Susanna's Dream: The Lost Sisters of Pleasant Valley, Book Two Read Online Free PDF

Susanna’s grandmother, too, but she seems willing to forget that fact.”
    Her relationship with her grandmother, never exactly warm, had been fraying at the edges since Chloe had discovered that not only had her grandmother hidden the existence of her siblings, she’d had no interest in them. She’d only wanted Chloe, the baby, the one least likely to have been influenced by her daughter’s new life among the Amish.
    “Even if you could, Susanna might not be willing to accept financial help.” Seth’s tone was practical. “So there’s no point in leaping ahead.”
    “Wait, in other words.” Chloe met his gaze as she said the words, and they suddenly seemed to take on a different meaning. Wait. The way they seemed to be waiting each time the attraction flared between them, which it was doing more and more frequently in recent weeks.
    What if they stopped waiting, and let whatever might happen between them happen? Her heart seemed to be thundering in her ears, and she couldn’t tear her gaze away from Seth’s.
    He shook his head, as if chasing away something that clouded his thoughts. He drew back, but he was breathing as quickly as if he’d been running.
    He cleared his throat. “At least talk to Lydia before you do anything. Once you tell Susanna, there’s no going back.”
    “I suppose that’s right.” And maybe that’s what was going on between them, as well. Neither of them wanted to take a step from which there would be no going back.
    “I’d better get moving.” He stood up, the action abrupt.
    Chloe followed him through the house to the front door, opening it. “Say hello to your mother and sister for me.”
    He caught the door, stopping its movement. She looked up at him, a question on her lips . . . a question that was drowned by a quick, hard kiss. It tasted of longing, desire, and maybe regret. Almost before she could react, he was gone.
    * * *
    “Ach, yet another Looky-Lou,” Dora exclaimed when the door closed behind a customer who’d examined everything in the shop and left without buying. “Sometimes I wonder why they think we’re in business.”
    “Perhaps she’ll come back and buy another day.” Susanna straightened the row of handmade wooden toys that were a new addition to their stock. Dora, it seemed to her, had been out of sorts all morning. “I can handle things here, if you want a break.”
    Dora’s annoyed expression smoothed out to her usual smile. “Don’t mind me. I’m chust fratched this morning over Nate’s fussing and this new medicine the doctor has me on. I think I felt better before I started taking it.”
    Knowing Dora was fully capable of throwing the medication away without telling anyone, Susanna sought for a comforting word. “Sometimes it takes your body time to get used to new medication, ain’t so? I know it was that way with my mamm. The doctor would say to give it a few days, and most of the time, that solved the problem.”
    “You’re right, and I’ll stop my complaining, ja?”
    Susanna nodded, smiling, but there was worry under the smile. She’d spent the previous evening going through her finances and come away more discouraged than she’d been before she started. Daad had been a careful man with his money, but the cost of Susanna’s partnership in the gift shop, followed so soon by his death and the expenses of Mamm’s illness, had gone through the comfortable bank balance at an alarming rate.
    The bottom line was that if Dora did decide to give up the shop, there was no possible way that Susanna could afford to buy her out.
    “These wooden toys will sell fine come time for Christmas shopping.” Dora lifted down a small train engine to examine. “Who did you say brought these in?”
    “Lydia Beachy, from over in Pleasant Valley. Her husband, Adam, is the one who makes the clocks.” She’d met Lydia in the spring, when she’d first come into the shop, and had seen her often now that they were handling her husband’s