Courting Emily (A Wells Landing Book 2) (14 page)

“Joanie, Samuel King was looking for you.”

The girl dropped the stack of paper plates on the counter and hurried from the kitchen.

“Lorie,” Caroline admonished. “That wasn’t very nice. She’s had a crush on him forever.” She replaced the lid back on the pot and wiped her hands on a dish towel. “My word,” she exclaimed. “What happened to you?”

“Nothing,” Emily said, then shook her head. These were her friends, her best
freinden
. She could tell them anything. “Elam kissed me.”

“It must have been some kiss for you to be this dreamy-eyed,” Caroline said.

Emily shrugged. “It just surprised me is all.” That was what it was. Surprise. She had never kissed anyone but Luke. Elam’s kiss took her by surprise.
Jah
. That made perfect sense.

Surprise and nothing more. The next time wouldn’t be like that at all.

 

 

Elam waited until they were almost to Emily’s
haus
before he spoke. They had spent the entire evening avoiding each other. Not very mature of either of them, but he didn’t trust himself not to kiss her once more just to see if it would be that fantastic again.

Or maybe he was the only one who felt sparks fly.

It was a cold night. Instead of scooting closer like couples do to share their warmth, Emily held herself stiffly away from him.

Maybe courting was a bad idea. Maybe she wasn’t ready to move on from Luke.

He cleared his throat. “I won’t bite, you know.” He did his best to make his voice light and teasing, but somehow it sounded as rough as a cob. “I mean, it’s cold, and if’n you want to scoot closer . . .” That didn’t sound any better.

“I’m fine.” Evidently Emily thought the same thing.

He shouldn’t have waited so long to talk to her about what happened at the party. But he hadn’t known how to handle it. He’d been a little too stunned to think clearly, then Andrew on the porch. Elam hadn’t been left alone with his thoughts for more than three minutes all night long. How was he supposed to sort through this myriad of emotions while a party carried on around him?

If he had been smart, he could have pulled her aside at the house, in the warmth, and talked to her there. As it was, he wanted to pull to the side of the road and clear the air between them before they went one foot farther, but it was too cold to sit in a buggy and hash through feelings he couldn’t decipher on his own.

He pulled the buggy into the drive at the Ebersols’. First off, he noticed the lights shining in every window. It looked as if no one was asleep.

“So much for coming in and being alone,” he muttered.

“What?” Emily finally turned toward him. If he wasn’t mistaken, it was the first time she had looked at him since their kiss.

“We should talk about this.” He pulled the horses to a stop. “But it’s a little too cold out here.”

She bit her lip as she glanced at the house, no doubt coming to the same conclusion he had. There would be no privacy for them there. “The barn,” she said.

“What?”

She slid from the buggy without waiting for his help and raced toward the big double doors. He had no choice but to follow.

The inside of the barn was dark and quiet, the night interrupted only by the soft breathing of the stabled animals.

Emily lit a lantern and turned to face him. “Talk.”

“I shouldn’t have kissed you tonight. At least not in the middle of Andrew’s yard.”

She nodded. “I shouldn’t have asked you to.”

Not exactly the productive talk he had imagined. “Well, that clears things up.” He shoved his hands into his pockets, pretending like he needed the warmth when in truth he didn’t know what to do with them. They wanted to reach out and brush the wisps of escaped hair back from her face, show her that he could be kind and loving, everything she could want from a boyfriend and suitor.

“This is awkward.” She sighed. “But I feel I need to be honest with you.”

“You haven’t been?”

“Not totally,” she whispered. She took a deep breath, then let it out slowly. “I have loved Luke Lambright for as long as I can remember.”

He tried to hide the frustration her words caused. Luke had left her behind for the pleasures of the world.

“When he left, I held the hope that he would forget about race car driving and come back to Wells Landing.” She stopped, as if gathering her thoughts. “I talked to him the other day. He’s not coming back. Not ever.”

Elam wanted to call him a fool, but he was sure it wouldn’t change Emily’s feelings on the situation.

She raised her shoulders and let them fall, the gesture more defeated than he would have imagined. “I just need some time is all.”

He nodded. There was only one thing worse than her being in love with someone else, and that was her
thinking
she was in love with someone else.

But it was
allrecht
. He was a patient man.

“Are you awake?” Emily crept into Mary’s room. She needed to talk to her sister in the worst way. But she didn’t want to disturb Rose.

“
Jah,
” Mary whispered in return.

Emily heard the sound of the covers shifting as Mary scooted over to make room for her in the bed.

As quietly as possible she climbed into the bed next to her sister.

“
Was iss letz?
” Mary asked. “What is wrong?”

Emily sighed. She had seen the look of concern on her sister’s face when she’d entered the house that evening. Her talk with Elam hadn’t gone exactly as planned. But neither had the kiss. What had she been thinking, asking him to kiss her and get it over with?

And then the kiss itself.

“Elam kissed me tonight.”

“What?” Mary’s voice rose, and Emily shushed her. Across the room Rose turned over in her bed mumbling something before her breathing evened out once again. “What?” Mary repeated in a whisper this time.

“Elam kissed me.”

“What did you do?”

