by Beth Wiseman
She looked toward the house and caught Hannah watching from the window. Hannah smiled and gave a quick wave before turning away. Rachel silently prayed that Hannah would find her perfect person soon too.
Gideon kissed her again, and there was no mistaking that friendship love was well on the way to romantic love.
EPILOGUE
Rachel hurried down the stairs when her mother called out that Gideon was pulling in. “Coming!”
She ran through the living room and past her father, who was reading the newspaper. He didn’t ask anymore when Rachel would be home. Saturday nights were date nights, and Gideon always had Rachel home at what her father called a reasonable hour. They’d been dating for two months now, and although Rachel didn’t want to count her eggs before they hatched, she was pretty sure a proposal was on her horizon.
Abraham and his family had moved away last month. No one was quite sure why, but there was a rumor that Abraham got into some trouble with some Englisch boys in Bird-in-Hand. Rachel didn’t wish bad will on Abraham, but she and Hannah were both glad he was gone.
Rachel ran across the yard and jumped into Gideon’s arms. “I’m so excited! I can’t believe it’s taken two months for us to see a movie.”
Gideon kissed her before she eased out of his arms. “Ya, my work schedule was such a mess while we were taking inventory. Danki for waiting on me. Finally, we are going to the movies.” He grinned. “It’s okay with your parents, right? Did you tell them it’s a Christian film?”
Rachel nodded. “Ya, I told them. They knew this was coming, so they were happy we chose a faith-based movie.”
They turned when another buggy pulled in the driveway, and seconds later Isaac Lapp stepped out. Hannah strode more patiently toward her date, but at the last minute she picked up her pace and gave him a quick kiss. They’d been dating almost as long as Rachel and Gideon, and Rachel had never seen Hannah so happy.
“Wie bischt.” Isaac shook Gideon’s hand, then the men tethered the horses and checked that the water trough was full. A few minutes later, a blue van arrived.
Hannah cupped her hands around her mouth. “Gideon, Isaac! The driver is here!”
They waited for the boys, then they all walked to the van.
Hannah held up her pinky, and Rachel latched on with hers. “Pinky swears forever. Our first movie and we are going to it together, like we promised.”
Rachel nodded, smiling. “And schweschders forever.”
A NEW BEGINNING
CHAPTER 1
Noah’s heart palpitated. He was excited and nervous about attending this party with his Englisch friend. He’d lived in Lancaster County his entire life, but as Gavin wound his car around the semicircle driveway, Noah was sure this was the biggest house he’d ever seen. A huge two-story structure encased in white stone with ornate columns and decorative pillars that ran the length of the front porch.
“What did I tell you?” Gavin put the car in park near the entrance and looked at Noah. “It’s a massive place with a pool in the backyard, and there’s going to be tons of food and girls.”
Gavin left the car running and stepped out. Noah followed his friend’s lead, looking down at his blue jeans and flip-flops before he smoothed the wrinkles on the front of his yellow T-shirt. All loaner clothes from Gavin. The jeans were a little big, but when Noah suggested he might wear suspenders, Gavin frowned and told him that wouldn’t be cool.
A man hopped into the driver’s seat and drove the car around the driveway, passing a fountain shaped like a giant pear. Colorful summer flowers filled the area around the water, which flowed into a small pond outlined in lights.
Noah followed Gavin across the threshold and into a spacious living room filled with fancy furniture in shades of white and gold. A large crystal chandelier hung in the entryway, and he saw another one in the distance. Loud music and a haze of smoke assaulted his senses as they made their way through the crowd of teenagers, Gavin edging some of the kids out of the way with his elbow.
“The beer is out by the pool,” he yelled above the music.
Gavin was what the Englisch girls called a ladies’ man. He was tall and muscular with sandy blond hair that was just wavy enough to look good without being too girly. Gavin strutted as he walked, kind of a swagger, his shoulders squared, and with an air of confidence Noah wished he had. Gavin’s teeth were perfectly straight and white, from braces he wore when he was younger. When Gavin smiled, girls seemed to melt like butter in his presence.
