Finding Courage (The Searchers Book 4) by Ripley Proserpina

Author:Ripley Proserpina [Proserpina, Ripley]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-11-19T16:00:00+00:00

What It Will Look Like

Cai: Seven Years Ago

Cai studied the bar, and despite himself, he could see the possibilities.

But this wasn’t the future he wanted. He didn’t want to cater to tourists who thought he and the Fold were quaint. He didn’t want to work every day with Sarah. And then go to worship with her. And then go home with her.

He didn’t want to marry her.

The door opened, and the focus of his thoughts came inside. Sarah’s blonde hair had escaped her braid and stuck to her face. “It’s hot outside.”

“What are you doing here?” he asked and grimaced. He’d asked that impolitely. “I apologize. It’s just that we need a chaperone.”

Sarah smiled as she approached him. “It’s only days until our wedding. We have the community’s approval. Our fathers agreed it would do us good to spend some time together.” She placed her hands on her hips and turned in a slow circle. “This is beautiful.”

“I don’t know anything about coffee,” he said.

Sarah laughed, the sound pretty and light. Was she really not worried about being married? Was she truly happy about it? “We’ll figure it out together. I’ve never had coffee in my life.”

Together. He didn’t want to figure things out together.

But she kept going. “This will be a good place for our children, too. We can have a spot, maybe a couple of couches pushed together and some toys. The mothers can sit and drink their coffee while the children play.”

“Our children would play with them?” Cai wondered aloud. Except when the words came out, he heard what they implied, and he wished he could take them back.

Sarah’s face lit up and she clasped her hands together, bringing them under her chin. “I would like them to stay with me while we work, rather than go to worship.”

It was the first thing she’d ever said that gave her any ounce of individuality. So she wanted to keep her children with her. That was unique within the Fold. Most mothers accepted that when they were needed at their shops, their toddlers and babies would go to worship. They’d only see them to feed them, or pick them up at the end of a long day.

“Is that what you want?” he asked.

She nodded as she faced him. “Especially a baby. I want a baby to stay with me. It’s not—” But she cut herself off. Cai wished she’d continued, because he wanted to hear her thoughts. For the first time, he viewed Sarah as a potential ally. Maybe they could work together to leave the Fold.

“Our families will be joined, so your father may make an exception for us.”

Cai almost snorted. Isaac never made exceptions and especially not for his children. The only person who benefitted from Isaac’s position in the Fold was Isaac himself.

And, it seemed, Elder Ross.

“The couches are a good idea,” he forced himself to say.

She nodded. “We’ll have to have Wi-Fi. Tourists expect it. Even the gas station has internet.”

If Isaac agreed to internet access in a place Cai could access it, he’d be surprised.

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