Harvest of Hearts Read Free Page A

apartment is right here.” She nodded to a door on the near left while pulling a key out of her pocket. She handed it to him and grabbed a box.
     
    “I’ll do the lifting.” Matthew took the box from her. “You get the door.” He handed the key back. “Unless you needed my brute strength to hold that big, heavy door open.”
     
    She laughed at his dry wit and unlocked the lightweight door. Matthew walked past her and climbed the short flight of stairs. There were only twelve steps, yet her legs ached at the sight of them.
     
    He stopped at the landing. “Wow, I had no idea this was in here. It’s a small haus, ain’t so? Bedroom, living room…no kitchen, though.” He put the box down on the living room floor and came back for another load. “You’ll be eating with the family?”
     
    “I don’t know. I didn’t give Daed the chance to say much—except that I had to find a job for the summer and pay Onkel Micah for the electric I’ll be using. He’s the one who pays the bills for this apartment, since it’s against the Ordnung to have power. Daed had to get special permission from the bishop before he was allowed to remodel this loft. But Onkel Micah travels a lot; he and his wife drive all over North America in their little travel trailer, and they wanted this apartment for a home base. They won’t be back until the fall.” She looked around for something heavy with which to prop the door open.
     
    “I’ll get the boxes. You stay here.” Matthew loaded two more boxes into his arms and walked past her again. “So, this Onkel Micah used to be Amish? He wasn’t shunned?”
     
    Shanna nodded. “He left to marry my aenti Billie. She’s Englisch. And nein, he wasn’t shunned, because he hadn’t joined the church when he left.” Daed certainly showed more kindness to him than to his own daughter. He’d welcomed Onkel Micah home but then had virtually shunned her. Not fair. She ignored the pain by focusing on the man walking up the loft stairs. He was a heartthrob, for sure. Too bad he was Amish. She watched as Matthew disappeared into the living room, then reappeared a moment later.
     
    “I expected to hear something that would explain your name.” He trotted past her again.
     
    “Shanna? I was named after both my grossmammi. One was named Hannah, the other Sara. My parents kind of shoved the names together.”
     
    The knowledge made Shanna glad, even though her name was another reason she didn’t fit in the family. She was the only S . All her brothers’ and sisters’ names started with J .
     
    “Hmm. I never would have guessed.” He bumped the car door shut with his hip. “That’s everything in the backseat. You got much more in the trunk?”
     
    “A few more boxes.”
     
    Matthew grunted as he hefted one of them. “What’s in here? Books?” He headed up the stairs.
     
    “Textbooks, jah.”
     
    “Am I going to be hauling this all back down when school starts again?”
     
    Shanna grinned. “Are you offering to?”
     
    His long glance told her nothing, but he went out to the car and hoisted another box from the trunk.
     
    “I’ll take you to McDonald’s for a Caramel Frappé to say danki.”
     
    “Hmm. I’ve heard that term before. Caramel Frappé. Don’t tell me that you’re hooked on that stuff, too.”
     
    Too? Who else was hooked on it? Shanna tilted her head. “Well, it’s not a Starbucks Frappuccino, but it’s the closest thing to it in Seymour. I wonder if McDonald’s will let me have my old job back for the summer. Guess I should ask.”
     
    “Sounds like a foreign language.” Matthew shook his head but didn’t say anything else as he went back to the car for the last box.
     
    “I’ll unpack later,” Shanna said when he came back down. She shut the door behind him. “Can you go for a koffee now? I need to stop at the store for a few things.”
     
    “Do you need my brute strength for the shopping, too?” He adjusted the straw hat on his