Free Katie's Choice by Amy Lillard

wouldn’t be able to find the reason that Samuel Beachy had left her just months before they announced to their families their plans to marry. He’d told her there had to be something more out there. Something he was missing. She just couldn’t understand what. And trying now wasn’t about to change the course of events. The Lord had different plans in mind for her, namely, teaching the children and serving Him and their district. That was what her life consisted of now. And she was happy with it that way. Very happy.
    “Do you think I could come by tomorrow and see the school? I’d love to do a special story—”
    Katie Rose started shaking her head before he even finished. “No.”
    “Why not?
    “Because tomorrow is Saturday.” She hid her smile, feeling wickedly superior that she had verbally one-upped the fancy writer from Chicago. Just one more item to add to her prayers tonight.
    “Monday, then?”
    “I do not think that is a good idea, Zane Carson.”
    “I’m not going to hurt them or corrupt them. Everybody out there wants to know what goes on here.”
    She stumbled then, and would have fallen headlong onto the asphalt road had he not snatched her upright. Her arm burned where the warmth from his fingers soaked through the thin cotton of her sleeve. Emotions coursed through her: indignation, embarrassment, anger, and something else she didn’t want to name.
    She pulled away from him, feeling an even-deeper red flood her cheeks. She straightened her dress and raised herself to her above-average height. “We are not animals to be put on display. If the world wants to know about us they can just wonder. It is no concern of anyone’s how we choose to live.”
    Zane Carson blinked, then stared at her as if she had suddenly grown horns on her head. She resisted the urge to smooth a hand over her kapp to make sure all was in place.
    “Is that what this is about? You think I’m here to exploit you?”
    She crossed her arms in front of herself and pressed her lips together. It was one thing to harbor wicked thoughts and quite another to admit them . . . out loud . . . to an outsider.
    “That’s not my intent. I . . .” He stumbled over his thoughts. “I was invited here to do a job. Write a series of articles about life in a small Amish community. And that’s what’s I plan to do. I’m not here to make anyone look bad, or stupid, or anything.”
    He sounded so sincere, Katie Rose wanted to let her resolve crumble right there on the spot and tell him anything and everything he wanted to know. But she couldn’t. She wouldn’t. Instead, she picked up her steps again, leaving him to follow behind.
    “This is where I turn,” she said, indicating the red dirt drive that led to her brother’s house. A white fence lined the property, and the sight had never been more welcome. Ahead she could still make out the boys, Samuel’s bright red head among them as they made their way home.
    She nodded down the road they’d been traveling. “About half a mile, you’ll reach my elders’ haus. Gut dawk to you, Zane Carson.” She turned down the drive and didn’t look back.

    Zane watched her walk down the road, behind the children. As far as he knew he hadn’t done a thing to warrant her antagonism toward him. But whenever he was around she acted like he was the Big Bad Wolf who had come to eat her up.
    Maybe she was naturally suspicious, maybe she had been hurt by a man before, or maybe she didn’t trust him because he was an outsider. He remembered the sisterly affection he’d witnessed between Katie Rose and Annie. She didn’t have any trouble with that Englisher .
    Maybe she just doesn’t like you, Carson .
    He should tell her that he had a fiancée waiting at home. Almost fiancée, he corrected himself. Maybe if she knew he was practically engaged to another she would trust him a little more—not stare at him like he was an ax murderer in Amish clothing.
    He hadn’t realized that the oldest and