Huckleberry Hearts (12 page)

Well, I think she's pretty
, Zach wanted to say.
I think she's as exquisite as a ten-carat diamond.
He kept his mouth shut.

Norman folded his arms across his chest. “Mamm says you have your sights set on Cassie. She says you wore the pink shirt on purpose because you want to lead her astray.”

“That's not true, Norman,” Cassie said.

Norman ignored her. His quick dismissal of his sister made Zach more irritated than anything else Norman had done. “I understand boys like you. You lure girls with your pink shirts and fancy cars for one reason. You want to steal their innocence.”

Well, he might be able to lure girls with his pink shirt, but he wouldn't impress anybody with his car. Zach worked very hard not to glare at Norman. The conversation had turned ugly. Titus had warned him not to be overconfident, and Zach understood why. Norman was like one of those bears in the stories they were always reporting about in the news. Some naturalist lives with the bears for months until one day the bears turn on him and eat him alive.

Zach wasn't about to get eaten.

But how to defend himself without making Cassie uncomfortable?

Cassie actually nudged him out of the way and stepped between him and Norman. “Norman, you are embarrassing yourself and our whole family.”

“You are the one who embarrasses the family,” Norman shot back.

“You can criticize and shout at me all you like,” she said, “but I will not let you talk to the doctor this way. He is my guest, and you will treat him with respect or I will walk out of this warehouse, away from Mamm and the family, and never come back.”

Zach couldn't have been more astonished if Cassie had laid a big kiss on his lips. The girl who didn't dare stand up for herself against unjustifiable and hurtful attacks was defending him? Not just defending him, but doing it forcefully so that Norman had no other choice but to shut his mouth—that or risk a scene.

Her posture was ramrod straight, her eyes on fire with righteous indignation. She was fierce and beautiful and angelic all at the same time.

He would have defended himself but didn't know if he could have done so without offending the entire Amish community and making Cassie uncomfortable. Meek, gentle Cassie had risked herself for him, even though she surely thought he was like every other guy she'd met in college.

A thread of warmth snaked its way through his veins. She had completely disarmed him. He
had
to convince her to give him another chance.

Norman clapped his mouth shut and glared at Zach. Zach didn't even flinch. Didn't feel one bit like bursting into tears.

“Norman didn't mean to be disrespectful,” said Luke. “We're glad you're taking care of our mammi.”

Zach tried to focus his attention on Luke when his thoughts were saturated with Cassie. “Anna knitted me a scarf and mittens,” he said, grasping for something to keep the conversation light.

This did not make Norman happy. “What is Mammi thinking? You're not even Amish. Doesn't she want someone Amish?”

Zach had no idea what he was talking about. Cassie seemed just as confused. “Mammi hands out scarves like cookies,” she said.

Norman looked positively sullen. “But not mittens too.”

“They're very warm,” Zach said.

Cassie smiled uncomfortably at Zach. “Dr. Reynolds, would you excuse us for a few minutes?”

He was being dismissed? He'd only come this way to save Cassie from her brothers. Didn't she realize that? Wasn't she grateful?

“Oh . . . okay. I'll go find Felty and we'll get a seat for the auction.”

She seemed very happy to get rid of him. “That would be wonderful good.”

His heart felt like an anvil as he stuffed his hands into his pockets and strolled away from Cassie, her brothers, and the Pillar.

He was the outsider. Cassie had made that perfectly clear.

He ambled to the furniture up for auction and pretended to be interested in the construction of a rocking chair, all the while keeping an eye on Cassie and the others.

Still standing tall, Cassie said something to Norman, who seemed to brighten immediately. He nudged Luke on the shoulder, and they walked away, leaving Cassie and Elmer Lee staring at each other. Zach ground his teeth together. She had protested that she wasn't interested in Elmer Lee, yet there she was, smiling at him and talking as if he were a long-lost friend.

Oh. Well. Elmer Lee was Cassie's long-lost friend.

