Free The Scent of Cherry Blossoms: A Romance from the Heart of Amish Country by Cindy Woodsmall Page A

the years to keep his distance, to live as he’d been taught. He couldn’t keep doing that. He just couldn’t.
    Aden hurried out of the kitchen, but they’d already left. He went outside, caught off guard by the brightness of the day. He blinked and saw them crossing the parking lot. “Annie!”
    She turned, said something to his mother, and walked back to him.
    He motioned for her to go into the diner, and then he turned to his mother. “W-wait here.”
    Mamm rubbed her forehead. “Ten minutes.”
    Aden wouldn’t need that long, and if Mamm thought she had the right to dictate his life, she was mistaken.
    Annie went inside the diner and leaned against a table, waiting for him to speak.
    “M-meet me t-t-tonight?” His question was direct and needed a one-word answer.
    But she didn’t respond for several moments.
    He waited for her reply.
    At this rate he’d need a lot longer than ten minutes. Maybe years.
    But he understood her hesitation. A positive answer meant they would begin a secret courtship. But how else could they decide what they truly wanted out of this relationship?
    “Aden.” She fiddled with the buttons on her coat. “I … I want that more than you know, but if my people find out, I’ll be set in front of everyone, and if I don’t repent, I’ll be excommunicated. It’s not just me who’ll get hurt but my mother and Daadi Moses too. If my mother hasn’t already borne enough embarrassment to kill her since Daed walked out, our relationship, if discovered, will surely finish the job. Even your mother wants to put space between us.”
    He reached into his pants pocket and passed her the folded paper, hoping it said everything he couldn’t.
    She gasped lightly before she had it fully opened. “Aden.” She traced the various hues he’d sketched with the colored pencils.
    “You’re all I c-can think about.”
    Her eyes met his. “It’s beautiful.” She paused, studying it again. “Okay. I’ll meet you in the cherry tree orchard tonight.”

I rritability snapped throughout Roman like harsh flicks of a whip in the hands of a crazed animal trainer. It was Friday afternoon, and he hadn’t spoken to Marian since Wednesday night. He couldn’t stand seeing himself as she saw him—too weak to go on a simple date and too uptight to admit it.
    Trying not to think about her, he loosened the generator’s fan belt. He’d repaired and replaced numerous items on the machine, but its real problem was a broken water pump. He unbolted it from its mount and removed it and the attached fan. He placed them on the table and grabbed the putty knife.
    He maneuvered himself as best he could, wishing he could get out of this wheelchair. The more pressure he used to scrape the gasket residue off the mount, the more difficult it became to get positioned right. He set the brake on his wheelchair. Scraped some. Adjusted his chair. Reset the brake. Cleaned another spot. Repositioned his chair. Reset the brake.
    Would this be his lot for the rest of his life? Constant tiny shifts and locking into place to accomplish almost nothing?
    “Knock, knock.” Marian’s voice sent a chill up his spine.
    “Come on in.” He continued his work, hoping he sounded indifferent. There was no way he’d let her know how vulnerable he felt or how disappointed he was in his inability to do something as simple as taking out a girl.
    She made no other noise, so he glanced up.
    Standing at the far end of the table, she studied him. “Need a hand?”
    “Nope.” With the mount finally clean, he shifted from the generator to the worktable. He removed the first of four bolts holding the fan.
    “Is that the water pump you told me about the other night?” She walked closer.
    “Ya.”
    “It doesn’t look broken.”
    He held it up and pointed at the hairline fracture going through the cast iron.
    She frowned. “That little problem brought the whole farm to a halt?”
    “Don’t be fooled, Marian.” He sounded as unyielding as