Free A Sister's Secret by Wanda E. Brunstetter Page B

he could be.
    “Aw, come on, Gracie,” he drawled. “Don’t look so down-in-the-mouth. You and I had something special together once, remember?”
    Of course she remembered. Remembering was the easy part. The hard part was forgetting. If Grace had it to do over again, she never would have dated anyone outside her faith during her rumschpringe, and she certainly wouldn’t have dated anyone as arrogant as Gary.
    He touched her arm, and the contact of his sweaty, hot fingers made her cringe. “You’re bound and determined not to warm up to me, aren’t you?”
    Grace jerked away, feeling like she’d been stung by one of Cleon’s honeybees. She could hardly believe she used to enjoy this irritating man’s touch or that she’d been sucked in by his smooth talking. Not anymore. She was older, wiser, and more cautious. “Are you going to order or not?” she asked through tight lips.
    He grinned up at her and tapped the menu with his pen. “I’ll have two eggs over easy, a side of hash browns, and a cinnamon roll to make me sweeter.”
    If a cinnamon roll would make you sweeter, I would bring you ten. Grace picked up the menu and turned away, but she’d taken only a few steps when he called out to her.
    “Better make that two cinnamon rolls, Gracie. Today, I’ll be interviewing several people who work with the Amish, and I might need a little extra energy so I can sweet-talk ’em into telling me what I want to know.”
    Grace hurried across the room to put in his order. She figured the best thing was to ignore his catty remarks. If he really was a reporter and had only come to Holmes County to get a story on the Amish, then hopefully he would be gone in a few days.
***
    Ruth had just finished waiting on a customer when Luke walked into the bakeshop. “I’m surprised to see you,” she said as he stepped up to the counter. “I figured you’d be working for my daed today.”
    “I am. Just came into Berlin to deliver a table to Paul Hendricks. Last week, he and his wife opened a new bed-and-breakfast across town.”
    “I heard about that. With all the tourists who come into the area, I guess we need another place for them to stay.”
    “Jah.” Luke leaned against the counter and studied the pastries Ruth had put into the case when she’d arrived at work this morning. “Think I’ll buy myself a donut or something. Any suggestions?”
    “Normally, I’m kind of partial to cream puffs, but since I have no appetite today, I’d better let you decide.”
    “What’s wrong with your appetite? You’re not comin’ down with the bug that’s been going around, I hope.” He lifted his shoulders in a brief shrug. “I felt kind of under the weather yesterday. That’s why I wasn’t in church.”
    “Are you doing better now?”
    He nodded. “Guess a lot of folks are still sick, though.”
    “The flu’s not my problem,” she said with a shake of her head, “but I am a bit loddrich after what happened yesterday.”
    “What happened that’s got you feeling shaky?”
    “Didn’t my daed tell to you about the break-in at our place yesterday while we were at church?”
    “He never said a thing. So why don’t you fill me in?”
    Ruth glanced around the room to be sure there were no other customers in the store, and then she quickly relayed the details of the break-in. She sniffed and swallowed hard in an effort to hold back the threatening tears. “I know others have been the victims of break-ins and vandalism in the past, but we’ve never had anything like that happen to us, and it made everyone in the family feel loddrich.”
    Luke leaned on the counter. “Did your daed phone the sheriff?”
    Ruth shook her head. “Dad thinks it was probably a bunch of English kids having some fun. He said we should try and forget it ever happened.” She drew in a deep breath and released it quickly. “Of course, that’s easier said than done.”
    “Roman’s probably right about it being some English fellows. A