Courting Emily (A Wells Landing Book 2) (11 page)

“
Gut, gut
.” She set the bag down near one of the wheels and started pulling out decorations. “Here.” She handed him a roll of blue crepe paper. “Run that through the spokes.”

He did as she asked, working the paper ribbon though the wheel.

“You’re sure this is John’s buggy?” she asked after a bit. “I mean, if it’s not . . . how funny would that be?”

Elam laughed, the sound rusty to his own ears. How long had it been since he’d laughed at something . . . anything? Maybe a year. Since his father’s accident for sure, but long before that too.

Emily stopped, her gaze seeking him out in the dark night. “You should laugh more often,” she said. Her head was tilted at a thoughtful angle. Then she started back again, throwing flower petals onto the floor of the buggy.

“That’s it.” She stepped back to survey her work. She was so close. He could have reached out and touched her, but he managed to keep his hands at his sides. “Do you think they will like it?”

“
Jah,
” he said, his voice nearly unrecognizable.

She turned to look at him, and the moment froze in time. Had it not been for the sounds of the crickets chirping and the young people singing, he would have thought they were alone in the world.

How easy it would be to reach out, touch her face, pull her close. Kiss her lips.

Her eyes grew wide and darkened to the color of the nighttime sky.

Did she feel it too?

Her lips parted, and a small sigh escaped them.

His hand went up, the backs of his fingers brushing against the smooth curve of her cheek.

“What are you two doing out here?” Becky’s voice cut through the night.

He took a hasty step back.

Emily did the same, running her hands down the skirt of her dress. “We . . . uh . . .”

“We were decorating one of the buggies.”

His
shveshtah
looked from one of them to the other. Her eyes sparkled. “Well,
kumm
on back inside. We have something to talk about.”

Elam gave a quick nod and motioned for them to precede him into the barn.

It appeared the singing was over. The young people milled around talking and pairing up.

Becky led them over to a group of about eight young people, one of which was Billy Beiler.

“We want to go on the haunted hayride,” Becky started.

The others nodded while Emily shook her head. “We do not celebrate Halloween.”

“Not for Halloween,” Becky backpedaled. “Just because.”

“Just because.” Emily crossed her arms, and Elam got a glimpse of what it must have been like to have her as a teacher.

“
Jah
. It’s fun to be scared.”

“Fun?” Emily repeated.

“There’s nothing in the
Ordnung
against being scared,” Billy Beiler said.

“True. But what is the difference in celebrating a holiday and participating in
Englisch
customs?”

“It’s not like we want to hang up black and orange decorations or go door to door asking for candy.” This was from another
bu
. Elam did not know his name.

“How do we fit into all of this?” Elam asked.

“We want you two to go with us.”

“Go with you?” Emily raised her eyebrows so high, Elam couldn’t tell where they ended and her hair began.

“
Jah,
please.” Becky bounced on the balls of her feet, shaking Emily’s hand as if that would clench the deal. “If you go, then the bishop is less likely to protest.”

“And you want Elam to go, too.” It wasn’t quite a question.

“We need at least three chaperones,” another girl explained. Melanie, he thought her name was, Lorie Kauffman’s sister. “My
shveshtah
has already promised to go. We just need a couple more.”

“Please.” Becky did her begging dance again.

“I’ll do it.” Had he just agreed to chaperone his sister’s buddy bunch on a hayride? His own words surprised him.

Evidently, they surprised Emily, too. She turned to stare at him, her mouth open. “
Jah?
”

“
Jah
.” She didn’t think he was fun or that he knew how to have a
gut
time. Well, he would show her. He could be just as fun-loving and carefree as Luke Lambright. Just wait and see.

“Hello?”

At the sound of his voice coming through the phone line, Emily collapsed on the corner bench in the phone shanty. “Luke?”

“Emily? Gosh, it’s
gut
to hear your voice.”

She smiled, a warmth spreading through her from her heart to her fingertips. “Yours, too.”

“I was beginning to think you weren’t going to call again.”

“It’s hard to get away, you know?”

“
Jah,
” he said. “I understand. Here, too.”

“So everything is
gut?
”

She braced her feet on the opposite wall as she listened to Luke. Just as their last conversation, he talked about racing, racing, and more racing. The excitement in his voice was near tangible, like she could touch it had she been sitting next to him instead of miles away.

“I finished first. It was incredible, Em.”

“That sounds great.” She tried her best to inject some excitement for him into her voice. She must have succeeded or perhaps he didn’t notice that she was a bit distracted.