Zach had trouble prying his gaze from Cassie's face, but he should give her some measure of privacy with her old boyfriend. If they kissed each other right in the middle of the barn, Zach was pretty sure he didn't want to witness it.

She wasn't going to kiss Elmer Lee, was she?

He turned his back on them, found a bench to sit on, and faced the stack of hay bales that would serve as the auction block. His scalp tingled at the wish that he could grow eyeballs on the back of his head. Nope. He wouldn't look. Cassie's relationship with Elmer Lee was none of his business.

But right now, it was his most profound concern.

He didn't notice Norman until he plopped next to him on the bench. Zach grimaced. He'd hoped to avoid Norman for the rest of the night, but it looked like he was back for round two. Where Zach had restrained himself when Cassie was around, he wouldn't feel obligated to do so when he had Norman alone.

Norman dispensed with any pleasantries and got right to the matter. “What are your intentions with my sister?”

Never a good sign when a guy looked at him like that.

Zach folded his arms across his chest. “You don't like me very much, do you?”

“Nae. I do not.”

“Is it because I'm Englisch?”

“I have no respect for a man who hides behind a woman's skirts and is too weak to speak for himself.”

“I fight my own battles when I have to, walk away when I can, keep silent when I should.” He slid to the bench in front of Norman so they were facing each other, with knees almost touching. “I have no respect for a man who decides he doesn't like somebody before he's really gotten to know him. And I'm certainly not the kind of man who bullies his sister, knowing she won't fight back.”

Norman squirmed a little before narrowing his eyes into slits. “I'm not picking on her. I am admonishing her. She must understand the consequences of her actions.”

“From what I've seen, you've made the consequences very clear.”

“That will be a small consolation if she burns in the fires of hell.”

Zach balled his hands into fists. “So you believe that everyone who isn't Amish is going to hell?”

“God placed her in the Amish community. She shouldn't change what God has planned for her life.”

“How do you know that she isn't living the life God planned for her? Jesus said not to judge.”

“I know that God would not lead her into temptation. I know that men like you do not seek to guard a woman's virtue. You are out to destroy it. I don't want that to be my sister's fate. She is only safe here in the community.”

“She knows how to take care of herself.”

“But is she happy? Surely you have seen what I have seen in her eyes. She's been disappointed over and over again.”

Zach couldn't argue. She'd said as much the other night.

“She knows that she can only find what she is looking for among the Plain people. She wants a man like Elmer Lee.”

“There is plenty of virtue among the Englisch,” Zach murmured, not altogether convinced himself.

Norman grunted. “Really? What about you? Do you claim that virtue in yourself?”

Zach's confidence slipped, but he didn't take his eyes from Norman's face. “I never claimed to be something I'm not.”

“And yet you are interested in Cassie.”

Zach didn't even try to protest. He was as interested in Cassie as a starving man was interested in food, but he would never cheapen the feeling by telling Norman about it.

“I can see your desire for her in your eyes.”

“It's not like that.”

What did he truly want from Cassie? He wasn't sure, but he knew it wasn't a one-night stand. He wanted something deeper, though he was at a loss to define it. But to have any meaningful relationship, he'd have to convince her to trust him.

To do that, he'd have to prove he was different than Finn McEwan and all those other college frat boys.

But he wasn't all that different. He didn't go out looking for girls to hook up with, but wasn't that what he expected after a few dates? He didn't deserve Cassie. Could he ever hope to? Could he be the kind of man she could respect? Or at least feel safe around?

Norman flared his nostrils. “You will not drag Cassie down to hell with you.”

“I would never do that to Cassie.” Even as he said it, he swore an oath to himself that he never would. Cassie deserved tenderness and love and a man she could trust completely, not only with her virtue but with her heart. Suddenly more than anything in the world, he wanted to be that man. “She is safe with me.”

Norman scowled. “Safe? Ha. You aren't man enough for Cassie. You're wearing a pink shirt. What does that tell you?”

