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If only her dat were willing to let a little joy into his life. Cornelius Riehl grows more stern with each passing day, and Drew suspects there’s more to his moods than missing Loretta’s late mamm. Hoping to fulfill Loretta’s wish to live in a peaceful, happy home again, Drew sets out to learn the truth. It’s a journey that will bring to light painful realities—but also the chance to forge a new, honest, and loving future together . . .
Ordinarily, the shaded front porch was the coolest place to spend a July afternoon, but the sweat trickling down Loretta Riehl’s back had nothing to do with Missouri’s heat and humidity. Will Gingerich, her former fiancé, sat on the other end of the porch swing from her, and his back-and-forth motion was becoming so quick and jerky that she could barely guide her toothbrush needle through the loose knots of the rag rug she was making.
“The biggest mistake I ever made was to let your dat end our engagement, Loretta,” Will said urgently. “I should’ve stood my ground. I should’ve believed that our love was strong enough to withstand my losing the farm to my brothers.”
Loretta swallowed hard, fearful of where this conversation was leading. She’d been devastated when Dat had come between her and Will a couple of years ago, but she’d accepted it as her father’s will—which was second only to God’s will. “Who among us has ever stood up to Dat and won?” she asked in a tight voice. Her hands were trembling as she drew the strip of sage green fabric through the next rug knot with her homemade needle. “I cried my eyes out and pleaded with him again and again, but he was convinced you weren’t gut enough—that you could never provide me a home.”
“He was wrong!” Will declared. “I should’ve insisted that you and I could live at your place—back when we were in Rosewood—the way a lot of newly weds do until they have the money for a home of their own.”
Loretta stifled a sigh. Why was Will thinking this way when they both knew they would’ve been miserable living under Dat’s roof after Mamm had died? Even with her sisters, Edith and Rosalyn, to support them, their marriage would’ve gotten off to a rocky start.
“And the other monumental mistake I made,” Will continued fervently, “was latching onto Molly Ropp too quickly after your dat severed my relationship with you. Why didn’t I realize Molly’s parents were too eager to get us married?”
“How could you have known Molly was pregnant?” Loretta pointed out. “We don’t like to believe that any young Amish woman would succumb to temptation—or keep such secrets—”
“And how was Molly supposed to know that it was Drew Detweiler who fathered her twins rather than Asa?” Will demanded. As he raked his light brown hair back with his fingers, he appeared lost in his own world—not really hearing anything Loretta said. “Molly was deceived. I was deceived—”
“You paid dearly for that, Will. And that episode’s behind us now—although I sense you’re still mourning Molly’s passing,” Loretta put in quietly. She rested her hands in her lap, no longer able to concentrate on her rug. “But God saw to it that some gut came of your trials and tribulations, ain’t so? Little Leroy and Louisa are a joy to us all—the light of Edith and Asa’s marriage. And once Drew confessed and apologized to everyone for masquerading as Asa, he’s become an accepted, forgiven member of our church district and the Willow Ridge business community. That’s real progress, to my way of thinking.”
When Loretta looked across the road, she noticed that one of the Detweiler brothers was coming out of the stable in an open buggy pulled by a tall, black Percheron. Asa and Drew, identical twins, owned matching horses, so it was impossible to tell which one of them was heading down the long lane toward the road.
She held her breath. Was it her imagination, or was the driver of that buggy looking right at her?
“I—I’ve never forgiven myself for turning my back on the love we shared, Loretta,” Will said again. He stopped the swing so suddenly that Loretta’s long, loose strips of rug fabric fluttered to the porch floor. “We both knew we had a love that would have seen us through a lifetime together. I was so upset about your Dad splitting us up that I didn’t realize Molly was coming on to me too fast, too soon,” he lamented, gazing at her with the soft, brown eyes of a begging dog. “I am so sorry, Loretta.”
Loretta was feeling more unsettled by the second, because Will’s soul baring was leading her down a path she no longer wanted to follow. How could she tell him she wasn’t interested in rekindling their relationship? It would break his heart and depress him further while he still mourned the death of his wife and their misguided marriage.
Sighing, she chose her words carefully. “God has a reason for everything He does—every stumbling block He places in our paths—”
“But I see the world so clearly now!” Will blurted out. “I’ve prayed over these things night and day since Molly died and left me with her six-month-old twins. And while I never wished that cancer would take her, her loss gave me hope that you and I could—”
Loretta stood up, dropping her unfinished rug onto the swing between them. As the Detweiler buggy approached the road, coming toward her, she realized that Drew surely must be driving because Asa and Edith were inseparable—they went everywhere together and took the twins with them, in their baskets. Her pulse quickened. Drew was gazing right at her, pulling out of the Detweilers’ lane and stopping the buggy on the roadside in front of her.
“Loretta, I’ve got a gut steady job now, farming for Luke and Ira Hooley,” Will was saying, oblivious to the buggy. “Soon I’ll be planting a vineyard for them—can you imagine that? And I’ll be asking the Brenneman brothers to build us a house—”
“Hey there, Miss Loretta!” Drew called out from the buggy. “I have an errand to run. Want to come along?”
For a moment, Loretta felt lower than a worm, but she couldn’t allow Will to believe he could take up where they’d left off. He hadn’t heard a word she’d said as she’d gently countered his suggestions. Loretta nipped her lip, glancing apologetically at the handsome young man who’d gone through such an ordeal these past several months. Without a word, she hurried down the porch steps and across the front yard toward Drew Detweiler.
Grinning, Drew dropped down from the buggy. As he clasped Loretta’s hand and escorted her to the other side of his open vehicle, she wondered if he was leading her down a path riskier than Will’s and far more dangerous. A path more daring . . . and passionate.
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Weddings at Promise Lodge Page 28
