by Tami Hoag
“Oh, Mom,” Sarah whispered through her tears. She rose from the bed and hugged her mother, quilt and all.
“I brought this for you,” Anna said, sniffling, trying bravely to smile as she held the quilt out when Sarah stepped back from her.
Sarah ran her hand over the fine patchwork of broadcloth. It was an Amish tradition for a mother to give her daughter a quilt when the daughter left home to marry. Sarah still had the one her mother had given her when she had married Samuel. It was a labor of love and duty, as was much of Amish life. It was a good life, a simple life, but it wasn't the life meant for her.
“It's beautiful, Mom,” she whispered, wishing this parting didn't have to be so painful or so permanent.
“For your new life,” Anna said. “Be happy, Sarah, and know that in my heart you will always be my daughter.”
Matt slowed his Jag as Jesse came into sight, and he rolled up behind an Amish buggy being pulled by a fractious-looking black horse. The car behind him honked impatiently, and Matt stuck his arm out the window to give the driver the one-finger salute. The moron. Didn't he know this was a part of the country where no one had any business being in a hurry?
The buggy turned off at the welding shop, but a tour bus had stalled in the middle of the street and there was no way around it. Matt sat listening to a Righteous Brothers tape, replaying his plan in his head. He would go to Ingrid first. There was a good chance her grapevine would know the name of the relatives Sarah had been sent to. Then he would beat a path south and do whatever he had to do to convince Sarah she belonged with him in his world more than she belonged in theirs.
His gaze wandered over the herd of tourists that had spilled out of the bus and were heading across the street toward the small depot and gift shop. Another small knot of people stood in the sunshine at the side of the little putty-colored clapboard building, apparently waiting to board a bus bound for some distant place—two elderly women, a bean pole youth with a buzz-cut and army fatigues, and a young Amish woman.
Matt's hands tightened on the steering wheel and he stared hard out his window. His heart pounded like thunder in his chest. Sarah. But how could it be? She was in Ohio. He stared until his eyes hurt, but he just couldn't tell. She was too far away and too well disguised by her black bonnet and heavy cape. He couldn't quite see her face, but something inside him told him it was Sarah, the missing part of his heart and soul.
There was no hope of turning across the street; the traffic was too heavy coming from the other direction. So he simply left his precious gold XJ6 sitting behind the stalled bus.
“Sarah!” he called, glancing from her to the traffic and back. “Sarah, wait! Don't go!”
Sarah felt as if a bolt of lightning had just shot through her. Matt. As the bus for Minneapolis wheeled into place to take her to him, he stood across the street. He had come back. He had come back for her!
“Matt!” She yanked her heavy bonnet off and waved it wildly, laughing with pure joy.
He darted across the street, just managing to escape a brush with the fender of a pickup. He didn't even hear the blast of the horn. He was too intent on Sarah to care about anything else. She hadn't left yet. There was still time. He wasn't sure he could talk her into marrying him in the few minutes before her bus pulled out, but he dredged up a little of his doctor's arrogance and told himself he probably could. He'd gotten her to fall in love with him almost that fast, hadn't he? And if he didn't succeed before the bus left, he would get on the blasted thing and hound her all the way to Ohio. She would end up marrying him if for no other reason than to get a moment's peace.
“Matt, you donkey, you could have been hit by that truck!” she scolded as he rushed up to her. He was breathing hard, and the wind tossed his dark hair in that way she had read of as rakish. He looked more handsome to her than ever, strong and vital and male, his dark eyes glowing, the wind painting color across his high cheekbones. He stopped before her and planted his hands at the waist of his jeans.
“No problem,” he said, grinning. Tm a physician. I can heal myself.”
Sarah's mouth curved into her Mona Lisa smile. “You would think so.”
He sobered as he drank in the sight of her face. “I did think so until I found out there wasn't a damn thing I could do to fix my broken heart. I came down here to look for a specialist I know, someone who helped me heal once before. But I thought I was going to have to go all the way to Ohio to- find her.”
“Oh, Matt,' she whispered, tingling all over with love. “You really did come back for me?”
“I had to. I found out I couldn't live without you. I didn't want to.” He glanced away, taking a deep breath and gathering courage, then his eyes found hers again. “I know what it would cost you to marry me, Sarah. I don't feel like I have the right to ask you, but I'm going to. I know what your family means to you, but I'll give you a family. Ill give you all the family you want. And I'll give you the chance to learn and to be anything you ever dreamed of being. I love you so much, Sarah Troyer,” he said, his dark eyes filling. “I thought I loved you enough to let you go, but I love you more than that. I love you so much I want to see you grow and flourish.”
Sarah tried to swallow down the knot of emotion in her throat and smile. “I guess I could grow some,” she said, teasing. “Seeing as how I'll be needing new clothes anyway.”
Matt didn't laugh. There was still too much hanging in the balance for joking. He wanted to believe she was saying she wanted him, but he needed to hear the actual words. “Do you mean it, Sarah? Are you willing to give up everything you have to be with me?”
She reached up and brushed her fingertips against the scar on his chin, her eyes soft and shining with love. “I have nothing without you.”
“Then why were you leaving?” Matt asked, his voice straining against the pain of the question.
“I wasn't leaving. I was coming to you. I love you, Matt Thorne. I don't know much about your world except that I want to be in it if youTl have me.”
The hydraulics of the big bus beside them hissed, and the doors snapped open like the mouth of some giant beast. Matt glanced up at the destination sign above the windshield. Minneapolis. All the tension drained out of him in a rush, leaving him feeling weak and dizzy. He threw his head back and let out a whoop of joy that turned heads all up and down Jesse's Main Street. The life force that seemed to have been missing from him for the last week surged inside him once again.
He grabbed Sarah against him and twirled her around, delighting in her squeals of surprise and embarrassment. As he set her down, he drove his fingers into her hair, sending hairpins shooting, setting free the thick mass of brown silk that fell in waves to her hips. He bent his head to kiss her, drinking in the taste of her as if she were the finest, sweetest wine, and she wound her arms around his neck and melted against him.
“Hey!” the bus driver called out the door. “Are you getting on or not?”
“No,” Matt said. He waved the bus on, never taking his eyes off the small, pretty woman who would bask in the glow of his love for the rest of his life, who would give him joy and children and make Ins world bright and new.
“Go on without us,” he said. “We're already home.”
About the Author
TAMI HOAG'S novels have appeared regularly on national bestseller lists since the publication of her first book in 1988. She lives in California.
All rights reserved.
Copyright © 1991 by Tami Hoag.
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