Plain Again Read Free

step in with the barn chores so you can tend to your daed .”
    Amanda frowned. Daed? That was a word used by the Amish. Yet, clearly, this man was not Amish. “What’s your name?”
    “Harvey,” he responded. “Harvey Alderfer.”
    Alderfer? The last name was definitely Mennonite. Yet she wondered why Alejandro hadn’t told her about hiring him. That worried her. Still, if the police had let him through, certainly it was safe enough to let him muck the dairy barn while she tried to sort this out with Alejandro. It would be just like him to do something so thoughtful, she realized with a warmth building inside her chest. Only Alejandro would think to hire help for the manual labor around the farm.
    “Ja vell,” she said, gesturing toward the large building that housed the cows. “You could get started with the mucking, I reckon, while I contact my husband to find out about what, exactly, he has arranged.”
    The man seemed satisfied by her answer and tipped his hat in her direction as he backed away from the door. She watched as the willowy stranger hurried down the porch stairs and wandered over toward the barn, his shoulders slightly hunched over and his hands in his pockets. Despite having lived in the area her entire life, she did not recognize the man, but she sure recognized his disposition: Mennonite.
    Amanda made certain to lock the door after she shut it, and then, chewing on her lower lip, she hurried over to the place where she kept her cell phone. It was nearly eleven in the morning. She knew that Alejandro had a performance scheduled for the previous night and had to make an appearance at an after-party, but certainly by now he would be awake, she thought. Hesitantly, she pressed the button to dial his number. She disliked using the phone and, even more so, did not want to disturb him. She never knew whom he might be meeting with or what he was doing. But she certainly needed to find out about this man, this Harvey Alderfer, who had just shown up on her doorstep.
    He answered on the third ring, his voice cheerful as he greeted her. “Princesa! You must have been reading my mind!”
    “I was?” she said lightly, smiling as she clutched the phone to her ear and turned to look out the window. Her eyes scanned the empty fields, but her heart raced. “And what exactly was on your mind, Alejandro?”
    She heard him move, a shuffling sound that was muffled. With a low voice, he replied, “You, mi amor . Always you. And if you knew about what, you’d blush.”
    She couldn’t help herself and caught herself laughing. “I think I am blushing, even without knowing.”
    “I only have a few minutes, Princesa. I am headed to a lunch reception,” he said, his voice thick with regret. “But I trust you are calling because the hired man showed up, sí ?”
    “Sí,” she said back, her eyes sparkling just from the sound of his voice.
    He laughed as he always did when she tried to speak Spanish to him. “I simply can’t have my wife doing all of that farmwork now, can I?”
    “I have done it for many years,” she pointed out, still smiling to herself.
    It had been almost a week, and she missed Alejandro more than anything in her life. Yet she knew that sacrifices had to be made. Life was greater than just her. And, at this time, her parents needed her at the farm. To not be there would risk her sister’s upcoming marriage to her beau in Ohio. If Amanda had been selfish and continued traveling with Alejandro, Anna would have felt compelled to return home and help rather than marry her young gentleman friend. Having already lost one prospect, Anna certainly could not risk losing another. At least, that was Amanda’s perception of the situation and the main reason she had stayed behind on the family farm while Alejandro toured on the East Coast.
    “Ah,” he breathed, his voice deep and full of emotion. “But now you are my wife,” he said solemnly. “And, despite the distance, I must continue to take