Noah had always liked Gavin. He was a nice guy and always the first person to offer to cover Noah’s shift if he needed to be off work. And Noah needed to be off a lot during the fall harvesting season that was coming up.
Noah hurried to keep up with his friend, as his temples pounded and his heart hammered against his chest. His parents would be disappointed that he’d agreed to come. Rebecca would be even more upset, but Noah had worked at the hardware store with Gavin for almost a year, and Gavin told him this was the party of the year and he’d be crazy not to go. He’d turned down his friend at least a dozen times before, but since Noah hadn’t really taken advantage of his rumschpringe over the last couple years, he decided to tag along to see what one of these parties was like while he still could. Soon these kinds of things would be forbidden, and this might be his last chance to experience the Englisch world before he was baptized and married Rebecca.
He tried to hold his breath as clouds of cigarette smoke wafted in every direction. People were talking loudly and yelling over the music, and about a dozen or so kids around his age were wiggling their hips and swaying to the beat, most with a cup in hand.
Noah followed Gavin out the patio door straight to a big keg of beer. But his eyes kept drifting to the pool. The girls there barely had on any clothes—skimpy swimsuits that didn’t leave much to Noah’s imagination. He’d never seen that much of Rebecca, much less strangers, and he was going to marry Rebecca. Girls in their community wore bathing suits, but not the kind these girls were wearing.
“Watch out.” Gavin nudged Noah and grinned as he handed him a plastic cup filled to the rim with beer. “You’ll turn to stone if you stare too long.”
Noah glanced down, swallowed hard, and wondered if his cheeks were turning red.
“Relax, man. I know you’re getting married in a couple months. But I guess it doesn’t hurt to look, as long as you’re respectful, so you might as well get an eyeful now.” Gavin nodded toward the far end of the pool. “That’s who I’ve got my eye on. Penny Schroeder.”
“Ya, she’s pretty.” Noah wasn’t surprised Gavin was going after the prettiest girl he’d seen at the party so far. Penny had long blond hair pulled into a high ponytail, and from what Noah could see of her waist-up in the water, she had a great figure. He lowered his gaze as guilt rushed over him. He was going to be a married man soon.
Gavin pointed to a guy who had just jumped into the water, grabbing his knees in midair, which caused a tidal wave across the pool.
“I’d run if I was that guy.” Several girls pushed back groomed hairstyles that were now soaked, and two of them had lost their sunglasses and now yelled at whoever had just splashed them.
Noah took a sip of his beer. He’d only had the beverage one other time, when he and Jacob Lapp each drank a bottle behind Jacob’s barn early into their rumschpringe. Jacob had gotten an older kid to buy it for them. Noah liked the taste then, and he liked it now. And he wouldn’t have to have just one this time. There were two other kegs at the other end of the pool. He drank what was in his glass and went to fill it up again.
“Easy there, dude.” Gavin grinned. “We’ve got all night, so you’d better pace yourself.” He motioned for Noah to follow him. “Let’s go see Penny and her friends.”
Noah was a bit shaky, so he chugged more of the beer and stifled a burp, hoping it didn’t slip out the second he opened his mouth. He watched as Penny got out of the pool, and he could see that everything below her waist was well pro
portioned too. Although her bikini bottom looked too small—
Noah forced himself to look away, worried about turning shades of red again. But almost against his will, his eyes ventured back, and she smiled.
“Hi. Are you Noah? Gavin said he might be bringing a friend.” Penny held out her hand. “Welcome to my house. Please make yourself at home.” She pointed to a large covered area to her left with a bunch of tables and chairs set up, although not many people were over there. “The guy we hired to cook will be firing up the barbecue pit soon, but there’s tons of appetizers if you’re hungry now.”
Noah had been so mesmerized by Penny that he hadn’t noticed another girl join them. She could have been Penny’s sister. The same blond hair, gorgeous smile, and nice body.
“This is McKenna.” Penny nodded at her look-alike friend. “And that’s Noah, a friend of Gavin’s.”
