Romancing Nadine Read online

  ROMANCING NADINE

  “Wasn’t Jenna at Abbie and Titus’s last night?” he asked.

  “Jah.”

  “So she fell at the camel farm.”

  “That’s right.”

  “But if you weren’t out with me, then you would have been here. Not at their house.”

  “I don’t see what bearing this has on anything at all. I was gone. Jenna was hurt, and that’s all there is to it.”

  “I thought you had a good time last night,” Amos said. “I sure did.”

  “I had a wonderful time, but I know now that it was a mistake.”

  She turned and headed back for the door.

  “Nadine,” he called.

  She stopped with her hand on the doorknob and turned to face him.

  “I still believe in true love,” he said.

  “I know you do.”

  “I’m not a man who gives up easily.”

  “I don’t reckon you are, but it won’t do any good. I’ve got to be there for my family.” And with that she entered the house, leaving him standing in the yard wondering where it had all turned wrong ...

  Books by Amy Lillard

  The Wells Landing Series

  CAROLINE’S SECRET

  COURTING EMILY

  LORIE’S HEART

  JUST PLAIN SADIE

  TITUS RETURNS

  MARRYING JONAH

  THE QUILTING CIRCLE

  A WELLS LANDING CHRISTMAS

  LOVING JENNA

  ROMANCING NADINE

  The Pontotoc Mississippi Series

  A HOME FOR HANNAH

  A LOVE FOR LEAH

  A FAMILY FOR GRACIE

  Amish Mysteries

  KAPPY KING AND THE PUPPY KAPER

  KAPPY KING AND THE PICKLE KAPER

  KAPPY KING AND THE PIE KAPER

  Published by Kensington Publishing Corp.

  ROMANCING NADINE

  AMY LILLARD

  ZEBRA BOOKS

  KENSINGTON PUBLISHING CORP.

  www.kensingtonbooks.com

  All copyrighted material within is Attributor Protected.

  Table of Contents

  ROMANCING NADINE

  Also by

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Epilogue

  ZEBRA BOOKS are published by

  Kensington Publishing Corp.

  119 West 40th Street

  New York, NY 10018

  Copyright © 2020 by Amy Lillard

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales, or persons living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.

  To the extent that the image or images on the cover of this book depict a person or persons, such person or persons are merely models, and are not intended to portray any character or characters featured in the book.

  If you purchased this book without a cover you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the Publisher and neither the Author nor the Publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”

  Zebra and the Z logo Reg. U.S. Pat. & TM Off.

  BOUQUET Reg. U.S. Pat. & TM Off.

  ISBN: 978-1-4201-4958-6

  ISBN-13: 978-1-4201-4959-3 (eBook)

  ISBN-10: 1-4201-4959-8 (eBook)

  Chapter One

  Nadine Burkhart ran her palms down the front of her church apron and took one last look at herself in the mirror. When had she gotten so old? She smoothed a hand over one of her cheeks. Wrinkles, creases, and lines. Most she didn’t recognize, hadn’t noticed before.

  She sighed. Not that any of it mattered. It was just surprising, was all. She was sixty-four years old, but she felt like she was eighty. Yet where had her life gone? She didn’t feel as if she had been alive so many days and weeks, months and years. The mental state came from so much stress and so many trials so close together. The last ten years had been hard. From the death of her husband Jason, to the death of her son, and then Jenna’s accident. Was it any wonder that she had wanted a fresh start?

  “Are you coming?”

  Nadine pulled her hands from her face and whirled around to look at her daughter-in-law. Charlotte was a large woman, a bit intimidating. She was more forceful than most Plain folk and tended to get what she wanted. And when she wanted it. But Nadine supposed that was to be expected seeing as how she had almost lost her only child to drowning. Though if Nadine was really being truthful, Charlotte had been like that for longer than the last eight years. Ever since Nadine first met her.

  “Jah,” Nadine said. She nodded. “Time to go?”

  Charlotte pursed her lips and gave a stern nod, as if to say, Are we still talking about this?

  Nadine nodded again and followed Charlotte out of the house and to their waiting buggy. “Danki for getting the horse out.”

  Charlotte grunted. “Someone had to since people were lollygagging in front of the mirror. What is wrong with you this morning?”

  Nadine gave a shrug and stepped up into the buggy. “Nothing.” She wasn’t about to lay all her worries and concerns out for Charlotte to pick through. Her daughter-in-law could be blunt, though Nadine knew she meant well. But Charlotte had enough on her mind these days since Jenna and Buddy had decided to get married.

  The problem was ... her birthday. In just a few days, Nadine would turn sixty-five. It shouldn’t be any different from turning eighteen or eighty-one. Or sixty-four. But somehow it was. Somehow sixty-five seemed like the end. Or close to it. Her life was nearly over. God willing she would live a few more years. But, she knew for a fact, the last twenty or so would be a sight different from the first twenty.

