An Amish Home by Beth Wiseman

Author:Beth Wiseman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Published: 2016-12-12T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THREE

April, fifteen years earlier

THEN MARRY ME.”

Thomas’s proposal stole Noreen’s breath. His brown eyes pleaded for her to answer jah, but her mind whirled with fragmented thoughts. She turned her gaze to the sun’s orange-red reflection shimmering over Sunken Lake. A proposal. She should feel honored. But rushing into marriage wasn’t the answer.

Thomas reached for her hand. “Let’s sit closer to the water.” He led her around the nettle bushes and down the grassy slope to the sandy shore where they sat on a fallen log. After a gentle squeeze of her hand, he let it go. He stared at the lake, elbows propped on his knees and chin rested on his fisted hands. Within seconds, he repositioned himself so he was straddling the log, facing her. “Is your tongue twisted?” He tipped her chin up slightly with the pads of his fingers. “Open your mouth.”

“What?”

“Oh, she does talk. For a minute there I thought something had caught your tongue.” He slapped his hands against his thighs. “Hmm . . . wonder what she’s thinking. Does she remember that only minutes ago a man proposed?”

Noreen smiled. “I’m thinking you’ve been breathing in too much wood glue. I only turned eighteen a few months ago. Mei sisters waited until they were in their midtwenties to marry. Besides—”

He stifled her words with a kiss. A kiss so complete it left her insides fluttering like a curtain on a windy day. When he lifted his lips from hers, his gaze held a determination she’d never seen before.

He cocked a grin. “You don’t want to wait until you’re an old maid, do you?”

“I still have a few more years before that happens. Eighteen is hardly the age to worry about growing old alone.”

“I suppose,” he said with a chuckle, “if you’re willing to take that risk.” He pulled her into a hug and kissed her forehead.

Old maid. She huffed, unsure if she should be annoyed by his statement or flattered by his persistence. Deciding she’d rather enjoy his company while they were still together, she leaned her head against his sturdy shoulder and snuggled into his warm embrace. If she could choose the ideal place to become engaged, it would be here—sharing a log next to the lakeshore at the end of a perfect day, yet the circumstances weren’t as ideal as they appeared. They hadn’t courted long. He’d only just recently kissed her, and up until then, she wasn’t sure why he kept asking to drive her home from the singings.

Noreen smiled, recalling how he’d hardly said a word and never looked her in the eye more than a few seconds in the beginning. Then, when he finally did kiss her, he did so with such complete control. Any measure of sound reasoning she’d once possessed disappeared with the rush of new sensations. At that moment, she was his. Even now, sitting next to him, her breathing was uneven. The same giddy, unbalanced, tingling sensations rippled through her veins as they did every time she was nestled in his arms.

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