Zach thought the shirt said “fashionable.” Norman read “idiot.”

Norman leaned forward. “It wonders me if you know the first thing about chopping wood or shoeing a horse or raising a barn. Can you fix an air compressor?”

Zach wanted to lie through his teeth. He didn't. “No.”

“Do you know how a windmill works or a water pump? What about a water heater?”

“Of course not. I'm from California.”

“You can't hitch a horse to a buggy or plow a field. You're ignorant. You'd be like a baby if you tried to live amongst the Amish. Even a five-year-old knows more than you do.”

Zach longed to ask Norman if he knew how to set a broken leg or take out an appendix, but something told him that Norman wouldn't be impressed. And he had the depressing thought that Cassie wouldn't be either. Besides, it would sound like he was playing a game of one-upmanship.

How had Norman known how to get under Zach's skin? Zach had seen the way Cassie's eyes glowed with pride when she talked about the barn raisings and many things that the Amish did to help each other. And he hated to admit that he didn't know how to milk a cow, probably something the Amish kids did before they even learned how to walk.

Zach was impressed with how resilient the Amish were. At eighty-five Felty Helmuth milked his cow twice a day, but that wasn't all. Every man in the community chopped wood and hefted hay bales. They planted and harvested crops, butchered hogs, felled trees, and raised barns. If the Amish didn't know how to do something, they'd teach themselves—without YouTube, Facebook, or a college education.

Cassie was drawn to the community not only for their faith but for their simple and resourceful way of life. You could take a girl out of the country, but you couldn't take the country out of the girl, or something like that.

Norman turned his eyes to where Cassie and Elmer Lee were engrossed in a very serious conversation. Cassie did the talking and Elmer Lee listened. Zach imagined, with some spite, that Elmer Lee probably only had about a hundred words in his vocabulary.

“Look at them,” Norman said. “They belong together. Cassie should be here. If you wrench her from us, she'll be unhappy for the rest of her life.”

“Cassie chose to leave. It's the Amish life that made her unhappy.”

“She believes that. But a man like you is no good for her. Elmer Lee can give her everything she truly wants.”

“I can do anything Elmer Lee can do, and better.” He grimaced on the inside the second he said it. It sounded like a playground brag.
My dad can beat up your dad.

Norman smirked. “Elmer Lee can reduce an entire tree to kindling in a matter of minutes and heft bales faster than a mosquito can bite.”

Maybe now was the time to bring up the appendix thing.

Norman had shaken his self-assurance more than he cared to admit.

“You don't belong here,” Norman said, “and Cassie does. It's my responsibility to urge her to mend her ways and come home.”

Zach glanced at Cassie out of the corner of his eye. She dabbed a finger to her eyes. He sat up straighter. Had Elmer Lee made her cry? Elmer Lee bowed his head and walked away from her as if he had nowhere in particular to go.

Zach shot to his feet. He'd had enough of Norman, and he needed to see if Cassie was all right. He stared Norman down. “You think I'm too weak to speak for myself? Just try picking on Cassie again, and we'll just see who's weak.”

“Is that a threat?”

Zach frowned. “Next time, I won't stand silently by and let you or anyone else bring your sister to tears.”

“You Englisch are all the same, angry and violent.”

Violent? Did Norman actually believe he meant to do him bodily harm? Punch him in the nose or something? Whatever. Let him think what he wanted. “At least I don't profess to be godly and then abuse people in the name of religion.”

Norman clamped his mouth shut and peered at Zach resentfully. He was livid, but at least Zach had shut him up.

Shut him up and offended him.

Norman hadn't expected any better, so it was probably just as well.

Would Cassie be furious or grateful?

Not even Cassie's reaction mattered at the moment. She was visibly upset, and Zach had to know if he needed to challenge Elmer Lee to a duel. Or a fistfight. Or a cutthroat round of Life on the Farm, Titus's favorite game.