An Amish Proposal

by Jo Ann Brown

  “Austin, I think you should leave.”

  “But I just got here. You’re not going to send me away without a plate of that great-smelling food and a piece of the wedding cake, are you?”

  “You weren’t invited.”

  He waved aside her words. “Don’t split hairs with me. How many times did you tell me about how the Amish share what they’ve got to eat with anyone who stops in at mealtime?”

  She started to answer, but a deeper voice said from around the corner of the barn, “She’s asked you to leave.”

  Whirling, she saw Micah walking toward them. To judge by his easy pace, he was mildly perturbed, but she saw anger snapping in his eyes. She wanted to caution him about Austin’s temper. Anything he said could make the situation worse...if that was possible because the very air seemed to hum with tension.

  “Who’s this loser?” sneered Austin.

  “I’m Micah Stoltzfus,” he said before she could answer.

  Austin glanced at her. “Your ex?”

  “You are my ex, Austin,” Katie Kay said, trying to copy Micah’s cool serenity. “You became my ex when you pushed me out of your car on a cold, rainy night after stealing my money and cell phone. I should have sent the police to arrest you.” In spite of her efforts, her voice began to tremble with the emotions she was struggling to control.

  A gentle hand settled on her waist, out of Austin’s sight. Micah’s touch offered her strength. Though she longed to turn and throw her arms around him and ask him to forgive her for how she’d hurt him, she continued to look at Austin.

  “It was a mistake,” he said in the whining tone he used whenever he tried to get what he wanted.

  She wasn’t going to be taken in again. Her voice was steady when she replied, “Finally something we agree on.”

  “We can have good times again, Sweetie-Kate,” he said, using the nickname he seemed to recall whenever he wanted to wheedle her into going along with his latest scheme. “I’ve got almost enough money to buy the motorcycle I told you about. We can head anywhere we want.” His nose wrinkled as he glanced at Micah. “You don’t have to stay around this place that reeks of cow manure and dumb-dumb Dutch.”

  She was tempted to tell Austin he was wrong if he thought trying to offend Micah would get the usual reaction. Micah wasn’t going to answer with either words or fists.

  “No, thank you,” she said. “My family and my life are in Paradise Springs.”

  “But I know you want to see the world. You said so yourself a dozen times. I’ll get the bike, and we’ll hit the road and see it.”

  “What about our kind—our child?” she amended when she realized he wouldn’t recognize the Deitsch word.

  Austin waved aside her question. “If the kid is a problem,” he said, “we’ll figure something out. There are always people looking for a baby, no questions asked.” He smiled as if he’d come up with the perfect solution.

  * * *

  Behind Katie Kay, Micah took a deep breath to restrain himself from reaching out and grabbing the loudmouth by the front of his T-shirt. Never had he been so furious. Not even when Katie Kay told him to be on his way and not return.

  Stay with me, Lord, and help me remember nothing is solved by losing my temper.

  A gentle peace settled around his heart, easing the tightness that had tormented him since he last walked out with Katie Kay. All that time, though he’d tried to deny it, he’d been angry. But anger solved nothing. It only separated him from God. He had to let go of the rage and begin to offer forgiveness.

  Offer forgiveness to himself and to Katie Kay. He had to forgive himself for pushing her too hard and too fast...as Austin was. And forgive her for pushing back as she fought to discover what she wanted. Not what he wanted or what Austin wanted or her boppli, but what life she wanted. He’d made the decision for himself, and she deserved the same chance to choose.

  Using only words an Englischer would understand, he said, “A baby isn’t something to ‘figure out.’ A baby is a precious gift from God, and he or she should be treasured, not seen as an inconvenience.”

  “Why don’t you stay out of this, farm boy?” He jutted his chin toward Micah in a candid invitation to take a swing. “It’s none of your business.”

  “You’re right,” Micah said in the same composed tone, not taking the bait. He was aware of the many eyes witnessing this confrontation from a distance. Most of the guests, including his brothers and brothers-in-law, had moved to where they could watch. A single signal from him, and they would step forward as a unified force, but he didn’t want that. He wasn’t tempted to sink to Austin’s level. There was desperation in the man’s voice, and Micah wasn’t going to feed that. “It is none of my business, except for the fact that Katie Kay is part of our community, and so is her boppli. Her baby.”

  “You don’t know she’s going to stay.” His voice rose in volume on every word as if he could intimidate Micah by yelling.

  The man was a bully.

  Micah looked at him without replying. Anything he said would be thrown in his face and prolong the conversation.

  When Austin realized Micah wasn’t going to retort, he poked a finger in Katie Kay’s direction. “You escaped from this straitlaced world once, Sweetie-Kate. Let me help you put it behind you forever.”

  “Forever?” When she widened her eyes and batted her lashes, Micah had to struggle not to laugh. He’d seen her do the same when an overly eager young man tried to impress her after a singing. “Are you proposing, Austin?”