McKenna edged closer to Noah, her eyes lifting slightly above his. Noah hadn’t been able to do much about his cropped bangs, which surely gave him away as Amish, since he didn’t know any Englisch guys with his haircut. He’d tried to comb them to the side, but they just kept falling forward, so he finally gave up.
Noah took a nervous drink from his cup, and a tiny bit of liquid dribbled down his chin, which he quickly wiped away. But McKenna just smiled.
“Uh, hey . . .” Penny blinked her eyes at Gavin. “Why don’t the four of us go up to the video room. It’s off-limits for parties, but I live here, so”—she shrugged, grinning—“I say we can go.” She nudged Gavin. “It’s also where my dad’s liquor cabinet is. But since his heart attack, he doesn’t drink anymore, so he won’t notice if a little tiny bit is missing.”
“Sounds good.” Gavin sounded smooth as he winked at Penny, but Noah thought he caught a twinge of something less sure in his friend’s expression as Gavin turned away.
Noah drank more beer and realized he wasn’t nearly as nervous as he’d been earlier. He followed Gavin and the girls toward the house and stayed close as they elbowed their way to a spiral staircase. Once on the landing upstairs, they started down a long hallway, and Penny opened double doors on the right that led into a room that reminded Noah of a mini movie theater. He’d been to the movies before—one of the things he’d taken advantage of during his rumschpringe. Once he’d gone by himself, and twice he’d taken Rebecca.
They hadn’t been in the room two minutes when Penny asked Gavin to follow her to another room. Right before Gavin stepped into the hallway, he turned to Noah and McKenna and pointed a finger at McKenna.
“Hey, no taking advantage of this guy. He’s engaged to be married soon.”
Penny slapped Gavin playfully on the arm. “Leave them alone. They’ll be fine. And the booze is over there.” She pointed to a cabinet to the right of the theater seats. “Have fun.” She gave a quick wave, and they were gone.
Noah felt light on his feet and a little foggy, and it didn’t take a genius to figure out he was in dangerous territory. He swallowed hard as McKenna walked toward him, her eyes locked on his. She stopped a few inches away from him and bit her bottom lip, her eyes slightly glassy. Noah’s gut told him to take a step backward, but his feet were rooted to the floor. He’d never been this close to a girl who had such little clothing on, and his heart started pounding again.
“I know you’re engaged,” she said as she put a hand on his arm. “So, if us being alone together makes you uncomfortable, we can rejoin the party.”
Noah wondered if she could hear his heart. He opened his mouth to tell her he wanted to go back to the party, but his mind couldn’t seem to organize his thoughts into a sentence.
McKenna just smiled.
CHAPTER 2
Rebecca ran her finger down her to-do list of the things she needed to take care of before the wedding and was pleased at how much she’d accomplished. Then she looked at her brother’s list and huffed.
“Mamm, Paul hasn’t done any of the things on his list.”
Rebecca’s mother wiped her hands on a dish towel as she leaned against the kitchen counter. “There are still two months until the wedding, mei maedel. I’m sure your bruder will take care of his responsibilities.”
“Ya, I hope so. But Paul waits until the last minute to do everything, and Daed insisted he get the fence painted, and that’s not even on this list.”
Her mother smiled. “Are you going to be like this for the next couple months? I promise you, everything will be fine.”
Linda Fisher was the calmest woman Rebecca knew, and the perfect person to help plan a wedding. Rebecca wished she was more like her mother, but she had a tendency to worry about everything, even though she knew it was a sin. Little things got her all worked up, especially things out of her control.
She took a deep cleansing breath and blew it out slowly. Noah had fallen in love with her just the way she was, but she wanted to be the best wife possible. She’d been practicing being calm. But when it came to her brother, procrastination was his middle name.
“I know. Everything will be fine.” Even as she said the words, she had a niggling feeling deep inside that something was going to happen to mess up her wedding.
“Ya, it will be.” Her mother draped the dish towel over her shoulder and blew a strand of hair from her face, then took the corner of the towel and dabbed at sweat on her forehead. “At least by October the temperatures will have cooled down.” She tucked a few loose hairs back into place beneath her kapp.
