Free Huckleberry Hill by Jennifer Beckstrand Page A

tantrums years ago, but everything in the Shetler household still revolved around her.
    Lia held her breath as unjustifiable sadness tore at her heart. Moses wasn’t interested in her and never would be, so why would she grieve if she lost him to Rachel? He had never been hers to lose. She had only really been acquainted with him for four weeks. Still, she didn’t know if she could bear his falling in love with her sister. And he would fall in love with Rachel. Beautiful, delicate Rachel was the perfect combination of coy and charming that attracted boys like honey. Moses’s reluctance could not withstand Rachel’s beauty.
    Lia’s cheeks were dry of tears but she sensed the slightest tingle on her lips where Moses Zimmerman had kissed her good-bye.
     
     
    Moses found Mammi and Dawdi in the barn tending to the batch of newly hatched chicks in their incubator. The fuzzy yellow balls peeped and shivered like a pan of popcorn popping on the stove. Mammi had her fist wrapped around a tiny chick, petting its head with her index finger. Dawdi fiddled with his new fan while humming “I Need No Mansions.”
    “Can I help?” Moses said.
    Mammi’s face lit up like a summer morning. “Moses, you are here mighty early yet.”
    “Can you see what’s clogging up my fan?” Dawdi asked.
    Moses could see Mammi watching him out of the corner of her eye. “Come to see Lia?” she asked. “The van driver told us he’d be back this way about this time today.”
    Dawdi wiped off his greasy hands. “You told him three times already, Annie girl. He knows when Lia gets back.”
    “That’s why he came early, isn’t it, Moses?”
    Moses knelt on one knee to have a look at Dawdi’s fan. “I came early because the hair on the back of my neck twitched this morning, and I had a feeling Dawdi would need help with the fan. We don’t want the chicks to freeze to death.”
    Mammi placed her chick into the sea of other chicks and propped her hands on her hips, looking very pleased with herself. “Oh, Moses, you are such a tease.”
    Moses picked up a screwdriver from Dawdi’s box. He had promised Lia he’d help her stack those limbs, and he didn’t want her to think he’d forgotten, even over the long six days she’d been gone. If Mammi thought there was any other reason for him to show up at exactly the time they expected Lia, well, she could go on believing what she wanted.
    It had been a week since Moses had momentarily lost his reason and kissed Lia right on the mouth. His brain ached for trying to figure out why he’d done such a thing. He’d never even kissed Barbara before.
    The best he could come up with was that curiosity got the better of him. Her lips looked like full, blushing pink rose petals, and he had wanted to see how soft they were. But that he would lose his mind in a blaze of curiosity made absolutely no sense. She had looked so pretty that day, with unruly chestnut curls peeking out from under her kapp and the aftereffects of hot sauce tinting her cheeks. It had seemed so natural, so easy, and he had wanted to kiss her in the worst way. So he did.
    Either that or his overdose of hot sauce made him woozy. Could he really be held responsible for his actions?
    Moses wondered if Lia had already forgotten it happened or if he should apologize for his behavior. She didn’t seem embarrassed or angry. She’d probably laughed herself to sleep that night.
    One thing was certain. He wouldn’t do that again. Hot sauce or no hot sauce, he would keep his head. Lia didn’t deserve false hope, and Moses had resolved to stay loyal to Barbara.
    All three of them heard the van as it rattled up the lane. It needed a new muffler.
    Mammi pointed out the door. “Lead the way, Moses. I want you to be the first to see her.”
    Moses merely grinned and shook his head. “And you think I am the tease?”
    They walked out of the barn together, Moses with his arm wrapped protectively around Mammi’s shoulders.
    Roy Polter hopped out