.”
“It’s probably safer if we drive in the van.”
He gave a little cough. “Well, I could come by and get you, and we could ride to the scratch-and-dent store together.” That was their meeting place. Everyone was driving to Dan’s Discount Sundries, which was a very special name for a store that sold damaged goods. From there, they were catching the van to Whispering Pines.
She shook her head. “It’ll be dark by the time we get out. I don’t like driving a tractor after dark.”
“They have lights,” Amos explained.
“I know. But I don’t like riding on a tractor after dark. My vision isn’t what it used to be.”
He could relate. He’d had excellent eyesight up until about ten years ago. From there, it just kept getting worse. Sometimes getting old was the pits. “You’ll have to drive from Dan’s home after it gets dark.”
“And that’s a much shorter distance than from the nursing home all the way across town.”
She had him on that one. “Still, I think it will be better if we rode together.”
“Maybe.” She had turned around and was staring out the front as if they weren’t having a conversation at all. Even as she talked to him.
“I could swing by and pick you up.”
She shook her head. “I’ll come get you.”
* * *
“Be safe,” Charlotte called as Nadine headed out the door the following evening.
“Jah.” She tossed the word over her shoulder, feeling like she was a teenager again and her mamm was standing at the door watching her leave. Except it wasn’t her mamm, but her daughter-in-law, and this wasn’t a date.
She climbed onto her tractor and chugged toward the road.
This was not a date. It couldn’t be. Amish women didn’t pick up Amish men for dates. They were old-fashioned that way. Which was exactly why she’d told him she would pick him up. By doing that, she had effectively blocked him from calling this a date.
She shook her head at herself. She probably should have let him pretend it was a date. How else was she going to get him to lose interest? Once again, she had presented herself as a challenge. It was a mistake, but one she could recover from. All she had to do was pretend tonight meant a little something to her and bam. He would be off in a flash, chasing someone else’s apron.
Amos must have been watching from the window because as soon as she pulled up, he came out of the trailer. She didn’t even h
ave to get off her tractor.
With only a smile of greeting, he hopped on board. Then she turned the tractor around and headed for Dan’s Discount Sundries.
Chapter Eight
The van was parked in the small lot when they pulled up. Several of the other seniors were milling around, waiting for time to leave.
Nadine pulled her tractor off to one side with the others, and she and Amos climbed down. That’s when she realized that maybe them riding together had been a bigger mistake than she had thought. Everyone watched them as they walked up together. Eyes were wide, mouths were open, it seemed no one had expected them to be together. And regardless of who picked up whom, to the church member waiting for the van, she and Amos were on a date.
Great. It was one thing to trick Amos into believing they were a couple so he wouldn’t want to be a couple anymore and quite another to have the church district believing that they were dating. Reversing news like that was next to impossible.
“It’s kind of chilly tonight.” She pulled her sweater a little closer around her. She wasn’t really cold, but she wanted to separate herself from Amos. She had been enjoying walking beside him until everyone started staring as if they were holding hands or something.
“You can have my jacket if you’re cold.”
And how would that look? Like more than dating. “No, danki. I’m okay.” Well, she would be once everyone stopped staring.
Thankfully, five minutes later, they started loading into the van. It was the longest five minutes of her life, but she managed. Now she was pressed too close between Maddie Kauffman and Verna Yutzy. Nadine wasn’t sure why Maddie had come since she had been so opposed to the idea. Then she remembered that Lorie was her step-daughter. Maddie had practically raised the girl until Lorie found out that her father was really Englisch and her mother’s family very wealthy. News was that Lorie had inherited a goodly sum of money from her mother’s side and didn’t have to work, but she loved to paint and share her talents with others. That was why she held classes like these.
The trip to the nursing home was filled with chatter. Mostly talk of the people who didn’t approve, the bishop, and what they might be painting. Nadine sat back and just listened. She didn’t have anything to add to the conversation. This was about making Amos not want to see her any longer. The painting, the gossip, and the scandal that it had created were merely side effects for her. She just needed to get this date over and done, so she could pray there wouldn’t be many more before Amos turned her loose.
