by Amy Lillard
Books by Amy Lillard
The Wells Landing Series
CAROLINE’S SECRET
COURTING EMILY
LORIE’S HEART
JUST PLAIN SADIE
TITUS RETURNS
MARRYING JONAH
E-Novellas
The Quilting Circle
MORE THAN FRIENDSHIP
MORE THAN FRIENDSHIP
MORE THAN A PROMISE
MORE THAN A MARRIAGE
Published by Kensington Publishing Corporation
MORE THAN A MARRIAGE
AMY LILLARD
ZEBRA BOOKS
KENSINGTON PUBLISHING CORP.
http://www.kensingtonbooks.com
All copyrighted material within is Attributor Protected.
Table of Contents
Also by
Title Page
Copyright Page
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Teaser chapter
ZEBRA BOOKS are published by
Kensington Publishing Corp.
119 West 40th Street
New York, NY 10018
Copyright © 2017 by Amy Lillard
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.
To the extent that the image or images on the cover of this book depict a person or persons, such person or persons are merely models, and are not intended to portray any character or characters featured in the book.
Zebra and the Z logo Reg. U.S. Pat. & TM Off.
First Edition: March 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4201-3981-5
Published in the United States of America
Chapter One
“Tomorrow would be a perfect day to go visit my parents in Clarita, jah?”
“What?” Jacob Smiley, Tess’s husband of almost three years, looked up from the screen of his smartphone. His expression said it all. He’d been too engrossed in what he had been reading on the tiny screen to pay her very much mind.
Tess tried not to frown and injected as much patience and understanding into her voice as she could muster. “I said I want to go see my parents tomorrow.” The next day was Sunday, but for their district, there was no church. Instead families spent time with each other, visiting in fellowship with one another and enjoying the company around them.
Tess wanted to go see her family. It had been far too long since she had spent any time with her parents and her sister. Clarita might only be three hours away by car, but when the primary mode of transportation was a tractor or a horse and buggy, three hours might as well be ten.
It was the one thing she hated most about moving to Wells Landing, but by far it wasn’t the only thing. She cast a quick glance at the cell phone her husband held. She hated the small electronic device almost as much as Jacob seemed to enjoy it.
“I don’t know. We’ll have to get a driver and . . .” Jacob’s voice trailed off as he glanced back at the phone.
Tess bit back a frustrated sigh. “I’ve already called Bruce Brown,” she said, referring to one of the favored drivers in Wells Landing. A retired Air Force medic, Bruce was always in great demand, but she’d hoped that he might have time tomorrow to take them to Clarita. “He’s not available, but he said his cousin can take us.”
“His cousin?” That got Jacob’s attention. “I don’t know him.”
“Bruce said he was hoping to get into the driving business, and you have to admit that if he’s kin to Bruce, chances are he’s a great guy.”
Jacob shook his head. “That’s not necessarily true.”
“You could call and talk to him.”
“It’s eight o’clock at night. On a Saturday night. It’s too late to call him.”
“It’s hardly that late.”
“It’s late enough.”
“But, Jacob—”
“If you had wanted to go to your parents’ house, you should have told me sooner so I could make arrangements.”
“I did.” Her voice rose until she was almost yelling at him. “I did,” she repeated, quietly this time.
“You did?” Jacob frowned. “I don’t remember that.”
Of course he didn’t. He couldn’t remember anything these days. Not unless it had something to do with that blessed phone. To make matters worse, he even had a Facebook account! He said he needed it and the phone for his job at A-1 Roofing, but Tess couldn’t see the necessity at all. He could use the phone; she would give him that much. But a Facebook account?
“Besides, it’s Sunday and we wouldn’t be able to pay him.”
They could have paid him in advance if he had planned better. If he had been listening to her. But he had been messing with his phone.
And the worst part of all was the time it took away from the two of them. Everything that happened on that tiny little device seemed so much more important than what was really going on in their lives. And this was no exception. It was Saturday night and they were at home, which wasn’t a problem at all. But she was looking through a book on better ways to make goat cheese while he was playing with his phone doing heaven knew what on his Facebook account. She didn’t have one of her own, nor did she have a cell phone. How could she monitor what he was doing? Did she even want to?
She placed her marker inside the book she was reading and set it to one side. “Play a game with me.” They used to play games all the time, card games, guessing games, even silly things like truth or dare. Just the two of them. But that had been before. Before they moved to Wells Landing. Before he took a job with the English roofing company. Before the cell phone and the Facebook account.
“What?” Jacob looked up, his expression blank.
Tess jumped to her feet. “Were you even listening to me?”
“Of course I was.” Jacob frowned. “I just didn’t hear what you said.”
Tess shook her head. “Isn’t that what listening is?”
