Free The Saddle Maker's Son by Kelly Irvin Page B

that even Rebekah knew didn’t bode well. Leila stuck her head through the open window and waved. “Schweschder! You came.”
    Rebekah raised her hand in a quick return salute. Her heart squeezed in a painful hiccup. Leila’s face was round, her cheeks chunky, and she’d pulled her wheat-colored hair back in a waist-length ponytail. No prayer kapp for her.
    Leila disappeared into the interior again. The car moved to the side of the road and then onto the grassy shoulder just beyond the dirt path, bouncing and jolting over the ruts and rocks. The engine died. The door opened and Leila emerged, her face crinkled in a wide smile. Her long shirt and cotton skirt could not hide an enormous belly. Leila was expecting a baby who would surely arrive during the summer.
    Was that what she wanted to tell Rebekah? Nee. She could have written that in a letter. But why hadn’t she? She was well on her way to a new baby, not just starting out. Rebekah bit her lip, determined not to ask questions. Why make it easy for Leila? Let her explain. Let her help Rebekah make sense of all this.
    “Girl, you are a sight for sore eyes.” She enveloped Rebekah in a soft, warm hug. It seemed churlish not to return it. Despite herself, Rebekah leaned into it and inhaled. Leila smelled of baby wipes. “You’re thinner. Have you gotten taller?”
    Nee, not taller. Her appetite had waned in the weeks and months after Leila fled their tiny district in order to be with a man who’d chosen to leave the Amish faith. Somehow the weight she lost had never returned. “I’m fine. You look . . . healthy.”
    “Chubby, you mean.” Leila’s grin widened. She wore an oversized, short-sleeved white blouse untucked and a long beige skirt covered with a tiny lilac-flowered print. It reached her ankles and white sneakers. “I reckon you can guess my secret.”
    As if she could miss it. “A blessing indeed.”
    “Indeed. I’m due at the end of July, early August.”
    More reason she and Jesse should come home. Babies needed family. “Jesse must be happy.”
    “He is.”
    Children who would have no grandparents in their lives. No aunts and uncles. No cousins. “Surely you’ll come home now.”
    Leila tugged open the passenger door, still smiling back at Rebekah. “I know what you must think, but our babies will have plenty of family. Our church is our family. Maybe not blood relatives, but people we love who love us.”
    Not the same.
    “What do you think of the car? Jesse bought it from his friend Colton Wise. He sold it dirt cheap, and he’s letting us make payments.”
    It sounded as if it were on its last leg. Rebekah had no opinion on cars, only that Plain folks didn’t drive them. “I can’t believe you drive.”
    Couldn’t believe that Leila had chosen another way of life.
    “I have to drive. I have to get myself to work and this little Bug lets me do it.” Leila made a tut-tut sound. “Gracie fell asleep. She’s been a cranky bear. She’s teething. I take her to the day care with me, but they let me visit her on my breaks and at lunch, which is nice.”
    Another thing Plain women didn’t do. Keep working when they were raising their babies. “If you came home, you wouldn’t have to work.”
    “We are home. In our little duplex in Beeville. And we need the money.” Her matter-of-fact tone held no shame. “Jesse is taking the last of his classes at the community college to get his associate’s degree. His jobs at the church as a lay pastor and maintenance man don’t pay much. He’s still doing carpentry work with Matthew on the side. We make do.”
    Rebekah understood about making do. She didn’t understand about leaving family and faith to live in a duplex. Still, she couldn’t help herself. She inched forward and peeked over her sister’s shoulder for a glimpse as Leila undid the straps and lifted the sleeping baby from her car seat. She turned, the little girl nestled in her arms. “She’s big.”
    Dressed only in a