  “It’s so strange,” Charlotte muttered as she set the horse into motion.

  Today’s church service was out at the Fitch place. Nadine loved going to the horse farm. As far as she could see, everyone loved when Andrew and Caroline Fitch hosted church. But from where Nadine and Charlotte lived to the Fitches’ was the farthest they had to drive on any given Sunday. No wonder Charlotte was fussing about her staring into mirrors.

  “What’s that?” Nadine asked. She wasn’t sure she cared enough to know, but Charlotte obviously wanted to tell her. Whatever it was.

  “That Jenna’s not here.”

  “She’ll be at church, jah?” Nadine didn’t remember getting any word that Jenna was sick. Nor anyone else at the King-Lambert farm. Jenna and her intended, Buddy Miller, lived with Titus and Abbie Lambert and Abbie’s parents, the Kings. Titus ran a camel farm, and Buddy had hired on there to help milk the camels. He loved his work. At least it seemed like he did when Nadine had visited the farm. Sometimes it was hard to tell. Buddy had Down syndrome and was always smiling, most always happy, and hardly seemed ruffled by the goings-on around him. Except for last year, when he and Jenna had taken it into their heads to date, regardless of what their families thought.

>   “Jah, but . . .” Charlotte made a show of driving the buggy instead of finishing the sentence.

  She didn’t have to. Nadine understood. They were both used to having Jenna around. Nadine couldn’t speak for Charlotte, but she herself had never thought about Jenna someday getting married. Her accident had left her mind a bit addled. It was as if her brain had stopped developing on that fateful day. She had been twelve. And in some ways she still was, though she had the body of a woman and a need for the things she saw around her: love, family, and hope.

  “Maybe we can get them to come over for supper one night this week,” Nadine suggested.

  Charlotte’s face lit up. “We could make it a weekly event. They could come over every Thursday and we could play cards or something fun. Some kind of game. I’ll have to think about this one.”

  She continued to mutter happily to herself, and Nadine realized that Charlotte missed Jenna more than anyone would ever know.

  “She’s all right there, you know.” How many times had she reassured her daughter-in-law of that very thing? Jenna loved taking care of Abbie’s twins. She was good with the baby girls. Abbie and Titus had invited her and Buddy to live there after they married and to continue working on the farm. For Buddy and Jenna, it was a dream come true. For Charlotte, it should have been peace of mind in knowing that her daughter was being looked after even while she made her play at independence. But it didn’t always work out that way ...

  “Is she?” Charlotte shook her head. “I know. I still miss her.”

  “We both do.”

  Charlotte laid one hand on Nadine’s knee in an uncharacteristic show of affection and support. Funny what worry could do to a person.

  * * *

  The rolling green pastures that made up Andrew Fitch’s horse farm seemed to stretch on for miles, contained only by the cool brown fencing that seemed to hold everything to the earth. Otherwise, the horses might have looked as though they were flying.

  Nadine shook her head at her own fanciful thoughts. The horses were beautiful. Lovely, even. But far from magical, other than the fact that they were just another one of God’s magnificent creatures.

  It was something the bishop had talked about in his preaching today. God’s creatures and how He had saved two of each of them from the flood, so they could return to the earth after everything had dried for a chance to start again. They were that important. She knew why he had talked about it. Another one of those “farms” had been found nearby with animals near death from starvation. Nadine couldn’t understand how people could consider themselves stewards of the earth and then neglect the most beautiful creatures on the planet. It was beyond her.

  Of course there were some not-so-beautiful creatures as well. She smacked a tickle at the back of her neck, but it didn’t make the feeling go away. She had thought it to be a fly of some sort. It wasn’t her kapp strings. Ever since moving to Wells Landing, she had tied her strings under her chin as all the older ladies did. But as she turned, she saw a man watching her.

  He seemed to be in some sort of daze, as if he had recently been clonked over the head with something hard.

  She eased back around, a little uncomfortable with his stare. Maybe he wasn’t really looking at her, but at something past her and it only appeared that he was watching her. She turned back, but he was still staring. He started to smile. She wanted to whip around and pretend he wasn’t there, but that felt a little too much like primary-school behavior and she was well past that.

  He waved, his lips curving up as his face brightened.

  Reluctantly, she waved in return and hoped that she didn’t encourage him by her actions.

  He looked like the rest of them—the men over sixty. He had a chest-length beard colored white by time. He wore a black hat, the brim covering some, but not all, of his face. White hair curled from under his hat and rested around his ears. White shirt, black trousers, black vest, black shoes. His cheeks were creased like the fields when it didn’t rain. And his eyes were blue, a startlingly bright color. She could see this even with the ground that separated them.

  Once he nodded at her, she realized she was staring in return. How rude of her! How inappropriate. But she had just wanted to assess the man who had seemed to have been assessing her first. Surely there was nothing wrong with that.

