Seek Me With All Your Heart Read Online Free PDF Page B

he’d be around other family and his friends in the beautiful place he’d been raised.
    He thought about Anna and Elizabeth, and his stomach churned with anxiety. It would be hard to leave them, even harder than leaving his father and Lil ian. When he was almost to the front porch, loud voices caught his attention, and he turned toward the smal er house on the property. He couldn’t make out what was being said, but Uncle Ivan and Aunt Katie Ann were definitely having words. Probably about living in this place. He’d never understood why his aunt and uncle wanted to make the move here either. This community wasn’t nearly as wel -kept as Lancaster County. The mountains were nice, but the homes weren’t as attractive or bright as those in his hometown of Paradise. To give Canaan credit, Amish families had only begun settling here six or seven years ago, as compared to Lancaster County where generation after generation had lived, making it a draw for tourists. That’s one thing he didn’t miss. Tourists.
    His father said that this move to Canaan represented new beginnings for al of them. But why did they need a new beginning? Everyone had been happy where they were.
    He opened the front door, wound around the boxes in the den, and put the groceries on the kitchen table.
    “ceries; then she opened Vera’s bag. “That was so nice of Vera. I real y like her.” She pushed a box to one side and placed the items on the cracked blue tile that covered the counter. She turned to face David. “What did you think about the rest of Vera’s family?” Danki. ” Lil ian began unloading the store-bought gro
    David shrugged. An image of Emily’s face flashed before him. He’d never seen a woman look so scared, but inside her house, she’d looked comfortable—yet she’d given him the cold shoulder. Last thing he was interested in was going to a Sunday singing, but he’d made sure to tel Emily he would be there. Why? Just to bug her? It was obvious she didn’t want him there. Lord, what is wrong with me? Please help me to shed all this bitterness .
    She was a strange girl, but it wasn’t like him to go out of his way to make someone uncomfortable.
    “I didn’t meet Mr. Detweiler or Levi, the other son. I met Jacob, though. He seems like a nice guy. And I met the older daughter, Emily. I guess she’s close to my age.” David grabbed a soda from one of the bags, then held up his hands when Lil ian frowned. “There’s no tea or anything, so I bought these with my money.” He’d only bought a couple of cans, but he knew that he needed to be more watchful of the smal amount of money that he had. Once he had a job, he could start adding to it, and then get back home.

    “It’s not the money. They’re just bad for you.” Lil ian thrust her hands on her hips and stared down at a large, white ice chest fil ed to capacity. “We have to get a refrigerator we can hook up to the propane.” She pointed to the antique in the corner. “Don’t even open that refrigerator. I already made that mistake. The contents are unidentifiable, and it smel s foul.”
    “I’l haul it out.”
    Lil ian smiled. “That would be great. Can you handle it by yourself?”
    “Can you handle the smel ?”
    His stepmother giggled. “Al I can do is laugh.” She glanced around the kitchen with its cracked countertops, cupboard doors with chipped blue paint that were hanging by a single hinge, and possibly worst of al , the blue and gold striped wal paper. “If Bishop Ebersol could see us now.”
    “Why’d you let Daed talk you into this?”
    Lil ian quickly turned away from him and ran her hand along a gas stove that had been there since way before David was born. Probably before Daed and Lil ian were born. With her back to him, she shrugged. “Your daed thinks this is the best thing for us.”
    “How can it be? I mean, look at this place, Lil ian. It’s a wreck inside and out. Why would Daed— ”
    Lil ian spun around, her eyes pleading