“That’ll bring me a sponsor for sure. And once I sign with someone, the sky’s the limit. New car, my own crew, everything.” She could hear the smile in his voice. “Are you proud of me?”

“
Hochmut
is a sin.”

“Spoken like a true bishop’s daughter.” He laughed. “Well, hang on to your prayer
kapp,
because I’m about to make the big time. You’ll be proud of me whether you want to be or not.”

Emily’s heart fell. “It’s not that I don’t want to be proud of you.”

“I know.” He fell silent on the other end of the phone line as if his excitement could only carry him so far.

“When are you coming home, Luke?”

“Coming home?” His voice sounded suddenly distant. “Em, I don’t think you understand. I’m not coming home. I’m about to break into the circuit. I can’t leave it now.”

“But—” she sputtered, her words getting trapped somewhere below the lump in her throat. “I thought you’d be back by now,” she finally managed to choke out.

“I can’t leave yet. Not when I’m this close. Oh, Emily, it’s right there . . . I can almost touch it. You’ll see,” he said. “Someday soon I’m going to be a champion race car driver.”

Suddenly, she felt sick to her stomach. Luke wasn’t coming home. She had lost the battle between her and race car driving. He loved the
Englisch
world more than her. She jumped to her feet. “I’ve got to go, Luke. I—” Unable to take it any longer, she hung up the receiver and slammed out of the shanty.

Luke stared at the phone in his hand. “Bye,” he whispered.

He turned off the phone and sat down on the edge of the bed. It wasn’t much. Really just a single mattress on the floor. He had the attic room in the old house. The last one to arrive always got the attic room, they said. He didn’t mind. He was free. Free from the confines of his conservative Amish life.

With a sigh, he leaned back against the angled wall and stared at the picture across the room. His hero, Dale Earnhardt Jr. One day . . . one day he’d drive for a big sponsor like Dale Jr. did. Luke would have all the accolades, all the glory. And Emily would have no choice but to come with him. She’d be overcome with pride for him. And all would be right with the world.

“Luke, are you up here?” Tony Stoltzfus popped his head into Luke’s room. Tony was another ex-Amish kid trying to make it in the
Englisch
world. But unlike Luke, Tony only had dreams of working construction, moving out of the transition house, and buying some land of his own. “We’re about to order pizza. You want in?”

Luke shook his head. Pizza sounded wonderful, but he only had ten dollars to last him until payday. No one told him living in the
Englisch
world was so expensive. Without an education, he had to work at a fast-food restaurant while he studied for his GED and tried to get time in on the track. At least he ate for free at work. It had only taken a month, and he was already tired of hamburgers.

“Suit yourself.” Tony disappeared, and Luke reached into the plastic basket by his bed. He had a bag of chips and a can of peanuts. Not that either one would be able to compete with the enticing aroma of pepperoni pizza. But for now they would have to do.

“Emily?”

At the sound of Mary’s voice, she wiped the tears from her face. After hanging up on Luke, Emily had climbed into the barn loft and succumbed to the tears that threatened.

She thought she had cried them all out, but with one word her sister brought them back again.

“Are you
allrecht?
” Mary knelt down into the hay next to her and wrapped her in a sweet embrace.

“He’s not coming back,” she sobbed. “He loves the
Englisch
world, and he said he’s not coming back here. Mary, what am I supposed to do?”

“Shhh,” her sister soothed, rubbing a hand down the side of her face and rocking her back and forth. The action was so much like their mother’s, Emily’s tears came faster. She needed her mother right now more than ever, but
Mamm
wouldn’t understand. She had heard her
eldra
talking about her and Luke and Elam Riehl. They thought Elam was good for her, steady and strong, and he would take her mind off Luke.

Instead, she was heartbroken. Shattered. Luke was never coming back to Wells Landing. How was she supposed to go on?

“You just do,” Mary said, her wisdom far beyond her age and experience. Mary had been born old, understanding more than most people three times her age. “If Luke means to stay in the
Englisch
world, that proves it is God’s will.”

“I don’t want it to be God’s will.”

Her sister smiled against her hair. “That’s one of the hardest things about it,
jah?
”

Emily pulled away so she could stare into her sister’s sky blue eyes. “I’ve never loved anyone else. Ever.” Not since the third grade when Luke Lambright had shared his lunch with her and pushed her in the big tire swing all recess long. They had been inseparable since then.

Until
rumspringa
and race car driving had reared their ugly heads and turned Luke’s attention away from her.

“Did he say it out right? Did he use those words? ‘I’m never coming back’?”