“I kissed him back.”

“Emily Jane, that is not what I meant, and you know it.”

“I told him that I’m still in love with Luke.”

Mary studied her in the darkness. Her sister had their mother’s eyes, the kind that could see through to the bones of the matter. Wise eyes that missed nothing. “Are you?”

“Still in love with him? Of course.” But as she said the words doubts crowded in. How could she love someone who’d left her for the outside world? Someone who would rather drive a car in a circle than bend his knee and follow God’s instruction. What made her hold on to the hope that he would change his mind and come back to her?

“It won’t be the same you know.” Mary’s words hung in the darkness between them.

“What do you mean?”

Mary shifted in the bed and took Emily’s hand into her own. “When Luke returns . . .
if
Luke returns. He won’t be the same. Things between the two of you won’t be the same. No matter how badly you wish for it to be different, this separation will change you both.”

As much as Emily wanted to tell her sister she was wrong, she had a feeling Mary was right. But change didn’t always mean for the bad.

“He says he’s not coming back,” Emily whispered. “But I can’t believe that he won’t. I can’t imagine Wells Landing without Luke.”

“You’ve been living in Wells Landing without Luke,” Mary pointed out.

“You’re right.” How come she had never seen it before? She had been living without Luke and he without her. He seemed so happy to be living out this crazy dream of his. She might not understand it, but that didn’t make it any less important to him.

“Just take things slow with Elam,” Mary advised. “Who knows where that might lead?”

It could be nothing or everything. Only time would tell.

 

 

“Luke? Your phone’s ringing.”

Luke dropped the air hose and made his way over to the toolbox where he’d left his phone. He’d heard the melodic sound, but wasn’t yet accustomed to it being associated with someone wanting to talk to him. Most probably because no one ever called him.

He knew Emily was busy and had a hard time getting away from her father long enough to call and chat. Her mother kept her busy with the goats and her sisters were always underfoot. She was as busy as he was these days. And it wasn’t like they had a great deal to talk about. He wanted to be able to call and tell her that he’d made it to the circuit, that he would move up from the amateurs to the dirt tracks. From there it was just a hop and skip to the big time. He had to be patient, pay his dues, and not give up. No matter how homesick he had become lately.

“
Jah?
”

“Luke?” The voice on the other side of the line was as familiar to him as his own.

“Jonah. Good to hear from you.” A wave of nostalgia and longing washed over Luke. He loved being a part of the
Englisch
world. He loved the excitement of race car driving and the freedom to wear blue jeans and soft cotton T-shirts, but there were a lot of things he missed about Wells Landing. A lot of
people
.

Luke tucked the phone between his shoulder and his ear and wiped his hands on an oil-stained rag. He smiled as Jonah told him about the buggy race that happened between two of their friends, young men who hadn’t yet joined the church. Even still, they needed to pray the bishop never found out about their shenanigans. Luke listened and laughed and tried not to let the loneliness creep into his voice.

“Speaking of the bishop,” Jonah said in a not so smooth attempt to change the subject. “I saw Emily the other night.”

“Oh,
jah?
” His heart gave a hard thump at the sound of her name. He had been so eager to come to the
Englisch
world that he had given up the best girl ever. Some days he thought he deserved a kick in the pants for leaving her behind. But once he made it . . .

“She came to Andrew Fitch’s Thanksgiving party.”

Thanksgiving. He had almost forgotten. It was the day after tomorrow. It wasn’t like it was a big holiday for the Amish. More often than not they had a wedding to attend instead of the big family dinner like the
Englisch
preferred.

“With Elam Riehl.”

His heart skipped a beat. Just because she went to the party with another guy didn’t mean a thing. Maybe they had become friends since Luke had been gone. Emily was a sweet and caring girl. That was what it had to be.

“I don’t really know if I should tell you this.” Jonah let out a reluctant bark of laughter. “Of course I have to tell you. I’m just not sure how to.”

Luke’s mouth tasted like ash. “Will you just tell me already?”

“Okay, now I didn’t see this with my own eyes, but Andrew swears he saw them kissing in the front yard before they came into the party.”

His heart fell to his feet. Emily. His Emily. Kissing another. And not just anybody, but Elam Riehl. He was so . . .
old
.

“Andrew said it looked pretty intense, but I don’t know. I thought you should hear it from me instead of someone else.”

“Do you . . .” He cleared his throat. Suddenly it was clogged with more emotions than he could name. “Do you think it was serious?”

He could almost hear his friend shrug. “I don’t know about that. But neither one of them would look at the other the entire time they were at the house. It was sort of weird.”

Good weird or bad weird? Luke wanted to ask. But he knew the answer. He was losing his girl.

He thanked Jonah for calling and hung up the phone.

“Bad news?” the garage owner asked.

“Something like that,” Luke mumbled. He sat down on a stained plastic chair and watched the others around him. They worked on their cars, changed the oil, filled up the tires, and topped off the fluids as if nothing earth-shattering had just happened. He supposed for them, nothing had happened. But for Luke . . .

He needed to get back to Wells Landing as quickly as possible. He didn’t have the money to travel back, but he had to. The season was over. He wouldn’t miss a race if he snuck away for the weekend, dropped in to see Emily. Let her know that he loved her and he would be coming back for her.