“Besides, I think your bruder is seeing someone, although I haven’t a clue who it might be. He’s so tired after he works in the fields with your daed, but he still always wants to run any last-minute errands for me, especially if it involves going to the market.” She paused, smiling. “Maybe it’s one of the girls who works there. Maybe Mary Lapp? And he goes to the library a lot too.” She tapped a finger to her chin. “But I’m not sure any of our people work at the library.”
“Who knows. Paul is so secretive when it comes to girls.” Rebecca’s brother was three years older than her, and he’d had a long string of infatuations well before their parents would have allowed it. Rebecca recalled his first real love interest when Paul was fifteen. He wasn’t old enough to date, but he’d thought he was madly in love with Elizabeth Troyer, a girl two years older than him. But it didn’t take long before Paul moved on to someone else. “You can always tell when he is smitten about someone. He walks around with that goofy smile on his face. But he never dates anyone for long.”
Her mother chuckled. “Ya, and he has that look on his face now. But we’ll know if it’s serious if and when your bruder publishes any intentions.”
Rebecca appreciated her mother’s optimism, but she wasn’t sure her brother was ever going to get married. “Word slips out long before publishing a wedding announcement takes place.” Rebecca grinned. “We always know. It’s you parents who remain in the dark.”
“Ach, I wouldn’t say that’s true in every case. We were sure you and Noah were going to get married, way before you announced it.”
“That’s because Noah always picked me up here for our dates by himself. Lots of kids go out in a group to cover up who might be seeing whom.”
Mamm narrowed her eyebrows into a frown. “Where is Noah anyway? He hasn’t been by for a few days.”
Rebecca shrugged as she read through her brother’s list again, strumming her fingers on the kitchen table. “I don’t know.” She lifted her head and frowned. “It has been a few days, hasn’t it?” Usually he came by on Tuesdays and Thursdays because he got off work early on those days. Today was Friday. She leaned back in the chair and folded her arms across her chest. “I’d know exactly where he is and what he’s doing if you and Daed would let me have a cell phone.”
Mamm shook her head. “You know how your daed feels about mobile phones.”
Rebecca sat taller. “You could talk Daed into allowing them. It would be so much easier to take care of things for the wedding.”
Her mother chuck
led. “This isn’t the first wedding in our community, and somehow we’ve managed just fine all these years without mobile phones.” She walked to the stove and turned down the burner under the pinto beans she was cooking for supper. “I’m sure once you’re married, that will be the first thing you buy.”
“Noah has one already.”
“Ya, I know. And Noah also has a job.” Mamm scowled. “Not only are those things a disruption to our way of life, but they are expensive.”
Rebecca sat taller. “So, are you saying that if I had a job and saved my money, I could get one?”
“It’s a moot point, Rebecca. You couldn’t save that much money before you’re married anyway, and your father doesn’t like the phones.”
“We are living in the past.” She frowned and shook her head. “The bishop allows cell phones, and everyone has one.”
Her mother sighed. “Ya, the bishop allows them, but they are supposed to be used for business and emergencies. Your daed and I are trying to hold on to values that were instilled in us when we were kinner, like staying detached from the outside world and not allowing too many people into our circle who are unequally yoked. But things are changing.” She pointed out the window. “There’s your fellow coming up the road now. I always recognize that beautiful black horse way before I can see Noah’s face.”
Rebecca whipped her head around and smiled as her heart fluttered, the way it always did when she saw Noah. She was sure it would be that way for the rest of her life. She scooted her chair back and hurried through the living room toward the front door.
“Tell Noah we send blessings to his family. I haven’t talked to his mother in a month since I was sick and missed the last worship service.”
“Ya, ya, okay.” Rebecca pushed the screen door open and skipped down the porch steps. She was waiting in the yard when Noah pulled his buggy to a stop. She looked over her shoulder to be sure neither of her parents were watching out the window. She wanted to welcome Noah with a big hug and kiss.
