Free A Match For Addy (The Amish Matchmaker Book 1) by Emma Miller

might, but she won’t accept if there isn’t a second couple.”
    Gideon nodded. He could see where this was going. Customs seemed to be the same as in Wisconsin. Fellows didn’t directly ask a girl to go out with him. They found a girlfriend to approach her, thus avoiding embarrassment if the object of a guy’s attention wasn’t interested. “Does Lilly have a date yet?” Gideon asked. Lilly was his first choice, but he’d seen several other cute girls, including Jane Stutzman, who might be possibilities. He surely hoped that he wouldn’t strike out. He hadn’t gone home alone from a singing since he was sixteen.
    Thomas grinned. “I don’t suppose you’d be interested in being half of that second couple?”
    Gideon lowered his voice. “Keep talking.”
    “Titus has his
dat
’s buggy,” Thomas explained. “You and Lilly, Titus and Gerty. Think you can convince Lilly? She doesn’t know you all that well, but she’s known Titus all her life.”
    “You’d get the better of it,” Titus teased between bites of his ham sandwich. “I’d have to sit on the front seat to drive, and you and Lilly would be in the back in the dark.”
    “Where nobody would see if you wanted to try for a smooch,” Thomas said. “Lilly lives about two miles from here. You can walk her to the house from the end of the driveway, and if you’re lucky, you can sit on her front porch with her for a while. It’s an easy distance back to Sara’s.”
    “Her
dat
is strict, though,” Menno cautioned. “And he has ears like a bat.” He stuck his hands in his trouser pockets and leaned closer, as if he had a secret. “The last time I—”
    “Don’t make it sound worse than it is,” Thomas interrupted, giving Menno a warning look. Then he returned his attention to Gideon. “Ignore him, Gideon. He likes Lilly. Everybody likes Lilly. She’s a lot of fun, but she’s a good girl. You might steal a kiss, but that’s a maybe. And if her
dat
catches you, he’ll report you to Samuel Mast.”
    “He’s our deacon,” Menno explained. “And he’s tough.”
    “Tough enough,” Thomas agreed. “And Menno should know. Last spring, Samuel made him chop and stack enough cordwood to last the school for three months.”
    “What did you do to warrant that?” Gideon asked.
    “I’ll never tell.” Menno smirked and reached for a third sandwich. “But it was worth it. Lilly is the prettiest girl in Kent County. And she’s not a bad cook. Makes a tasty strawberry pie.”
    “Too pretty for you,” Thomas joked. “And if Lilly ever kissed you, I’ll kiss one of those big mules of Sara Yoder’s. Right on his slobbery lips.”
    Several of the other boys laughed.
    “She might have kissed me,” Menno countered, “if the dog hadn’t started barking and her
dat
hadn’t stuck his head out the window and told Lilly to come inside.”
    “
Ya
, Lilly
might
have kissed you,” his brother Titus chimed in, joining them, “if she had been blindfolded, spun around and thought it was me she was kissing.”
    There was more laughter. Gideon moved away from the table, into the shadows of the barn. Thomas, Menno and Titus followed.
    “The trouble is,” Gideon told them quietly, “that as much as I’d like to take Lilly home and watch for shooting stars on her front porch, I walked here with Addy and Ellie.”
    “Addy?” Menno questioned. “Who—”
    Thomas laughed. “He’s talking about Dorcas. I heard her talking to Miriam. She’s decided to use her middle name.”
    Menno tugged his straw hat off and pushed his hair back off his face. “And Martha let her do it?”
    “Why not?” Gideon shrugged. “She’s a little young to go by
Dorcas
.”
    “Not exactly young,” Menno replied. “She’s older than me and Titus.”
    “And what?” Gideon finished off the last of his sandwich. “You two are graybeards?”
    “
Ne
, just most of the girls around here marry younger. Dorcas has always been kind of...”
    “Kind of what?”