In all honesty, he hadn’t expected her to hang on this long. He’d hoped by the end of October she would give up her stubborn decision to stay with the Amish and would join him on the circuit. But she hadn’t.

Now he would have to do everything in his power to let her know that he cared about her. He wanted her, and she would always be his girl.

 

 

Emily had just laid her head on the pillow when a
plink
sounded at the window. She rolled over, convinced she had imagined it.

She glanced toward the door to her room, thinking for a minute that her ears were playing tricks on her. But her door was firmly closed. Not a sister in sight.

She flung back the covers and made her way to the window. The glass chilled her fingers as she pushed the sash up and looked down into the yard.

A young man stood below the window. He was wearing jeans and sneakers, a thick woolen coat of the Amish, and a baseball hat like the
Englisch buwe
preferred.

Despite his eclectic manner of dress, she would have known him anywhere. “Luke?” she whispered.

He waved at her, his smile lighting up the night.

Luke had come back for her!

“I’ll be right there,” she whispered, hoping he would hear her quiet words, praying he would still be there when she got outside.

As quietly as she could, she raced down the stairs, stopping only long enough to snatch her heavy coat off the peg by the back door. She slipped it on and hurried into the yard, straight into Luke Lambright’s arms.

“I can’t believe you came back.” She touched his cheek to prove to herself he was really there. “You came back.”

“It’s so good to see your face.”

“
Kumm,
” she said tugging him toward the barn. “It’s too cold out here.”

And it would be no
gut
a’tall if her father caught them together in the middle of the night.

The barn wasn’t much warmer, but at least they were out of the wind.

Emily turned on one of the battery-operated lanterns and settled herself down on a hay bale next to Luke. Her talk in the barn with Elam was brought to mind, but she pushed the memory away. Luke was back, and for now that was all she wanted to think about.

“I can hardly believe you are actually here.” Emily folded her hands in her lap, suddenly uncomfortable. It had been so long since she had seen him, that was all. But Luke was different. He had changed, was changing still. It wasn’t just the clothes and hat. The light in his eyes shone with a determined intensity. She was confused about how to handle it.

He took her hand into his and squeezed her fingers. “I had to come back. I heard that my girl has been going around with someone else.”

Her gaze jerked from their entwined hands to his pale blue eyes. “What was I supposed to do? You told me you weren’t coming back,” she whispered. “I was just trying to move forward.”

“I didn’t think you’d start going with another.”

“It’s not like that,” she whispered, though she felt a pang of guilt at her words. What was she saying?

Luke lifted her fingers to his lips and pressed a sweet kiss to each one. They tingled where his lips met her skin. How she had missed him.

And yet she wanted to pull her hand from his grasp. She was just so confused.

“There will be a time when we can move forward together,” he promised. “You just have to be patient.”

She nodded, unable to get a response past the lump in her throat. That was what she wanted, wasn’t it? To move forward with Luke?

She had been in love with Luke longer than she could remember, yet the thrill of Elam’s kiss still colored her dreams.

How was a girl supposed to keep her head straight in times like these? Luke was all she had ever wanted, and yet he was just out of reach. Elam was becoming very important to her as well. He was there, strong, steady, and true. Was it possible to love two men? Did she love Luke still? Or had Elam captured her heart?

“You’re not staying.” Emily searched his face for something, anything, a promise that it would really be okay. She found nothing but a tinge of sadness and that ever-present spirit of adventure.

“I have a job and meetings with sponsors. It’s not going to be long before the season starts again. I’m not sure my car can handle many more races.”

“I have to go,” she whispered. She turned her eyes away and pulled her hand from his grasp. She couldn’t think as long as he was touching her.

“Emily?” Luke whispered.

But she shook her head and stumbled from the barn without looking back.

She thought she heard him whisper her name to call her back, but she couldn’t be sure. He wouldn’t get loud and risk waking the entire family. A fact Emily used to her advantage. As much as she wanted to wrap herself in Luke’s arms and forget about everything else, she couldn’t. Oh, how she wished she could.

She stifled back a sob—or was it a laugh?—as she let herself into the house. Quietly she shut the door behind her and hung her coat back on its hook. She was aware of every creak of the floorboards as she made her way across the room and back up the stairs. Almost there.

“Where have you been?” Mary hissed in the darkness, scaring Emily nearly half to death.

She clamped a hand over her mouth to stifle her scream. Sucking in a deep breath, she pressed a hand to her pounding heart. “Mary, you frightened me.”

Her sister propped her hands on her hips, not one to be put off the subject easily. “Well?”

Still so confused about what had just happened, Emily shrugged. “Luke was here.”

Mary’s eyes grew wide. She grasped Emily’s hand into her own and tugged her toward Emily’s bedroom.

Emily allowed her sister to pull her along. She supposed such a declaration warranted an explanation.

Mary pushed her down onto the bed and waited impatiently for her to begin.

Emily quickly recounted Luke’s visit.

“What are you going to do?” Mary sank down next to her.

“I don’t know,” Emily whispered. “I just don’t know.”