Faith and Hope in Lancaster (The Amish of Lancaster County #1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

belching sounds in the mud.
    Her house came into sight, and sure enough, there he was, cockily sitting on her porch as if someone had invited him. All he needed, she thought wryly, was a cold glass of freshly pressed lemonade. Which she was not about to give him.
    “What do you think you’re doing here?” she demanded.
    Jacob leaped to his feet. “I could ask you the same thing. What do you think you’re doing?”
    A shiver ran through Annie at the sight of him. His bold green eyes pierced her, and though she tried to suppress the memory, she couldn’t keep from recalling the kiss they’d shared in vivid detail. His mouth had been so soft and warm, and she’d known in a way she couldn’t explain that it wasn’t just a kiss to him. It was . . . a promise?
    Her lips tingled with the ghost of his mouth against them, and she couldn’t help her involuntary intake of breath. He must have heard, because his eyes dropped to her mouth, and he swallowed hard.
    She dropped her gaze to her feet. This was too much. Much too much. “Jacob,” she whispered, her voice barely a whisper, “this—this is . . .”
    “What are you doing?” he burst out.
    Her head jerked up. “What am I doing?”
    “Yes,” he said, standing and taking her hands in his. “What are you doing? I have been waiting to talk to you, but you’ve been avoiding me since you returned from your rumspringa .”
    “Talk—talk to me?” Annie’s heart stuttered the same way her words were. She kept her head bowed, her eyes on their clasped hands, and tried not to think about how warm his hands were. Stephen’s palms were callused, but despite the work Jacob did with engines, his were delightfully smooth. “Why?”
    “Yes.” Jacob squeezed her hands, so Annie had no choice but to look up and meet his gaze. She forgot to breathe. She’d forgotten how handsome he was, how strong—the qualities that had drawn her to him beneath the tree that day . . .
    “You can’t marry Stephen.”
    The words, so frankly spoken, pulled Annie right out of her daze. “What are you talking about?” she demanded, yanking her hands out of his grasp. His smooth, warm, confident grasp, her mind pointed out.
    “Annie, it’s always been you and me. You know that.”
    “I do?” Annie’s head spun. Where was all this coming from?
    “Don’t pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about. You watched me as much as I watched you. You told me your secrets, your dreams. Who else but me knew you wanted to be an actress?”
    “But . . . but you—” Annie didn’t know how to complete the sentence. She had told him that. She hadn’t thought it had meant anything. But Jacob had kept her secret, and even more surprisingly, he hadn’t laughed. He had just listened like she was the most interesting person in all the world.
    Dear God , she prayed, I’m so confused. Please guide me to understanding and the correct way forward.
    “But I’m not good enough for you, is that it?” Jacob’s voice was bitter. “Not after you ran off to the big city?”
    Annie whirled on him. “What are you talking about? Why wouldn’t you be good enough for me?” Even as the words tumbled from her mouth, she wondered why she cared. She was engaged to be married to Stephen, after all.
    “I wanted to go with you to New York City,” he confessed. “But my daed needed me here to help out with the business. He didn’t want anyone to know he was ill.”
    Annie’s mouth fell open. “He was?”
    Jacob nodded soberly. “Yes. He’d been having terrible headaches and tummy trouble, and I think it was because he was trying to do too much himself. So I stayed behind and helped him.”
    “You never went on rumspringa ,” Annie concluded, feeling stupid. She’d been so busy trying to avoid him, she hadn’t given any thought to what he’d done while she was away.
    “But I would have gone, Annie, if it had been anything else.” Jacob took his face in her hands. “Don’t you see? I would