  The Englischer choked out a curse and shook his head like a dog coming out of water. “I didn’t say anything about marriage.”

  “No, you didn’t. And why would you? You don’t want to grow up and take on a man’s responsibilities. You want to have fun while you convince your friends to support you, as you convinced me to do. I was a fool, but I’m not going to be a fool any longer.”

  Quietly, too quietly for Austin to hear, Micah murmured, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.”

  She took his hand. When he laced his fingers through hers, he watched as her shoulders rose as if she’d rid herself of a heavy burden.

  “I think you should leave, Austin,” Katie Kay said. “Leave and don’t return.”

  “Oh, I’ll be coming back.” He pointed at her stomach. “It’s my baby! Don’t think I’m going to let you keep it! You wait and see.”

  When she didn’t answer, he strode away, his feet pounding the ground as if he could make his footsteps echo across the valley. The wedding guests parted like the Red Sea to let him pass, but nobody spoke when he snarled at them. He got in his car and disappeared into a cloud of leaf debris and dust.

  He was gone.

  At last.

  Micah saw Katie Kay shaking, and he wanted to help her, but wasn’t sure what to say. Would Austin try to take her boppli from her? Maybe he thought Amish people didn’t use attorneys. They didn’t often, but when a kind’s life was at stake, he knew Reuben would give permission to hire legal assistance.

  When his fingers settled on her shoulders, he was startled. She wasn’t trembling with fear or with anger.

  She was laughing?

  As if he’d asked out loud, she smiled at him. “Well, you got your wish. You got to meet Austin and give him a piece of your mind.”

  “He needs more than a piece if he thinks he can threaten to take your boppli from you. A couple of my brothers have adopted kinder. The attorney they used—”

  She put a finger to his lips. “Let’s not look for trouble before it arrives.”

  “That sounds like the old Katie Kay, the one who didn’t want to think beyond the moment she was in.”

  “No, I’m thinking beyond the moment, but nothing is going to happen until after this boppli is born in about six mo
nths.” Folding her hands behind her, she looked into his eyes. “Until then, I plan to stay in Paradise Springs. It’s the best place for me and my boppli.”

  “It’s a big change of heart, Katie Kay.”

  “Ja, it is.” A smile drifted outward from the corners of her lips. “I’ve had several changes of heart in the past few days. You may not believe it, but Priscilla and I have come to an understanding.”

  “You have?” His eyes widened. He hadn’t expected that after many years of acrimony between them.

  “She’s my family, and after seeing how Sean and Gemma and their kinder treasure each other, I realized I wanted to treasure my family, too.”

  “Your boppli needs a family, Katie Kay.”

  “I know, and he or she will have one. Daed and Wanda have shown me how eager they are to hold my little one in their arms.”

  “My little one? It’s the first time I’ve heard you say that.”

  “Maybe because I’ve come to see I would be a fool to miss a moment with my boppli. My mamm is with the Lord and watches over me, but since I’ve learned I’m going to have a kind myself, I know she would have been grateful to have more time with my sisters and me.” She curved her hand over her belly, where her boppli was growing, before looking at him again. “I know you’ve been curious about the main reason I jumped the fence.”

  “Ja.”

  “It was because I was in love with you.”

  He was about to laugh and then realized she was serious. “In love?” He pointed at her and then himself. “You were in love with me? You sure had a strange way of showing that.”

  “I was scared, Micah. Scared of how I felt when I was with you.”

  “How did you feel?”

  Her eyes glowed with powerful emotions. “As if, with you, I had everything I ever wanted or needed.”

  “But...”

  She put her finger to his lips to silence him. “I was scared because I wondered if there was something more for me out in the Englisch world. I didn’t want to come to regret that I had never found out if there was.”

  “And what did you find?”

  “I was a fool to worry about missing out on something I couldn’t name when you were offering me everything.”

  He drew her into his arms and rested his cheek on top of her kapp. “I’m sorry, Katie Kay, for pushing you into a corner.”

  “What do you have to be sorry for? All you did was make me fall in love with you.”

  Could he be any happier than he was at the moment when she told him she loved him? He got his answer when she smiled and said, “I love you, Micah Stoltzfus. Will you marry me?”

  He chuckled. “You, the girl, are asking me, the boy? You never do things the way other people do them, ain’t so?”

  “Ja.” Her fingers swept along his cheek and into his hair, her touch gentle and yet sending shivers through him that threatened to buckle his knees. “You said that you’d never ask me again. I love you and want to spend my life with you and have you be my boppli’s daed, so I’m asking you. Marry me, Micah. Do you love me?”

  “With every bit of my heart. Ja, my love, I will marry you.” He pulled her into his arms and found her lips with the ease of months of longing to hold her.

  She jerked back and gasped, “Oh!” Her fingers were splayed across her abdomen.

  “Katie Kay, are you all right?”

