Jo Brown - An Amish Proposal

Gemma frowned. “Stop acting like a sulking teenager and listen to me. She’s a young woman in a bad situation. She doesn’t have anyone she can turn to.”

“The boppli’s daed can—”

“I don’t think he’s in the picture any longer. She hasn’t said, though she opened up to me a bit more this morning. Or maybe she slipped up and spoke without thinking. She mentioned something about him chucking her out of his car last night like litter.”

The curses the other construction workers used raced through Micah’s head. He pushed them away and sent an apology to God, but the gut Lord surely understood.

How could a man get a woman with kind and then abandon her in an icy rain?

Gemma put comforting fingers on his arm, but it wasn’t any solace when he recalled how Katie Kay’s same motion had sent ripples of sensation coursing through him. Why did he have feelings for her? He didn’t want to get enmeshed in her charms again. His heart didn’t need to be broken once more.

“I know what you’re thinking, Micah,” she said, “because I feel the same way. Any good Christian would. However, we must deal with what is, not what we would like it to be.”

The sound of kinder came from upstairs. Gemma motioned for him and Sean to go and kissed her husband before hurrying to collect the youngsters.

Sean opened the door so Micah could lead the way out. When his friend didn’t ask any questions, Micah was grateful. Everything was changing. Gemma was right. He needed to take time to think because he was less sure now about what he should do than he had been the night before.

Chapter Three

Concentrating on work wasn’t easy, and more than once during the day, Micah was glad he wore the safety rope that kept him from tumbling off the roof. He wasn’t watching where he was stepping. He was also grateful he and Sean and the two men they’d hired to assist them were preparing the support framework to hold the panels being installed on the newly constructed house. With his mind elsewhere, he didn’t want to be responsible for carrying the expensive twenty-five-pound panels up the ladder and setting them in place.

The end of the workday arrived, and Micah came to the realization his plans hadn’t changed from that morning. He needed to talk to Katie Kay and insist she decide. She had to make up her mind and go home or go away.

But if she chose the latter, how would he ever explain to Reuben that he’d abetted Katie Kay? He prayed God would give him the words. She’d been too distraught last night to make a gut decision. But now she’d had a day to think about her future.

Micah stowed his tools in the rear of the van and got in on the passenger side. Sean was already behind the wheel. Reaching for the key, he started the engine as Micah hooked his seat belt in place.

Neither of them spoke as they left the subdivision that soon would consist of nearly twenty new houses. Each would have solar panels, so he and Sean had several weeks of work ahead of them.

“How are you doing?” Sean asked, breaking the silence.

“If I knew, I’d tell you.”

His friend gave him a sympathetic grin. “You’ll feel better after you get this conversation with Katie Kay over with.”

“I hope so.” He didn’t mean to give terse answers, but he wasn’t sure what else to say.

Sean glanced at him and then back at the road. “I think it’d be a good idea if I get Gemma and the kids out of the way so you can talk to Katie Kay without us.”

“Sean—”

“I promised them I’d take them out to a restaurant across from the Rockvale Outlets. It might as well be tonight.”

“You’re a gut friend.”

“And you’re a good partner. If you fall and break your neck because you aren’t paying attention to the job, I’ll have to find and train another.” He looked away from the road again and gave Micah a brash grin. “I know how long that takes because, after all this time, I’ve barely got you trained.”

Micah appreciated his friend’s attempt to tease him out of his somber mood, so, though he didn’t feel the least bit like laughing, he did. “I think you’ve got it backward. I have been training you. You didn’t know which end of the panel went where when I first met you.”

“Yeah, yeah. Keep telling yourself that if it gives you comfort.”

He listened as Sean continued jesting and tried to laugh at the appropriate times. The truth was, however, that nothing could make him feel better about talking with Katie Kay. No matter what the results of the pregnancy test had been, there still was the issue of her refusal to see her family.

When Sean pulled the van into the driveway, Micah tried to breathe slowly. This wasn’t going to be easy, but he had to convince Katie Kay to do what she should and go home. If she was pregnant, she needed her family more than ever.

Micah gave his friend a brief smile when Sean clapped him on the shoulder as they walked to the front door. As always, Micah let Sean open the door. As always, a whirl of kinder, looking more like a dozen than three, surrounded Sean. Their young voices told him about their day at the same time, each trying to talk over the other. No matter how many times Gemma or Sean urged them to take turns, they were too excited to have their daed home at day’s end.

Standing aside to let the loving assault run its course, Micah couldn’t help envying his partner. Having a house filled with cute kinder and a loving wife who somehow found a way to stand on tiptoe and kiss him over the heads of the excited youngsters would be a true blessing. After seeing his siblings marry and begin to raise families, he’d known it was something he wanted for himself.

As if he’d spoken out loud, the kinder threw their arms around him next, spewing out more of the stories they’d started telling their daed. To them, he was Uncle Micah, though two-year-old Jayden could manage only Mike. He hugged each one in turn, not wanting his anxiety to ruin their happiness.

The kids cheered when Sean announced they were eating out. Gemma smiled, too, but hers was as taut as Micah’s felt. When she glanced at him, she didn’t say anything. It wasn’t necessary. He could tell from her strained expression that the pregnancy test had been positive.

He helped get the kinder into their coats and hats. When he offered to help put them in their seats in the car, Sean shook his head.

“We’ll take care of them. You take care of her.” He gripped Micah’s arm and then herded his wife and kinder out the door.

Micah closed it. Once he heard the car back out of the drive, he went into the living room. Where was Katie Kay?

As if in answer, he heard dishes rattling in the kitchen. He went in.

Katie Kay wore the same jeans, but they’d been washed. Her battered T-shirt had been replaced by a black sweater. It brought out the gold in her hair, which she pulled back with clips that must have belonged to Olivia. One was topped by a red dog and the other a blue cat that was the exact same shade as Katie Kay’s eyes. She had only socks on, and he wondered if her shoes had been ruined in the rain.

“Oh, it’s you,” she said as she closed the cupboard door.

“Hello to you, too.” He put his straw hat on the island and undid his stained work coat. “Sean is taking the family out for supper. A treat for the kinder.”

“Gemma said he might.” Her voice was as unemotional as his. “She told me there are leftovers in the fridge and to help myself. Do you want something before you go?”

“I want to talk to you.”

Her eyes narrowed with suspicion. He’d known he couldn’t fool her with casual conversation. “What about?”

“You.”

“I don’t want to hear how disappointed you are in me or how you believe I should go to my family’s house.” She reached into the refrigerator and pulled out a plastic container with a bright green top. “You’ve made yourself clear on that.”