Free Amanda Weds a Good Man by Naomi King Page B

blushed. “He says if I’d quit tugging on it, and teasing him about it, the hair would grow in faster. Katie loves to rumple it when she sits in his lap of an evening.”
    Oh, but that was a picture . . . big, burly Matt with a blond toddler in his lap, chattering at him as she ran her curious fingers over his face. Abby hoped she would see such a sight in her own home, lit by the glow of oil lamps, when she and James were winding down after a busy day.
    When James scooped Katie into his arms, the little girl’s giggles echoed in the high-ceilinged greenhouse. Abby held her breath, savoring the sight of the man she loved holding a wee one . . . much like Jesus had paid special attention to children. Her heart throbbed with an urgent longing. If her courtship with James would just move a little faster, she might be holding their firstborn next year at this time . . .
    â€œNow, Merle—
Merle
!” Eunice Graber’s voice rang out. “No need for you to be in here pestering these gals. We should be getting to the house before the service starts!”
    Abby turned to see James and Emma’s dat coming toward her with a sweet smile on his face. Behind him, their mother Eunice’s thick heels thunked on the floor and her eyes were wide behind her pointy-cornered glasses.
    â€œFiddlesticks!” Merle muttered. “I’ve come to get a hug from Abby. It’ll get my day off to a better start.”
    How could she not adore a fellow who felt that way about her? Abby met Merle with open arms. Bless him, he was getting shorter, but he still had a lot of strength in his embrace—and he needed to know he was a fine person despite how his wife groused at him.
    â€œMerle, gut morning to you,” she murmured. “Are you ready for yet another wedding?”
    â€œI’m ready for
your
wedding, Abby,” he replied as he hugged her. “I keep telling that boy of mine that time’s a-wasting, but he’s slow to catch on.”
    As Eunice caught up to them, Emma came their way as well. “James will figure it out in his own gut time,” Abby replied, hoping her confidence would make the statement come true. “But for today, we’ve all got our jobs to do—”
    â€œAnd your job, Merle, is to stop making a spectacle of yourself!” Eunice slipped her arm through her husband’s, as though he needed her guidance. “If you’re wanting our James to propose to Abby,
you
can’t be hanging all over her, ain’t so?”
    Oh, but Eunice’s reedy voice filled the room, to the point that other folks got quiet and turned to gawk. Abby’s face prickled as she eased away from poor Merle. She didn’t dare look toward James, for he had surely heard his mother’s outburst. Emma, too, seemed embarrassed as she came over to assist her elderly parents.
    â€œMamm, Dat,” she said in a tight voice. “I’m thinking plenty of folks we know from Clearwater and Bloomingdale are here. Shall we head to the house to visit?”
    â€œJah, Dat, let’s mosey over to where the menfolk are gathered,” James suggested as he stepped in to assist his sister. “I just saw Wyman’s brother Otto drive in, and he’s always gut for a story and a laugh, ain’t so?”
    Merle turned to go with his son, but then he wiggled his fingers at Abby. “See you later, alligator.”
    â€œAfter a while, crocodile,” she replied as the four Grabers headed for the door. When she returned to the table, Rosemary was taking the last pie from her wagon.
    â€œWhere did that come from, the part about the alligator and the crocodile?” she asked. “I thought Merle was getting confused again, except you answered him right off.”
    Abby chuckled. “Merle used to love eating in a diner close to the auction barn. He took James and Emma and me to a horse sale once, and when that song