Free Text Order Bride by Kirsten Osbourne

Chapter 1
    As she was sitting at her kitchen table grading papers, Amanda heard the
    tune that signaled she had a text message. Picking up her phone, she
    quickly glanced at the readout. The number was unfamiliar. She clicked
    on the message to read it. “Stephanie gave me your number. She said
    you might be interested in texting with a lonely farmer.”
    Amanda read the message again, and a slow smile spread across her face.
    Stephanie had told her that there was a man in her church that she thought
    would be perfect for her. This must be him. She quickly keyed in a reply.
    “I think I would be interested in texting a lonely farmer, but only if you tell
    me your name.”
    Stephanie had been her roommate at the small Christian college she
    attended. After graduation, Stephanie had moved to Wisconsin, with her
    preacher husband, Bob, to plant a church. They now had four children,
    one boy and three girls.
    Jason was surprised at how quickly he got the alert signaling he’d received
    a reply text. He picked up his phone holding his breath. Would she be
    interested? He tapped the phone and the message appeared. His face lit
    up with a grin. He tapped out a response and sent it on.
    He had surprised himself by agreeing to text Amanda, his pastor’s wife’s
    friend. He lived in a sparsely populated area of Wisconsin, and just didn’t
    have time to go out and meet women. When Stephanie had suggested her
    friend might be interested in marriage, he took her number, but didn’t think
    he’d ever actually do anything with it. He’d gotten in early this evening, and
    as he’d sat on his couch, vegetating in front of the television, he’d thought
    about how nice it would be to not be alone anymore. So he’d dug the
    number out of his wallet and sent a text.
    Amanda picked up the phone again. She’d barely had time to get one
    paper graded before he’d responded. “I’m Jason. I understand you live in
    Texas? What do you do there?”
    She grinned and her fingers flew across the screen as she answered. “I do
    live in Texas about an hour south of Dallas/Fort Worth. I’m a homemaking
    teacher. Where do you live?”
    The answer came back quickly. “Stratford, Wisconsin. Small town not far
    from Wausau, if you’ve ever heard of that.”
    Amanda hadn’t, so she opened up her laptop and Googled it. It was barely
    more than a crook in the highway, but that was fine. It wasn’t like she was
    marrying the man. She was texting him. “And you’re a farmer? What kind
    of farming?”
    “Lol. Dairy, of course. I’m a Wisconsin farmer.”
    She grinned. “Do you like farming?” She pushed the papers aside. She
    could grade papers tomorrow night. It was Friday night after all. She did a
    little more searching on the town Jason lived in.
    “I really don’t know anything else. I even studied agriculture in college. Do
    you like teaching?”
    She thought about that. She’d been teaching for ten years now, and wasn’t
    sure how she felt about it anymore. “Sometimes. Sometimes not. I’m at a
    point where I need a change.” She hadn’t really realized that before he’d
    asked.
    “I understand. Have you had your spring break yet?”
    “We just got back this week. The kids are all wiggly and don’t want to
    learn.”
    “Lol. I’m glad the cows don’t get that way.”
    “Do you teach the cows?” She smiled to herself as she typed that,
    wondering what his response would be.
    “Not typically. I wish I could sometimes.”
    “What would you teach them if you could?”
    Jason grinned as he read the question. What would he teach those silly
    cows? “I’d teach them to read so they’d understand why I keep having the
    vet give them shots.”
    Amanda laughed out loud at the thought of cows reading. She’d never had
    a full conversation by text message before. She didn’t know the
    abbreviations or the jargon. She hated not typing out the full words
    anyway. It looked like Jason was the same. Should she ask him to