“He didn’t have to.” Emily sniffed one last time and pushed herself up straight.

Her sister let her go and settled down in the hay beside her.

This had always been their safe place, the place to go when things turned bad, when trouble started. Not that they had many trying times in their lives. But this was the worst.

“If he didn’t tell you he wasn’t coming back, there’s always a chance he will.”

Emily shook her head. Talking about it helped. “You didn’t hear his voice.” She took a shuddering breath, her sobs finally subsiding. “He was so excited.”

“As hard as this is, you know what this means.” Mary gently took Emily’s hand into her own.

Emily squeezed her sister’s fingers in understanding. “That it wasn’t meant to be.”

“
Jah
.”

“I just . . . I mean, I always . . .”

“Of course you did.”

“I’ve never even looked at another boy.” As the words fell from her lips, Sunday night with Elam drifted into her thoughts. He had almost kissed her. She knew enough to know that he had wanted to. Had his sister not interrupted them, he might have done just that.

And a part of her—a small part—had wanted him to.

She shook the thought away. She had never wanted to kiss anyone but Luke. Had never kissed anyone but him.

With all the talk of weddings and engagements, she must be getting sentimental.
Jah,
that was all there was to it. She was falling prey to the romance of romance and not the crisp fall night and a pair of meadow green eyes.

 

 

“This is going to be so much fun.” Becky linked arms with Emily and smiled. Emily couldn’t help but return the gesture. She wasn’t sure
fun
was the right word for it. How had she allowed herself to be talked into a haunted hayride? She hated being scared. She hated even thinking about it. Yet here she was about to be terrified witless on an
Englisch
adventure. All in the name of chaperoning a friend.

“Are you ready?” The driver tipped his cap back, revealing weird yellow eyes with pupils like a cat.

Emily gasped.

Becky laughed. “They are contacts, silly.”

The driver smiled. She supposed he was trying to take the edge off her terror, but she wasn’t sure that was possible.

“Let’s get this over with,” she muttered.

“Eight to a wagon,” the driver said. He pushed his cap back down and slapped his gloves against one thigh before heading toward the lead wagon.

Emily shivered. It was a chilly night. Or was it the anticipation sending goose bumps skittering across her skin? She pulled her wool coat a little tighter around her.

“We’re riding in the second wagon,” Lorie said, pulling Jonah Miller along behind her.

There were three wagons in all. Emily did a quick count and figured out that four couples could ride in a wagon, but not if she and Elam each rode in the other two. She started for the front wagon to find it full with four smiling couples. One of which was Becky and Billy Beiler.

Please, her eyes begged, and Emily immediately understood. Becky wanted a little time alone with her boyfriend.

“I’ve got one more spot in the back,” the driver of the third wagon called.

That meant she’d be riding with Elam. How foolish would she look if she protested?

Resigned, she made her way to the last wagon. A plastic milk crate had been placed bottom-up to provide a makeshift step stool.

She stepped up, and then Elam was there. He was already in the back of the hay-filled wagon, extending a hand.

She allowed him to pull her up beside him.

His grasp was warm and solid, a lot like the man himself.

“I saved you a spot.” He gestured toward the far end of the wagon closest to the driver. “I thought you might be more comfortable with your back protected.”

Was her fear that obvious?

“
Danki
.” Her hand still enclosed in his, they picked their way between the feet and legs of the other riders.

Elam let go of her hand to settle himself on the hay. The only spot left was the one right next to him.

She held herself in check as the driver clicked the horses into motion. They set off down a dirt road with trees lining both sides. Only the moon and a battery-operated lantern provided any light at all.

The driver wasn’t kidding about there being no more room than eight to a wagon. As it was, she bumped shoulders with Elam with each step the horses took.

“Relax,” Elam whispered next to her. “You’re scaring the kids.”

She hadn’t realized she was clenching her teeth until he said something. At the rate she was going, she would grind her molars to dust before they finished the ride. “Is it that obvious?” she whispered in return.

“That you are terrified?
Jah
. That Norma would be a better chaperone for a haunted hayride?
Jah
. That my sister is falling over herself to get us together? Double
jah
.”

She chuckled in spite of her fear. “You think Becky is trying to get us together?”

He shook his head. “I don’t think. I know she is.”

“But you volunteered to come along tonight.”

“
Jah
. I did.”

“Why?”

He took her hand into his own. At first Emily had been chastising herself for not wearing thick gloves; now she was glad she hadn’t. His hands were warm and strong, callous and tough. The kind of hands that took care of things. “I didn’t want you to think I don’t know how to have fun.”