Broken Limbs, Mended Hearts by Regina Jennings

Author:Regina Jennings
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Historical Fiction, FIC042110, FIC042030, FIC027360
ISBN: 9781493424979
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2021-02-22T00:00:00+00:00

eight

Bella could tell that she was performing better. The question was if it was because she was learning how to take the exams, or because she couldn’t be scared as long as Adam was in the room.

She bit her lip as she latched the schoolhouse door and then tied on her bonnet. She knew what was coming, and Adam, with his shining eyes, did too. Had she made a mistake in allowing this? Would he only hurt her again?

“I’ve never been so happy to see someone fail.” He stepped forward and took her hand firmly in his. There was a pause, both of them waiting for a cosmic disaster to result from their shocking behavior, but when it was clear that the earth would continue spinning, he winked at her, and they started out through town.

Bella loved the fitting between them—­how her fingers were surrounded by his hand, how her palm brushed so deliciously against his. If it were to be truly romantic in the proper sense, she reckoned they would both be wearing gloves, and she would have been escorted on his arm, but bare hands felt fine enough for a working day.

It was true, what her parents had said. Adam had courting on his mind. If he was thinking along those lines, she needed him to clear up his intentions.

“I don’t reckon I understand how your job works,” she said. “You’re going to follow the harvest, right? Are you going to do that every year?”

When he looked at her, he noticed that she was carrying her lunch pail. “Give me that,” he said. “I’m supposed to do all the toting.” She was afraid he’d forgotten to answer her question, but once they got past the mercantile, he commenced. “At first I’ll travel. Harvest starts here in the middle of May, and I can follow it north as the crops ripen, all the way until November.”

“Then what will you do?”

“Over the winter I’ll make repairs on my equipment and maybe make some money working on whatever people need fixing in town. Eventually I’d like to settle down and have teams that do the harvesting for me. I’ll train them and buy the equipment, but I’d be managing from a home office.”

“And where is home?” she asked.

“If I lose this wager, home can’t be here.”

“Did you want it to be?”

“I had an idea that it’d be a nice place to live. There was this girl who lived here that I couldn’t forget.” Adam tugged on her hand.

Despite her sudden shyness, Bella met his gaze.

“Bella,” he said, “when I started along this path, there was no guarantee that you would be here, no guarantee that you would want to see me, but I imagined this, just the same. If you had any idea—”

“Miss Eden, are you holding that man’s hand?” Freda Longstreet called from behind the hardware store. Max Bresden leaned around her to get a peek for himself.

“This was her punishment for failing a test,” Adam replied with a wink at Max.

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