  She tugged a little on the band of her apron and turned away. She wished that she hadn’t pinned everything so tightly. Since Jenna had moved out, she felt as if she had gained a few pounds. Maybe because Charlotte seemed to bake to relieve whatever grief she faced. They’d had a cake on the sideboard every day for months.

  “Are you ready to go?” Charlotte came up beside her, thankfully blocking her view of the man. At least now she couldn’t look back at him. And he couldn’t see her any longer.

  “I wanted to talk to Jenna first.” That was why she had walked over toward the pasture. She knew she would find her granddaughter as close to the animals as she could be. There was even a rumor going around that Jenna had milked one of Titus Lambert’s camels.

  Milking camels. The idea was ridiculous. But apparently there was money in it. Who would have thought?

  “Well, go on. I want to get home in time to take care of the animals before supper.”

  Nadine looked around, just then noticing that several families had already left. And not even those with a great many farm animals to care for. How had it gotten so late?

  Because you were making eyes at a stranger.

  She pushed the voice away and concentrated on finding Jenna. “There she is,” she lied, then headed off to find her for real.

  * * *

  Amos Fisher watched the woman walk away and sighed a little to himself. She was something. He could feel it. Some might even say love at first sight. But those were the young’uns who still believed in fairytales. He saw her and he knew. He had to get to know her.

  He turned to Abe Fitch, who was standing next to him. “Who is that?”

  Abe, who always seemed a bit distracted, started when Amos spoke as if he had been deep in his own thoughts. Truth was, he probably had been. “Huh? Who?”

  “That woman there, next to the fence. The old—er, the one who’s our age.”

  Abe squinted toward the woman, adjusted his glasses, and opened his mouth, as if all those things would help in identifying her. “That would be Nadine Burkhart.”

  Nadine. He liked it.

  “How come you don’t know her?” Abe asked. “They’ve been here a while now. Moved down from Yoder, Kansas.” He pushed up his glasses but continued to squint as he waited for Amos to answer.

  “I’ve been gone.” In fact, he had taken six months to go up to Jamesport and visit his family there, and he had spent another three months in Clarita helping a friend.

  Abe nodded slowly. “That’s right. They had probably just arrived when you left. Well, I guess they had been here a little longer.” He shrugged.

  Amos had spent nearly a year away, and until this moment, he hadn’t been aware that he had been gone so long. The things a man will do to stave off the boredom of no longer working. “So who is she?”

  “I don’t know. A widow from Kansas. If you want more than that, you’ll have to ask Esther.”

  Which was the last thing Amos wanted to do. Esther, Abe’s wife, owned the bakery in town. Everyone passed through her doors at one time or another, and she picked up the best news from the district. But she always liked to talk. If he went in there asking about Nadine Burkhart, it would be all over Wells Landing before the sun set. He would have to find out from somewhere else. “Thanks.” He nodded toward Abe, who already seemed to be somewhere else, at least in his mind, and moved so he could better see her.

  Nadine Burkhart was a widow. Not surprising that she had been married. Some man had seen in her what Amos was seeing now. A beauty that came from the inside and shone like the sun. It didn’t come from the outside, but from her heart.

  He chuckled a bit at himself. He w
as an old romantic, that was for sure. It was a wonder he had never married. He had never found the right person, but that was before Nadine. He didn’t know how he knew; he just knew. He was going to marry that woman.

  * * *

  “Who is that?” Jenna asked.

  “What?” Nadine tried to act normal when she glanced back over one shoulder. She wanted to appear as if she didn’t know a man had been staring at her. But the problem with trying to act normal was that it meant that she wasn’t acting normal at all.

  “Not what. Who?” Jenna pointed toward the man who had waved and smiled at Nadine.

  “He’s staring at you,” Charlotte added.

  Like Nadine didn’t already know that.

  “I’ve never seen him before.” Nadine sniffed as if it was nothing important, but it was. She didn’t fear the man, but his gaze was unnerving. It seemed as if he knew something about her that she didn’t even know herself.

  “Me either.” Jenna tugged on Buddy’s sleeve. He was standing next to her but facing the other way in a serious conversation with Andrew Fitch and Titus Lambert.

  “Ivan, who is that?” She pointed toward the man. Jenna was the only person who called Buddy by his real name, Ivan. Though most times, like everyone else, she simply called him Buddy.

  “It’s not nice to point,” Nadine said.

  “That’s Amos Fisher,” Buddy replied. “He used to live here, then he went to Missouri for a while. Dat said he was moving back.”

  So she would be seeing more of him. They. She meant they. They would be seeing more of him.

  “He’s a good man,” Titus supplied. “Why do you ask?”

  “No reason,” Nadine said.

  “He’s been watching Mammi all afternoon,” Jenna said over her.

  That was probably the biggest problem with Jenna’s brain injury. She had a tendency to speak before thinking. Nadine didn’t want all the men believing that she was upset with Amos Fisher for watching her. Or even worse, that she liked it. She was too old for all that nonsense.