  Joy glowed from her as she whispered, “I felt the boppli move.”

  “You did? What does it feel like?”

  She grasped his hand and pressed it against her. A faint sensation fluttered against his palm.

  In awe, he cupped her face and bent to kiss her, knowing it would be the first of many kisses they’d share in the years to come.

  Epilogue

  Snow fell outside, but the cozy kitchen was warm. Katie Kay leaned over the cradle and smiled at the tiny bundle in it. Soft curls were so blond they appeared white, and the little girl’s blue eyes were closed while her mouth worked as if tasting the air.

  “You are wunderbaar, Sarann,” she whispered. She didn’t want to wake the boppli named for her beloved younger sister.

  Unlike her sister, her daughter, Sarann, appeared to be healthy in every way. Beth Ann had insisted on having a doktor present at the birth at the house Micah had purchased a couple of months after he exchanged vows with Katie Kay. Doktorfraa Montgomery had checked Sarann and pronounced she showed no sign of any genetic disorders or other problems. When Sarann had let out a loud cry at that moment, they’d laughed.

  Including Micah, who’d offered to be with Katie Kay for the delivery, giving her back massages to ease the labor pains. No one mentioned that the boppli wasn’t his, and he’d been thrilled with the little girl. He’d cradled her while Beth Ann tended to Katie Kay, and he mumbled nonsense like any new daed.

  And he was Sarann’s daed in everything but name.

  “We are blessed, little one, to have such a man love us.”

  She looked around the kitchen, awed by the gifts heaped upon her by their loving God. The room had been painted a light blue with white wainscoting before Sarann’s arrival, while Katie Kay still had been able to go up a ladder. The gas stove was a hand-me-down, but the refrigerator was new, a gift from her daed and Micah’s mamm. Dishes that once had belonged to her own mamm were drying in the rack by the sink.

  The house needed work, but it had five gut-sized bedrooms and three bathrooms as well as an artesian well in the cellar and storage in the attic. A chicken coop was close to the stable, which was large enough to hold two horses and the family buggy Micah had traded his courting buggy for after their wedding.

  Peeling wallpaper and chipped paint would be taken care of. Between Micah and his brothers and Sean, who insisted on giving a hand now that his new son was almost six months old, the house was already much more livable than it’d been when Micah and Katie Kay had first seen it.

  The door opened, and cold air and snowflakes floated in. Micah shook snow off his hat before he hung it on the peg by the door.

  “How’s our girl?” he asked.

  Standing, Katie Kay smiled. “She’s doing great. Sleeping like a pro.”

  He chuckled and then grew serious. “I stopped at the mailbox. Here.”

  She took the manila envelope he held out to her. When she saw the official return address, she eagerly turned it over and opened it. She pulled out a thick collection of papers. Paging through, she found the one she was looking for. She plucked it out and let the others fall on the table beside her. She found Austin’s signature scrawled at the bottom.

  “Is it settled?” Micah asked.

  “Austin signed his parental rights away, as I’d prayed he would.” She raised her eyes to Micah’s, knowing they could complete the paperwork for him to adopt Sarann and become her legal daed. “You don’t look surprised.”

  “I’m not. As soon as your friend Cherokee told you Austin had bought the motorcycle he was talking about, I knew he wouldn’t want to be slowed down by a boppli.”

  “What about you, Micah?” She tossed the page on top of the others, knowing she’d read every word later. “Are you afraid of being slowed down by Sarann and me?”

  “No, because no matter where we go and how we get there, we’ll always be side by side. You and me and our daughter and any other kinder the gut Lord blesses us with.”

  She put her arm around his waist as he slid his around her shoulders. Together they looked at the boppli, knowing they both had the life they’d wanted, despite their roundabout way of discovering it. They had a life filled with love.

  A life together.

  * * * * *

  Don’t miss these other AMISH HEARTS

  stories from Jo Ann Brown:

  AMISH HOMECOMING

  AN AMISH
MATCH

  HIS AMISH SWEETHEART

  AN AMISH REUNION

  A READY-MADE AMISH FAMILY

  Find more great reads at www.LoveInspired.com.

  Keep reading for an excerpt from CHRISTMAS ON THE RANCH by Arlene James.

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  Dear Reader,

  Dorothy isn’t the only one who wonders what’s “over the rainbow.” That song and story resonate with us because we’re impatient to find out what lies ahead or want to make sure, as Katie Kay does, that we’re not missing out on something important. Learning to “let go and let God” is tough, and many of us have to learn it over and over. And sometimes the hard way. With each reminder that God understands what’s truly inside her, Katie Kay opens her heart to Him and love. And that’s a lesson for all of us to let go and let God lead us on the path He has for us, isn’t it?

  Stop in and visit me at www.joannbrownbooks.com. Look for my next story coming soon from Harlequin Love Inspired.

  Wishing you many blessings,

  Jo Ann Brown

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