The Mysterious Amish Bachelor by Vannetta Chapman

Author:Vannetta Chapman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2024-02-05T14:47:54+00:00

* * *

Noah understood that Sarah was upset.

Running into someone like Stuart had been plain bad luck. He was hoping she’d forget the incident. So far, that hadn’t happened. She’d spoken to him very little the previous day or that morning. Both days she’d had lunch with one of her schweschdern. The previous afternoon she’d left before he could offer her a ride home.

But when she returned from lunch with Ada on Tuesday, he noticed her watching him. When Deborah and Andrew and Stanley had left for the day, she hung back. His heart soared. She’d forgiven him. He could tell from the tender look on her face. She’d put Grand Rapids behind them.

“Want to go for an ice cream cone?” he asked.

“Nein.”

“Pretzel?”

“I’m not hungry. I did hope we could talk for a minute.”

“Sure.” He waited, suddenly unsure now if this was a good or bad turn of events.

She walked over to their workbench. Picked up a paintbrush, then set it back down. Finally, she turned to look at him. “You know I care about you, right?”

“And I care about you.” Why did those words hurt as they came out of his throat? Why was his stomach settling into an impossible heaviness, as if he’d swallowed a rock?

“I want to explain why I’m upset about what happened in Grand Rapids.”

“Okay.” He crossed his arms, the old feelings of resentment building in him. “But you know I wasn’t the one drinking, right? That guy spilled his cheap wine all over me. That’s why I smelled like a vineyard.”

“It wasn’t the wine. It wasn’t even Stuart and George.”

He winced at his former cellmate’s name. So, she hadn’t forgotten. Of course, she hadn’t. That would have been too much to hope for. And she wasn’t going to let it drop. She was going to beat it like an old, dusty rug.

“People are who they are, Noah. I don’t know Stuart’s story. I can’t even imagine George’s story. I don’t know why they were drunk and wandering through the market. I don’t want or need to know those things.”

“Okay.”

“They aren’t my boyfriend. You are. Or you were.”

He could literally feel the muscles in his face pulling his frown into a scowl. “Were? Are you breaking up with me?”

“Maybe.”

“Maybe?” He fought to bring his voice down. “Because of a random encounter with two men in an open market in Grand Rapids?”

“Because you won’t be honest about your past.” She waited, expectantly. When he didn’t respond to that, she shook her head and turned away from him.

He wondered if she was crying.

Well, he wasn’t going to fall for the crying woman tactic. Sarah Yoder needed to grow up and realize that not everyone had the picture-perfect past like she did. Not everyone wanted or needed to talk it out. He could handle his own secrets, and he did not need to share them. Before he could put those thoughts into words, she turned back to him.

She wasn’t crying.

She was very serious.

“If we are going to be

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