Free Amish Sweethearts by Leslie Gould Page A

the two of them snuck out of their houses and met down at their fort. That had always been the highlight of Christmas for her. She still had the gifts Zane had given her, all tucked away in a box beneath her bed. The bookmark was still her favorite. If he’d stayed another night, would he have visited the fort? Perhaps that was why he left.
    If he’d stayed another night, would she have ventured down there, hoping to meet him? She cried harder.
    Once she married she wondered if Rose would take over trying to put Christmas together. That made her cry too. Daniel had already left. Simon would be off in the Army. Lila would marry Reuben sooner or later. Everything was changing. She’d imagined all of her siblings staying close by, all of them having families. That wouldn’t happen now. Daniel would become closer to Jenny’s family. Simon would be gone. She’d go off with Reuben to his house.
    Another sob wracked her.
    “Lila!” Rose knocked again.
    “Give me a minute,” she answered, standing and washingher face. Christmas wasn’t the only reason she was missing Mamm. What advice would she have for her about Reuben?
    Lila sighed. She knew. All she had to do was look at the choice Mamm made. Instead of marrying Lila’s father, she’d picked Dat.
    Lila dried her face and finally opened the door, to find Rose still standing in the doorway.
    “What is it?” her sister asked in an unusually sympathetic voice.
    Lila shook her head.
    “If it’s not Reuben, then is it Zane?”
    Lila started toward the kitchen. “It’s nothing,” she said. It was everything. Missing Mamm. Christmas. Simon. Reuben asking her if she loved him.
    Jah, and Zane.

    Lila stayed up late into the night on Christmas Eve, running the treadle sewing machine until Dat stumbled into the living room and told her to go to sleep. She’d finished her gifts for Rose and Trudy, and her fingers were nearly numb from the cold anyway. She’d have to finish the others after Christmas dinner.
    “You should have planned your time better,” Dat said as he stepped toward the hall.
    “Jah . . .” Lila muttered. She hadn’t planned for the extra shifts she’d worked in the last week or the drama around Simon joining the Army or how drained she felt after seeing Zane again.
    The Christmas Eve dinner had seemed like drudgery. Every year she tried to make things festive for the others, but this year she couldn’t seem to manage to drum up any Christmas spirit. Hopefully by tomorrow she’d be able to enjoy their day together.
    Before she went to bed she put candy in the dishes Trudy, Rose, and Simon had left on the table. She knew Zane’s familyfilled stockings for Christmas morning, but her family followed a simpler tradition. If only she could simplify her relationships like that too.
    Once she was in her room, she shivered in the cold as she pulled her flannel nightgown over her head and then slipped between the sheets of her icy bed, pulling the quilts her Mamm had made up to her chin. Rose stirred in the double bed that she shared with Trudy. Dat believed children should share a room. The bedroom Aenti Eve used to have had been the guest room since she left—except they never had any guests. Sometimes when Lila felt desperate to be alone she would read or do handwork in Eve’s old room, but Dat wouldn’t have been happy if she made a habit of it.
    She rolled toward the wall, her teeth chattering. A tear seeped out of her eye. Rose stirred again, and then Trudy called out in her sleep.
    Lila held her breath for a moment, but then Trudy called out again and stumbled from her bed and made her way to the single bed.
    Lila threw back the quilts, and Trudy crawled in beside her. Lila curled around her little sister, who immediately fell back to sleep. It had been a couple of years since Trudy had crawled into bed with Lila. Perhaps the conflict between Dat and Daniel and Simon had upset her more than she’d let on. Lila drew closer to the warmth of her