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
Sharon Kleve, Jennifer Conner, Danica Winters, Casey Dawes