Landchester Amish Love: Ruth (Amish Romance) (Landchester Amish Love Series Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page B

by side, it was easy for Ruth to see the familye resemblance. Ruth and Joseph smiled, without meaning to, when they saw each other. But there were things that needed to be said and done first, before they could speak.
    “I’ll be out on the porch,” Joseph said, a little awkwardly, and went to leave the room, tripping on the threshold again just a little as he went.
    Ruth smiled again, remembering how he had done the same thing when he had left the crafts store. Perhaps he was a clumsy mann , after all. That would be all right, Ruth thought. Or perhaps he wasn’t and she just gave him reason for distraction. Either way, she was happy to have the chance to find out.
    She felt Katie’s arms suddenly around her neck as soon as they were alone. The hug was a surprise, but it was a welcome one, and Ruth hugged her back. Words would have been hard to find, and probably hard to hear before they’d settled on the most important fact of the matter: that Katie was sorry, and that Ruth forgave her. A hug did nicely for that.
    When they drew apart again, they sat down. Ruth could see tears in Katie’s eyes, that she was quickly wiping away, and trying to hide.
    “Why?” she asked her, and Katie shrugged at first.
    “I didn’t want to miss you. I didn’t like that you were lonely. And it didn’t feel right for it to be you and him, together. I’m not sure why.”
    Ruth put her hand on her friend’s shoulder. She looked so pitiful and shameful, it melted any residual resentment Ruth might have felt.
    “And would you, maybe, be willing to think of it differently?” she asked her, and Katie laughed a little bit and nodded.
    “ Jah, of course.” The girls sat, and the incident was set on the shelf, not to be opened again.
    Then they caught up, as quickly as possible. Ruth found that she had missed her friend, and hearing what she had to say about everything that happened in their own community. And she thought now that perhaps one of the best things about the mann she’d met being Katie’s bruder was that if all worked out the was Ruth was afraid to admit even to herself that she hoped it would, then she would have Katie for a schweschder as well.
    They got through all of the things they had been holding inside, waiting to tell one another. And when they reached the end of it, and there was a lull in the conversation, Ruth found that she was looking towards the porch. The thin curtain was in the way, but she could see through it enough to see Joseph’s outline, still sitting outside, waiting for her to come out.
    “You’d better go then,” Katie said. She had a reserved, slightly playfully-mocking tone to her voice. And Ruth felt then that it would always be this way between them, just a little bit. But she liked it. It was something new in their friendship that had been very much the same for so long.
    Ruth stood, and hugged her friend again, and headed for the door.
    Joseph stood when she walked through the door and she motioned him down.
    “Sit, sit!” she said, playfully. And he did. And she sat next to him.
    Evenings like this were a gift from Gott . The sun was setting, slowly but surely, but it wasn’t there yet. It was just preparing for the sunset, and the world was growing still to get ready. The world settles down for night the way dust settles in a room – in its own time, and delicately.
    Joseph and Ruth let the silence sit between them for a good while. They were both excited, but the quiet didn’t frighten them. It was enough to them both to feel the joy together, of all obstacles being removed from their way.
    In a way, Ruth thought, this was better. At the barn raising, she’d been so afraid to speak to him. She’d worried that he wouldn’t want to talk to her, or that she’d been mistaken about him. She’d worried that there weren’t real feelings there, or that something was going to go wrong.
    But now that they’d already weathered a storm together, all that doubt and nervousness was