“Are you going to tell me or not?”
“Play a game with me,” Tess asked again, but this time the words sounded more like a demand than a request for his time and attention.
Jacob stood and stretched, slipping his phone to the side pocket of his pants. “I don’t know. It’s getting kind of late.”
“It’s barely eight o’clock.” This was the biggest problem of all. And he couldn’t even see it.
“I get up early, Tess. You know that.”
“You don’t have to get up early tomorrow. Just for an hour. Play a hand or two of Uno with me.”
He gave her a look that was both condescending and chastising. “Uno is not any fun with two people.”
But she remembered a time when they had fun playing Uno, just the two of them. It had been less about the game and more about spending time together, bonding, enjoying each other’s company without another soul around. It’d only been a few years since that time. Where had it disappeared to?
“We can play something else, then.” Tess hated the desperate sound in her voice. But she felt as if things were slipping out of her grasp. She and Jacob had been so close once, and now it seemed as if they were miles apart even when they were in the same room.
“Maybe tomorrow.” Jacob eased his hand into his pocket as if assuring himself that his cell phone was still there. Tess wanted nothing more than to grab the vile thing and smash it against the wall. That would not be very becoming. And it didn’t actually belong to Jacob. It belonged to the company he worked for. One day he would have to give it back. Just another reason why she hoped and prayed every day that they wou
ld finally save enough money to buy the farm of their dreams and move. They wanted to be out of town a bit. They wanted to live off the land like God intended.
“I think I’ll go to bed.”
Tess didn’t know how to respond. She wanted to call him back, try to work through it, figure out some way they could spend some more time together. He said he wanted to go to bed but she was antsy, agitated. “I think I’ll go check on the goats.”
Jacob stopped with one hand on the stair rail. “That’s another thing.”
“Jah?”
“Mr. Bennett came by today. He brought back your little brown goat.”
“Millie?”
Jacob shrugged. “I don’t know her name. Just the little brown one.”
“What do you mean he brought her back?”
“Evidently she got out and he found her in his garden eating all his squash plants.”
“Oh, no.” Millie was the wiliest of all her goats. She was the smallest and could somehow manage to wriggle through the tiniest spots in the fence. “But I have her tied up as well.” She hated to loop the rope around the sweet little goat’s neck. But this was not the first time she had gotten out. And unfortunately not the first time she had eaten Mr. Bennett’s garden fare.
“Apparently she ate through the rope, managed to get out of the pen, then headed over to his house.”
“Did she eat very much?”
Jacob frowned. “Enough that I owe him some squash.”
“I’m sorry.”
Jacob sighed. “Sorry isn’t going to work this time, Tess. The man was ranting about how much squash he is losing over the summer. And this not the first time she’s eaten his plants. Those goats are more trouble than they’re worth.”
“That’s not right. They’re very useful.”
Jacob held up one finger as if to warn her that his next words held great meaning. “I don’t like having the neighbors angry because your goats got out. If they get out again, we just may have to get rid of them.”
“You can’t do that.”
Jacob gave a quick nod. “Oh, jah. I can.” He turned and headed back up the stairs.
Tess watched him disappear, wanting to ask him why he picked now to tell her. But she knew. He had been too involved with his cell phone to remember it until now. And as far as she was concerned, that was a much bigger problem than her goats eating Mr. Bennett’s squash.
* * *
“Tess, why aren’t you ready to go?”
She looked up from the catalog she had been reading. She had wanted to check and see if perhaps she could find Mr. Bennett some late-blooming squash plants in the seed catalog, but so far she hadn’t found any she thought would suffice. “Go where?”
“To my parents’ house.” His tone clearly stated that she should have remembered this. But Tess had no idea what he was talking about.
“I didn’t know we were going to your parents’ house today.”
Jacob shook his head as if she were more than he could handle sometimes. “You did. I told you yesterday that we were going to my parents’ house.”
“You did not. You told me we weren’t going to my parents’ house.” His parents had never been mentioned at all.
“I’m sure I told you.”
“I’m sure you didn’t.”
“Don’t be difficult, Tess. And go change your apron.”
Something in his tone didn’t set well with her. Or maybe it was the fact that after he delivered his command, he reached into his pocket and pulled out that infernal cell phone and glanced at the tiny little screen. He smiled a little to himself, hit something on the screen, and re-pocketed it.
“I don’t think you’re supposed to use that on Sunday.”
Jacob shrugged as if it was no big deal. “It was a text from work.”
