The Amish Widow's New Love and Plain Outsider by Liz Tolsma Alison Stone

Author:Liz Tolsma, Alison Stone
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-04-08T16:00:00+00:00

* * *

A cold sweat broke out all over Naomi. “Absolutely not.” She kept her voice low to avoid drawing attention from the bakery’s customers for the second time today but stern enough for Elam to be clear about her desires. “I will not help you with the auction. And I will not, under any circumstance, go to the papers.” She wadded up her sandwich wrapper and stuffed it into her bag.

He opened his eyes, and a vein in his neck throbbed. “After all this time, are you still so angry?”

Her thoughts scrambled in her brain like eggs in a frying pan. How did she identify this burning in her chest? Anger? Or something just the opposite? “So much has changed since the night of the accident. So much that can never be undone. Don’t you understand?”

“I do. But you once claimed to love me. Didn’t that mean anything? Can’t you forgive me?”

She breathed in and out, the back of her neck aching. “You ask too many difficult questions. Ones I don’t have the answers for, that I may never have the answers for. I’m dealing with my husband’s loss and my son’s serious illness and disability. Isn’t that enough?”

The other women gathered the remains of their lunches and meandered inside to resume work. Naomi rose, as well. With a brush of his hand against hers, time stood still. Just like years ago, her knees went mushy, and she thumped into her seat. She nodded at Rachel to stay. Her friend shrugged and bit into a peanut butter cookie.

Elam plowed ahead. “The auction is just a couple weeks away. If you’re going to tell your story to the papers, we have to contact the reporters soon. You want to give their readers enough notice so they can make plans to come here.”

“It’s bad enough to have these people here, staring at us. We’re nothing more than a tourist attraction.” She motioned wide, her gesture sweeping over the lot packed with cars, one pulling up the gravel driveway every couple of minutes. “But to encourage even more of them to come, that’s not a gut idea.”

“What are they going to do?”

“Disrupt our lives. Mine has been stretched and changed until I don’t recognize it. I don’t need any further interference.” Couldn’t he go away and leave her alone? Just leave her in peace? “Why are you even back in the area? Do you want to bring the Englisch to us?”

“ Nein, not at all.”

But he had abandoned her. When she’d gone to him for comfort, he had left. And hadn’t returned until now. “Don’t you miss the friends you made out there?”

“I missed the Amish much more.”

“And your family? How do they feel about you being back? Won’t they miss you when you leave again?”

“I’m home to stay, Naomi.”

She couldn’t help but be doubtful. Forever didn’t mean much to him.

He stabbed his plastic fork on his plate. “Listen to me. The most important person to you in your life is your son, nein?”

“ Ja, that’s right.

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