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

Gideon asked, suddenly becoming serious. “I work with her. She seems like a good person to me. Not the prettiest girl, maybe, but she has nice eyes. And she’s smart and hardworking.”
    “Takes after her mother,” Thomas said. “Martha has a sharp tongue, but she’s there when anyone needs help.”
    “So...” Gideon grimaced. “As much as I’d like to be alone with Lilly, I can’t just leave the new schoolteacher and Addy to walk home alone.” He glanced around to make certain no one else was close enough to hear what he was saying. “It’s just not right.”
    “Why not?” Menno asked. “It’s across the road and down the path to Dorcas’s—” he corrected himself “—
Addy’s
Aunt Hannah’s. Then through the orchard to her
dat
’s farm. Sara’s place is the next one over.”
    “That’s not the way we do things at home,” Gideon said regretfully. “So, unless...”
    “Unless?” Thomas said.
    “Unless I can get some help here, it’s not going to work out.” Gideon turned to Menno. “Didn’t I see you drive here alone? In a gig?”
    “Me?
Ne
, not me.” Menno shook his head. “I’m not getting stuck with Dorcas...I mean, Addy,” he protested.
    “Why not?” Gideon asked. “I know her father’s a preacher, but—”
    “Not me.” Menno shook his head. “You like her so much,
you
take her home.”
    Gideon shrugged. “Can’t. I work at Sara’s with her. How would that look to people? If I walked her home by herself—you said her mother was strict—her parents might make her quit at Sara’s. Besides...” He grinned at Menno. “I think of her as a friend...maybe another sister.”
    “Corn toss!” Charley shouted. “Come on, fellows! No hiding behind the barn. This is a social. You need to team up for corn toss.”
    “Come on,” Titus said. “You owe me.”
    “I don’t owe you,” Menno grumbled.
    “What’s wrong with Addy?” Gideon pressed.
    “Nothing wrong with her, not really. She’s just... She can be outspoken for a woman. She’s not...you know...sweet?”
    “Come on,” Titus said to Menno. “We didn’t ask you to kiss her, and you know you owe me a favor for covering for you with
Dat
when you got in late last Sunday night.”
    Charley called again. “Are you guys coming or not?”
    “We still need to find someone for Ellie, too,” Gideon reminded them.
    “Not a problem,” Titus assured him. “All settled. Thomas is sweet on her. She’s already agreed to let him drive her back to Sara’s.”
    “Come on, Titus,” one of the other guys called. “We’re waiting on you fellows.”
    “It’s settled, then,” Gideon said, grabbing Menno’s hand and shaking it. “You’ll see Addy home, and you’ll be on your best behavior. And don’t—”
    “
Ya
,
ya
, I know,” Menno grumbled. “I shouldn’t call her
Dorcas
.”
    “Good man,” Gideon answered. He liked Thomas and his two friends, and it was nice to find other young men here in Delaware whom he could be pals with. At home, he’d been part of the same crowd of guys since they were in first grade. In Amish communities, it was customary for young people to form tight bonds with others their own age, friendships that often lasted for decades. He missed the camaraderie of his buddies almost as much as he missed his family. He’d hoped to enjoy tonight’s singing, and—if he could get Lilly to go along with his plans—it looked as though it might turn out to be even more fun than he’d expected.
    As the four of them joined the rest of the group, Gideon found that Charley had again paired them up, girl-boy, girl-boy. Corn toss, which was basically a beanbag game, was a popular game at home, and he was good at it. Gideon enjoyed competitive games and was pleased to see that the Seven Poplars community wasn’t too conservative to allow their youth some leeway at their singings. He knew that there were other areas where boys and girls had drinking parties.
Rumspringa
, they called it, the