Amish Heart (Erotic Romance) (Amish Heart Trilogy) Read Free Page A

braid.  She secured it around her head with pins, and put on her white bonnet. 
    “I’m coming now,” she answered back.  She smoothed imaginary wrinkles out of her dress with damp hands while muttering a prayer that things would go as she hoped; she could be at ease, and they could start to be friends.  “Oh, please God, don’t let me act like a foolish child . ”  Her inner Amish perfectionist kicked her. Even that prayer is a selfish one. She stood for a moment at the top of the stairs to put her breathing in check before proceeding to the living room.  All will be fine .  She tried to talk to herself as Leah would at this moment.  Just smile. All will be fine .
    She walked into the living room just as the knock came and although she was closest to the door, she could not make herself move forward to open it.  Her father, arching his eyebrows at her over the rims of his glasses, passed by her and opened it instead. 
    There stood Ezekiel Yoder.  He was empty handed and blank of face but greeted her father and mother respectfully.  Everybody treats Father respectfully.  He is an Elder. Then Ezekiel turned to Rebekah and her stomach dropped.  He gave her the same stare she had become accustomed to seeing from him and the room fell silent.  He said nothing, his face expressionless.   The silence seemed endless.  As Rebekah’s father started to open his mouth to speak, Rebekah remarkably found her voice.
    “Good evening Ezekiel.”  It was a little more than a squeak. Summoning the nerve somehow, she gave him the smallest of nervous smiles, meeting his unyielding eyes as long as she could stand it.
    Just when she thought she could not take it another instant, her father saved her.  “Take your hat, Ezekiel?”  Which produced a grunt and a straw hat handed first to her father and then to her mother, who put it in the closet while he and Ezekiel sat down in rocking chairs by the window to talk.  Relieved, Rebekah backed away to assist her mother and sisters with putting dinner on the table. 
    Throughout the meal, the two men spoke to each other with out a sound from the women.  Not only were the women not engaged, they seemed not to exist at all.  Rebekah looked to her younger sister Hannah, with whom she shared a bed at night but had little else in common.  Hannah was making kissing motions in the air at her. 
    Aghast, she stared back into her lap.  What does he think of me now?    He must think her forward or worse.  Maybe he now thought she wanted him to kiss her.  Oh no!  Maybe he’ll try to kiss me.   Gathering her courage, she shot him a furtive glance.  Neither man appeared to have noticed anything.  Hannah smirked and put a forkful of food into her mouth.   Glaring at Hannah, she picked up her own fork and pushed food around on her plate.  Her mother beamed at her, reassuring.  She tried to smile back and failed miserably.
    Finally, dinner was over and Rebekah got up to help clear the table, exhaling a near visible sigh of relief.  Thank God that’s over.   But a reprieve was not to be hers.  Her mother thrust a coffeepot into her hands.  “Go give them some coffee,” she urged, causing her daughter’s heart to drop once more .  I have to get close to him to serve him .  She felt her normally graceful limbs grow thick.  Please don’t let me spill coffee on him, please God, she prayed.  She got two mugs for the men and, placing them down, steadied her grip and poured her father’s cup first.  He cordially thanked her.  Then she repeated her hushed prayer and served Ezekiel. 
    He utterly ignored her.  He brought the cup to his lips and sipped, but did not even so much as look up at her.   It took her a few seconds before she realized that he wasn’t going to acknowledge her in any way whatsoever.  In an instant she envisioned the r est of her life with this man.  Is this the way it is going to be like?   Even in as much as her parents never showed any