He said that, but she found herself doubting his words. She didn’t know who was contacting him through that tiny little phone, and it wasn’t like a phone shanty or a phone in the barn attached to an answering machine that recorded everybody’s call. She felt strangely left out of a part of Jacob’s life that she had never considered before. When a couple worked at home and farmed the land, they were always near to one another. But Jacob left for work every day. He drove the tractor into town, parked it in the empty lot across from the post office, and waited for his English boss to come by in his truck and get him. Tess knew that several Amish men worked for the same company, but she didn’t know if they all had cell phones. And she didn’t know if they got text messages all the time, even on Sunday. She wondered if any of their wives hated the fact that their husbands had Facebook pages. Didn’t that depend on knowing a bunch of other people on Facebook? Who would he know on Facebook? Maybe just the men he worked with. But didn’t he get enough of them during the week? The whole thing was completely confusing to her. She didn’t know how it worked and had never wanted to know how it worked. Until now, when it was directly affecting her relationship with her husband.
“I don’t know why I have to change my apron.” It was the closest to rebellion she had ever come.
Jacob seemed to hold his breath as he stared at her. “What’s gotten into you, Tess?”
“Nothing. What’s gotten into you, Jacob?”
He studied her intently. And suddenly she felt as if she was having an argument with a stranger. Oh, he looked the same as Jacob Smiley always did, thick chestnut hair and full beard, also rusty in color. He had the same beautiful eyes and strong build. He looked exactly like the man she had married. But somehow he felt like a stranger.
She stared back at him, but there were no answers in his expression, only a stiff jaw as he waited for her to comply. She wanted to tell him no, tell him that she wasn’t going to his parents’ house if they couldn’t go to her parents’ house. She missed them terribly. And it seemed as if Jacob found plenty of time to go visit his family while she never saw hers anymore. She couldn’t say that it had been the easiest thing to move from Clarita over to Wells Landing, but she had been hopeful for new opportunities. Jacob had followed his father and stepmother to this larger community hoping that they both would find new and better, maybe even exciting opportunities there. But so far all she had found was mild heartache and a stranger in her house.
“I guess you can stay here if you want.”
Tess was spurred into action, though as she made her way upstairs to change her apron and make sure she looked presentable for a Sunday afternoon visit, she had to wonder which was worse, visiting with his mamm and dat or being at home by herself.
* * *
Jacob stole a quick glance at his wife as they ambled along. Sundays were all about taking it a bit slower, so while most of the good citizens of Wells Landing drove tractors during the week, come Sunday everybody got out their horse and buggy and traveled at a slower pace. Part of him enjoyed the slower step of the horses and another part of him wished they could speed along in the tractor, maybe even a car. It would sure get them there a lot quicker. He knew that most believed it was the journey that was the most important thing, but sometimes he disagreed and thought that the most important thing was the visit. Getting there quicker would mean more time to visit.
Of course now would be a good time to try and talk with his wife, see what was bugging her. She hadn’t been the same lately, and he didn’t know what was going on. He hadn’t changed. But he conceded that Tess had. She walked around with an expectant air, as if any minute something big was about to happen and she didn’t want to miss it. But there wasn’t anything big. The next big thing for them, unless the Lord saw fit to bless them with a child sooner rather than later, was for them to buy a piece of land, a farm, and work the land. He had hoped they would already have that checked off and be working toward the next on their goal list, but it seemed that wasn’t in God’s plan for them. And with all the hours he’d been taking on at the roofing company, it had become harder and harder to look for those plots of land and other opportunities for farming. Why, just last
week he had heard of a farm that was quite possibly well within their budget, but he had only heard about the land after it had been sold. Why hadn’t he heard about it before? He could only assume that God had other plans for them, but he was starting to get a little impatient. He was ready to go back to working the land, farming, growing crops, getting back to a simpler life. At least a simpler one than what he had now.
When they had moved to Wells Landing, there hadn’t been a great many opportunities available. And he had jumped on the chance to build roofs. It was good money in Oklahoma with all the winds and storms. Hail damaged any roof it came in contact with. So he couldn’t say the money wasn’t good. But the hours were terrible and the work was very hard. Not as satisfying as farming, for certain. The harsh summer temperatures drained him both physically and mentally. He wasn’t the boss by any means, but he was a supervisor on the job site, overseeing four to six men as they worked diligently to tear off the old roof and put another one on as quickly as possible. The worst part of all was that the more roofs they put on, the more money they would make, so the more roofs the company wanted them to put on. He felt as if he worked night and day, well before sunup to well past sundown. It was a never-ending work cycle: get up, roof, move to the next job site, roof another house, come home until he was dead tired on his feet from everything that he had done in a day. When that happened, all he wanted to do was sit down and escape. He knew that wasn’t the Amish way, but it was how he felt all the same. His job was hard, physically and mentally, and it never seemed to end. He supposed that was a good thing. He wasn’t afraid of hard work, but he felt like he was working so hard for someone else. Someone who might or might not appreciate all the effort he put in.