Courting Emily (A Wells Landing Book 2) Read Online Free

answer.
    “He’s gut .”
    “Did he”—she paused—“did he mention me?”
    Jonah rubbed the back of his neck with a grimace. “ Nay, Emily. But I figured you had already talked to him.”
    She shook her head, doing her best to hide her disappointment. “My dat would have a fit if he called the phone shanty. You know how he can be.”
    Jonah nodded.
    Luke Lambright had brazenly left the community. He’d walked out on the promises he’d made to Emily and the people who had known him his entire life. Cephas Ebersol did not take such abandonment lightly.
    “Did he say when he was coming back?”
    Jonah flashed her that pained face once again. “He’s really busy right now, Emily.”
    “ Jah, I know.” She said the words as a pang of something she couldn’t name settled in her heart. Longing? Worry? Fear?
    Was Luke out there in the Englisch world having so much fun that he hadn’t thought about her even once?
    She shook her head. There was nothing to worry about. Luke himself had told her how special they were together. She was his girl. Whether they were miles apart or next door to each other, nothing would change that.
    “I miss him,” she confessed in a whisper. So much so that she had left her booth at the market unattended. That wasn’t unheard of. Oftentimes, they put up a collection box and trusted the customers to pay the correct amount and take only what they bought. But she ran his best friend down on the street to find out any news. Her mother would be ashamed if she knew.
    Emily smoothed her prayer kapp and ran her hands down the sides of her dress to gather herself back.
    “I’m going down to meet Lorie. Want to walk with me?” Jonah asked with a nod toward the park.
    She shook her head. So much had changed this fall. Now that Caroline and Andrew were married, Caroline only worked part-time at the bakery. Gone were the days of meeting in the park for lunch. Lorie and Jonah seemed to be getting along better. At least they had gone for a couple of months without a breakup.
    With Luke away, she felt . . . lonely.
    Jah, that was the word. Lonely. Alone. It was all the same.
    “Have fun.” She started back toward the market, but turned and caught Jonah’s attention once again. “If you talk to him . . .”
    His tawny eyes filled with understanding. “ Jah, ” he said. “I will.”
    Emily trudged back up the sidewalk. It was a beautiful October day, still early enough in the month that the Indian summer remained in control of the temperatures. But it wouldn’t be long until the market closed for the season. Once the pumpkins were all harvested and the weather turned cold, her job would be over until the spring.
    She sighed and collapsed onto the stool behind her booth. She missed teaching, more than she could have ever dreamed.
    “Why so sad on such a beautiful day?”
    Her head jerked up and her heart pounded as she shaded her eyes. “ Ach, Elam Riehl. You scared me half to death.”
    “I did not mean to.” He rapped his knuckles on the wooden stand. “I just wanted to say danki for bringing Becky home after the singing Saturday.”
    “It was the least I could do.”
    He seemed to mull that over. “So why are you?”
    “Why am I what?”
    “Sad on such a beautiful day?”
    She shook her head, unable to say the words. To do so would make the reality all the more real.
    “I am guessing Luke Lambright.”
    It was no secret that she and Luke had been intended for years. They hadn’t announced anything, but everyone just assumed that one day they would marry. Then Luke learned to drive a car, and the rest was still being written. She didn’t understand his need to see the world, but she tried to. She could not fathom why he wanted to drive a car in circles. She had tried. She really had. In the end, she knew she had to let him go. Yet the fact he had chosen the world over her . . . it made her feel a little like the last puppy left in the litter, the one no one wanted.
    “Your dat