“Wirklich?” Reuben’s mood changed in a flash. He tossed the stick aside and took the slightly sweet treat I’d actually been planning to eat as an afternoon snack from me.
He unwrapped it right there, taking a big bite, without thought of the crumbs spraying down on my apron. I gritted my teeth and tamped down another thunder growl.
“Best zucchini bread in St. Ailbe,” he mumbled with a full mouth. “This is why you’ll make somebody a good wife someday. Doesn’t matter what those other folks say.”
I froze.
“You mean I’ll makeyoua good wife,” I said softly.
Reuben blinked. “What?”
“You said ‘somebody,’ and ‘someday,’ but you meant right after the Bridal Exchange she-wolves leave, right?”
He finished chewing and swallowed in a way that made me fear he was going to say something I wouldn’t like. But then he grinned and agreed,“Ganaw. Nachurleek.”
Yes, of course.
His words should have made me happy, but my stomach remained tight as he hiked up my skirt and settled between my thighs. And as I stared at the wooden ceiling above us, a single thought wormed its way into my mind.
Is this really what love is supposed to feel like?
“Un-un-unnnhhh!” Reuben abruptly stopped squirming on top of me and spilled his seed with a shudder.
“That was great,” he panted. Then he kissed my shoulder. Not my lips. He never kissed me on the lips.
Is this really what love is supposed to feel like?The bad, doubtful thought echoed even louder.
“I’ve got an idea,” I said when he lifted up from on top of me. I made my tone a little bit more chipper to suggest, “Maybe we could meet up again tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow’s Sunday.” He frowned down at me and pulled up his suspenders. “My parents will be home after church. They’ll smell you on me.”
“Not if we just eat and talk,” I pointed out, pushing the skirt of my plain blue dress down. “We could have a picnic. Out by the lake, where no one will see us.”
“Just eat and talk,” he repeated with the same expression he’d used on the stick. “Ach ja, Sadie, I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”
“Why not?” Sitting on the barn’s cold, hard floor, I couldn’t quite tamp down my annoyance. “What about my suggestion that we actually spend time together eating and talking feels like such a terrible idea to y?—?”
“Reuben? Reuben, where are you?” someone called from beyond the barn doors, cutting off my question. “Amanda Smucker said she saw you come in here.”
It sounded and faintly smelled like Marta Weitzwulf, the building steward’s nineteen-year-old daughter.
Reuben’s face fell. “Oh no! Get up! Get up! We’ve got to get you out of here before she finds us.”
The panic in his eyes made me grab the stick he’d tossed aside and scramble to my feet to make a quick dash towards the barn’s back doors. This wasn’t how I wanted people to find out about our secret relationship, either.
But I didn’t move quickly enough.
“Reuben!” The barn’s front door opened to reveal a shocked Marta.
She took in the scene, her mouth gaping open—until she snapped it shut to demand, “What are you doing in here? With Stinky Sadie Schaduw?”
Ouch.I hadn’t been called that nickname to my face in years, but it still hurt like it did when I was a teenager.
“Marta, listen to me. You can’t tell anybody about—” I started to plead nonetheless.
Reuben moved in front of me to block her from my view before I could finish—well, partially. I was a few inches taller than him, so I could still see Marta’s angry expression over the top of his head as he told her, “It’s nothing, I swear.”
“Like when you swore to my father that you wanted to court and marry me?” Marta’s voice shook with fury. “And convinced him to forbid me from signing up for the Bridal Exchange?”
